Tuesday, August 04, 2009

GOODBYE SUMMER, - REPOST

I originally posted this in 2006, just as true now as ever.

I am so not ready for high school football. I love the game. Football truly is the greatest thing to happen to the fall since the hayride. I just hate the first week of the season. It’s the mad dash to get everything finished. The commercials, the audio, everything. It’s like tax season for the tax evader. Okay maybe.

I think I know why it just bugs me. Every August 13, I am hit with a sobering fact. I am not 22 and this cocky, brash, goofy college student matriculating in Huntington County.. I am a brash, goofy, flippant, sometimes ingenious sportscaster. It’s the idea that my misspent youth is slipping further into the cobwebs of my mind. It is pretty dusty there.

August is the last gasp of summer defending its turf. Pack up the shorts and the lemonade, soon it will be hot chocolate and long johns. Can Geritol and Metamucil be that far behind. Speaking of behind, there’s that visit to the doctor in a few years for that one check up… Oh boy. Don’t remind me.


But, there is something great about football in the fall. It’s reminder that you can not only endure the cold and bitter, you can thrive on it. You can dig deep and wrap your arms around it and you can let it define you. It does define you it grabs you. It says with the help of my friends I can get through. It says I am not in it alone… with a little bit of work even the high-tech game of football is simple and understandable in the context of all its parts.

And those parts are like life. You have to have every one of them, you have to have each one in combination together or you’ll get crushed. You’ll lose out. My friend, look at your life, look at its component parts. Are you neglecting anything? Think about it and really answer what am I missing. What can I do to really re-tool and reinvest myself for the rest of my life?

There was a motto from the football coach at my high school, we’ll actually too. The opportunistic Woodlan Warriors operated under the rallying cry of “Make it Happen.” You had to take responsibility. You had to define the moment. You had to make life your own. And there was another saying that coach would say. “Don’t count the days, make the days count. Pretty simple. Fill your moments with hard work and effort and get after it.

So, bring on football. Bring on the fall. I don’t have to love it, but I can enjoy it.





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