In high school, I used to poke fun at our Homecoming. Everyone gathered to watch a bunch of Jews from Long Island suit up to play some semblance of football, against a team of some other Jews from Long Island, and this was supposed to be fun. It was a real non-starter.
To boot, I was in the marching band, the only group of people more expendable than our football team. On top of it all, each grade made competing floats, we sat in the cold rain and inevitably, our merry band of football “men” lost. You can’t win football games when everyone on your team is Rudy. Then you just have a terrible football team.
But coming to Binghamton was only the beginning of my Homecoming blues. The spiritless, ghostly nature of our school’s Homecoming has me wishing for my high school days, where the grass was certainly greener.
Metaphorically only, I think the grounds crew here does a bang-up job.
Let’s spot the differences. First, Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School had a football team. As you could’ve guessed, it wasn’t much good, but it existed. We also had a marching band. As you could’ve guessed, it wasn’t much good, but it existed.
And the sports. Soccer is unpopular in America and it’s unpopular for a reason. It’s boring. I went to the Homecoming game this weekend, excited to watch the sport. But soccer is like an episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” I want it to be good, and I want it to be enjoyable, so I give it a shot. But I am always wrong.
And regarding our pep band? Mo “Music” Taylor does stellar work with his group, but part of me yearns for that band to take the field and put on a show. I understand a football program has sky-high costs, but surely the costs are nominal for Binghamton University to develop a marching band. I think it’s about time.
Still, the game was packed. I guess there’s a small group of people who enjoy watching our soccer games, but they are all freshmen, and they were all blocking my field of vision. Though, seeing less of the field may not have been a bad thing.
The game, or at least the part of it I saw, was uninteresting. The tailgate prior wasn’t much more impressive. Not like my high school’s festivities were anything to write home about, but those had a sense of pride and unity I could wrap myself around.
Of course, perhaps I’m just getting old. I had a lot of enthusiasm for Homecoming my first year or two here, but it fizzled once goalkeeper extraordinaire Jason Stenta graduated.
It also might have been because I realized soccer is a dumb sport.
Regardless, Homecoming at BU is a lackluster event, and the dagger struck my side when I came home to find a football game — an American football game — between Louisiana State and West Virginia on my television. Why couldn’t we have that? Where was our stadium? Where were our tens of thousands of fans, decked out in yellow, cheering at the top of their lungs for our team?
Well for starters, yellow isn’t one of our colors.
But I can’t answer the other questions. I’ve come to accept the fact that we don’t have a football team, and I can live with it. But I’ve never been able to get into the Homecoming spirit, and maybe our school should do something to sway grinches like me.