Post by Agent Orange on Aug 26, 2013 17:05:43 GMT -7
Another Season is upon us, The Artesia Bulldogs travel to Lovington Friday Night to take on the Wildcats. It seems this will be the last time we matchup as 4A vs 3A as Lovington moves up to be with Artesia once again in the new 5A class next year.
Here are the scores from the last 6 years, Lovington has not defeated Artesia since 2001 28-34.
2012 Artesia 56-7
2011 Artesia 35-14
2010 Artesia 63-49
2009 Artesia 49-27
2008 Artesia 57-7
2007 Artesia 44-0
As a tradition I've always put these 2 post in the opening game thread to start the season. They were originally posted on this board years ago. It really describes what it meant to be a Bulldog and a fan of the Bulldogs, or at least what it used too, hopefully it still is.
From DFW80
Why Highschool Football is special
They sit on the oil fields and high plains of southeast New Mexico and west Texas and because of the flat landscape they can be seen from miles away. Rising out of the sand and cotton they loom in the distance appearing as a mirage to those on the highway who have not seen civilization for 40 miles or more. Like medieval castles they range in size and pomp reflecting not only the wealth but also the pride of their kingdom. For 9 months out of the year they sit like a dormant volcano. Dark and desolate but never far from the mind or local coffee shop conversations.
Yet every fall these castles come to life again as young warriors battle for supremacy under the now infamous “Friday Night Lights”. This week is one of the greatest weeks of the year because high school football begins another season. There is no denying how special this week is in a small town. I have moved from Artesia to a city of 5 million people in the heart of a state that has hijacked the ownership of high school football. However I don’t think people in a large city truly understand the beauty of high school football. Sure it is mentioned in passing here. The paper dedicates significant potions of the sports section to coverage of prep football and even talk radio discusses the high profile games of the week on occasion. However, Fridays are not the same here.
I learned this after living here for only a few months. I was broke and bored (a bad combination) so I went to a class 5 A district football game because my roommate worked at one of the schools and could get me in for free. The match up was between two “rivals” and had serious playoff implications. The evening was dreary as a light rain fell. This rain was a drizzle not a down pour yet as I walked up to the stadium I felt like a salmon swimming up stream against all of the people fleeing to their cars for shelter.
A woman dressed in school colors and using a seat cushion to protect her perfect suburbanite hair stopped me and said, “If you are here to see the band perform you can go home because the half time show has been canceled due to the rain.”
“Oh, thanks but I’m here to see the game.” I said with a smile.
“Really?” She said. The look on her face reminded me of the look on the face of a puppy that just heard an unfamiliar noise. She even tilted her head to the side like dogs do when confused and then she scurried off towards her car.
I now live where high school football is acknowledged but it is not a necessity. It is not a life-giving river here like was in my childhood. Fifth graders don’t wear their high school football t-shirts to class on Friday. The spirit squad only sells small ribbons for homecoming and your date to the homecoming dance is what matters, not who will win the game. There are no flags or parades on Main street…heck there aren’t really Main streets for that matter.
To understand the magnificence of high school football you have to leave the traffic jams, neon lights, and expressways. Head west until you can smell cows, see cotton, and find broadcasts of high school football on the radio. Once you do, it will start to sink in. High school football is about more than just football. It is about pride. Did you know that most people back east watch their kids play high school football on portable bleachers that are taken away during the week so that the football field can be used for lacrosse, polo, soccer, etc.? They don’t see the football field like we do. To us it is a sacred piece of ground where epic battles have been waged. The field is covered with the blood of sacrifice and passion. The air above will forever be saturated with the hopes and dreams of generations past, present, and future.
We take pride in our high school football because the teams are not made up of high-priced athletes who have been brought in to entertain. Those warriors on that field are “our boys” and they are battling “their boys”. In a small town the people in the bleachers have known the players since most of them were born. They come into our shops, live on our block, and we went to school with their parents or siblings. We went to the same school they go to and sat in the same buildings learning from many of the same teachers they learned from. They were the kids who cheered for us and asked us for our autographs when we played on the team. We know them and we love them as people not just as athletes. The high school football players in a small town carry a piece of everyone in the town with them onto the field every Friday night. There is no other way for us to prove that our town is superior to yours. Such arguments often arise between neighboring communities and those debates often last for generations but no one can argue the final score come Saturday morning.
