What's In a Tradition?

Quanta and I started off the Friday Football Frenzy series with a trip out to Cleveland High School to watch the Rams battle the Heritage Huskies on September 9^th.

The Entrance to Cleveland High School

The football game between Cleveland High School and Heritage High School was like any other high school football game: cheerleaders were on the track, the band performed at halftime, and high school students packed themselves in the student section and laughed about their day and discussed their big plans for the weekend; but there was something missing on the field, a senior class.

The Cleveland Side of the Stands was Packed

The Husky Cheerleaders waiting for the Team

The Rams Charging onto the Field

Cleveland High School and Heritage High School are two new schools that opened last year in Johnston County and Wake County, respectively.  Last year, the schools only had freshmen and sophomore classes and fielded junior varsity football teams in their introductory year.  This year, the schools have added a junior class and varsity football for the first time. 

The Coin Toss, Heritage Won

The game was lopsided with a final score of 48-6, with the Rams picking up their second win, compiling a record of 2-2 and Heritage dropping to 2-2 on the season. The Cleveland team was extremely disciplined, despite their lack of senior leadership, while the Heritage team racked up penalties throughout the game and had several costly turnovers, resulting in Cleveland touchdowns.

Cleveland's Cheerleaders Getting Crowd into the Game

The beginning of the game was packed with action. Cleveland scored the first touchdown of the game with 5:21 left in the first quarter. Heritage responded in 17 seconds with a touchdown of their own, but missed the extra point. Cleveland had a strong offense. Isaac Martin scored three touchdowns before halftime. The Huskies had a tough time slowing Martin down. Tre Joyner, Cleveland's quarterback had a strong showing throughout the game.  Interestingly, the first 7 Cleveland kickoffs were onside kicks, a strategy rarely seen. The Heritage defense fought all game and it took some time for the Heritage offense to settle down and complete plays.

Heritage's Cheerleaders in Action

As I watched the game, I couldn’t help but wonder if these schools had any traditions yet and more importantly, are traditions purposely constructed or are they the developed, adjusted and refined over time?

Cleveland's Band 

As I spoke with multiple students from Cleveland, I learned that they wanted to start their own tradition but weren’t positive what they should start. Students from Heritage said they wanted to start a student section at away games. Only five students traveled from Wake County for the game and were eager for more students at their next away game.

The Husky's had Five Students at the Game, but that didn't Stop
these Students from Trying to get the Wave Started

The funny thing about traditions is that they can rarely be purposely started, especially when the student body continuously turns-over every four years.  Traditions build over time and each team and student body following the traditions they like and changing the ones they don’t like. Traditions at Cleveland and Heritage are starting to be created, but only time will tell which ones continue on.

But at Friday night’s game, it became obvious that these first year programs have a bright future. The parents, student bodies and communities have showed their commitment to the football programs and watching these programs create their own unique traditions is going to be exciting.

-Elizabeth Lancaster