After allowing a couple of days for the soreness to subside, we’d like to update you on the Hayden Bowers Classic held Friday, December 30. To say that it was a success is an understatement. 20 teams of approximately 170 players participated on a beautiful, sunny day at House Park Stadium. Volunteers served over 1000 waters, 200 Gatorades, 120 hot dogs, 350 sausage wraps, 6 very large briskets and countless dozens of cookies. All 200+ t-shirts were sold. Kudos go out to all the countless numbers of folks who helped with organization, logistics, donations, volunteer coordination, t-shirts, announcing duties, sound, water & drinks, BBQ Pit team, cookies and all our referees.
Special thanks to Randall’s – Lake Austin for their help, West Austin Youth Association & Austin High Coach Mike Rosenthal for equipment and a very big thanks to Coach Lou Mora, Tommy Cox, Mike Szymarek of AISD for generously providing us the facility.
Everyone did an amazing job. In the process, we received over $6,000 in donations with more still streaming in. Checks can still be made out to:
Austin Community Foundation – memo “Hayden Bowers Classic”
c/o Curtis Page
3008 Scenic Dr.
Austin, TX 78703
These monies will be used as directed by the Bowers family in a way to both honor and build on the memory of Hayden. As successful as the numbers were, most impressive was the way in which our community came together as family to celebrate Hayden’s life. This was our intent. Chris, thanks again for the vision, initiative and follow through as Hayden and his legacy of friendship and competitiveness were properly recognized and served by the event, its participants, its volunteers and its contributors.
Steve, if we may quote you “One of the things that made it truly special for me was the fact that while we were there in memory of Hayden, it wound up being an event not mourning his passing, but celebrating what he found most important about life: friendship and athletics.”
See you next year!
Loyal Forever!
For over 20 years I’ve lived in the Old West Austin Neighborhood and my fall Friday nights are filled with the roar of the crowd, marching band performances and high school fight songs. Not only do the sounds fill our neighborhood but it stoked my own memories of high school and the rite of passage that is a high school football game. Whether you were a cheerleader, the quarterback, on the dance team, a trumpet player, the science nerd or a little used, under sized cornerback / kickoff team kamikaze (the photographer), you have memories of your high school football games. Not necessarily memories of the game but 
everything the game created around it. High school football makes its own weather – the emotion, the excitement, the teachers, the parents, the nerves and the rivalries inside your own school.
