Spotlight on varsity football night games

Four of the six varsity football home games for this season have been scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. kickoff.

In past years, Aragon played home games immediately after school: 3:15 p.m. in September, 3 p.m. in October, and 2:45 p.m. in November. The games started earlier as the season progressed in order to ensure enough natural light.

Many students have extracurricular activities after school and thus attending the home games was not an option. The hope in changing the game time is to increase attendance to the games.

The general consensus from students is that the game time change will make it easier for them to attend, but only to a certain extent. Junior Ayelet Brown-Jackson says, “The seven o’clock time is not going to change very much for me. It will be a lot easier to go, but I went to last year’s games and will continue to go this year.”
Sophomore Brandon Canfield says, “Although I am more interested in going to a seven o’clock game, getting a ride to the game might pose an issue. If the game were after school, then I could just hang around until it started, but with the later game time, I have to go somewhere off campus between 3 pm and 7 pm, making it more difficult to get back to school.”

Sophomores Haley Bartlett and Melissa Matthews were not able to make the game on September 10 due to their soccer game. “I want to go more this year because the games seem more exciting; more people will come,” says Bartlett.

Many varsity football players agree that increased attendance during the new game time leads to more school spirit. Senior offensive lineman Aniva Nunez-Mamea says, “I like the later games because there is more time to mentally prepare, it’s helpful. I like it more because night games bring the intensity up.”

Senior wingback Aaron Eder, another varsity football player, agrees. “Night games are better. They give people something to do on a Friday night. My favorite part about them is that more people come to the games,” says Eder.

Fellow senior varsity football player Edgar Moreno enthusiastically says that the night games, “get me and the team pumped up. They are more exciting for everyone.”
Freshman and leadership member Nicole Briedis says,“We make signs for the games. I think that the night games will definitely increase the number of people going to the games; it is great for Aragon spirit.”

A lot of preparations have to be made in order to hold the games at night. As common courtesy to the people living near Aragon, administration has to alert them when games will be held at night. Varsity football coach and athletic department head. Steve Sell says, “security measures must be taken,” in order to ensure everyone’s safety at night.

Last year the district purchased portable lights to use during the nighttime sporting events. The district shares the lights amongst the other schools. Without these lights Aragon could not hold nighttime games at all. Each school had to take $5000 from their athletics budget for the lights. However, the lights opened up the opportunity to host the home night games. Sell says that now, “three times as many students attend the games.”

“Other sports and after school activities take place at the old time of the varsity games; with this new time, attendance will go way up,” says Sell. “Athletes can come support each other and it’s so great for school spirit. People will want to come to the 7 p.m. games because there is good weather early in the year. [The players] have more energy, it makes it more fun. The team [also] misses less class for their games.”

Thus far, Aragon has played two home games and two away games. This Friday, Aragon will play Menlo-Atherton at a home game, followed by an away game at Burlingame next Friday.