Does this seem strange to anyone else? NBR

Jess.O

I moved away from my (very small) hometown as soon as I possibly could, I hated it there.  However, the majority of the people in my graduating class stayed there or very near there.  This year, the high school has made it into the state playoffs (I guess that's what it is.)  All I see on my FB is people posting about going to the game.  

Seriously?  It's cold outside, it's being held 2-3 hours away from where they live and they do not have kids playing.  I think it's weird for people to be such big fans when they graduated 10/11 years ago.  Do you guys think it's weird or am I just a party pooper because I didn't like growing up there?  No reason at all....just curious. 

august8080

I don't think it's weird, at all, especially in Texas.

It's OK if you don't want to go though

agran

It's Texas... it's a small town... it's normal.  Just watch Friday Night Lights. 

texasbeachbride

I don't think it's weird. I grew up in a very small town as well where football and basketball were a huge deal. We would often go far in the playoffs and it was not unusual at all for the majority of the town to travel 3-4 hrs for games and sit through much worse weather than this regardless of if they had kids playing or not. State championships are a big deal ( to me at least) and I think its great that so many want to go and support their school.

GuavaGal

A woman I work with is from a small town near Austin.  Their high school made it to the state championships, and all of their schools closed today.  According to the woman, many of the schools only had a half day anyway due to the start of their winter break, but they just went ahead and closed down.  That is some football love!

amyliisa

I wonder if you're from the same small town my BFF is from?  SW of Houston?  Starts with an "M"?  My husband is from the neighboring town and grew up with my BFF because when they were in HS (20+ years ago) the M town didn't have their own school (it was that small of a town!).

Anyway, her hometown now has its own HS and they are headed to the state championship this weekend.  She said her hometown is going IN.SANE. about it.  Her mom works in the office at that school, and is riding on the bus with a bunch of staff to the game.  My BFF and her family are actually going to go to the game (from Austin) too - she didn't actually attend that school but is full of pride being from that town (that she fled when she was 19!) that she wants to go represent! 

That probably seems pretty strange to you.  But I think in general (to answer your question) it's not really strange, for Texas.  Very Friday Night Lights-ish.  I grew up in Austin and our basketball team was the State Runner Up my Junior year, and it was all very Hoosiers-ish, but not as big a deal to the rest of Austin because we were just one of 10 HS's in Austin.  Would have been a much bigger deal (IMO) if we were from a tiny podunk town, KWIM?  Seems like small towns are usually viewed as the underdog, don't get as much exposure to the rest of the state, etc, plus if there's only one school, it gets all the attention from the whole community. 

Personally, I love small-town pride, I think it's an amazing thing.  But I'd probably feel differently if I was born/raised in a small town...

Jess.O

amyliisa:

I wonder if you're from the same small town my BFF is from?  SW of Houston?  Starts with an "M"?  My husband is from the neighboring town and grew up with my BFF because when they were in HS (20+ years ago) the M town didn't have their own school (it was that small of a town!).

Okay, so I guess I'm just a party pooper - or I'm the weirdo.    Oh well.  My hometown is near Abilene but maybe they're playing each other.  I think I saw something about an "M" town on FB (but I've just been skimming those posts.)  

Thanks for the POV; it's interesting to me.  

Nessia

If you were not into football/sports at all and especially not in HS it probably is strange to you.

Not strange at all to me and if my HS team had made it to the playoffs I would be going. BUT I enjoyed HS and went every single football game since I was either in band or dance team or both. My HS went as far as the quarter finals and it was all over FB and many of us were watching the game online. Since our area doesn't usually have a lot of schools make it that far in the playoffs it was a really big deal. One of my friends from FB who is is stationed in Afghanistan even took this picture (might not show up since it's from FB) and made it to the paper. Yeah, we're crazy about football in Texas.

Ruby44

Nope, totally normal for Texas.