After three quarters, green helmets still dot the field and huge fluorescent lights still attempt to play the role of the sun. The scoreboard is still glowing, revealing a likely loss, a win or that nothing has been decided. The Spartans could be shutting down drive after drive or surrendering gain after gain. Our football team may be able to score one more everyone-on-their-feet-cheering-so-hard-they’ll-have-no-voice-the-next-day touchdown, but by the fourth quarter, there will be almost no one left to see it.

Ask most people who know me and they’ll tell you I utterly lack football knowledge. I only recently figured out what the lines on the field were there for, and constantly need to ask those around me what the guy in the stripes with the yellow flag is screaming about. However, I know one thing many apparently do not. There are indeed four quarters in a football game. No, girls who rush out early to go to Swirl Cup and boys who strut out of the stands claiming “the game’s over,” it’s not over.

Our Spartan players work hard all season. They practice six days a week, sometimes twice a day, and trained for a good portion of the summer. I can’t speak for the team, but as a JV swimmer, I can say that when I’m competing and I hit the wall coming off my final lap I appreciate having someone there still screaming and waving and jumping up and down.

At both the Hersey football game on Aug. 24 and the Lane Tech game on Aug. 31, when the boys “hit the wall” about 10 students were still there to congratulate them. Yes, Spartans, you all stayed to storm the field at the end of the Glenbrook South game, but are rivalries what’s most important?

I get it, you are tired, you are hungry, you are ready to head off to the next social gathering on your list.  But if at all possible, please stay. Whether the team is down by 36 or up by 21, they are still playing. The game is not over until the clock strikes 0:00.