East Side!

After watching the first half of my high school's varsity football game, I went with a couple other teachers in my school to East St. Louis High School to watch East Side High play unbeaten suburban school Belleville East. My teacher buddies, both of whom had been teaching for a long time and had connections to the local sports scene through their coaching experience, told me the whole way how big of a treat it was going to be.

The game was definitely everything they had talked it up to be. The stadium was beautiful, and we had to wait for 20 minutes just to get in. The crowd was huge, with 4,000 or 5,000 people there. The East St. Louis community supports their team impressively, and Belleville East came out with strong fan support as well.

While both teams seemed ready, it was clear from the start who was the better team. East St Louis won 53-14 over the unbeaten Lancers, and it would have been even worse if Belleville East had not gotten several favorable, possibly shady spots from the officiating crew. (That issue is a completely different topic though.) I was one of the few white people on the East St Louis side of the stadium, and I wholly enjoyed the experience. The level of play was amazing, the energy level was about as high as any I had experienced at a football game at any level, and the fan support from both teams was great too. Thank you, East St Louis/Belleville, for showing me what high school football is really all about.