08-17-2024, 10:12 AM
The Rockmart Yellow Jackets hosted long-time cross-county rival, the Cedartown Bulldogs last night. One of the biggest crowds I have seen at a high school football game in a very long time was forming up. I think there may have been some delay in getting everybody into the stadium because Rockmart went to a 100% online-only ticketing system for the entire school year. I can only guess Cedartown must have done the same thing, as both are Polk School District. I'm sure there were some delays in getting everybody's phone pulling up their tickets, the gate agent checking them all off, etc. After the game had already started there was an enormous line of people still coming in, and they had two gates going, checking people in. I'm not kidding, I bet the line was at least 50 yards long, people still waiting to get inside.
At the 4:12 mark of the first quarter, with Cedartown leading 7-0, Rockmart having the ball on about Cedartown's 40-yard-line, ... it happened... dang lightning stuck somewhere around the area. They cleared the teams off the field and the 30-minute wait period began. Well, within 10-15 minutes or so, the bottom absolutely fell out, the wind picked up something ferocious. A huge, dark, ominous front rolled in and by golly it rained like I haven't seen it rain in a while.
My gorgeous, beautiful, awesome wife had brought our rain ponchos, thankfully. We had put those on when the initial sprinkling started. Eventually those things were even struggling to keep us dry, especially with the strong wind. The stadium basically emptied out, with the exception of a very small percentage of people. I'm going to guess the vast majority of those were parents of players, band, cheerleaders, etc. We gave up and went to the car and left.
It absolutely hammered down rain the entire drive home. When we almost got home they announced on the radio that the game had been called off, and... get this... it will be played tonight, with kickoff at 8:00 pm... and there will be an open gate... no admission required! I guess they're banking on the overwhelming number of tickets sold for last night.
So... that place might be sure-enough packed out tonight. I am just hoping we don't get anymore weather this evening.
At the 4:12 mark of the first quarter, with Cedartown leading 7-0, Rockmart having the ball on about Cedartown's 40-yard-line, ... it happened... dang lightning stuck somewhere around the area. They cleared the teams off the field and the 30-minute wait period began. Well, within 10-15 minutes or so, the bottom absolutely fell out, the wind picked up something ferocious. A huge, dark, ominous front rolled in and by golly it rained like I haven't seen it rain in a while.
My gorgeous, beautiful, awesome wife had brought our rain ponchos, thankfully. We had put those on when the initial sprinkling started. Eventually those things were even struggling to keep us dry, especially with the strong wind. The stadium basically emptied out, with the exception of a very small percentage of people. I'm going to guess the vast majority of those were parents of players, band, cheerleaders, etc. We gave up and went to the car and left.
It absolutely hammered down rain the entire drive home. When we almost got home they announced on the radio that the game had been called off, and... get this... it will be played tonight, with kickoff at 8:00 pm... and there will be an open gate... no admission required! I guess they're banking on the overwhelming number of tickets sold for last night.
So... that place might be sure-enough packed out tonight. I am just hoping we don't get anymore weather this evening.
