Touchdowns Equal Happiness

It was a little bit therapeutic, and a touch defiant.

It was a game.

It was just right.

St. John Bosco hosted Bellflower Friday night, with all the normal trappings of a high school football game: the cheerleaders, the off-key bands, the cheap hot dogs, the fun.

The only depressing sight was the American flag hanging at half staff beyond the western end zone, a solemn tribute to the lives lost in the terrorist attacks on the United States on Tuesday.

St. John Bosco, a Catholic school in Bellflower, had to weigh the already touchy issue of whether to play in the aftermath of the tragedy with a recommendation from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles that schools should cancel or postpone all extracurricular events. Like fellow independent Catholic schools Pasadena La Salle and La Canada St. Francis, St. John Bosco decided to go ahead with the games.

In an e-mail to The Times, St. John Bosco Principal Mike Alvarez said the founder of the Salesians of Don Bosco, the religious congregation that conducts the school, believed in the concept of games as a means to gather people for prayer. That was the rationale Alvarez used to go ahead with Friday’s game.

Friday afternoon, Alvarez exchanged letters with Nancy Coonis, superintendent of secondary schools for the archdiocese, to explain his position.

“We’re still on speaking terms,” Alvarez said. “It’s a good relationship we have with the archdiocese. It’s not going to strain that at all.”

Before the game, the teams met at midfield and shook hands. About 4,000 people in the stands cheered.

There was a moment of silence, and Father John Itzaina read a statement and then led everyone in a prayer.

After watching a half of football, Alvarez said he felt “really pleased and really happy. It really does feel special.

“Kids have a place to be, in a structured environment,” Alvarez said. “Where you can incorporate some prayer together with their families, and just having them here. I think that if we didn’t have this function going on, I don’t know what they’d be doing. This gives them a place to be.”

For high school students, Friday night football games are the social event of the week. It’s their outlet. And their chance to be normal. While the adults in the stands couldn’t seem to go more than two minutes without referring to the tragedy, the kids talked about hair and weight and girlfriends.

Sophomore Eric Molina sat in the stands Friday, but he played Thursday night in a game with the sophomore team.

“It wasn’t that strange,” Molina said. “We knew what happened was a national tragedy. But we were focused on our game.

“Everything just went to the game. That was a good way to take your mind off things and thank God you’re alive.”

Marvel July, one of the game’s officials, didn’t mind putting on the black-and-white stripes and working Friday night.

“It’s good to have your mind off of it,” said July, a computer technician for Logicon. “My dad passed two years ago and I worked a game that night. I think it’s important for people to get their mind off it sometimes to relax.”

You know what I did Tuesday after 11 hours of watching those horrible images on TV, when I couldn’t stand to see that plane hitting the World Trade Center one more time? I played sports.

I went to the beachside courts in Santa Monica and shot hoops. Some guys were playing three-on-three at the other end of the court. The adjacent tennis courts were full. A soccer game was in progress on the nearby grass.

At the high school level, sports are still closer to recreation than business. Perhaps we don’t need to see millionaires playing sports for a living right now. But we can play them ourselves, or watch others play them for fun.

The NFL, major league baseball, NCAA Division I-A football, golf and auto racing shut it down this weekend. And those were the right moves.

The tragic event didn’t end Tuesday. It was still unfolding, fires still burning, new clues discovered during the course of the decision-making process through Thursday.

There were logistical problems in getting teams to their destinations with an air transit system that was virtually shut down. There were security concerns for stadiums that seat 50,000 or more.

High school means one team taking a bus to play another team before a few thousand people.

It means signs of good sportsmanship, such as the smallest player on Bellflower’s team, 5-foot-2 Dicky Buasen, helping one of the largest St. John Bosco players up off the ground after a play.

When St. John Bosco running back Derrick Williams took a handoff on the first play from scrimmage and raced 62 yards into the end zone, teammates, fans and cheerleaders were jumping for joy. It reminded me of a John Madden observation: “Touchdowns equal happiness.”

St. John Bosco won, 49-12, but the final score was almost irrelevant.

“It feels good to do something normal,” said Karla Basa, a junior at sister school St. Joseph’s.

“It feels like old times,” said her friend Jann Guirey.

“They needed to be out here,” said Margie Nunoz, whose son Daniel is a senior at St. John Bosco. “They need each other, as parents we need each other. I think it was beautiful.”

Right now, we need happiness wherever we can find it.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at: j.a.adande@latimes.com