roasted duck

Last Thursday at midnight, the TMB juniors (I'm a senior in school but a junior in band) boarded a bus bound for oregon, the most useless state ever.  We were all shoved onto one bus and arrived at eugene at 3 p.m. on Friday.  The bus ride wasn't as bad as I expected.  We even saw some snow!  It was nice to spend time away from a computer and the stress of school and just focus on our mission to beat the ducks. 

There was literally nothing to do in eugene.  We managed to find a decent pizza restaurant on Friday night and an ice cream shop on Saturday morning.  Of course that involved us wandering around in the cold and drizzle and receiving highly entertaining heckling from duck fans and students.  Someone shouted, "Go back to California!" to which we all muttered under our breath, "We really wish we could!"

We've heard stories and warnings about the oregon crowds from upperclassmen throughout the years.  The hostile environment, duck fans trying to steal our instruments and helmets, heckling, etc.  I was really looking forward to soaking it all in and hopefully punching someone in the face. 

So when it was time for the game, our bus parked directly outside of the Autzen Stadium entrance.  Arrogant, much?  The junior flutes invested in some Trojan eye black stickers too.  The march over to the stadium was very short so I was a little disappointed because I had expected more hate from the ducks.

In a nutshell, the game was the most glorious win I had ever experienced.  Yes, it was cold and loud, but those were the least of my concerns.  The Trojans fought on like the heroes they are and kept us in the lead for the entire game.  In the last five seconds of the game, the flutes linked arms, held our breaths, and said our prayers.  My mom told me later that she closed her eyes because she was too nervous to watch oregon's field goal attempt.  She didn't know what had happened until my dad burst out laughing because they completely CHOKED.  It was like everything was happening in slow motion as the ball flew wide left.  For a second, Autzen Stadium was completely silent, a mixture of shock and realization.  We had sealed the win, our first win in oregon since 2005.  We had broken oregon's 21 home-game winning streak (the longest in the nation).

Our team flooded the field, and I couldn't stop smiling and hugging everyone around me!  I was so winded from the excitement and screaming that it was hard to catch my breath as we played "Conquest" over and over and over and over again, followed by a post game concert.  It was the most perfect win, and on the march back to the bus, I even got to shove a butthurt duck fan who tried to walk through the band.  SO MANY WINS!

I'm in the lower left corner! 

lol Dr. Bartner

 

I LOVE TROJAN FOOTBALL!!!