Football Calls the Truce

Image Source

Many call it football, there are others who call it soccer but whether the debate will be settled in the nearest future is not my concern at this point. I'm taking about the round ball not the oval one, so you already know which sports I'm referring to.

I had just switched schools when I was entering senior high school from a private school to a public school, a public school in my country is usually owned by the government where tuition is free as well as some other advantages like free text books. I don't know why but apart from the usual large population, they're usually characterized by large area of land.

I'm digressing from the main story.
I had to switch schools because my parents thought it was best because of the financial advantages. It had been a few weeks since I resumed at my new school and the yearly interhouse sports was fast approaching. I was both curious to see how the competitions were held in my school, but I was also disinterested in any of the activities.

Many times my teachers had to go after students who were hiding from participating in any of the sports, but trust students we always found a way to hide. My best strategy was to hide in public view by cheering other students practicing but never joining in any of the activities. We were divided into four house colors red, yellow, green, blue and i was assigned to red house but you would always find me everywhere.

Every other sporting activity was interesting to watch but football was always left for last. We already had a knockout stage prior to the day of the interhouse sport and both green and yellow house football teams qualified for the finals. In my former school we didn't have the population so it wasn't a big thing, I didn't know football matches in a public school could get intense.

Image Source

By the time the match started on the school field, students from other public schools were already inside our school compound even though they weren't invited. It seemed like many of the tough guys from their side had beefs with the tough guys from my school and they were looking for opportunities to disrupt the football match.

It didn't take long for them to find the opportunity. Just as the two teams were going off the field for half time break, many of us were getting on the field to dance to the music the DJ was playing. I later heard noises from one part of the field as students were running off the field. The gist was that one of our male students was dancing with a female student from one of the other schools when their guys got angry and started a fight.

Image Source

Only the arrival of the teams on the field was enough to get both fighting sides off the field. There were threats being made with promises of violence after the match and poor me, I was already looking for escape options in case I needed to run home.

Fortunately it didn't get to that as the second half of the match was so intense that we all forgot about the incident. Eventually the green house won the match (I can't remember the scoreline anymore) and we all rushed into the field screaming and dancing to the popular Stand up for the Champion song.

As I headed home with my friends, the talk was about how the football match had saved the day although we all knew it this truce had only been temporary. Over the years as I went to school there I would later find out that fights between public students was something that happened a lot.