True believers: How the Desert Mountain game unified NDP
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September 28, 2011 • By Tyler Daswick
Filed under Top Stories
It was perfect, was it not? A clear night, perfect for football. A homecoming game that was ours to spoil. A rival school that had been heaping piles of trash talk on us all week long. Notre Dame had never seen anything like what it saw the evening of Sept. 23. The stage was set for something incredible, and when the smoke from those ironically-inappropriate fireworks cleared, Notre Dame emerged from the football game against Desert Mountain an entirely new kind of beast.
Until this year, I never took the Dawg Pound too seriously. Come on, all the student-fans could put together was a little end section at the far side of the bleachers? What is up with that? But this year, the leaders of the ever-growing fan base have taken things to a whole new level, and at Desert Mountain, anyone could see that. It was not only the biggest, loudest road crowd I had seen at an NDP football game, but the best road crowd I had seen at any game.
It is no secret what brought the crowd together, and whether you call him Coach, Len, or Mr. Bemis, the man somehow found a way to make an impact on our school without even being there.
Even looking outside of sports, it is apparent what Varsity Football Coach Scot Bemis has done for our school. I still remember his class from freshman year: one Rhett Johnston spending half an hour wandering the campus as he looked to deliver a pass to the non-existent Room 208, a young Jordan Gehrke asking who is Joey Schmagmire, and the constant bombardments of “Dazz Money, your sister gotcha again on that last test. Now what are you going to do about it? Let’s go, gotta make a play kid!”
B Period physical science was just one example of how Mr. Scot Bemis – whether in the classroom or on the football field – affects those around him. Geez, even my parents still talk about how much they liked his class, and they were not even in there!
Someone like that deserves the kind of game that Desert Mountain brought. Although Coach Bemis was not there physically because he has taken a leave of absence for medical treatment for a tumor in his elbow, he was there in spirit.
Friday’s game was one that showed the resilience of a team that was looking for a way to prove to everyone that it could handle the big boys after moving up from Division IV to Division II. But it did more than that. It showed that Notre Dame was a school that could unify in its search for respect. We could show everyone that we were anything but the goody-good Catholic school that has everyone genuflect before each class.
This is what the Dawg Pound has been about all along, and finally, we have caught on.
There is no point in saying that NDP has not struggled with school spirit in its formative years. It simply was not there. But whether you are a fan of uniforms or not, whether you support student Mass or not, and whether you agree that those darn juniors deserve a surprise snack day or not, you know that the game was a defining moment in NDP history because, for the first time, everyone was able to forget about all of the things they may disagree with and cheer on the Saints.
In supporting Coach Bemis, we supported Notre Dame. I think that everyone knew that going into the game - making it the best part for all. This marked a turning point in Notre Dame spirit because on the night of the Desert Mountain homecoming, we came together as a school and as a student body. We were our own kind of team, and that is something that would have made one straw-hat-wearing football coach proud indeed.
When quarterback Gehrke found Andrew Thomas in the back of the end zone with just under 3 minutes to go, it did so much more than put the Saints up 27-24 and cap off an incredible comeback win. It went beyond a football game; it went beyond beating a rival. When the Dawg Pound saw the touchdown, the place went absolutely insane. Football junkies were screaming, and football rookies were screaming. Hockey players had something in common with pommies, and the Book and Movie Club had something in common with the hiking club. Seniors could relate to freshman, and AP Foreign Language students found common ground with our friends in Study Skills. For the first time, we were all Saints. And we were all proud to be Saints.
Sept. 23 was the night our school became one. It was something unforgettable; it was something special. We believed we would win, and at the end of the night, we had won a lot more than a rivalry.
Just be sure to thank Desert Mountain for those fireworks.
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