In response to the later school start this year, RHS held a tailgate for its opening home game against Seneca Valley HS Sept. 1.

“This is the first time we are having [the tailgate] in a long time. Yes, we are very excited about it,” athletic director Michael Hayes said.

Due to Governor Larry Hogan’s mandate to begin school after Labor Day, the opening game was scheduled to take place before students’ first day of school Sept. 5. In preparation for the game, the athletic department coordinated volunteers and businesses to hold a tailgate with free admission outside the stadium.

“I heard about the tailgate and I wanted to play corn hole with my friends, and I haven’t seen them in a while, so I wanted to hang out with them,” senior Andrew Axelsson said.

Around 5:30 p.m. students began to show up for the tailgate, which featured free ice cream and corn hole, as well as free Rockville football shirts for the first 100 RHS students to arrive to the game. The department distributed the shirts to hype students to come to the game despite the irregular game schedule, athletic director Michael Hayes said.

“Because of the change in calendar schedule this year we didn’t have school on our first game day and we thought we’d bring some excitement to our first game seeing that we didn’t get to have a pep rally today and the kids aren’t back in school,” Hayes said.

While the early tailgate attracted many students, others were not able to participate because of the timing of the game and the calendar.

“I wouldn’t have gone because the time was inconvenient based on the labor day weekend that was following,” senior Angelique Wong said.