Life as a Redcoat - The Season (Home)

For all Redcoats the season is broken into parts, much like our shows. So the next journey into the Life as a Redcoat take us home or at least to home games. 

For any alumnus reading this knows, home games are blow outs from sunrise to sunset and in many cases well into te next day. Well for a Redcoat, that is no different. We just have a different approach to it. 

The typicial Saturday gameday starts with the morning practice at Butts-Mehre where many fans and locals come out to see what the show will be. Normally they are killing time until the BBQ is finished and only stay until the drink runs dry. These practices are also the time where we "get our feet back under us" from the damage that was caused the night before. The practice would last around 90 minutes give or take depending on when kick off was. Oh, did I tell you practice was at 8AM for a 1PM kickoff. 

So now that practice is done and we have a few hours to kill, what do you think happens next. Well I'm betting you guess we went out for drinks. You'd be wrong to guess that for most of the group. Many head off to tailgate and rest up with family and friends. Others would have their own tailgate party. Fairly calm compared to other times. 

As game time approaches we would all gather at the Tate Center to watch the Drum Corp do it's thing, get a little warm up in and prepare to enter Sanford Stadium. 

The enterance was always the part and enjoyed the most. Fans would line up, high fives were had and basically we kicked off the party.  As you got to be an upper classman one of the priveledges was to stand on the outside. This way you could reach out to the fans.

Almost forgot, one of the perks is a kiss on the cheek from a Georgette, Majorette or Flagline. It was always a nice touch to go marching in with BIG RED LIPS in place.

TICK TICK TICK TICK

Hey lift your head up to the sky,

Cause we're the Redcoats passing by,

And if you heard what I just said,

Get down on your knees and bow your head!

Go Dawgs, Go Dawgs ,Go Dawgs

Hey what's that coming down the track, 

but a huge machine that's red and black. 

Ain't nothing finer in the land,

Than the Georgia Redcoat Marching Band. 

Go Dawgs, Go Dawgs ,Go Dawgs

G    E    O    RRRRR    G    I   A 

Go Dawgs, Go Dawgs ,Go Dawgs

Now that we have entered the field to 90 thousand of our closest friends, it's time to fire things up. A move to the left and right and back and forth and boom tunnel is formed. UGA is in place, the fans are ready and Krypton starts to play. You can feel the buzz, the rush of adreneline and the deafening sounds of our fans. At the peak the Dawgs run onto the field. Our day is nearly done. 

I'm not going to endulge into the finer points of game play or halftime at this point. Only to say after all these years away, I could probably still march and play many of our songs and halftime shows. I will say that during many halftime shows I was able to look around and watch the faces. You'd be amazed how many people actually watched the shows. The treat was always the little ones. Their eyes would always light up.

Once the game was over and we whipped a tiger or a bug, we always had the post game concert. Rain or shine. Win or lose. The show always went on. And always concluded with Tara's Theme. This song can bring tears to a grown man, and for me it was the last song I played as a Redcoat. So it holds a special place for me.