What a weekend to be a Bulldog fan
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Let me begin by saying this will be the first and last time I ever bring up fashion in any article or column.
But like most guys I have a favorite T-shirt. One for some reason that I like to wear and is often bumped a spot or two in my rotation. My favorite is a Mission Bulldogs shirt. There’s a couple reason I like it. I like the colors and unlike most shirts I buy nowadays that are tapered in the midsection, this shirt is more in the style of the shirts they made when I was in my 20s. But the main reason I like it is because it was the first shirt that a school gave me as a way of saying, “Thanks you’re doing a good job.”
Other schools have given me shirts since then and I feel honored every time they do, but there’s always something special about the first.
I was given the shirt at last year’s homecoming and have been wearing it proudly ever since. Making sure to wear it to every Bulldog or Lady Bulldog home game. Until recently.
I still don’t know what it is, ketchup, punch or what, but there squarely on the Bulldog’s forehead was a very noticeable red dot. Still not fully domesticated at 35, I went to getting the stain out to no avail.
Rather than parade around their school with something that resembled a bullet hole through their mascot’s head, I decided not to wear the shirt, thinking that nobody would notice. But the minute I walked in, there was Mission super fan Lynn Delecaris shaking her head in disgust. She became even more disgusted, when she found out that I forgot my camera’s battery and would have to miss the first game to go home and get it. But as disgusted as she was in me, her love for her team won out and she kept notes for me when I was gone. She made it clear though that if I didn’t want to look like an outcast I had better wear my Bulldog shirt to homecoming.
With Lynn’s threatening words fresh in my mind and my mom 550 miles away, I turned to our office manager. As a mother of three and a self-described clean freak, I knew if she couldn’t get it out, nobody could. After berating me and doing everything she could not to hit me for setting in the stain by washing it, she went to work and after six washes and some concoctions that would make a chemist proud, my shirt was as good as new, and boy am I glad.
Not only because Lynn was at both the volleyball and football game to make sure I was wearing it, but also because never have I been more proud to be a Bulldog fan than this weekend.
This weekend was amazing for Bulldog fans. I saw both the volleyball and football teams do things that I’ve never seen in my three short years here.
The Lady Bulldogs not only beat their nemesis, the Lady Wardens, they dominated them in three sets and are poised to do some great things this season. The Lady Bulldogs, who earlier in the season beat the Lady Lions in Eureka for the first time in who knows how many years, have never beaten the Lady Wardens since I’ve been here or since Kendal Anderson became their head coach. They have also never been to the state tournament under Anderson, but after this weekend that seems like a distinct possibility.
I saw a lot of things that I’ve never seen at the football game Friday night. I saw the Bulldogs win a homecoming game, saw them beat Thompson Falls – I’ve would’ve had to been here for nine years to see the last time they did that – and I saw the Bulldog players having fun on the sidelines.
With only three wins in three years heading into the season, it’s nice to see the Bulldogs have some success, but it’s how their winning that makes me proud to be a Bulldog fan. With a pretty basic game plan, the Bulldogs are just lining up and saying “We’re tougher than you,” and it’s working.
This weekend was just part of an exciting fall for Mission sports, with their cross country improving each week in their inaugural season and the volleyball and football teams getting prepared to make a playoff push.
So, if you’re a Bulldog fan get your T-shirt out and wear it proudly, because these are some exciting times.