This scene will play itself out in countless small towns across the region this weekend. Sixteen and seventeen-year-old boys will become heroes to five year-old children and eighty-year-old men alike. As the sun sets behind the press box and the shadows being to creep across the field there will be a familiar tingle in the air. The cheerleaders will raise the schools breakthrough, bands will play, and thousands of young athletes will take the field carrying the hopes, dreams, prayers, support, and pride of their town on their shoulders. Few things in life can prepare a boy to become a man like high school football.
This weekend our Artesia Bulldogs will begin their odyssey known as the 2007 football season. In just mere days the new stands in Lovington will be put to the ultimate test of capacity. The new blue turf on the field will be a big topic and an interesting twist to the old rivalry. However, do not doubt that when the Bulldogs take the field, not in a jog like in other teams but in a sprint because the victorious warriors never take to the battlefield cautiously or nervously rather they swarm the field with controlled and precise mayhem, the blue turf will have no choice but to succumb to the Orange pouring not only out of the stands but also out of the hearts of everyone who is in attendance physically or spiritually, flowing from the heart of anyone who has ever been and will forever be an Artesia Bulldog
By Jeffro2251
Tonight Dreams Come True
Tonight, dreams come true.
This morning members of the football team will be waking up, probably after a long restless night tossing and turning thinking about the day ahead of them. A day they have been waiting for all their lives. This morning those players will drive to school looking out of shoe polished vehicle windows seeing everyone along the way in orange. This morning they will notice all those orange flags around town waving in the breeze and know they have a whole community on their side. This morning those players will read to kids at the elementary schools they probably once attended. The players will see kids that can’t wait to get a Bulldog autograph on their shoes, backpack, or t-shirt just as they once did. As the players leave those elementary schools on their way back towards the high school they will see the playgrounds that at one point held their touch football games during recess and boy do they bring back memories. Today those players will sit in class, algebra and chemistry in front of them, but blocking assignments and coverage responsibilities not too far from thought. This afternoon the feeling of walking into the field house and seeing that orange jersey hanging perfectly in every locker sends chills to each as they notice their name is finally on one. Tonight those players will dress in a locker room filled with a silent confidence. The sound of taping ankles and adjusting shoulder pads mixed with the anticipation of beating hearts in rhythm with the band as they march past the outside of the field house vibrate through the air. The thud…thud of the drums resonate throughout the field house, signifying game time is near, as well as 16 years or so of waiting coming to an end. Tonight those players will grab that orange helmet from their lockers, the same helmet they’ve wanted to wear since that touch football game on the playground. They will understand the responsibility that comes with wearing that orange helmet and put it on with pride. Tonight those players will walk to the door of the field house and pat a sign an important phrase displayed across the front of it. Tonight those players will enter into the Friday night air that is heavy with both the smell of fireworks and the excitement of a new season, towards the ramp, to a view that will burn a spot in each one of their memories; the sea of orange quickly comes into view. Tonight, meeting the players at the front of the ramp will be small children waiting to touch each helmet and pair of shoulder pads, at that point the players will subconsciously realize they’ve come a long way. Tonight, those players will make their way down the ramp towards the field shearing the moment with childhood friends on either side of them. They will make the decent towards the field not just as friends anymore though, but as brothers a bond there now that can never be broken. Tonight the players will gather together under that orange A, behind the cheerleader’s banner, recite a sacred verse and burst the colorful paper. On the other side of the paper a moment that has been dreamed about since forever. Tonight the players will run through the band that is playing a song that has meaning to each. Like slow motion to each of the players, they will split a path with fans on either side, the player’s senses rising to take it all in. Tonight each player will feel as if they have wings as they sore into the “dog pile”, but that’s no high schooler diving in, it’s that seven year old inside that couldn’t wait for this moment. Tonight those players will play with heart and class the Bulldog way. Tonight those players will do everything in their power to make us as a town very proud. Tonight after the game those players will come before you the fans and sing the alma mater, knowing each word by heart, while touching yours. Tonight those players will raise those orange helmets to the sky, each in the stands raising a hand just the same, “Artesia High forever”. Tonight those players will spell it out, each letter louder than the next. Tonight those players will return to the field house with a loud “Its’ Great to be a Bulldog.” Tonight on your way out of Bulldog Bowl look at all the little boys in attendance I bet you’ll see a dream already embedded in each set of eyes as those Friday Night Lights sparkle in each. The look on their tiny faces will say it all “I can’t wait to be a Bulldog someday!”
Tonight, dreams come true.