East Limestone senior Clay Ebersold thought he should do something big for the long-awaited football game against Athens High, so he shaved his head Mohawk style.

“It only happens once, so I thought I’d do something a little crazy, ” said the blonde junior.

That meant his friend, Clifton Stephens, had to shave his head Mohawk style, too.

“I told him I would do it if he did it,” said Stephens, also a junior. “I didn’t think he’d do it.”

Unlike Ebersold, whose head was shaved except for one strip down the middle, Stephens left two strips,

“It’s a landing stop for dumb airlines,” he joked.

(He’s not as funny as he looked.)

Stephens called his haircut a “skullet,” apparently hoping it might set a trend like the infamous mullet – short hair in front, long hair in back.

The East Limestone fans were among hundreds of fans from both teams who arrived at Athens High Stadium three hours before the 7 p.m. game for a tailgating party. Tailgating is an exercise in which people come early to a football game, park in a group, to grill food and gear up for the upcoming game. It is usually reserved for college games, but the meeting of Athens High and East Limestone is a first in history, thus making it an occasion suitable for tailgating, body painting, and hollering and general public frolic.

At the Athens High camp, male students laid on the ground while cheerleaders painted their bare chests – first with black paint and then with yellow.

One student was talking on his cellular telephone as he lay on the ground. The cheerleaders, Kelsey McDonough and Maggie Daly, had to wait for him to get off the phone before they could paint him.

Athens High senior Trey Hughes knew what all the commotion was about.

“It’s a new rivalry and just because of who it is (meaning East Limestone),” he said.

He already knew who was going to win.

“A-town.”

The red guys at the other camp begged to differ.

“Were going to win because we are the underdogs,” said one East Limestone fan.

“I think East has a fairly good chance,” said senior Brett Bollar.

As the crowd started moving into the stadium, a tiny fan walked by, her T-shirt read: Beat Athens.