Friday night, the Lake Highlands High School men’s soccer team played the Richardson Eagles at Wildcat Stadium. The "Rowdies," a band of enthusiastic student fans, attended the game and cheered the team to victory. Admittedly, their chants might tempt their grandmothers to wash their mouths out with soap, but for the most part they praised good play by our team and heckled the opponent for being outmatched. Our principal, Dr. Bob Iden, kept them in line with occasional sideways glances and verbal "chill" warnings.
In the parking lot after the game, words were exchanged between some of the Rowdies and opposing players boarding their bus. The Richardson coach sent the Rowdies packing, and they walked away. But a police officer began chasing after the boys with his nightstick. I alerted Dr. Iden and he calmly handled the situation, but two officers who overheard me insisted that these boys had been fighting in the parking lot all evening. Impossible, I told them. They never left my sight. I had been giggling all evening at their crazy cheers.
I was pleased with how well Dr. Iden handled the situation, which took all of three minutes and ended peacefully, but I admit I was pretty uncomfortable with threats of police violence over some chants of "our team is better than your team." I hope we can learn from it, because I’ve had some excellent dealings with many fine officers protecting me, my family, and my property over my 22 years living in the neighborhood. And, Rowdies, I’d like to invite you to our next home game this Friday night against Allen. With all the screaming fans under Friday night lights during football season, it’s nice to have a little student support for the boys on the pitch.
