Legend has it that Proctor's rivalry with Holderness School goes back about a hundred years to a sleigh race between Andover and Plymouth. When I was first introduced to it, the annual football game was the source of intense spirit-building exercises that are very foreign to us now. Some of it was fine: you wore green for a week before the game; a School Spirit was chosen after proving his prowess at leading cheers. One peculiar manifestation of Holderness Week was a banner contest that--along with skits that seemed appropriate at the time--dominated long assemblies dedicated to hyping our excitement. This November, 1980 banner featuring a hornet branding a bull is relatively benign:
Banners from both schools were on the edge of propriety, and school spirit feels more genuine to me now.
Proctor football lost to Holderness this afternoon. "We didn't execute against a strong opponent," remarked Assistant Coach Ryan Flynn. Here Ryan counsels his QB:
Proctor went into this game with its first two running backs sidelined, which may be considered. Below, Chris hurls downfield.
Football has progressed markedly over the past three years, and this team goes into a final game with Pomfret next week with a 5-2 record of which they are proud.
