Friday Nights
Gage Randel Guardiola
It was a rainy day in mid-October and the Ruidoso Warriors played the Pojoaque Elk and I was the ball boy for the varsity football team. I was 13 years old and in the 7th grade. The middle school I attended was directly across the street up the hill. The school is in the mountains and both the high school and middle school campuses were surrounded by pine trees. I would walk down the hill every Friday after school to the school. This Friday was different for two reasons, the Warriors were undefeated looking to keep their win streak going, and it had been raining almost the entire day. As soon as I left school and began to walk the pouring from the sky increased. As I walked down the hill, I still remember the smell of the soaked pine trees and pinecones that were scattered around the trail I walked down the hill. As I continued down the trail to the high school, I arrived soaked. I would always head to the Coaches office immediately as I arrived. Coach Johnson and Coach Speck immediately came to me and found me some big coats and long sleeve shirts to be able to wear on that wet Friday night. As the night went and kickoff approached the raining began to slow down and turn in to a light sprinkle. As we rode the bus to the stadium I remember getting on to the field and the strength of fresh wet grass was so strong. The field looked beautiful with fresh look as if the field was just watered. The crazy thing was that the smell did not remain like by the end of the night. As the game began it was like a movie and the rain began to pick up once again. Players tackling each other in the mud and the once beautiful grass field began to look like a flooded farm. The grass quickly went from a bright healthy look to a chocolate brown all over field and on everybody jersey except for the Ruidoso Warriors Quarterback Cade Patterson whose offensive line protected him so well he was nearly untouched all night. The Warriors dominated the night coming out victorious and even though my brand news shoes were ruined, and I was freezing the entire time, I enjoyed every moment of being on the sideline. It is memory and night I will never forget, and I am thankful to have those childhood memories of being the ball boy for the Ruidoso Warriors. Friday night in Ruidoso are always special, but the mud bowl will always have a special place in my heart for the rest of my life. The smell of the soaked mud was a smell that I will never forget, and now every time I am near any type of mud, I remember that night in Ruidoso, New Mexico when the Ruidoso Warriors played in the Mud bowl against the Pojoaque Elks at Horton Stadium.
Gage Guardiola is a college sophomore, from Ruidoso, New Mexico.