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Saturday, September 1, 2007
Tailgating Heats Up
Western Arkansas, AR
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Cookouts Add to Friday Night Flavor
Hours before the coin toss, grills are fired up, meat is cooked and sides are dished out.
Tailgating is heating up Fridays in Western Arkansas with the start of the high school football season. The action after “heads” or “tails” is called can become somewhat secondary to what is served up before kickoff.
No matter what side they choose to cheer or eat, more folks are lining up for a good time, good food and, most importantly, good company.
Grill Master
Few do it up bigger or better than Alma’s Donald Couch. He usually arrives around 3 p.m. with his 27-foot grill to serve some 150 to 300 plate-holding patrons before Airedales home games.
“There’s not too many games down here where we don’t get 5- or 6,000 people in the stands, so we’ve always got a good turnout for the tailgating,” said Couch.
Couch has been hosting football tailgates for 11 or 12 years and cooked out at baseball games and other events since 1987. He also has won awards for competition grilling.
“There's a lot of things in life I can't do, but I thought I could give back my time and effort to the school where I went, my kids went and graduated from there, so it's something you give back to the community,” said Couch, a class of 1976 member.
The parties have become so popular that the school has become involved, giving the crowd a brief pep rally with Alma’s band and spirit squads.
“Our tailgating parties start at 5:30 (p.m.) at every home game,” said Dr. Mike McSpadden, Alma’s athletic director. “We even built an area with concrete picnic tables that’s adjacent to the football field specifically for that reason.”
Couch almost always cooks the staples such as hot dogs and hamburgers, but he occasionally mixes throws chicken, fish, pork, steak or “whatever tickles his fancy” on his homemade grill.
One time, he got a really wild hair.
“I’ve actually cooked buffalo on there and people never knew it,” Couch said. “I said, ‘Those are the best angus burgers you’ve ever eaten aren’t they?’”
Cat Food Jar
Other schools have similar pregame gatherings.
Springdale Har-Ber, despite the high school’s newness, fed hundreds of hungry mouths last year and plans to do the same with tailgates again this fall.
Eva Moser helped at the cookouts last year and said the turnouts were unbelievable. Har-Ber doesn’t charge for food, but has a makeshift tip jar called a “cat food jar” for donations. Needless to say, the cat ate well as they were self-sufficient last year and were still able to donate money back to the school after having “all that fun.”
“First off we just kicked around some silly themes,” Moser said. “For instance, Roast the Dogs on hot dog night for the Alma Airdales and we had bear burgers, which were actually ground beef, for the Northside Grizzlies.”
During the first few weeks of the season when the weather was more favorable, Har-Ber hosted 100-plus people at the tailgates. That number dwindled down to 50 or 60 as temperatures cooled off late in the season.
Moser said an email database was maintained to update regulars about what to bring as far as side dishes or baked goods because the main course was always provided. Moser said a host a people come together to make it happen, including businesses such as Tyson Foods Inc., Sonny’s BBQ and Liberty Bank, among others. She also pointed out Donna Pinalto in particular.
“There were so many people involved and we just kind of winged it,” Moser said. “We just kind of wanted something to get people there early and get them there supporting the team for the football game.
“What’s nice is you get to know people you normally wouldn’t just sitting in the bleachers.”
Cooking Cardinals
Small schools also are catching tailgating fever. Farmington started tailgates with members of a local church and a couple of parents of players two years ago.
Now it’s grown so popular that one was even set up in Prairie Grove’s parking lot before the two teams regular rivalry last season.
“We thought it would be good to get together,” said Jeanine Miller. “It just kind of developed into more parents and more fans after two of the parents, Cozelle Newman and Jerry England, got this big grill and we started tailgating in the parking lot on Highway 62 by the school.
Football players are served before the main crowd arrives. They even sfeated on steak and spaghetti dinners on Homecoming, complete with a bun and salad.
“It’s something we wanted to develop to make it more than just about the game,” Miller said. “It’s been small so far, but we expect them to get bigger this year because we’ve got the word out to more parents this year with the help of coach (Mike) Adams and his wife, Robin, getting us a list of emails.”
Regardless of the size of the tailgating party or classification of school, the concept remains the same.
“It's just a good family-oriented thing,,” Couch said. “A lot of people that come to the ball game don't really have time because they get off work at 5:30 or 6 o’clock.
“When we’re down there they can get something good to eat before they go to the game.”
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