In high school, I was an athletic trainer for the football team. My high school focused heavily on sports, and, therefore, we had a large and hard-working football team. There were ten trainers and seventy-five players, and I could name each of them. To say that we spent a lot of time together would be an understatement. From two-a-days starting at 5:30 am in the summer to classes together to after school practices, we were together all the time.
While I have always loved for country music, standing on a football field in the 102 degree Texas summer heat gives you a whole new appreciation for it—especially when listening to Luke Bryan’s “Rain is a Good Thing.” For the team and the trainers, country music was a way to endure the day before daylight.
While we loved to play our country tunes there were definitely times that something else was playing. I can definitely testify that as a trainer I never once heard anything besides rap playing in the weight room. Coach Clements was never really a fan of country music. Our head trainer was extremely religious and therefore did not enjoy the explicit language of rap, and the students did not like the religious music he would play if one of us did not put in our ipod, so country music was our compromise.
While the music playing in the background of practice and in the training room seems like such a small entity, it had a huge influence on everyone. If a good song was playing, everyone would sing along. When an amazing country concert came to town, we would all get tickets and go together. For me country music had a big part of my involvement in the community. My friends and I love for country music and involvement in the athletic training group is what started and ultimately led to us becoming friends.
Without country music as a part of my high school’s football community, there is decent chance I would not have started a conversation with Kenzie, Anna, and Shea about Kenny Chesney on the first day of practice. If some of the football players hadn’t gone to the Jason Aldean concert, then I may not have gone to their graduation or hung out with them on the weekends that we did not have practice. Weather it be on the field or in the training room, football and country music are a match made in heaven.
“When I feel that chill, smell that fresh cut grass
I’m back in my helmet, cleats, and shoulder pads
Standin’ in the huddle listenin’ to the call
Fans goin’ crazy for the boys of fall”-Kenny Chesney
Lottie,
I could not agree more, football and country music are truly a match made in heaven. Country music can bring a large group together and create a bond between that group. This is needed in the sport of football, and I love how your team used that to y’alls advantage. Football teams preach hard work and supporting those around you, something we often hear about in country music. Just as country music is America’s music, football is “Americas sport”. I often see country performers play halftime shows during NFL games, which offers up more support for your claim. The song “Boy’s of fall” is the best example of the relationship between the two that I can think of, and does a great job of capturing the life of a young football team.
Oh, I love this! Country music really brings people together and I love that you said it made football practice easier for everyone involved. I can definitely sympathize with that (not football, but any other sport where we practiced for pre-season). Country seems like feel-good music that can lift the worst of moods or ease the worst of pains (in this case, two-a-days). It’s so great when you can forge a bond with someone because of music. I absolutely agree that football and country go together ridiculously well together; it reminds me of Friday Night Lights.