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High School Heroics

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Here’s a fresh note from our perennial sophomore, Bubby Spamden of Wendell Wilkie High School.

Hey Mr. C.,

I know people your age like to gripe about us high school kids because we’re “soft” and “lazy” and “ungrateful” and we’re addicted to our “gadgets.” I know I’m guilty on all counts. But my Life Skills teacher, Mr. Boozenporn, says you guys weren’t all that different when you were in high school. He says every generation is accused of being dumber and weaker and less excellent by the generations that came earlier. And while overall test scores may be down a bit, the pressure to be super as an individual keeps going up and up and up.

What do I mean?

There’s this girl – Brianna Amat. She managed to get on the football team at Pinckney High School in Michigan because she’s such a good kicker on the girl’s soccer team. Fair enough, I guess. But then she went and got voted to be the Homecoming Queen and got to go out on the football field at halftime and get a tiara put on her head while she was wearing her uniform! And then when the Pinckney Pirates were one point behind in the second half (because she missed a point-after in the first half), she kicked the field goal that beat their archrival, Grand Blanc!

So she managed to corner two of the most prized roles in high school in the very same night – homecoming queen and football hero. The only top roles she left on the table are The Kid Who Always Has Money and The Kid Whose Parents Are Never Home. That’s pretty amazing. It means she’s probably got, like, a record percentage of other students at the school with a crush on her. And it lifts up the bar for anybody else who wants to be really, really celebrated.

People say kids today are a lot more open to all kinds of people doing different things they aren’t “supposed” to do. That might be true, but I don’t think anybody else will ever be able to equal Brianna’s feat, even though I know for a fact that there are a couple of guys at Wendell Wilkie High who would very much like to be Homecoming Queen. No big deal, they just really feel comfortable in tiaras.

Anyway, I guess the point is that not everybody my age is good-for-nothing. Some are good-at-everything. And some, like Brianna Amat, are living out pretty incredible stories.

Your Pal,
Bubby

I told Bubby that forty years ago, as both homecoming queen and football hero, Brianna would have been required by unwritten high school law to date herself. So I’m glad to see things have changed. Compared to the old days, there are many more opportunities for high school kids to get that feeling of being celebrated today. Brianna gets our attention because she happened to corral two of the classic favorites.

What was the high school honor you most wanted to win?

54 thoughts on “High School Heroics”

  1. Good morning to all,

    The only high school honor that I think of that I might have liked would have been varsity basketball player. I did make the junior varsity team at a small high school. During my junior and senior years I attended a larger high school where I couldn’t make it on to the varsity team. I was barely able to make the varsity track team and did get a letter for being on that team.

    I managed score a fraction of a point for a tie for last place in the conference track meet which I think moved our team up in the conference standings. Some how I missed the end of the season track meeting where I think they talked about how the fraction of a point I got thelped the team. It wasn’t a big deal and I think only the members of the track team were aware of my effort in the conference meet.

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  2. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    I wanted my diploma so I could GET OUT OF THERE!

    Meanwhile, I also remember wanting to be “the Prettiest Girl” which I was not. At age 17 that was WHAT MATTERED. However, now I look at the now 58 year old woman who was once the prettiest girl. Perhaps that prettiness did not get her far. She was smart–in most of my classes; however she did not develop that part of herself. She got pregnant right out of high school, married a womanizer who did not treat her well, stayed in that town and became a small town socialite/object of pity.

    Perhaps I am very lucky to have not received that Prettiest Girl Award.

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  3. high school was a time of rock and roll and the search for lifes true meaning. i was wanting to be the poet laureat of the school the rock star the philosopher king. i was preparing for my college choices by taking all the electives i could. options were left open ended so i could do science math law medicine and i ended up doing the vw van thing and coming back from travels to the west to study art music and sales. turn turn turn

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    1. Being hip or in a rock and roll band was not an option in the 50s in my high school. There were some rebel types that dressed, walked, and talked a certain way. That was great rock and roll music, but I can’t remember any of my classmates who could play and sing rock and roll music. There were beatnicks in the big cities, but not in Jackson, Michigan. Being a good looking girl was a big thing and the boys who dated them were also “big shots”. I wasn’t any where close to being a “big shot”.

