For the second and last time this fall, the football team, along with the band, cheerleaders and all other associated groups have Friday night off. Last week it was because the team played on Thursday, this week it is a scheduled bye week.

“It gives a chance to get back to some fundamentals,” offensive coordinator Matt Swinnea said.

“We’re getting ahead, next game is a district ball game and so we’ve kinda been focusing on the school down the street.”

The team is using the bye week to take some time to rest and recuperate before it’s next game against Centennial on Sept. 30 at The Ford Center.

“We use the bye week to just lock in more,” senior Will Blasingame said. “And to practice harder than we ever have just so we are prepared for district coming up.”

The cheer team, another aspect of Friday night lights, also has a chance to take a break from the football games, although it’s something that most of them enjoy doing.

“[Not having a game] is kind of boring,” junior cheerleader Ali Smilie said. “Whenever we have a game we always have a routine that we go through and it’s just so much fun, especially cheering at the football game and having that routine because i look forward to that at the end of the week.”

Another group who benefits from the bye week is the band, with no game all week, they can take more time working on their show, The Awakening.

“We go to the turf field a lot,” junior band member Brelyn Bashrum said. “We just practice really hard and we work on our form, for front ensemble we work on our performance and just reaching out to the audience.”

Although the excitement of the game is something many students look forward to, for others it can be nice to finally get to relax.

“Honestly it’s a little bit of a relief,” Bashrum said. “I have lots of projects but the games are always super super fun to go to and they are usually the highlight of a Friday.”