By BLAIR DEDRICK ORTMANN
Posted: July 29, 2008, 11:24 PM CDT
Last updated: July 30, 2008, 7:47 AM CDT
PORT NECHES – The prize for Michael Campise and other die-hard Indian fans would be season tickets exactly where they want them in the Reservation.
“I’ll spend two or three nights, and I may not get anything, but I’m going to try,” Campise said of the six Port Neches-Groves football tickets he hopes to buy when the 1,421 available tickets go on sale today at 8 a.m. to the general public.
Campise, standing in for a friend, and at least 40 other devout Indian fans arrived between Sunday and Monday at the district’s administration building to be first in line for Tuesday’s trade day, when season ticket holders are allowed to exchange their seats for others not yet claimed. He and several others were in line again Tuesday afternoon to buy more tickets.
Forming a fast friendship, Campise, who retired from the Army in 2002, and others said they passed the nights with movies, card games and trips to the portable toilet one man brought Monday mounted on the back of a trailer.
“I don’t know how they did it,” said PN-G Superintendent Lani Randall. “I’ve been running in and out all day long and I’m exhausted; it’s so hot.”
Randall attributed the strong showing to perseverance and pride in the school system and team.
“There have been people we’ve talked to who had tickets for over 20 years,” she said. “It’s been decades of support for the school system – people even come from out of state, they’re excited about the band, the Indianettes, the twirlers, it’s not just one sport, it’s a multi-sport support system.”
The number of available tickets is higher this year because of PN-G’s recent stadium renovations, which district officials hope will be completed by the first home game Oct. 10 against Livingston.
After a $10 million bond-funded overhaul, the stadium will seat more than 12,300 people, about 300 more than before the renovations, according to district information.
Earlier this month, district officials notified perennial season ticket holders where their seats were in the new stadium,
On Tuesday, many of those season ticket holders took the opportunity to move higher, lower, nearer the band or toward the 50-yard line.
“We’ve got perfect seats now, but my wife has arthritis, so we’re trying to get down lower,” said Bill Daniels of Groves, who took turns with his wife,
Deanie, standing in line from about 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The Daniels have had their tickets for about 35 years, and with granddaughter Chelsea Hammond of Port Neches cheering this year, they were happy to exchange their row 18 seats for row 3.
Dinker Wallace was first in line Tuesday after securing her premier spot Sunday evening. She exchanged her parents’ tickets for some in the new section just below the press box and was planning to spend the night again in order to get two or three more tickets right next to the others.
Eulene Werner, also at the administration building since Sunday and proudly declaring that she had worn purple since 1975, exchanged her season tickets for some near Wallace’s and was also planning to stay for just one more ticket.
“If you don’t wear purple and white, you ought to,” Werner said Monday evening.
Jackie Horton of Groves also wants a few more tickets to complement those she has had since 1988.
“There’s some of us not raised in PN-G, but our blood’s purple,” she said. “It only took one game.”
Horton told the story of a game during which it started pouring rain just minutes from the end.
“People would not leave,” she said. “That’s PN-G fans.”
Stacy Guidry, who moved to Groves in 2000, has four tickets that she’s owned since then. This is the first year she’ll be able to go and see one of her own children on the field.
Her daughter, a ninth-grader in the fall, plays in the band, which is why Guidry was standing in line Tuesday.
“I have tickets in the section next to the band, but I want to be closer,” she said. “When they started school here, we got tickets.”
Her son is 8, so Guidry figures she’ll hold onto her tickets at least until he’s through high school as well.
Unlike the long-timers, Katrina Randazzo of Groves was only in line for a few hours – but then, this was her first year to own season tickets.
“We bought general admission tickets last year,” she admitted. “We were going to camp out this year for tickets, and then my friend said he had these I could have.”
Randazzo’s mission at trade day tracked Guidry’s – Randazzo’s daughter also is in the band, so mom was trying to exchange two of her four tickets to get a little closer to that section.
