Relief in a Venice sports spectacle

VENICE - When the Venice High School Indians spill onto the field tonight from a smoke-filled inflatable tunnel for a football playoff game against the Cape Coral Seahawks, they will be greeted by about 8,000 roaring fans.

With foreclosures and job losses on everybody's mind, the Indians have provided a respite for a few hours on Friday nights.

Game attendance is up 15 percent, concession sales are double last year's, averaging about $4,000 a game, and by Wednesday, the school had sold $5,000 in tickets for tonight.

Despite the tough economic climate, nine local restaurants rotate in feeding the team for free before games and many more businesses advertise around the field and in programs.

The Touchdown Club will donate about $150,000 from its golf tournament and concessions to augment the budget for the athletic department, which had to trim its coaching staff because of school spending cuts.

"It's well above what we've done before," said John Mussone, the president of the booster club.

The night before games, the Mom's Club cooks a spread for the players to make sure they are ready for Friday's kickoff.

While Venice has a storied football history, with an undefeated 2000 state champion team looming large over tonight's game, the fan support and glitz this year has even impressed the "Royal Tribe."

"We go out and visit teams and bring more Venice fans than the locals," said 92-year-old Jack Dundas, who has attended nearly every practice and game since 1968.

Joined on the practice sidelines by 78-year old Gil Loeser, a former Indian coach, the two superfans can dissect the games and players of teams going back decades.

Tonight, Venice carries an undefeated season -- the fourth in its history -- and a star-powered junior quarterback headed to the University of Florida into a rematch with the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year.

Win or lose, the 2008 Indians have a few things on the last undefeated team: the freshman and junior varsity teams are also undefeated; they have appeared on regional TV with millions of viewers in 12 states; and while two players from the 2000 team went on to become Division 1 players, they did not attract the media drawn by Trey Burton.

"No one player makes the team," said Mussone, adding that Burton is the "extra piece" that made the season special.

The games are a spectacle beyond the field.

Fans not only pack the home side but also line up five or six deep along a fence separating the running track from the football field. Venice has also added a student section in the end zone. The stadium is a hive of activity, with concessionaire Frank Magers grilling hamburgers and tonight's special, pulled-pork sandwiches for $4.

Grade schoolers play out their dreams in touch games on the grassy area under the shadows of the stands; the school's marching band plays from its section on the far end of the stands and, not to miss, a couple guys in the end zone who are charged with firing off a canon every time Venice scores.

"Wherever we get," Mussone said, "we'll look back at it with a lot of pride. There are a lot of things to put in the record book."

Indian fans just hope they do not have to pull it out for a few more weeks.