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  4. I missed National Honor Society my junior year by a tenth of a grade point – that hurt (though making it in senior year made me realize that other than being useful on my college applications, it wasn’t going to do to much for me). I gave up on being first-chair in the flute section – didn’t want to deal with the cattiness and competition. There weren’t awards for stage crew, which was fine. But it would have been nice to have won something (anything) during my time in Speech.

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    1. I was an above average student and wasn’t willing do the amount studying needed to be a top student. I guess there wasn’t any place that I was able fit into in high school.

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  5. Morning–

    Cool story about Brianna. (Smithsonian Magazine has a pretty fascinating article about Marie Curie this month).
    The year after I graduated my school started giving letters for Band and Theater. I’m still bitter about that. Band and Theater was the only thing I would have had a chance at getting a letter.

    When I was in 1st grade, I was a bigshot for one lunch period because I could do 10 pull-ups.

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    1. when i was in school it was such a seperation of jock and freak that a etter jacket was like wearing an army uniform. you were obviously selling your soul to the man, man. no one who was one of my people would have a letter jacket. all my friends who had letter jackets were almost apologetic for it. i remember my friend the quarterback of the football team for 9th 10th and 11th grade quit his senior because he just didn’t think it was cool anymore. hhis dad was really upset and it certainly cost him a football scholarship to a mjor college. seperation of clicks was the deal but i managed to bob and weave and make my way.

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  6. Greetings! In high school I just wanted to be pretty and have a boyfriend. A big NOT on both counts. What I was best known for in high school was being good at volleyball, jumping hurdles and playing Snoopy in “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.” It was a really small high school, so everybody knew each other anyway.

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      1. It was a great deal of fun to perform. The “Suppertime” song brought down the house when my family came to see the show. That was definitely one of the highlights of high school for me.

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  7. Our school paper featured select seniors in interviews throughout the year. Only the most popular were featured. I wanted to be interviewed, but never was. I really wanted people to think I was interesting, since I was considered the world’s most boring and incomprehensible egghead.

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      1. i wasn’t pretty and i still had lots of boyfriends it was girlfriends that was a problem for me. i went through em like peanuts. they were all fine for 2 months but then i was surprised to find they were not totall enthralled with how wonderful life was. i don’t recal;l ever being the dumper, i was always the dumpee. serious self doubt but i trudged on. little did i know it was shades of christmas future ebineezer. i think i am doing fine then one day i discover i was not and was simply unaware. so watch out what you wish for is the post high school lesson. you may have been lucky as jaque noted not to have been granted your wish.

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    1. Ken, I would like to hear that band. Unfortunatly I have a conflict and will not be able to attend their show on Oct. 8.

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      3. lois lane was superman aka clark kents’s girlfriend and also jimmy olsons side kick reporter, the babe in superman comics. where the heck are you from? some unamerican place?

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  9. My high school, as a matter of principle, didn’t issue many awards for individual excellence. The culture of that place maintained that it wasn’t good to give a few kids swelled heads. But I wouldn’t have won any awards if they had doubled or tripled the number issued. My goal each school day was getting through the day without anybody noticing I was there.

    Then in my senior year, I gave in to the pleadings of my parents and a few friends who convinced me to go out for the track team. I was told, “There is something in track that fits the abilities of anybody!”

    I proved them wrong. I couldn’t run, jump or throw stuff. I was comically slow in races of any length. But I mastered the ability to make a painful hacking sound as I ran, which was my way of signaling that I was making a superhuman effort. And that worked. I made the team as a sort of honking wheezing mascot. “I wouldn’t give a plugged nickel for you as a runner, Grooms,” said Coach Covey, “but the guys like seeing you try so hard. So you’re on the team.”

