Friday Night Fever and Gaming

It's time for Friday Night Fever...which must mean it's time for high school football...

Tonight I was able to attend the first game of the season for Ralston High School (district's only high school).  I arrived early enough to mingle with district administrators at the BratFest, which is always good.  Then we headed for the football field to watch the Rams take on the Crete Cardinals.  I don't normally get involved with a football game, even when I'm at a live game.  I like the atmosphere and people-watching, but that's about it.  Tonight was a different experience, completely.  I have decided it is largely in part due to my time gaming.  I now know certain plays and formations and have a much better understanding of the game.  Do these high schoolers run really complicated plays like the options available on NCAA College Football '13?  Not entirely.  Nevertheless, I was able to understand the run/pass plays that the Rams so clearly executed well to beat the Cardinals 33-7.

The best part of the whole game was when the Rams were going for the PAT after their second touchdown, but the play clock was quickly winding down, so I yelled "call a timeout" and sure enough, the coaches did.  It was then that I knew they weren't going to go for just the 1 point PAT, they wanted to push for a 2 point conversion.  When the timeout was over, they were in place, snapped the ball, and the runner got blocked on the left side, so he quickly retreated back to the middle and found an opening on the right to run the ball right in to the end zone.  I called it, just like I would make the same call when I'm playing NCAA College Football!

What I found most interesting about this whole experience is that I was able to hold my own in a conversation with surrounding fans.  I was sharing my learning!  I was seeing the dispersed principle come to fruition from my own gaming and learning into the real world as I talked to people.  The men seemed pretty impressed that I knew what I was talking about.  Do they still know way more than I do?  Of course.  But it honestly felt like an out-of-body experience as I could see myself taking a learning principle from Gee's book, seeing how it applied to my own gaming, and then making it happen in real life.  My husband was not able to join me for the game, but you can bet that he heard all about my football conversation when I returned home.