Football team defeats Hollidaysburg on Aug. 26
One team, one dream. As the cheerleaders get the crowd riled up, the football team prepares to play the game. The boys won with a score of 19-9.
September 2, 2022
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The boys have labeled this game as their “rivalry game”.
“It felt good, and it really meant a lot to me since it was my senior year. It was a great way to spend my last first game. We put in tons of hard work during the summer leading up to the game because we knew the stadium was going to be packed. I am just happy all of our hard work paid off,” senior Chandler Brendel said.
Leading up to the game, the boys practiced Monday through Thursday, 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. During these practices, the boys would take part in drills, scrimmages and weight training.
“We did fundamental stuff where it started with individual groups, and we would then come together and we perform the skills that we would attempt to play: they work together in groups and then come together as a full team. It’s boring week to week, but we want them to not have to think and just play fast during the actual game,” head coach Vince Nedimyer said.
Nedimyer has been the head football coach for four years, and he was ecstatic about the victory.
“We like to think high school football is a one of a kind thing. You put in a lot of time and effort to play only 10 games a season: The hard work pays off, and you fight hard. It’s a pretty special thing. We say ‘there’s nothing more special than a Friday night at mansion park’,” Nedimyer said.
Since Nedimyer started as head coach, there has been a two game winning streak.
“Since I’ve started, Hollidaysburg won the first two games of my coaching career; however, these past two years, we have pulled through and won,” Nedimyer said.
Although the football team was preparing through practices, they weren’t the only ones getting ready. History teacher Carolyn Kline arranged a pep rally for the student body that took place during eighth period the day of the game and felt that it was a great success.
“I am part of the Pep Assembly squad, along with other teachers. We were assigned the goals of creating assemblies for the year. We have felt for a while that the assemblies needed to be more hyped up. Also, due to COVID-19, many students did not know what a pep assembly even is, so we’re hoping to bring that excitement back and build on it,” Kline said.
Kline believes that since the event was such a success, there will be pep rallies planned for both winter and spring sporting seasons as well.
During the rally, there were performances done by the football team, the cheer squad and the Lioneers dance team. There were also speeches given by head principal Andrew Neeley, Nedimyer and Tom Fox.
“I absolutely loved the pep rally. Since COVID-19, we got all the things that made high school fun stripped away from us,” senior Grayson Pellegrine said. “I think the rest of the Lioneers did a great job too. Although the music kept cutting out, I think we really were able to pull it back and put on a great show.”
