Twenty-five years later, we remember.

Whitehall High School held a moment of silence and tributes to honor the victims, first responders and families affected by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, before the start of the WHS Sept. 11 football game against Northampton Area High School Konkrete Kids. Game announcers shared a brief history of the event over the loudspeaker to educate younger players and fans who were born after 2001.

Sept. 11 is history to each high school football player who took the field during the game; they were not alive in 2001. Many of the coaches were just children themselves. That’s why remembering matters.

Twenty-five years ago, Americans woke up Sept. 11 believing it would be another ordinary day. By the end of the day, nothing was ordinary anymore. It became one of the darkest days in the nation’s history.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., and aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in a field near Shanksville.

Twenty-five years later, high school football remembers those who lost their lives on that day, their families, the first responders who ran toward danger and the countless people whose lives were forever changed.