Friday, September 9, 2011 was the kickoff for WAVY-TV’s  Friday Night Flights.

It was the first week of school so students, teachers and staff were still getting settled in. That made it a little difficult to try to find quirky stories to do when I visited the schools. Another difficulty, Chopper 10 had a technical failure that caused it to stay grounded after Bruce Rader’s 6pm liveshot from Darling Stadium in Hampton with the Phoebus High School marching band. No worries… it took longer to visit our schools, but we were determined to check out the action so photojournalist Chris Omahen and I  hopped in the car and headed to Bayside High School in Virginia Beach.

The Marlins were on my list last year when I did FNF and again, they had a red out. Students showed their school spirit by wearing the team color and I got a hug from their mascot, The Marlin!

Nicole with the Bayside Marlin mascot

They played Green Run.

Second stop, my alma mater, Kempsville. Although it’s been a while since I was a student there, the stadium hasn’t changed much. Felt like yesterday walking into the game.

Although, when I was a student at KHS, I was in a band uniform with the Kempsville Marching Chiefs! I saw one of my classmates at the game with his daughter. Everyone treated me like family. It’s always good to go back.

Kempsville took on Princess Anne. The cheerleaders helped me toss those blue WAVY/FNF footballs into the stands.

They also showed me and gave me a pin the staff was wearing to commemorate the upcoming 10 year anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

It says “Never Forget 9-11-2001″.

From there, we left Virginia Beach and headed to Chesapeake.

Oscar Smith hosted rival Great Bridge.

The band got everyone amped up. I actually ran into my Biology teacher from Kempsville, Mr. Baine,  at the Smith game.

His wife is a longtime teacher there.

It was a beautiful night and even though our “chariot” was grounded, we made it back just in the nick of time to pull our segments together for Friday Night Flights.

If you’re hanging out at high school football games this season, take some pictures and send them to us to Reportit@wavy.com.  We’ll put them together in a slideshow. I was posting pix on Facebook and Twitter during the evening.

It’s always fun- especially when I get to go back to my school and run into old friends and meet new ones!  Keep watching. You’ll see other WAVY personalities head to games all season long and bring you stories from various schools. Check out our schedule here.