If you know a high school administrator, then you know they work most Friday nights during the fall and winter athletic seasons. It’s just how it goes.

But what comes to mind for you when I mention a high school football game? Of course there’s a game and fans and cheerleaders and a snack bar usually run by the Boosters or a parent group of some sort. That’s all true. There are also teachers strategically placed in the hopes that they can assist when something goes sideways, and there are usually classified staff to assist with securing the gates and selling the tickets.

At my site, we also have a number of students who volunteer to support school events and in return they get elective credit and a nice thing to put on their college apps. We have these students check people in at our cashless entry points. It’s truly lovely.

I usually groan at my partner when I leave the house for work on an evening that will end with a sporting event. I don’t look forward to the games – they are exhausting for me as a principal. Not only am I there as a figurehead to support the school, but I need to have my head on a swivel for student issues, unsportsmanlike parents, safety concerns (think: fights or kids who decided tonight was the night to try hard liquor for the first time and now their friends are keeping them propped up in the stands in the hopes that we won’t notice. We noticed. And we’ll be there shortly when they fall over and start throwing up under the bleachers) and more.

On an average evening of game supervision, I will address the following (after a full day of work – keep that in mind, please):

• Help with set-up: cash boxes, ticketing websites, caution tape.
• Greet fans at the gate.
• Watch for students with back-packs and/or attempts to jump the fence instead of buying a ticket.
• Greet the police officers on duty for the evening. Check in with them often to ensure that the fans are aware that they are in the house.
• Cheer loudly for the team when they score
• Scan the parent section. Any red cup nonsense happening up there?
• Cheer loudly when the student section practices positive cheers!
• Scan the snack bar area. Any potential fights brewing?
• Cheer loudly and clap a LOT when cheer and dance team perform.
• Scan the D-zone. Any middle school kids being obnoxious during an unsanctioned game of catch?
• Cheer loudly when the kids on the field look like they need some positive vibes from the crowd.
• Scan the student section crowd for kids under the influence.
• Walk through the student section (elbows out if you’re shorter than your students)
• Find the drunk kid on the side of the bleachers. When they can’t remember their own name it’s time to call an ambulance.
• Scan the parent section again.
• Have the gates opened for paramedics so they can work with that kid – they passed out and now they are rolling around on the ground by the bleachers, vomiting at times.
• Rally teachers on supervision duty to clear out the section of students taking video of the drunk kid. Make space for the medics to come in; cover the kid’s face as they wheel them away on a gurney. Pray for some privacy for that poor soul.
• Scan the D-zone again. Confiscate football from the middle school kids.
• Back to the sidelines to watch the last minute of the game.
• Cheer like a crazy person when we win the game.
• Stay on the field near the gate until most parents and fans have left.
• Say goodnight to the cops who are itching to leave the event.
• Send your teachers and admin team home for the night (if you have a good team, your APs will stay put with you to shield you from parents that might want to have a post-game word with the Principal).
• Walk back to the office, peel of my supervision jacket (it lives in my office) and hat, charge the walkie, and make a bee-line for my car.

If I’m lucky, I will get home by 11:00pm. Kick of my shoes, enjoy an adult beverage, kick back on the sofa with a fuzzy pet, and tell my partner that I’ll share the events of the day with them over coffee the next morning. My voice is shot and I am exhausted. Happy we won the game and we had a relatively uneventful evening!

The unspoken rule on my site is that I take a bye-week Friday off and make it a long weekend. Translation: get out of town with my partner, turn off my email and phone notifications, and talk about anything and everything that is not connected to school or athletics.

There will be time enough for that on Monday.