WOO HOO!

Goin' to the playoffs....goin' to the playoffs.....

Last night was a special night for CUHS, as our much beleaguered football program took a major step last night, defeating the Coffeyvill Golden Tornadoes 31-6 to win the 4A District 1 championship. We host Fort Scott next Tuesday at 7 pm.

I love football. I love high school, college, and the NFL. I love to watch it, play it (flag, of course),talk about it, and play football videogames.

This is all very interesting because I didn't play football in high school. Back then I was a 6'4" 160 pound beanpole with asthma, bad feet, and an unbelievable lack of balance. I grew six inches in just over 6 months, and it took me (seriously) until I was 20 before regained control of my body. It was awful.

Not to mention I had a tremendous lack of footspeed. In fact, if you were to judge my speed based on comparing me to a member of the animal kingdom, my label would no doubt be "arthritic sloth."

But in my high school days Riverton was a football power, based primarily on the running prowess of Andy Ball. We were state champs in 3A my junior year, and state runner-ups in 4A my senior year against the defending 4A champ Scott City (Boo Beavers!) To my knowledge that kind of matchup has occured only twice, the other being 2A power Colgan versus the defending 3A champion Smith Center last year in 2A (Smith Center prevailed.)

When the football team did good, the entire school and town rallied together to encourage the team.

This is something I have not witnessed at Columbus. I think there are many reasons for this.

1. It is hard to get psycho pumped (community-wise) for teams that were getting drilled 56-0 week in and week out. Expectations were always super low (or non-existent) and ergo enthusiasm was not that great. Pep rallies were always wretched.....the optimist in me wants to say that the team's ability shouldn't matter, school spirit should always be there....but the realist in me asks, when was the last time you ever saw people getting pumped over the Arizona Cardinals NFL team? They've sucked for years, and they get little attention from the national media (and not much more from the locals.) There HAS to be some good product on the field, and now we have good product. The turnout at Tuesday's game will be tremendous.

2. We have a blistering division between the band and the athletes. The crowd feeds off the band- to me, hearing a high school drum cadence IS high school football. But the athletes don't care for the band here, and the band mostly don't care for the athletes, creating two separate distinct, self-absorbed entities. There is an unexplainable chasm there that most other school districts don't have. We need to find a way to alleviate that flaw.

3. We have a large number of the student body who show zero interest in athletic activities/events (or much of anything, for that matter.) When I was in school EVERYONE went to the games, the parades, all of it. (Lord, does that date me or WHAT? I sound like an old codger...everything was better in the good old days that a. weren't that good and b. didn't exist.) This may be partially caused by the fact that a larger number of students are working more than ever, which is a shame. Every day I deal with students complaining about having to work so much. Some of them work because they are emancipated and financially responsible to their families or selves. Most, however, are working to pay insurance for their ridiculously over-priced vehicles that they think they need but really don't. Too many kids waste their high school years working. They'll be working the rest of their lives. Why work now? I didn't work in high school. I had no money, no car (and no clue). But I was involved in everything and had a wonderful time. Too many kids walk around here dead tired from working too late or getting up too early to unload the trucks at their workplace- not a good way to learn and not a good way to go through life.

Wait, wasn't this about football?

Yeah.

GO TITANS!