On the Huygens football field that Saturday afternoon, Huygens vs the Pacific Ocean Conservatory of Music began with a drumline battle challenge issued by Pac Ocean. Coach Sebo was confident that since Huygens had no professional drummers, their team would have to forfeit the homefield band advantage of first band on the field.
However, Coach Sebo was unaware that not only could Damian play the bass drum, but also, he had an unusually large bass drum at his family home, across the Bay in Oakland. On the side of that drum, with poster paint from her school art classroom, Damian's sister painted the Huygens logo -- Fairchild Semiconductor's first integrated circuit chip that featured four transistors on a single silicon wafer. His Mother drove the drum across the Bay to Huygens
Pounding on the big bass, in full pads, Damian marched onto the field. He was accompanied by Left Defensive Tackle, Noah Bailey Jones, playing a 4-drum marching tenor set, while O-Line tackles, Jamaar and Kyrone, and Tight End Bakersfield-bred Caesar Jose Ortega pounded mercilessly on marching snare drums, and the sound of erratic drumming echoed across the field.
Although the Pac Ocean 12 Drummers Drumming drumline was declared the winner by self-appointed judge, Coach Sebo, it was the sound of Damian beating on the big bass drum that lingered on the field when Huygens won the toss and elected to receive.
With the intent of confusing the tough, wild, untutored Pac Ocean defense -- as well as developing offensive flexibility, Huygens was running a moderately multiple offense with complex plays and on the fly execution. It was not a system with which Griff would have challenged his team last year.
The kickof resulted in a Touchback. Huygens Offense and Pac Ocean's Defense were lined up on opposite sides of the line of scrimmage. River called a draw play.
Unconcerned with his team's limited repertoire of plays, and still basking in the success of the award winning drumline,. Coach Sebo looked with pleasure at his punk band-sourced O-line.