The Stuff of Memories

Taft High School in Woodland Hills is used to celebrating victory. Twice the school has won the national Academic Decathlon and its students are routinely lauded for individual accomplishments. But for the first time in its 40-year history, Taft savored the thrill of winning the city football championship. The Toreadors trumped 10-time city champion Banning High School 41-20 in a game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The victory inspired the sort of innocent jubilance so rarely thought to be an attribute of modern teenagers. But last week the festivities stretched over several days, with pep rallies and luncheons and impromptu celebrations during breaks. Players were congratulated by classmates they had never met.

Sure, it was just a game. But there is something nostalgic and sweet and innocent and wonderful in watching kids--and that’s what they are--celebrate a late-autumn championship game. The young men who played on the field are champs, but so are the hundreds of students who rallied around them and cheered them on. For them, the celebrations of last week will someday evoke stories that start, “Remember when . . . ?” No doubt another generation has already recalled a few.