Apalachee High School field becomes symbol of resilience in the first home football game since the shooting

Nearly a month after the year’s deadliest mass shooting students, parents and community members at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, returned to the field where students evacuated following the tragic shooting.

The Friday night football game at Apalachee High School began as it usually would with a cheering crowd and national anthem performance – but this game was punctured by a moment of silence that weighed heavy on the community after the violence that took place at the campus one month ago. Football players huddled at the line of scrimmage on the same field where frightened students cried and embraced their parents after being evacuated from their school on September 4, when a student opened fire at Apalachee High School and left two of their teachers and two classmates dead. That football field transformed from a scene of tragedy to a symbol of resilience Friday as the community packed the bleachers to watch the survivors play. Fans wearing “Chee Strong” T-shirts flooded onto the bleachers and cheerleaders chanted “Apalachee! Apalachee!” “Tonight is us reclaiming this field and reclaiming this stadium and celebrating each other and this community and these athletes and these performers,” Apalachee High School principal Jessica Rehberg told CNN at the game. Still, a beloved fixture of Apalachee football wasn’t there: Assistant football coach Richard Aspinwall, who was killed in the shooting. Players honored Aspinwall with a special sticker on their helmets, while coaches, students and community members donned Apalachee’s blue and gold on Friday as they rallied behind the Wildcats in their first home football game since the tragic mass shooting sent shockwaves through the small community of Winder, Georgia, just weeks into the academic year.