The Turkey Bowl is a huge tradition here at Rio Norte. It has been around since the first year of school, 2003. We have cheerleading, football, and much more. The Turkey Bowl is a football fight between teams red and blue and is exclusive for 8th graders only. Team Blue is 8th graders in-house Yeti, Sphinx, Gnome, and Phoenix. Team Red is 8th graders in house Kraken, Dragon, Pegasus, and Griffin. The game takes place on Friday the 19th right after lunch. On this specific school day, we also have a very different schedule. The first through the third period is before brunch,  Fourth through the sixth period takes place after brunch all the way to lunch. We will still get out of school at 2 o’clock that day. Before we dive further into detail let’s interview some coaches.

Coach Burleson said “I think the Red team has a chance to win if they play hard on defense and execute the plays on offense. The closest game I ever coached was about fifteen years ago when the game ended in a tie.  It was a little controversial but a fun game to be a part of.  The Blue team has some really good players and a great coach, Mr. Stroh.   Looking forward to another great Turkey Bowl this year.”

Coach Stroh said “I am coaching the Blue team.  The Red team looks pretty good, but we are hoping to give them a good competitive game. I hope the game will be close!”

The rules are 8 vs. 8.  The quarterback may not run with the ball, but they can pass, hand it off or toss it to a teammate.  “For safety reasons, there is no running the ball up the middle of the field.” Says one of the officials.  Each team is allowed to have two players on defense that rush the passer, try and take away his flags. The game is about 50 minutes long excluding the halftime show. The cheerleaders perform during halftime with the “cotton eye joe dance”, which has been a school tradition for several years.

The rally is during advisory on the day of the Turkey Bowl, This is when we get introduced to the players, coaches, and staff. This is also when cheer prepares the students for the game. Game time is right after lunch. Cheer will come down to the game with their advisory classes, along with other 8th-grade advisory classes. “The cheer team works very hard every day at lunch during November to prepare for the rally”, says one of the cheer coaches Mrs. Carrizales. Cheer usually wears their PE shorts and the Turkey Bowl shirt that is provided. There is always a cheer team as long as there is a football team too, luckily Rio has always had perfect attendance for the cheer and football team. 

The staff tries to get all the players in the game and not play more than two players both ways. One of our interviewers asked, “Have you ever had to cancel a game because of attendance or weather?”  “We have always had enough players to have a Turkey bowl and thankfully we have never had to cancel a game.” says coach Stroh. Thankfully this year we will continue to have perfect attendance for the turkey bowl.  The winning team gets to hold up the Turkey bowl trophy and carry it up to the locker room. The best player on each team gets a game ball.

With the final score of 34-28 blue team won as the “under dogs” says 8th grader Evey Galindo. “ I really thought the red team would win,” says 8th grader Kailee Howard. So, it appears that most thought red would win, They didn’t. 8th grader Alyssa Owens said “ I really thought we were going to lose”

With the final score of 34-28 blue team won as the “underdogs” says 8th grader Evey Galindo. “ I really thought the red team would win,” says 8th grader Kailee Howard. So, it appears that most thought red would win, They didn’t. 8th grader Alyssa Owens said “ I really thought we were going to lose”

The Turkey Bowl has always been an exciting event in the history of Rio Norte Junior High and always will be!