Friday nights are truly something special when it comes to high school football. It’s the night where the teammates become brothers and soldiers. Coming together, leaving their blood, sweat, and tears on the field in order to achieve a victory. The nationwide name, Friday Night Lights, is the day that the best of the best high school teams give everything they have to the game they love.
This year Pines Charter Jaguars are flipping the script, with the majority of their games of the season taking place on Thursday nights. The games were apparently changed due to availability of officials or the lack thereof. There aren’t enough officials to oversee all the Friday night games and Charter—along with four other Broward County schools—were chosen to have their games changed to Thursday. This unforeseen change is impacting players, coaches, and students in a countless number of ways.
The jaguars expressed their concerns with schedule:
“I think that it’s not as good because if we have games on Fridays, you know, and we’re out late, we’re able to sleep and get the rest from using all that energy in the game.” (Tristan Ayala, Sophomore, Wide Receiver)
“ I feel like it’s very insignificant… when the games are on Friday we can spend the whole weekend off to recover and be ready to go Monday.” (Austin Fenn, Senior, Wide Receiver)
“There’s just less people there, it gives us less time to prepare and it puts more of a train on the body.” (Dylan Echeverria, Junior, Wide Receiver)
“It’s more pressure on us as a team to get things right in the week as well as shorter recovery time.” (Radre Chambers, Junior, Left Tackle)
While some see Thursday games as a negative, some have managed to see the light in the situation:
“To me it’s cool that we get to come back and show our faces on Friday… We want to revolutionize Thursday Night Lights!” (Keidran Willis, Junior, Running Back)
“It’s not the same feeling as Friday Night Lights, but you got out and play ball.”(Jeremiah Quiroz, Senior, Linebacker)
No matter what day or time they have to play, the Jaguars will always play their hardest, and leave everything they’ve got on the field. By the time season ends, the Jags could put Thursday Night Lights on the map.
