Football ran plays in the main gym. Field hockey played its games surrounded by armed soldiers at Fort Belvoir.

We basically cancelled most of Homecoming that year.

Ten years ago, DC-area residents, including those at 6100 Rolling Road, were afraid to go outside. For three weeks, two men with a beat-up old car and a sniper’s rifle terrorized us.

It has been a whole decade since John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo launched an attack on 13 people randomly, killing 10 of them. From October 2, 2002 until WS’s Homecoming weekend, people huddled behind tarps to pump their gas; elementary schools cancelled recess and friends were afraid to hang out at the tables outside the Starbucks on Old Keene Mill Road.

“I remember we had to have indoor recess because we weren’t allowed to go outside,” said junior Anna Scolese. “During the shootings, I was scared and I felt my safety was being taken away.”

With fall sports in season, all teams moved inside to practice and games were often played in far-off locations such as Richmond and the Shenandoah Valley. Only players, coaches and family members knew the location of the field because it was too much of a risk releasing such information. And if the Spartans took home a win, there were no fans to cheer them on. The stands remained empty, desolate with the lack of Spartan cheers. The Homecoming game took place at a high school near Harrisonburg.

“We were not excited as a football team,” said Marshal Ausberry, a senior that year who was a football captain. “That lack of enthusiasm almost caused us to lose the game. It was played on a Saturday, so after the game we had to drive home and get ready for the dance.”

Since the snipers were on the loose, drivers did become paranoid when filling up their gas tanks or when a white van drove by.

“At the gas station you would be looking around, behind your back, checking if anyone was by you,” said Safety & Security Assistant Mark Travis.

The snipers selected random targets throughout the region, killing a woman sitting on a bench at a Maryland shopping center; an elderly man crossing the street in DC, and several at gas stations in Northern Virginia.

Teenagers will always be teenagers, however, and for some younger Spartans, the fear didn’t register until police captured the snipers.

“We took zero precautions,” said Joann Cassano France, who was a sophomore back then. “I don’t think a lot of students really took it seriously, saw any threat, or really understood what was happening.”

On October 24, after 22 days, 13 shootings and 10 dead, Muhammad and Malvo were finally arrested. Their capture coincided with the crowning of our Homecoming queen, which was relocated to the gym.

After the arrests, activities resumed back outside and everything went back to normal. Muhammad was later executed by lethal injection. His accomplice, Malvo, was 17 at the time and received life in prison. He has since expressed remorse for his actions.

“Overall, I remember how short and precious life can be, and the importance of taking advantage of each day that you are given,” Ausberry said.