Super Football Party I and II

Hand-drawn by one of
our very own volunteers!

Original Date: Saturday, January 30th, 2016 
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 PM (1 hour program)

I am not what someone would ever refer to as "a sports guy," so when one of our regular volunteers and TAB members proposed hosting a football event to celebrate the Super Bowl, at first I found myself a bit verklempt. "How do you sport?" I wanted to ask. "Where do balls come into it? How many quarters make up a goal, and how many goals are in a gallon?"

Thankfully, our volunteer and Marcus the Teen Librarian were able to assist me in this cultural blindspot of mine.

I actually don't remember much of our first iteration of the Super Football Party, which is appropriate given that this has been my reaction to nearly all the other sporting events that have occurred in my life. Since my note-taking mania hadn't reached its peak at this early stage in my first real attempts at teen programming, there aren't too many transcribed memories for me to fall back on either.

What I *do* remember is that in addition to Super Bowl-esque snacks that we served (chips, salsa, queso, pretzels, soda), we had a videotape (you heard me) of football's greatest hits or somesuch playing on our TV-on-a-cart that the handful of people in attendance generally ignored. On the plus side, one of the activities we did was "Film Your Best Super Bowl Commerical." Using the library's digital camera, we got footage of two girls marketing the deliciousness of Doritos and a brother and sister team selling us on the idea that Gatorade could turn you into a pro athlete. I also made my own contribution, a parody of the Matthew McConaughey Lincoln commercials that involved me driving a wooden car from the children's play area.

It seems that I will, in fact, do anything for a LOL.

Original Date: Saturday, January 28th, 2017
Time: 2:00 – 4:00 PM (2 hour program)

Our Super Football Party was met with enough enthusiasm that it merited a revival the following year entitled Super Football Party II, appropriately enough. We brought back some of the simple, passing-the-time activities that we incorporated during the first event, like tossing foam footballs around the room and aiming them through a set of hula hoops that I wielded through the air like a circus performer. (Remember how I said I didn't remember anything from the first event? Apparently that was a mistake!) I've found that sometimes it's the simplest things that'll keep people invested for seemingly endless lengths of time; such was the case with the hula hoop toss. There was usually at least one teen who couldn't resist the siren call of matching their agility against mine.

During the second event we had an inflatable football player with a hole in it. He thought he could steal my thunder. And he did, a little bit.

What a jerk. 

Yes, but can he ACT?

As you'll notice from the shot above, we were able to up our game in the "motion picture" department considerably from the previous year, here projecting a series of YouTube compilations of the previous year's best plays onto our big screen. That generated more enthused conversations among the attendees than a VHS showing highlights from the '86-'87 season, believe it or not.

In addition to the aforementioned games of skill and chance, we had another oldie-but-a-goodie in the form of paper football matches. Half the fun there came from telling your opponent that you were going to aim for their face, but I think that I may have been the only one doing that. Our football enthusiast TAB member who got this whole ball rolling (your welcome) also brought in an official NFL football board game, the mechanics and regulations of which sounded like a barrage of white noise when Marcus attempted to explain them to me. The teens also engaged in some pre-game discussions and debates as to who the potential victor was going to be that Sunday, an occasion that was marked by an eerie omen in the shape of a falcon descending from the heavens to visit our humble gathering.

Actually, I think it might have been an egret.

Who can say for certain?

Like for many of the other teen events in the coming year, I curated a collection display for this program that, sadly, went untouched. The items were:

• Cover-Up – John Feinstein
• The Football Game I’ll Never Forget: 100 NFL Stars' Stories (Non-Fiction)
• Football’s Greatest Stars (Non-Fiction)
• Friday Night Lights (DVD)
• Gridiron Gang (DVD)
• Invincible (DVD)
• Million-Dollar Throw – Mike Lupica
• Muckers – Sandra Neil Wallace
• Out of the Blue - Victor Cruz (Non-Fiction)
• QB 1 – Mike Lupica
• Stick – Michael Harmon
• Until Friday Night - Abbi Glines
• We Are Marshall (DVD)

Even when the teens tend to ignore the collection display, I still press on in doing them. Generally it's one of the more light and fun steps to do when planning a program, so it can act as a nice break from figuring some of the more complicated aspects out. Not only that, but sometimes it can help to build up a little knowledge in a field you don't know much about, as was the case for me here. Even though I haven't read or watched any of the above materials, I can now use them as recommendations for reader's advisory based on the research I did then.

That's been a consistent theme throughout my time in teen services: filling up blindspots, one program at a time. 

Catch you in the ring.