I was THAT guy

Last week as I was driving to see my grandmother who lives in Indiana, I passed through the area where for one season in 1992 I was the PA announcer for a high school at their football games. I loved it. The team was terrible, but it was fun each Friday night to announce the game...to be the voice over the speaker whose face no one would see, but whose voice they depended on to see if their kid or friend made the tackle or gained four or five yards on a carry.

But one Friday night, I remembered, that I made a memory for the homecoming court of that high school...a funny and frustrating memory. I was glad no one would recognize me afterwards. Here's what happened...

When I arrived at the field that Friday night, I was informed that I would be announcing/introducing the homecoming court before the game. Each couple would walk across the field from the visitor side, down the fifty yard line, and over to the home side. Easy. I got my script with the list of names and practiced. No problem. Time came for introductions of the court. Timing is everything and that night I had no sense of timing. I remember reading the introductions and seeing each couple begin to make their way across the field. I looked down at the script and began to proceed through it to the introduction of the homecoming queen. I felt the poke of my brother standing next to me and I looked up and out the press box window to see adults waving their arms to get my attention to SLOW DOWN. The court wasn't done walking across the field yet. Yikes. It was one of those awkward moments where you realize that you've just made a memorable night for these kids and their parents much more memorable because of your mistake. I can just imagine the stories that were told the next day and maybe at the high school reunion of these kids of the guy in the booth who "almost made us run" through the homecoming preceedings because he rushed through the script.

Yep. That's me. I was THAT guy.