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WRIGHT TWP. — Suddenly, on Friday, there was a chill in the air. The temperature dropped substantially from Thursday, and that crispness that led folks to reach for their forgotten sweatshirts could only mean one thing: it’s football season again.
But this particular football season is a special one, since it’s the first season all the players from Wilkes-Barre Area School District will be taking to the field as one team. And Friday’s game was even more special, since it was the very first time.
The Wilkes-Barre Area Wolfpack stormed the field at Crestwood, taking on the Comets in their first official game as a unified football team. The combined team of the school district’s three high schools comes ahead of the eventual merging of the schools themselves, as the Wilkes-Barre Area School District plans to house all of its high school students under the same roof in about two years.
And while the teams may not be from Coughlin, GAR and Meyers individually any longer, the memories themselves are.
Ted Jackson, a former teacher for the school district for 35 years, leaned against the sideline fence before the game. While many still wore memorabilia from the individual high schools, Jackson was already decked out with Wolfpack gear. Jackson said he was excited for the upcoming season.
“It’s a nice night for football, and it’s a new thing for Wilkes-Barre,” he said. “It’s great.”
Further down the sidelines, Lauren Trinisewski-Greeley and Alison Hightower were getting ready for the game. The pair both work in the district, with Trinisewski-Greeley acting as an elementary school teacher and Hightower working in autism support. Both are graduates of Wilkes-Barre high schools — Trinisewski-Greeley went to Meyers, and Hightower said she’s a “Grenadier grad.” They said it was amazing to see the students already beginning to come together.
“It’s really neat to see the unification,” Trinisewski-Greeley said, referencing that there had been some concern whether the students would be able to blend.
“Just seeing the crowd is evident that it’ll be OK,” she said.
Hightower agreed. “We’ve never had a crowd like this before,” she said.
It was indeed a sizable crowd, with Wilkes-Barre fans nearly matching the number of Crestwood supporters. In fact, so many fans were packed into the stands, there wasn’t any room for the student section.
On the sidelines, Coughlin seniors Jordyn Simonson and Kelsey Smith said they were a bit sad that they won’t see the fully combined version of the school, but that people do seem to be taking to the unification well.
“I feel like the boys — the players — really seem to like it,” Simonson said.
And based on their excitement together on it field, it certainly seemed like they did.
