One man’s explanation of why to go see high school football

[MarkECannon]

Found this on another site. This article is an example of why I still enjoy going to high school football games.

Maybe the last bastion of true America! — Ron Glodich

I have rarely sat in the stands of a high school football game in the last 35 years of my life and career, but on this night, I wanted to experience this high school football in its purest form. Kathy and I sat several rows up on the 40-yard line as Coach Bob took his traditional spot on the fence l

www.ronglodich.com

 

[Silver King]

Very nice article. Yes, I find myself going back because its a familiar place, where my sons and I played. Where we sat in the stands with Governor Bush - who promised to come watch a game (The District Title against Port Charlotte) watching our oldest. Or when they honored my wife and their mother on the first ever Breast cancer Awareness night - our youngest wearing the first pair of pink gloves we'd ever seen (He wrote "Mom" on them - ordered by a booster just for him . He caught a dart at the back of the endzone keeping a foot in for the first score against a very tough Palmetto Team wearing them and we won the District Title. And the next year Alex Mut wearing his "Mom" gloves, and Mike Bellamy and a succession of players after that with new ones, but still marked "mom." It's been a comfortable constant in my life during my early years and latter years.

 

[TheCatCoachesMissesMe]

Great Article. There is NOTHING IMHO like High School Football when you sit back and compare it to other levels. I remember years ago here in Hardee everybody was at the games and nobody was home. The stadium was packed and whenever Desoto county came into town the NORTH fence line didn't even have standing room. If professional burglars only knew this they would have gotten rich during football season in Hardee.

 

[gatorman001]

In a small town where traditional small town values and home town pride still exist, most of what was wriiten still remains true. But in the areas where most of us live and attend games, HS football is now more about this years incoming talent pool of transfers, than the outstanding group of freshman, that the town's fans have watched mature into something special by their senior year to tease the town population from the enternal spring of hope for a special football season!

High School football has become what neutral predicted and ranted about before he dispeared, like the street evangelist preaching in the image of Johnathan Edwards "Sinners in the hands of a angry God" from a street corner to any that would listen...........typically the most he ever got was the strange look by the random passerby, wondering from where the preacher continues to find the energy for only the ocassional listener? But now almost like Job 3:25-26, I can in my mind hear Neutral maybe also saying because of what has happen to HS football, just like Job "For the thing which I greatly fear comes upon me, And that of which I am afraid has come upon me. “I am not at ease, nor am I quiet, And I am not at rest, and yet trouble still comes [upon me].”

For me particularly before I left Georgia, if I attennd a HS football game it was small town football. Jefferson vs Commerce, Athens Academy vs Hawkinsville or Elberton vs Madison Co to name just a few........ because in those games and small town settings, you could still find a atmosphere reminicent of a by gone era. Like Silver I cling tightly to the lasting impressions and memories of games and friends and family you shared those moments with. To me at this point of my life, I can only smile about what I once wittnessed or was fortunate enough to be part of, with regards to HS football.....because its gone and never coming back!

I recall the passing of one of Silver's friends from college a RB, and the story he told about reminicing about clearing a hole for his friend on the football field and the lasting memories he had of those moments. He posted a pic as I recalled, I remember him posting pics of his boys in pink, to honor their mom in her struggles with cancer. Those pictures whether illustrated in a photo or provided via mental imagery by the written word, caused me to go back to the last few lines of a Rod Stewart song