Week 2: Centenary vs Hendrix
Resurrection isn't easy
Gearing up for game 3 of this trip was different than the first two. I prepped to stay at a family friend’s place for the night so I didn’t have to drive home the same night, a thing I’d done once before and regretted far too much to let happen again. I fueled up before hitting the road for my 5-hour trek. My first stop was Strawn’s Eat Shop, a famous Shreveport restaurant that was, coincidentally, across the street from the Centenary athletics complex.
I got myself a grilled cheese sandwich and a cheeseburger so I could fill up and avoid needing to eat much the rest of the day. I then made my way over to the parking lot. I had no clue when people would be setting up their tailgates, so I thought that 1:00 p.m. would be enough to save a spot and charge my phone for about an hour before things started.
I was wrong about the timing of everything. It turns out I had like four hours to sit back and wait. I did that and got out around 4:00 p.m. to go see what was happening. I, unfortunately, couldn’t think of how to approach people because at the time, Northern Illinois was on the verge of making things extremely funny against Notre Dame, and I got invested in that. I made sure to walk around and see the upgrades Centenary made to the athletic facilities including the new wall of fame—style pictures on the back of the Gold Dome.
Everything looked so much nicer than it did when I last visited in late February, and I couldn’t wait to see what they’d done to have a home football stadium. At 5:30, the gates opened to Atkins Field, the new name for Mayo Field which is now home to the football and lacrosse teams alongside the soccer team. The stadium was just an artificial turf field with bleacher seating on the home side. The left endzone had a VIP area and seating for a high school band they brought in since Centenary’s too small a school to have a marching band. I heard people say capacity was roughly 6000 and that they expected a sellout.
They got a sellout and then some. Hendrix fans made up at least a third of the people in the stands, which I understood better once I heard it’s about 5 hours away in Conway, Arkansas. It looked like almost all 700 students were there, too. The rest of the audience was a public that hadn’t seen its own college football team since 1946. Heck, they ran out of seats!
The game didn’t go well for the Gents. The 43-20 final score doesn’t tell you how unpolished the defense looked for the first half or how little the offense could muster the first three quarters. It also doesn’t tell you the funniest things about the game: the teams lined up incorrectly for the opening kickoff and the Gents had three false alarms for the first TD.
After going down 8-0, the Warriors gave up a kickoff return TD. It got called back for holding. Later in the first quarter, Centenary scooped up a fumble and returned it to the house, but the returner stepped out at the Hendrix 4. The next play appeared to be a touchdown, but the awkward angle and excitement of the moment caused most people to overlook the referees signaling second down. When Centenary got their TD, people didn’t seem to care that much. It was odd.
A lot of what made this game meaningful happened outside of football. I met up with the Centenary gymnast I interviewed in December and had a lovely time talking with her and a teammate. I got recognized by another member of the team before the game and made sure to say something before we left. That was really fun and self-fulfilling.
The drive home the following morning was very nice. I absolutely hated leaving because it was in the 50s when I woke up. I didn’t know that was possible in Louisiana this early, but it was nice. I loved my time in Shreveport and will be back when the gym season rolls around to see some of the sweetest people I know again.