    I was still a horrible runner, of course. Coach Covey made me a miler because that was the slowest race our school had at the time (this was before cross country). I came in last in my first two races. I made my parents swear that they would not show up to witness the humiliation of my last race. But my dad, damn him, cheated. He left the office and sneaked into the bleachers. By luck, he happened to sit right behind Coach Covey. When the race started I began circling the track at a fast walking pace while making a sound like a goose being strangled.

    “That kid down there?” said Coach Covey to the guy next to him. My dad leaned forward to eavesdrop. “That’s Grooms. Worst damn runner I ever coached. But he has more heart than anybody on the team.”

    And that turned out to be the only award I ever got in that school.

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    1. that may best the best award of all.
      there are niot many things better than haveing more heart than anyone on the team. some things never change, thanks for being the heart of team steve.
      hip hip hooray

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  10. What I desperately wanted was to get into Bobettes, the dance team, and didn’t make it. I believe because I didn’t score high on the “creating dances” part. Uffda meg – ironically in my adult life, I ended up teaching folk dancing, and got plenty of accolades there, so there… But it doesn’t change what didn’t happen in high school.

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  11. My class (or rather, we geeks in my class) started the lobbying for letter jackets for academic activities–I was in Quiz Bowl, the school newspaper, theater and the Library Club (and staff for a literary magazine that never got off the ground), but we never got the slightest acknowledgement for our achievements, unlike the jocks. Wouldn’t you know, a year or so after we graduated, they instituted letter jackets for academics. I might have burned mine at graduation, since I hated that school so much, but it would have been nice to have HAD it. I posted last week about also missing out on Honor Society because I wasn’t “involved enough in my church.” Looking back, high school really did suck!

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    1. where did you go crow girl?
      my daughter got the boot last year from the basketball team because they had rules set up to allow their daughter to play more. this year i stayed even though i have a hard time with all those jackasses just to be certain that this doesn’t happen agian. if my kicking and screaming had not been there a bunch more girls would have gotten the boot this year . because they had to reevaluate it the rules and criteria changed and every girl who tried out made it. there were even situations where they voted on breaking their own rules to keep a girl from being excluded. it sounds like your initial plea although it wasn’t acknowledged while you were there must have had a huge impact on all those who followed you. trail blazing is what coming of age is all about.

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  12. What honor had I hoped to win back in high school… my answer back then is so different from my answer nearly 40 years out. Cheerleader, a place in the popular club, a boyfriend… all the usual high school trappings were the prize I had my eye on. Now, with my self-confidence & clear vision restored, I can clearly see that I really was not the “loser” I considered myself to be…. I just couldn’t see it or appreciate it. I had a great circle of friends, was involved in more activities than a could hope for (no time for a boyfriend), belonged to a club that focused on things that mattered (we were honored with Club of the Year… but I was still painfully aware that we were not the “popular girls”), even got voted “Girl of the Month” during my senior year… all the while feeling totally inadequate. Makes be think that even the homecoming queens and football stars of my youth were hoping for more.

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      1. Barb~ The school had about ten Tri-Hi-Y clubs for girls (sponsored by YMCA with focus on leadership development & community service). Entry into the club came by “trying out” and new members were surprised with a middle-of-the-night “pick-up” & party at Shakey’s Pizza Parlor (with the newbies still in their pj’s). My club went by the name Talondi (they’re still active at my alma mater). Each club decided , as a group, where to place their focus for the year & how best to be of service… and, of course, we made sure to have tons of fun in the process. It really was a great positive outlet… just what I needed to survive a tough east LA high school experience. In a school rife with racial tensions, we were one of the only diverse clubs in the bunch. Guess we had more going for us than I thought!

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      2. Wow, that’s fascinating. We had Y-teens, this was in the mid 60s, and there was some little bit of service involved. But it was nothing like as cool as this sounds… was this in the 70s? (You sound younger than me, somehow.)

