It’s the best entertainment value you’re likely to find.
I took in the Battle of Okotoks last Friday night to watch the Foothills Composite Falcons clash with the Holy Trinity Academy Knights before an overflow crowd at Falcons Field.
I enjoy a good football game – almost as much as a good basketball game – so I figured the annual rivalry tilt between Okotoks’ two high schools would be a splendid introduction to Alberta high school football. As a recent arrival, I don’t have any allegiances to either school, so I wasn’t there to cheer on anyone, or any team, but rather to watch some top-notch football. And on that front, I certainly wasn’t disappointed.
The good thing is when you find yourself cheering regardless of which team scores, you’re always going to go home a winner, so my desire wasn’t for a particular outcome but rather for a competitive game. I was a little worried in that regard when the Knights got rolling in the second quarter to build a 20-3 advantage, but the Falcons showed a lot of resilience to battle back and make a game of it through to the final whistle.
Before I go on, I should mention that I paid the princely sum of two bucks to get into the game, which was an incredible bargain, although my butt and back would gladly have forked over many times that amount to be spared from two hours on the auxiliary wooden bleachers. I’m not sure the main metal bleachers would have been a whole lot more comfortable, but what’s a little lower back pain when you’re having fun, right?
It was nice to see such a large crowd, one that overwhelmed the seating capacity and stretched from end zone to end zone, for the boys to play in front of, although I got the sense that a significant chunk of those in attendance, particularly those of the teenage variety, might well have been there as much for the social scene as the football game.
Nevertheless, it was a great atmosphere and the boys put on quite the show. My frame of reference for high school football is somewhat limited, but I brought along my brother-in-law, who has covered hundreds of such games in a 30-plus-year career as a sports editor, and he was suitably impressed by the two undefeated teams.
At one point, he remarked how HTA quarterback Declan Lyth was so composed with the ball in his hands that he slowed the game down (that’s high praise), while Lyth’s counterpart on the Falcons, Emerson Liepert, was every bit as impressive with his bursts of speed and elusiveness regularly keeping drives alive.
You could certainly see why both teams have had success in the early going and why they’re well positioned to tackle the regular season. With bragging rights for the next 12 months on the line, it was our own version of Friday Night Lights -- it was more like Friday Night Setting Sun for the first quarter, mind you – and although the Knights ultimately prevailed, both teams put on a show that far exceeded the price of admission.
