The Blue Devils mark the start of football season with a series of long-standing traditions. 100 years ago, the Blue Devil’s got their name. Since the 1950s, the football team has been ringing the bell after a victory. Senior Polleen Coates was the 74th queen to be crowned and draped with a navy, velvet cape. There have been decades of parades, spirit weeks and pep rallies, and just a few years of Fan Fest.
The two pep rallies since the school year began had themes of Pixar movies and Wizard of Oz. Each grade level gathers in their colors to compete for the spirit stick through several games, cheers, and spirited energy.
“For my first pep rally, I could tell Marietta celebrates as a community,” Cameron Ogleton said. “Between the competitions and the spirit amongst the grade levels, it brings everyone together.”
Another tradition includes Fan-Fest. It is open to the community, just outside Northcutt Stadium before games. This gathers fans of all ages and offers fun activities, bounce houses, food, and entertainment for Blue Devils to gather.
“I come to every Fan-Fest. I never miss one,” Blue Devils fan Amy Jackson said. “It’s a fun way to build school spirit and it includes the kids.”
Moments after Fan-Fest concludes, fans flood the stands to watch the football team play and the band perform at half time.
From the first home game to homecoming
At the beginning of the football season, the Blue Devils faced McEachern for their first home game. By the end, McEachern took the victory, ending a significantly close game with a 13-16 score.
“I think the game was going pretty good at first. The defense was doing well at stopping McEachern from the ball,” defensive back Caleb Graham (12) said. “However, the offense and defense made mistakes and we need to grow together.”
For the first half of the game, Devils were in the lead 10-9 with defense quick on their feet, playing eager to win. However, towards the second half of the game, McEachern slowly caught up due to the offense failing to move the ball down the field in order to score more points. This advanced McEachern’s score from nine to fifteen.
“I feel that we played winning football defensively and special teams did some really good stuff as well,” Head Coach Cameron Duke said. “However, I think in the game we unfortunately had too many drop passes on the offensive side of the ball, that’s something we really needed to focus on trying to correct.
After the loss, the team’s priority in practice was to tie up loose ends and correct issues with the offense in order to get the team on the same page on the field.
Since then, the Blue Devils took on Hillgrove, Wheeler, Etowah, and Walton High School with three victories out of those four games played. Advancing their overall record from 0-3 to 4-3.
“The Etowah game was a huge improvement compared to the previous weeks,” Gaden McCoy (12) said, “We came together and played to our full potential this time. Now our focus is to implement that on the field the rest of the season.”
Since the McEachern game, the Blue Devils also faced North Cobb High School for the homecoming game. For the first half of the game, North Cobb was in the lead up until Marietta tied the game at seven points. North Cobb pushed forward back into the lead during the third and majority of the fourth quarter. However, Marietta scored one touchdown and another game winning touchdown advancing their score to 36-35, and winning their first homecoming game in four years. This left them with an overall score of 4-4.
“The homecoming game was a great win for the team, the defense and offense both leaned on each other more,” Jamine Solomon (12) said. “Even though we were down most of the game, we started to show our true colors in the end, and came out with a win,”
So far, the Blue Devils have won every region game they’ve played since the season started. They also haven’t won a Homecoming game in more than four years, so the homecoming victory was a major improvement. They are now preparing to face Cherokee High School, Friday Oct. 24 to maintain their winning streak.
“I feel like we could go to a deep playoff run if we come together and stay together as a team, how we’ve been doing these past couple weeks,” Devan Plumber (11) said. “I feel like we’re definitely going to go far with our new coach and make some real changes compared to last season.”
