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Nov 103 min read

Friday Night Lights 2024

By Jonah Casel ‘27 (Reporter)

Friday Night Lights, also known as Pink Out, is an annual tradition at Friends’ Central School. Students show out, wearing all pink, to cheer on their friends and classmates in various athletic games during an evening filled with food, music, and all-around fun. This year, Friday Night Lights was on October 18, and all five teams that played lived up to the hype.

The excitement began just before 4:00 pm on the Lower Lankenau Field with the junior varsity boys soccer team facing off against George School. JV soccer as a whole felt that this game was one of their most important. If they were able to come up with the win, they would be the second seed in the JV tournament the following Monday. The team’s leading goal scorer, Griffin Barrett ‘27, said, “The JV vibes are so high right now. It’s unmatched. There’s nothing like it.” It was a tough match throughout, but Friends’ Central was able to come away with a 2-1 victory.






The following team to play, varsity girls field hockey, was back on the Friends’ Central campus against Academy Park High School. Friends’ Central had a strong game overall, spending the majority of the game on their opponents’ side of the field. The team had a very strong 3-1 victory with their fellow students cheering them on, continuing Friends’ Central’s winning streak on Friday Night Lights. In their second-to-last regular season game, the field hockey team secured a phenomenal win. Regarding the win, one of Friends’ Central’s three goal scorers, Avery Tessler ‘27, said, “It was a big team effort,” and she rated the atmosphere of Friday Night Lights a ten out of ten. 



Next was the varsity girls tennis match against George School. FCS came into Friday Night Lights with an incredible 9-1 record and were highly favored to win. George School proved to be no match for the Phoenix. The first three sets were all FCS victories, securing the FCS win before George School even had a chance to respond. Charlotte Hull ‘25, who had her senior night with the tennis team at Friday Night Lights, shared, “The vibes were just higher than usual. Everyone was pumped up.” The extra motivation for Friends’ Central propelled them to this exciting 3-2 win for their final regular season game.



Varsity girls soccer was the first varsity soccer team to play on Friday Night Lights, and as the sun went down, the scores went up. Friends’ Central dominated the entire game and came away with a fantastic 9-0 win over Academy Park High School. Describing the atmosphere of the blowout performance, Cherry Levy ‘27, one of the players, said, “Everyone was cheering … I like having the bigger crowd and all the pink. It’s just a really nice energy.” By the second half of the game, the tennis, field hockey, and JV soccer games had concluded, so all of the spectators collected at the track field to show their support. The game ended up being the girls soccer team’s biggest win of the season.



The evening culminated in the boys varsity soccer game, which began at 7:00 pm, fully under the lights and the night sky. The crowd was ready to cheer, and the athletes were ready to play. At halftime, the score was still 0-0, and the spectators could feel the tension and the excitement from the stands. During halftime, Upper School Principal Lee Payton spoke about the game and the event as a whole, saying, “The game is going pretty well, we’ve crushed on all the matches so far. It’s a great atmosphere.” He predicted that Friends’ Central would be able to win the game by one goal.

As the game resumed, Friends’ Central quickly proved the prediction anemic, scoring three unanswered goals to close out the game, one goal from Mico Carpiniello ‘25 and two goals from Charlie Sorg ‘26. After each goal, the team rushed to the bleachers to cheer along with their friends and fellow students. One of the players, Shane Heinzenknecht ‘27, reflected on what it meant to play under the lights: “I think it really gave us inspiration to play our absolute best, and I think we went out today and played the absolute best we could.” He rated the event’s atmosphere a ten out of ten, elaborating, “It was super awesome, the fans were really hyping us up, and I loved how they chanted all game.” With this last game of the night, FCS achieved a perfect record across all of the Friday Night Lights games. The event, overall, was a great success and remains an incredible tradition each fall season at Friends’ Central School.



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