In 1972, I remember the first day of school, standing outside the Old Valdosta High School waiting for the bell to ring thinking, "I'm 17 yr old, & it's finally my Senior Year. I have arrived! Before I know it, this year will be over & I'll be going to my 10th year High School Reunion. I wonder where I'll be?" After the bell rang, I went on my merry way, struting down those old halls having a feeling of great pride!! Yes, I was a big Senior, & the Captian of the Football Cheerleaders. I loved my church and all the choir activities that I had the priviledge of being apart. The Lord had blessed me with wonderful, great girl friends, and I was thrilled to be dating Dave Register. He was not only good looking, & smart, but also one of the Captains of the Football Team.
I'm going to back-up the train a little bit. Valdosta had & still has two high schools: 1) the city school & 2) the county school. I went to the city school which had a long rich traditional heritage of football. If you went to Valdosta High School, no matter who you were, you were proud to be a Valdosta WILDCAT, and proudly wore the BLACK & GOLD colors!!! Yes, all the sports were important to the school, but I have to admit that the football team, football cheerleaders & band ruled the school-or so they thought!
As I have already mentioned, the Football Wildcats had a rich history which included wins. I wish I had all the dates of these wins, but I don't. I can say that Dave's Dad was the first team under Wright Bazemore & Dave's Sophomore year (1970-1971) was the last. During those years, there were too many State and National Championships too count. After Coach Bazemore retired, the second Coach lost one game the first year, I think. Two games were lost the second year. In Valdosta, GA three losses were too many, & he was gone. Then came Coach Hyder. Again, I don't remember how long he was Coach, but he was always called the "New Coach." Dave's second brother was apart of the first team under Coach Hyder (1973-1974?), while our son was the last under the "New Coach Hyder (1997-1998)." As you can see, Valdosta definitely has had longevity with their Coaches.
I won't ever forget the thrill during my Sophomore year going to my very first Wildcat Pep Rally in the very old gymnasium. Again, I thought I had arrived! I dreamed of being a Wildcat Cheerleader ever since I was a small child. This dream was about to come true during my Junior year by becoming the Co-Captain Basketball Cheerleader. Oh, those were fun times & I loved every minute.During my Junior year, at the end of football season, (remember our football season was lengthy due to all the Championship games), I began dating Dave Register. Our first date was a double date. Dave is nine months younger than I am, & he didn't have his drivers license yet. Remember, I told you he was smart. He did first through third grade in two years. That is how he became a part of my class. He was not in any of my classes, because his classes were honor classes & mine were not. I was doing good to get a few A's and mainly B's.
Back to the first date. The beginning of our date, Dave had asked me to walk him off of the field. Again, what a thrill to be apart of all the girls & girlfriends to walk off the players. I went down to the field with my close friend who we were double dating with. She was experienced in what to do, so I followed her lead. Well, the time came. The game was over and we were allowed to run onto the field to find who we were to walk off. I had worked hard during the entire game to remember Dave's number & tried to learn what his position did. So, here I went. I saw him & I was going as hard as I could to catch-up with him. I really couldn't see his number on his jersey real well, but I could see his "toe-blonde" hair anywhere. All of a sudden, I was in the middle of the field, & no Dave. As I nervously looked around, there he was behind me laughing his head off. I had been chasing the wrong player all this time. Oh well! Now, the huge question was how was I suppose to respond to him when I got to him? I was new at this dating game. Even though it was our first date, I did give him a big hug around his dirty, sweaty uniform, telling him how great he did! Afterwards, we went out for pizza & then MacKey Park. We went for a walk, but the couple we were with officially started going "steady."to be continued...
ann :)
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