Rain and sun and rain and sun and rain and sun. Along with plenty of wind.
As George Washington High hosted Northeast on Friday in what became a Public AAAA Gold football all-timer, observers almost expected referee Ernie Gallagher to be replaced by "Hurricane" Schwartz.
At one point, with the skies becoming incredibly dark, star Northeast running back Marquis Edwards, unavailable due to injury, shook his head and muttered, "It looks like the world's about to end up in here."
A nearby Viking added, "Or we're gettin' Hurricane Katrina."
Soon, after 77 points and 961 yards (with 585 from scrimmage and 376 on returns - that breakdown was 188 apiece) had been posted, and after three guys had been ejected, and well after a first-quarter, three-touchdown outburst in 27 seconds had titilated the onlookers, Washington wasted away the final seconds with kneeldowns and a 49-28 victory.
And there it was, in all its multi-colored glory, fully visible in a perfect arc, straddling the east end of the stadium.
A rainbow.
"That was awesome. Couldn't believe it. After all that, a rainbow?" Hakeem Sillman said. "That was God, telling us to keep going."
Or perhaps the message was personal, directly only to Sillman. One could say the 5-8, 190-pound senior, a tailback and cornerback, has visited that four-letter place where it gets really hot.
Due to what a District 12 committee ruled indeed were serious family issues, Sillman was granted eligibilty for the 2011 season even though he rarely attended school once the 2010 campaign concluded and, according to many, disappeared from Washington's classrooms come February.
"We examined everything thoroughly," Robert Coleman, the D-12 chairman, said in early September. "The documentation provided by the family was legit. This young man went through a lot."
There are doubters, of course. And those who wonder whether Sillman will vanish once this season concludes.
Won't happen, he insists.
"I know what football can do for me," Sillman said. "If I didn't care about schoolwork, I wouldn't have done all that work in summer school [at Northeast Prep, where he said he earned two As and a B] to get back my eligibility.
