Okay, so the other day, I was trying to plan my Friday night, and I really wanted to catch a local high school football game. But then I hit a snag – I had no idea how long these games actually are! I mean, I’ve been to NFL games, and those things can drag on forever with all the commercials and stuff. So, I started digging around to figure out how long a high school football game lasts.
Figuring Out the Game Time
First, I needed to know the actual playtime.
- Turns out, high school games have four quarters, each lasting 12 minutes. Simple enough, right? That’s 48 minutes of game time.
But, obviously, it is much longer than 48minutes.
All Those Other Time Factors!
So I started listing out all the stuff that adds time to the clock:
- Timeouts: Each team gets a few of these per half, and they can stop the clock for a minute or two.
- Injuries: Sadly, these happen, and they can definitely delay the game while players get checked out.
- Penalties: The refs have to sort things out, explain the penalty, and move the ball – all that takes time.
- Incomplete passes: I noticed the clock often stops when a pass isn’t caught.
- Half time: It must exist and should be a long time.
I try to find the average halftime, 20minutes is reasonable.
Putting It All Together
With all this in mind, I figured a typical high school game probably runs longer than I initially thought. It’s not just the 48 minutes of playtime; there are a ton of interruptions. Most people online said to expect somewhere around 2 to 2.5 hours for the whole thing. Some folks even mentioned that if there are a lot of penalties or a close score, it could stretch closer to 3 hours!
So, armed with this new knowledge, I planned my Friday night accordingly. I made sure to block out a good chunk of time, and it turned out to be a smart move. The game I went to had a couple of injuries and a bunch of penalties, so it definitely went over the 2-hour mark. Good thing I didn’t have any tight deadlines afterward!
