I had the opportunity to ride one of the Blackcats’ team buses en route to Bay City’s area playoff against Kilgore last Friday.
It was quite the convoy of buses ferrying students representing the different groups that are part of the Blackcat Friday night experience.
It was delightful, for my part, to see all of the people supporting the team turn out along 7th Street to wave and hold up placards as the buses went by.
This continued until we were way on the eastern outskirts of Bay City.
One detour took the convoy past the Bay City Junior High – by the old Memorial Stadium grounds.
Along that stretch of 11th Street, it seemed the entire enrollment of BCJH was waving, holding hand-crafted signs and otherwise shouting their backing of the Blue and Gold.
I was struck by the feeling that
support engendered in me.
It reminded me of a long-ago time in my elementary days when our small north Texas town did the same thing.
I was grateful to be on board and see those fans cheering their team on.
I was also happy on a different level to have someone else drive to the stadium.
Traveling to the Sheldon ISD Stadium takes you to the far-east side through a number of freeway exchanges Houston.
How far east?
As we traveled across the Houston Ship Channel and past the industrial sites that stretched to the horizon, I got a good glimpse of the San Jacinto Monument.
Being a Texas history enthusiast I never tire of seeing our monuments – even from a distance.
I don’t recall ever being in Kilgore before – I’m somewhat familiar with its Texas oil boom history and, of course, the Kilgore College Rangerettes.
I was taken aback by how the football players conducted themselves.
I’ve seen Bay City kids get reprimanded for excessive celebration.
But Kilgore’s behavior included excessive roughness.
One demonstration of that after the tackle was made got the Bulldogs a 15-yard penalty and put the Blackcats in scoring position.
And they did.
I enjoyed the relative justice of how that played out.
Still, all in all, it was a great experience to travel with young people.
While the Blackcats lost 37-28, the Bay City team has lots of underclassmen ready to step up and make their mark.
And the chance to wave back at supportive fans.
