Hello - If you've seen me on other boards on this forum you'll know that I'm the mom of a 1/C Midshipman at USMMA, Kings Point. However, we live about an hour and a half north of "the other Point." From before the time DH and I had kids we've gone to West Point for football games, roughly alternating with games at Syracuse (DH is a Syracuse grad). Yesterday we went with our two younger sons to the Army-Stony Brook game.
The weather wasn't the greatest - cloudy and cool. We intended to be there in time for the cadet parade at 0900, but we got a late start - and when we arrived the traffic was awful. We weren't able to park our car until 1000, long after the parade ended. We parked down on the Target Hill Athletic Field by the river, where lots of folks had really great tailgate parties going!
Since we missed the parade, we decided to just get a shuttle bus up to Michie Stadium. "Black Knights Alley" opens outside the stadium at 0900, and they have lots of displays, food, games and vendors. Yesterday they had the Army Sports Class of 2012 Hall of Fame inductees available for autographs, and they gave out a photo sheet with all of the inductees.
We zipped through security, which consists of a search of any carry-in bags and a wanding. It looked like mostly plebes doing the security search, with upperclassmen supervising. I strongly recommend to get up to the stadium early - when we arrived the security lines were short. When we went to a game two years ago, we missed the first part of the first quarter because of the lines - and we saw lots of people this time who missed kickoff because they were waiting for the security lines.
At this point it was 1030. We walked around Black Knights Alley and, since we hadn't had breakfast, decided to have an early lunch. Foot-long hot dogs - they're filling. We ate by the wall overlooking Lusk Reservoir - the boys enjoyed pulling off parts of their hot dog rolls to feed the sunfish.
After our early lunch, we decided to walk around a bit more and then enter the stadium proper. Our 12 YO son has just started playing football and wanted to see the pregame workout. Tickets scanned, we walked over to the far side from Black Knights Alley. We had seats in section U10, on the right side of the press box. Certainly got my exercise climbing all those stairs! There were a lot of Boy Scouts in attendance - our 12 YO Scout could have worn his uniform and fit right in.
Pregame practice
The USMA Band came out for a pregame show, after which the Fourth Regiment marched on for the National Anthem.
Band pregame show
Fourth Regiment march-on
And here comes the team....
More to come....
The weather wasn't the greatest - cloudy and cool. We intended to be there in time for the cadet parade at 0900, but we got a late start - and when we arrived the traffic was awful. We weren't able to park our car until 1000, long after the parade ended. We parked down on the Target Hill Athletic Field by the river, where lots of folks had really great tailgate parties going!
Since we missed the parade, we decided to just get a shuttle bus up to Michie Stadium. "Black Knights Alley" opens outside the stadium at 0900, and they have lots of displays, food, games and vendors. Yesterday they had the Army Sports Class of 2012 Hall of Fame inductees available for autographs, and they gave out a photo sheet with all of the inductees.
We zipped through security, which consists of a search of any carry-in bags and a wanding. It looked like mostly plebes doing the security search, with upperclassmen supervising. I strongly recommend to get up to the stadium early - when we arrived the security lines were short. When we went to a game two years ago, we missed the first part of the first quarter because of the lines - and we saw lots of people this time who missed kickoff because they were waiting for the security lines.
At this point it was 1030. We walked around Black Knights Alley and, since we hadn't had breakfast, decided to have an early lunch. Foot-long hot dogs - they're filling. We ate by the wall overlooking Lusk Reservoir - the boys enjoyed pulling off parts of their hot dog rolls to feed the sunfish.
After our early lunch, we decided to walk around a bit more and then enter the stadium proper. Our 12 YO son has just started playing football and wanted to see the pregame workout. Tickets scanned, we walked over to the far side from Black Knights Alley. We had seats in section U10, on the right side of the press box. Certainly got my exercise climbing all those stairs! There were a lot of Boy Scouts in attendance - our 12 YO Scout could have worn his uniform and fit right in.
Pregame practice
The USMA Band came out for a pregame show, after which the Fourth Regiment marched on for the National Anthem.
Band pregame show
Fourth Regiment march-on
And here comes the team....
More to come....