The unofficial band was already there. They weren't sure how welcome they were and were making their presence known with a surprisingly trad performance of the school song they had written for this game. The teams name, the IC Chips, might have been difficult to work into the lyrics for other bands, but all of the members of this band were computer science students: "The Eagles glower, when the IC Chips have the power."
Chinese running back Gerry Sun waved goodbye to his parents; he had convinced them that he needed to confer with his team. Gerry's parents were not the only parents at the sendoff for the IC Chips' first out-of-state game. On the hillside were gathered Eddy Gabe's Uncle, who lived in East Palo Alto; River's now speaking to each other parents, who ran a Greek restaurant in Contra Costa Country; B2's Mother, a cross country ski racer from Truckee; and DeJuan's Father, a software engineer, who worked in Sunnyvale. From Oakland, there was Damian's Father, who was bigger than his son was. Griff thought he recognized him from somewhere, but he was not sure where.
Big Dog and his girlfriend, Captain of the Huygens Tech women's track team, were kissing in the background. Griff smiled. Big Dog had put on some weight and was one hell of a good Center.
Will pulled into the campus driving his Uncle's TMC Costin. Probably he and his boyfriend had already said goodbye. Would the absence of Will's boyfriend impact his kicking? This was one of many of Griff's concerns on the morning of a six hour bus trip to the Rogue River Valley