On Sept. 14, 2001, they played high school football in Iowa

CEDAR RAPIDS -- There were tears and candles. There were American flags everywhere.

There was unity. And there was football.

A day after terrorists hijacked planes and flew them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, the Iowa High School Athletic Association made a decision.

The football games would go on.

"It was emotional for us like everyone else," said Alan Beste, IHSAA assistant director. "On one hand, we wondered out of respect if we should have these games. But what won out was that as a nation, we needed to get back on track. 

"We were not going to let the terrorists have the power that they thought they would."

So, on Sept. 12 -- the day after the attacks and two days before the third Friday of the Iowa high school football season -- then-IHSAA executive director Bernie Saggau encouraged schools to play, though the IHSAA deferred final decisions to each school's board of education.

Saggau's statement:

"The (IHSAA) encourages schools to consider proceeding with their games and activities ... The Association feels it is important to send a message to our students and communities that there is a need to return to some stage of normalcy.

"Whether we play or do not play is not the issue. A high school event provides a positive environment for our young people."

That weekend's Iowa-Iowa State game was not played -- it was postponed to the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

But only 12 high school games throughout the state were not played that Friday. Nearly every contest held ceremonies to honor the victims.

Before a Mississippi Valley Conference game at Kingston Stadium, players from Iowa City High and Cedar Rapids Washington stood on the field while cheerleaders held hands in a circle around a candlelight ceremony.

Members of the Washington choir sang "America the Beautiful" and "God Bless America" before a moment of silence, then everyone sang the national anthem.

"The thing that stands out to me, they had both teams out there together," said City High Coach Dan Sabers, who was in his first season as the head coach in 2001. "I still remember thinking to myself, 'Something good is coming out of this.' People were getting back to refocusing."

It was that way everywhere.

Fans at Wellman held candles and lighters during the anthem. At Marengo, taps were played, and players from Iowa Valley and West Branch wore American flag stickers on their helmets.

At many fields, donations were taken for the American Red Cross.

Cedar Rapids Xavier hosted Cedar Rapids Prairie that Friday. Like Sabers, Xavier Coach Duane Schulte firmly believes that the decision to play was the correct one.

"Life goes on," Schulte said. "We didn't want to let the terrorists dictate how we were going to live our lives. We just kept going.

"Our guys grew up a lot that year. They understood the importance of patriotism."

(Here is Mike Hlas' column after covering a game at Cascade the Friday after September 11.)

(Here is a montage of tributes from around the area's games on KCRG's Friday Night Lights from Sept. 14, 2001, courtesy 

kcrg.com)