Four hundred miles from where the Palo Alto High School football team was playing for the State Championship, the Old Pro in downtown Palo Alto was going crazy.
It was so crowded that management charged $7 just to get in to the famed sports bar on Ramona Street. Everyone was watching the game.
The place was filled with all sorts of Paly supporters. Future students, current students, alumni and parents were present to witness the historic event.
Younger students looked on with awe at the Paly athletes they view as idols.
“They are really awesome,” Tomas Colborn, a fourth grader at Walter Hays Elementary School, said. He mentioned that he plans to play football when he gets to Paly. Other students who will come to Paly also took in the event with admiration.
“It’s exciting to see older kids playing on the big screen,” older brother Ethan Colborn, an eighth grader at Jordan Middle School, said. “They are kind of like stars.”
On the second story of the Old Pro, Paly students gathered to watch their friends in high definition across the many flat screen TV’s. In vivid colors, the last names of their friends flashed across the screen.
“It’s really cool to see someone I know well or someone I hang out with on [a] TV broadcast like a professional football game,” Paly student Emily Benatar (’11) said.
Members of the 2006 state football team looked on wearing their old Paly jerseys. They reminisced of their state championship run, and compared their team to the one that was playing tonight.
“I would love to go back, but I am glad to see my brothers play [tonight],” Eric Madison (’08), a tight end for the 2006 team, said. “I’m glad we are back. We have a really great football team.”
Paly staff members scattered the crowd as well. Even the superintendent of the Palo Alto Unified School District, Dr. Kevin Skelly, was there. They watched as their students fought their way to victory.
“You guys worked so hard all season and you deserve it,” Kay Gibson, a Physical Education teacher at Paly, said. “Go Vikings!”
The parents of the community threw up their hands supporting the kids they had watched all season, or ones they had just seen around town.
“[They] are absolutely fabulous,” Joel Brown, a parent of a junior and recently graduated Paly student, said. “We wish them the best.”
No matter what generation they were a part of, one thing was agreed on: The Paly football team did something amazing, and as a community, everyone is proud.
