Friday, September 23rd, we had our long-awaited memorial football game for Adam Boehme. Adam was known and loved school-wide. He was an athlete who played many sports such as soccer, cross country and track, band, and of course football. Being involved in that many things around the school, you would think his grades would slip, but not with Adam. He was an amazing student who not only got good grades but never hesitated to help others.

I didn’t know Adam personally, but I might as well have. The number of people I would hear saying nothing but good things about him daily proves to me that he had to have been what everyone said he was. When I read the article that Lia and Marley wrote, throughout the entire thing I kept reading “#LLA” which means live like Adam, love like Adam, and/or long live Adam.

At the football game, I made sure to have a chat with Adam’s parents. While talking to them, I asked about their favorite memories of Adam. Even though they had so many to pick from and tell me, one his mom shared: “When he was selling chocolate for the orchestra, and he wasn’t even in the orchestra.” This one stuck with me because many people I know in sports or activities that have to do fundraising for the group always dread doing it. Many people have trouble doing it because it can be weird asking people for money, but Adam loved it. He loved the fact that he was helping other people even though he had nothing to do with the orchestra.

The football game was a white out, but we were also told to wear a hint of purple, because that was his favorite color. The student section had purple and silver balloons around it, and purple streamers wrapped around the rails. Then around 6:45 pm, the football team and Adam’s family gathered on the football field at the 50-yard line and the announcer paid his respects by speaking about him. The student section was completely silent listening to him talk about Adam. I even heard the announcer’s voice break, and that was when a few people got emotional. Even though this was a celebration of his life and his mom said that she felt him there with them, it sucks that he couldn’t be standing there on the field with everyone.

After that, kick-off happened around 7 pm and the game began. Being in the student section, the first half of the game went by fast, and Nogales got the first touchdown. After that happened I started to worry because sometimes I feel that the team chokes under pressure. But this time they pulled through. We ended up coming back and won with a score of 21-7. I think that this was the best game yet, not only because we won, but because of the atmosphere. Everyone was very happy and had great energy, and I’m glad we got to celebrate Adam’s life in a way I believe he would have enjoyed. #LLA!