Hatboro-Horsham alum and professional sports photographer Darryl Rule is following his alma mater’s football team and writing a behind the scenes account of the days leading up to Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day game.
Day 3 – Behind the Scenes with the Hatters
It’s Wednesday morning. One day until game day. Walking around the halls of Hatboro-Horsham HS, there is a buzz. A different feel than has been there leading up to today. Students are dressed in Red and Black, faces painted, wearing crazy hats. Groups of students gather at each locker area throughout the school. Part of today’s festivities is a contest to see who can decorate their area the best. That, along with scores from other events, is added up to determine the winner of the Spirit Cup.
Classes are in session, but minds are starting to wander to the long weekend, the game, and the food. On the second floor, Dave Thomas is prepping for his broadcast of the game tomorrow. He is frantically trying to find out the series record between the two rivals. He and I discuss for a while, and we settle on 51-26-5, not sure if that is 100 percent accurate as this is the 79th Thanksgiving Day game, but he is going to go with it.
Meanwhile, down in the gym, students are working feverishly to get banners hung. Banners for each class, for each fall sports team and the senior cheerleaders and players need to be hung. The cheerleaders finish with the banners and start to warm up to practice their routine they will perform at the Pep Rally. Just last weekend, the squad qualified for Nationals to be held in Orlando, FL. As the music blares over the speakers, the squad does a quick run through of their routine and then meets with their coach to go over what they will do at the Pep Rally.
Around 10:45, the seniors and juniors start to file into the gym, seated side-by-side in the bleachers. It doesn’t take long for the chants to start, each class proclaiming their dominance over the other. Bodies are crowd-surfed to the top of the bleachers and banners are unfurled, each with a different class message. Each banner rolled out by the juniors is quickly attacked by a group of seniors, and the senior section goes wild.
Closer to 11:00, the sophomore and freshman classes enter the gym, obviously less ready to make noise, and the seniors and juniors let them hear it. When they finally do make an attempt to cheer, they are chided by their elders. One can feel the love in the room!!!! By now, the back-to-back state championship Marching Band has filed into the upper deck area of the gym, and they begin to play music commonly heard at Friday night games. “Louie Louie” is played first, and the students respond with cheers and clapping.
At 11:00, Principal Dennis Williams makes his first attempt to quiet the crowd. The students continue to converse, and Williams stands their, mic behind his back, waiting for quiet. After a few seconds, he says “We can cancel this Pep Rally and send you back to class if you want.” Almost immediately, the students quiet down and attention is focused on Williams. He welcomes everyone to the annual Pep Rally, then turns it over to choir director William Naydan and his students to sing the National Anthem.
Williams takes the mic back and introduces the school’s leadership court and Homecoming King and Queen next, followed by a “Dance Off” among the classes. The finals come down to the junior class representative and the dancer from the senior class. After another 30-second dance, the judges determine that the winner is the senior class. This, of course, sends the seniors into hysterics and more chants and cheers. The dance off is followed by the performance by the Hatter cheerleaders. 
Anyone who says cheerleaders aren’t athletes needs to watch their routine, and then think again.
Next up – Fear Factor. Each class sends five students to the floor. They will run from one end of the gym to the other and pull a food item out of a brown bag, and they are required to eat the contents of the bag. I never did get to see what was in the bags, but judging from the facial expressions of the contestants, it wasn’t chocolate or pizza. This time it is the juniors that win, and it is their turn to proclaim their dominance.
The sophomore class is in charge of the next event, a game involving pantyhose and coins. None of the contestants really seemed to understand the rules of the game, and the sophomores win, but nobody seemed to understand how or why. Clearly not the highlight of the day! Luckily the confusion of the game was quickly forgotten as Principal Williams restores order so he can make the big announcement of who will be the Generals for the big Red and Black Night held later in the school year. Senior football player Brendan Mulligan is named a captain for the Red team.
Just from walking around the halls and then watching the reactions in the gym, the hallway decorating is the one event that the students care most about. Williams announces the finishing order with the sophomores finishing fourth and the freshmen third. The gym is now as quiet as it has been all morning as the juniors and seniors wait to hear who won. Williams, like any good MC, draws out the announcement. And when he announces that “by four-tenths of a point……the TWO-TIME CHAMPIONS….The CLASS OF 2015!!!!!!” The juniors spill out of the stands and onto the floor in celebration of their win. The seniors, clearly not happy with the results, turn their backs on the junior class. Williams then announces that the Spirit Cup goes to the seniors, and some dignity is restored to the senior class, and they chant as a group “I believe that we have won!!!!!”
