The Friday mood lightens as the South’s hallways explode with grass skirts, lei’s, Hawaiian shirts, and sunglasses. Beachy vibes are felt throughout the school as teachers decorate their classroom door with pineapple and palm tree cut outs. A normally tense Friday is rapidly turned upside down as students walk to class with friends. Chatter of the evening’s football game can be heard within the walls of South, the home of the War Eagles.

“I think dressing up for the football games really get the players motivated and more confident. They feel the beach vibes,” Chan Baik said. “I like to dress up because it helps me add to this school’s pride and spirit. It helps us be more unified. I think that the football players are going to do really well tonight, I can’t wait.”

With the new SuperFan app, students at South High are constantly encouraged to openly express more school spirit. By dressing up and attending weekly games, students and staff receive a certain number of points useful for prizes in future months.

Hours after school ended, students and faculty returned to the War Eagle stadium to support their team in the first football game of the season.

South started the game with the ball on their 37 yard line. After back and forth turnovers, Sprayberry broke through the defense and ran the ball to red zone. Unable to get a touchdown, the Yellow Jackets settled with a field goal 7:30 left until the second quarter. 

Starting on their own 14 yard line, the Eagles move the ball down to the 2 yard line. A successful handoff to Green but a blocked field goal will put South in the lead 6-3. Sprayberry with the ball, the yellow jackets buzzed down the field for their first touchdown. With 2.9 seconds left in the quarter, Sprayberry took the lead. After much trouble moving the ball down the field and a timeout called by South, Green successfully moved the ball into the end zone, scoring the War Eagles second touchdown of the game pulling South ahead 12-10.

Sprayberry was forced to punt the ball back to South where they started at the 45 line. Then, after a deep pass, Cruz increased the score gap by another seven points, scoring a third touchdown for South. At the end of the first half, South led 19-13.

Sprayberry started the third quarter at their own 36 yard line. At the 8 yard line, South’s defense stopped them there and Sprayberry wasn’t able to put any more points on the board. The third quarter ended; neither team receiving any points.

Tre’von Green received the ball at the 2nd yard line and ran it in for another South touchdown in the fourth quarter. South was up 27-13. With a burst of energy, Sprayberry flew down the field gaining another touchdown for the evening.

With 6:23 left in the game, South was up seven points, ball in hand. With impressive blocking from the War Eagles, Tre’von Green scored the final touchdown of the night for South increasing their lead to 34-20. 

After back and fourth offense, South soared above with a final score of 34-20.