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    2. You got that right, tim…
      Lots of gang activity added to the mix made it all even more volatile. We were quite a melting pot, all just trying to survive the angst of high school, bouncing around together in the same space. Stabbings on campus were not unheard of… although the absurdity of it all DID strike me when a teacher became the target. Being a blue-eyed blonde placed an unwanted spotlight on me. I honed my survival skills early on by befriending Kathy Lara, the girlfriend of one of the head gang members,. We had a mutually beneficial relationship… I helped her survive art class & she taught me how to remove hickeys with a lipstick case (not that I possessed either)… PLUS I was never bothered again!

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      1. i’ll bet the hickey removal would still be a comodity in high schools around america. my 18 year old has been caught sucking face in my basement a time or two. ah to be young again… but without the stabbings please.

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  13. “Girl of the month?” Somehow I think that, in this less innocent age, would cause a lot of snickering.

    Your post makes me smile. I thought I was such a loser, and later I learned that I had more friends than I could have guessed. And I never came close to being “Girl of the Month!”

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    1. True, that, Steve…times certainly HAVE changed!
      I’m glad I finally came to realize that I always had what mattered… it just wasn’t “cool” at the time. And I never came close to being a honking, wheezing mascot… it seems we all have our burdens to bear. ::big sigh::

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      1. As for times changing, mn firefly, I have strong evidence of that. In my junior high years there was a roller skating rink on the edge of town (low taxes, I’m sure) that created a skating club of kids they bused out there to skate after school. The name of the club would never work in today’s culture: The Eager Beaver Club.

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  14. Like Jacque, I considered high school something to be gotten beyond. My high school offered an option to graduate early if you could accumulate enough credits, so I went for that. Maybe that was an honor of sorts, the honor of being allowed to essentially ditch class for the second semester of your senior year. I got a job and saved up some money.

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      1. I did the same – I was able to complete 4 years in 3 by not taking a study hall and taking a 7th class some trimesters. Was glad to be done and on to college.

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  15. now they suggest you go to the college of your choice as a high school course u of m is a popular choice and it is considered a high school course that is also counted on you college credit so you are saving huge dollars and can get a year or more of colege done before you graduate high school. i would have gone for that but it wasn’t available back in the day man

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    1. That’s the option my youngest niece went for – she’s 18 and halfway to her degree. Nice head start to have.

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  16. I wiil be on my way to Maine to see my brother early tomorrow and will not be back until the middle of next week. I’m not taking my computer, so I will be off the trail for a while. I will look forward to catching up when I get back next week and I hope that all goes well for all of you in during my absence.

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    2. Saw the movie with live Orange Mighty Trio score, very nicely done, and there was a pretty good turnout at the little theater. A fun evening.

      Have a good trip, Jim!

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  17. steve jobs got covered here last night and across the rest of the planet today. here is your high school visionary. he knew what he saw made sense and that adults who told him it couldn’t be done were full of beans. we all knew that at age 18 but a few guys like jobs and bill gates and steven spielberg of what they knew they wanted to do and the worlds negative dope slaps missed them and they kept going forward. jobs is my soulmate because he was the visionary who seemed to be the one who got it and could find people to make it happen. when he was away the company got off track and misguided and when he returned and reshaped the vision and goal they were superstars again. isn’t that what we all would like to have happen. have a thought and proclaim it as the goal of the moment. i woud have loved to the king of the dream. proclainm it the mission and have a way of getting it done. they didn’t have king of the dream at my school and i am not sure they have it anywhere else either which is why jobs and gates and speilberg are such rarities. happy first day pj post jobs. i am sure he gave apple as big a nudge in the right direction as anyone could ask for but it would be nice to have him around to spout pearls of wisdom in the years to come, but then again imagined pearls of wisdom are often times more to your liking than the real thing. you can make it jobesque and have it go in the direction you know it would insteaad of waiting around for him to think of it. you can help. have a good life pj here on the trail. see yall along the way.

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