With all the events now completed, the focus turns to the football team. Williams asks the football team to join him down on the gym floor. As they find their way down, Williams talks to the students about the importance of Thursday’s game, and how important it is for them to come out and support the team. He then turns the mic over to Head Coach Mike Kapusta.
Kapusta walks to floor, and commends the students on their level of excitement, “Man, look at this place. You all deserve a round of applause for this.” The students respond with a resounding round of applause for themselves. Kapusta takes the time to congratulate each of the fall sports teams for the accomplishments, specifically the Lady Hatters field hockey team that qualified for the state playoffs.
After each team has been recognized, he turns his focus to his team, his first as the Hatters head coach. He recognized each of the seniors by name. This group has been through a lot in their years at HH, especially the last two years, going from a heavily run-oriented offense to one that featured a more pro-style offense with a lot of passing. He then turned to the students.
“The level of energy and spirit in this room today is something that is exceptional,” Kapusta said. “If we can bring that and we can use it as a 12th player on the field tomorrow, and then recreate that in th
e coming years, there is no stopping what this program will do. So what I want is for each and every one of you
to come out tomorrow and support this team. Bring that energy. Because when the crowd is going, it gives you little bit of extra fight. Be as loud as you can be tomorrow, and we’re going to beat
Upper Moreland tomorrow.”
The students erupted with one last cheer as Kapusta hands the mic back to Williams.
A video is shown highlighting the school’s first quarter entitled “One,” and Williams wished the students a safe and Happy Thanksgiving, and with that, the Pep Rally came to an end. Standing in the corner, taking in the day’s events was Hatter boys’ basketball coach Dennis Steinly Jr. Steinley shares the name with the greatest football coach in HH history, his father Dennis Steinly. Principal Williams played for the elder Steinly as a senior, and said, “He was a great coach, but a better man. He made took boys and made them men. He was direct with you and told you things straight and to the point. If you did what he asked, it was great, but he let you know if you didn’t.”
The younger Steinly has been a coach and teacher at HH for over 10 years, but before that, he grew up around the HH football program before taking part in another great area Thanksgiving Rivalry as a QB for Pennridge HS playing against Quakertown. He remembered as a youngster going to all the games and was a ball boy as he got older. “HH always won back then, so it was a pleasant Thanksgiving,” Steinly said.
He also recalled being in the locker room as a child.
“The pre-game speeches were always very emotional and tears were often present,” he said. “It was a serious rivalry and the captains from the teams would go to the other school’s pep rally, so that always added to the hype.”
Could you imagine that happening now???
As I left the gym, I ran into coach Kapusta. I asked him, this being his first year as the Hatters head coach and coming from North Penn, what he expected in his first game against Upper Moreland.
He said, “I’m expecting a big crowd and very energetic atmosphere. From day one, it was made very clear that this is a big game, even in the interview process. At a young age, my family was from this area, so I’ve been around the game.”
As a former member of the North Penn staff, he has been a part of numerous big games with a high energy environment and he can use that experience to prepare his players.
“I told them to enjoy the moment and soak it all in,” the Hatters’ coach said. “Have fun with it, but at the same time, it’s the same goal as any other game. The same preparation for any other game. You can’t get caught up in all the other stuff and lose sight of what your job is.”
In regards to the two-week layoff that former coach Dave Sanderson and former player Brian Haupt had mentioned earlier in the week, Kapusta put a positive spin on that.
“We could rest some guys and get them healthy,” he said. “And we had time to do a little more teaching. Some chalkboard stuff and film work early, then transition back in and shake off the rust. We had a couple of really good practices this week.”
When asked what he would say to the students and Hatboro-Horsham community, he said “Let’s win it man. It’s gonna be a very competitive battle, and we’re need all the support we can get. Come to the game, be loud, and let’s do it.”
With that, Day 3 is over.
One more day for the players to prep and finalize plans for tomorrow. For the seniors, the biggest game of their lives is now less than 24 hours away. Join us tomorrow for complete coverage of Game Day from Hatters Stadium. From early morning breakfast, to game prep, to the game, check www.suburbanonesports.com for all your HH-UM coverage.
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