Thursday Doors -Greatness Enters Here

This week for Thursday Doors, I opted for a field house.  These door lead to the locker rooms that are filled with students almost year round.  Now that school is out, I took advantage of getting down to photograph them before they are once again bustling with children/young adults going in and out of them.

This field house is located at Dwight Bogle Stadium (usually just called Bogle or Bogle field) in Cave Spring, Virginia.  One of the things that I found interesting when we moved here was that the stadium is actually located at the middle school.  There are two high schools in the Cave Spring area. A second high school was needed in Cave Spring due to overcrowding, so in addition to Cave Spring High, Hidden Valley High School was opened in 2002.

I was a little surprised by this because some large high schools have the same amount of students as these two combined.  It also means that you are in school with the same students from 6th-12th grade.  I am used to a multiple middle schools feeding into one high school.  Both of the high school football teams play on Bogle field.  During football season this means that the field is in constant use between JV and Varsity.  Cave Spring Middle also has a football team that plays on the field

Because the fields get such heavy use, in 2007 the County opted to put in turf.  We moved here in the summer of 2013.  This was one year after the middle school had been completely rebuilt.  The boys both wanted to play football and played the 2014-2015 school year.  This was with the middle child as an 8th grader and the oldest as a freshman.

And even though they both decided after a season that football was not for them, they learned a lot during that time.  They learned about teamwork, about respect, and about leadership.  They learned about hard work and brotherhood.  One of them witnessed the bonds of a team when a teammate was very ill.  They took away friendships that they still have to this day.

It was a hard decision for me to allow them to enter that field.  If you’ve been following along for a while then you know that my oldest has suffered a brain injury in the past.  Football has constantly been in the news about concussions and injuries suffered. But I also  knew that I couldn’t stop them from living just because of my own fears.  I can’t say I was overly sad when they opted not to continue playing the next season; however, I was happy it was their decision to make.

These are the doors from the parking lot side.  One for the Cave Spring Knights and the other for the Hidden Valley Titans.  Whichever team is playing, the other locker room is available for the away team.

I’m not sure when this specific field house was built. Cave Spring has produced some football players that have gone on to play professionally.  Ronde Barber (retired-Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and Tiki Barber (retired- New York Giants) graduated from there in 1993 and Danny Aiken (won the 2015 Super Bowl with the New England Patriots) graduated in 2006.

In the spring, these doors welcome the middle school track and soccer teams.  The Knights side being used by the girls and the Titans side being used by the boys.  I’m a little hazy on what other teams use the fields as we just entered middle school soccer this year.

Only 7th and 8th graders are eligible to play middle school sports.  As a 6th grader, my daughter was able to be a soccer team manager.  She was able to practice with the team and was assigned to work certain games.  At home games, some of the managers are at the sideline to get the ball and some are in the tower doing the announcing and running the clock.  At the away games, the managers  keep track of who has been subbed.

She had a lot of fun and was happy when she found a manager jersey in her size with the number 21 (her travel soccer number).  This was the only picture she ended up letting me take in her manager uniform!

One the back side of the field house, the doors again have signs denoting the team, but they are double doors in the team color.  I found this photo in my archives.  My middle school child was getting water during practice while the JV player was on the field for a scrimmage.  The field is locked when not in use.  Even if I could find a place where the fence is short enough to take a photo, it would be on the opposite end of the field and I don’t have that kind of zoom lens.  You can see the Titans blue doors.  To the left are a set of red doors that the Knights emerge from.

I titled this Greatness Enters Here because I believe it does.  Whether it’s entering on the front side before a game or entering from the back side as they take their leave from the field, there is greatness in those locker rooms.

It doesn’t matter whether they are the victors or the losers.

There is greatness.

They are there putting in the hard work. They are there showing up for each other.  They come out and leave a lot of drive and determination on that field.

Never underestimate your own strength.  You were born for a purpose and are blessed with the power to achieve it. -Leon Brown

Obviously this isn’t the only place where these lessons are learned and this isn’t the only place where greatness enters.  We should never underestimate the greatness in all children and young adults.  Or in all human beings for that matter.

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.-Vincent Van Gogh

Let your light shine!

Amy

*Thursday doors is hosted by Norm 2.0.  To see more great doors, check them out here

I am also linking up to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge as it is DOORS and drawers this week!