Before Russellville kicks off their 2021 high school football campaign next Thursday with their season-opening matchup with the Red Raiders of Decatur, fans of the Golden Tigers will get a chance to meet the players and observe some of the youth football players making their way through the ranks along with some activities as well.
On Friday, August 13th, the Russellville High School football program will host a ‘Meet the Tigers’ night at RHS football stadium beginning at 5 p.m. with an introduction of the Russellville 12U football team. Admission to the event is $5 and there will also be an introduction of both the RMS and RHS football teams along with the cheer squads for both the middle school and high school teams. Each introduction will be followed by a scrimmage and afterwards fans will be able to take photos with players.
“We’re going to recognize every football player and cheerleader from 10-12U and up. It’s going to be a good community event to kick off football season for us,” Russellville varsity head football coach John Ritter said.
In addition to watching their favorite Golden Tigers’ take the field for the first time this season, fans will also be able to purchase concessions as there will be a food truck on-site as well as shaved ice, candy, pizza and other concession stand commodities.
There will also be inflatables for children as well as opportunities to purchase Golden Tiger merchandise before the season officially begins.
After the introduction of the band (after the conclusion of the final scrimmage), fans are encouraged to stick around and bring a blanket or lawn chair as there will be a movie shown on the jumbotron scheduled for 8:15.
Of course while there’s certainly a ‘want’ to get the fans familiar with who they will be watching suit up every Friday night for the next three months, but the football aspect also is something to keep an eye out for according to Ritter.
“From a football side of things, we’ve got the band coming, we’ll have Richard on the P.A. so it will feel like an actual game. We’ve got a lot of guys that may not have played on a Friday night so we’re going to try and simulate that as best we can with the crowd noise, the band and everything that typically goes into it,” Ritter said. “It’s also good to just get them excited about the season and get them ready to be in that stadium six out of the next ten Friday nights ready to compete.”
With the opening matchup just one weekend away at home, Ritter is hopeful that Friday night's event will be just what the community needs to get the energy fired back up after a very successful 2020 campaign.
“We’ve got a great community and we really want those people to be fired up and ready to make Golden Tiger Stadium loud when we play at home especially since we start the season in only a week,” Ritter said. “I would hope that after the past three years that after seeing how hard our guys play, that getting the community fired up about this season would be pretty easy. But we’re excited about the event and giving our guys a taste of the Friday night lights before it really starts counting next Thursday."
