You might find this hard to believe, but last Saturday’s Ashland football game was the first ever game I’ve been to. Well, first game I’ve ever been to where I didn’t have to work, didn’t have to be professional and didn’t have to be unbiased.

I’m glad this was my first game as a fan. I had plenty to cheer for, plenty for my inner fan to enjoy. The Eagles, as a team and as individuals, set record after record at Findlay this past weekend:

•Most points scored against the Oilers (56)

•Largest margin of victory (49)

•Taylor Housewright threw for five touchdowns. The only other quarterback to do that? You guessed it, Billy Cundiff.

•D.J. McCoy rushed for a career-high 203 yards

•Joe Horn became the Eagles all-time leading receiver in Ashland history (2,153 yards)

Horn also caught eight passes for 70 yards and three touchdowns

•Alan Dunson blocked three punts and returned on for a touchdown

I guess being in a booth for the last three years has affected the way I act at football games. After Dunson scored the first touchdown of the game, an eight-yard reception from Housewright, I looked around to see what to do. Do I cheer? Do I clap? It was a weird sensation to see my Eagles from the stands with the Eagles’ faithful (Ashland travels better than Findlay, and it was at Findlay, thought that was important to state).

The Eagles football team gave me something I will never forget: the memory of my first, and probably, last game as a fan in the audience.

Being in attendance during a football game is something you can’t really explain, it’s just something special. Take Ohio State fans for example; they are nuts, rowdy, crazy, goofy, drunk and loud. Some might see that as a negative, but I see it as a positive. It’s called passion; it’s called support. Not often do you see people bundled up in five layers to watch a sport and a team they don’t care for. It’s the connection they have with the team and players that allows them to think freezing their butts off is acceptable. A friend from home told me this once referring to Ohio State football, “Frost bite or losing a limb is fine, just give me a win to celebrate.”

The passion I have for football is something I can’t explain. Thanks to my grandpa, Ohio State football consumes my life in the fall. Now, thanks to the Eagles football team, their new stadium, and my role of covering the team on the radio and for the paper, I’ve become a die-hard Eagle fan as well.

I have one game left in my Ashland football career. I always watch the “Boys of Fall” video by Kenny Chesney the night before home games and I have found myself watching the video on the big screen during the pregame. My favorite line is “How do you want to be remembered?” I can’t say how this last home game will go for the Eagles, but I know for a fact that I’ll always hold a special place in my heart for Eagle football and remember this season forever.