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| All smiles -- or sonrisas -- as the teams gathered for a post-game photo. |
Or, when the exhibition match is between teams from different countries, "international friendlies."
Saturday night on California's North Coast, at the picturesque Redwood Bowl on the campus of Humboldt State University, nearly 4,000 fans (including myself) witnessed a rare international friendly on the college gridiron as the homestanding Lumberjacks played host to CETYS Universidad of Mexico.
While some CETYS teams have crossed their northern border on occasion to engage Division II opponents in other sports in recent years, this was a first for the football team.
The matchup was a result of serious interest being shown on the part of CETYS in exploring NCAA Division II membership. Arranged this past off-season, the Humboldt-CETYS game took on added significance after the NCAA's Board of Governors approved a policy this spring allowing each division to grant membership to institutions in Mexico and Canada. (Each division still must pass legislation allowing membership to institutions in those countries -- something Division II will put to a vote at the NCAA Convention in Indianapolis in January).
A technical university with three campus locations (Tijuana, Mexicali and Ensenada), CETYS sponsors a host of sports in addition to football, including soccer, volleyball, basketball, track and field, and baseball.
Saturday's game in the Redwood Bowl was a terrific cross-cultural meeting bridged by a series of hashmarks. The event featured a pre-game coin flip by CETYS president Dr. Fernando Leon Garcia, public address announcing in Spanish, and genuine sportsmanship on both sides of the field.
The most impressive moment of the night?
That's when the two squads, unprompted, joined at midfield for a celebratory group photo shortly after the final horn.
It was truly a case of one picture being worth more than a thousand sonrisas.
