SACCO: Enough with this stupid rule

It’s just a dream for Waynesboro coach Steve Isaacs.
Actually, to call it a dream isn’t 100 percent correct because, in the past, he’s had it. Isaacs, especially at Bath County, had throngs of fans lining the fence when his Charger teams played. The atmosphere, he said, was electric.
It was, dare we say, high school football.
You get it in Augusta County, too. Look no further than Friday’s battle between Riverheads and Stuarts Draft along the Target Turnpike. Fans stood four-to-five deep along the fence that lines the football field.
To call that atmosphere incredible isn’t 100 percent correct either. We would label it more as “phenomenal.”
It was, dare we say again, high school football.
Cheers resonated from both sides of the field as Draft worked over Riverheads. Not once did the public address announcer at Draft remind students they had to remain in the bleachers during the game. Simply because, they don’t have to be.
Sadly, it’s a rule in place at Waynesboro. No, before you ask, they don’t go so far as to provide leg cuffs, but why not?
Thankfully, not all area high schools follow the dumbed-down lead of Waynesboro when it comes to turning what should be the fun of Friday Night Lights into recreation hour at Middle River Regional Jail. Because that’s exactly what football games are like in the River City.
And if there’s a team that can ill afford to keep fans away, it is the Little Giants.
To the folks in the county, if you’ve never been to a Waynesboro football game, save yourself the trip. It’s not the game on display, but a don’t-trust-the-young attitude that stinks to high heaven in a city that already reeks of suburban sprawl. Yeah, don’t trust the youth, but make money off them on the field of play. Good idea. (And, yes, that is sarcasm.)
The old-timers who work the chains at Waynesboro games spin yarns of the days when folks would line up six-to-seven deep along the fence. They tell tales of crowds numbering in the thousands, no doubt, in a era when the school administrators actually trusted students to, get this, walk freely around the football stadium during game time.
The Waynesboro players, a team that finally showed some heart it its win over Covington on Thursday, deserve so much better. And, sadly, unless things change they aren’t going to get those crowds.
Would you, as an adult, take in your local high school football game if, every 20 minutes or so, the PA announcer makes sure to remind you that, if you’re a student, in the bleachers is the only place your supposed to be?
Sadly, how can the administration expect students, who probably have something better to do on a Friday night, to come out and support their chums when they’re treated like prisoners, not high school students?
We’ve written this column before and have seen nothing change in six years at The News Virginian.
The constant heckling of your would-be fan base is a joke. It’s embarrassing and by not making the change it proves that Giantdom wears this rule like some ill-conceived no-fun badge of courage.
It’s Friday Night Football.
It’s the greatest slice of Americana anybody can hope to experience.
Seven other area high schools get it and, don’t worry, Waynesboro students, you’ll get to experience it Friday at Stuarts Draft, a place that doesn’t treat pigskin games like Pelican Bay.
Walking around the football field and having an atmosphere most would die for is not a dream to them.
It’s a reality.
A reality Isaacs had once.
A reality guys like Terrell Thompson, Steven Brown, Aaron Lamb, Chet Berry, Zach Fisher, Clyde Thompson, Nick Vela and 30 others deserve. At home, not just on the road.