I love this time of year. Not just because the weather usually starts to cool off, and I can start planning my fall television viewing schedule. I love this time of year because it’s football season.
Now this isn’t the kind of mania which results in viewing and dissection of NFL pre-season games or arguments over who should be ranked where in the college football polls. I find both of those exercises pointless.
That doesn’t mean I’m not excited to root for the Ravens or Penn State. I plan on wasting a lot of Saturday and Sunday afternoons following both teams, but I have something else in store which excites me even more.
I’m covering high school football again for The York Daily Record/Sunday News. This might not sound like earth-shattering news or have some great effect on most people, but it’s something which really gets me jazzed. I’m not afraid to say I love high school football.
Sure, the money I make covering games helps, but I’m not running out to cover a bunch of other sports each week just for the money. I do this in my spare time so my interest in the sport makes a tremendous difference.
Football gets a nod because it’s a pretty regimented activity. The games happen at pretty much the same time every week (with the exception of a few schools who play Saturdays). I have a system which works well for me as far as keeping the statistics I need. To top it all off, I have run into few, if any, coaches in York and Adams county who make me second-guess my decision to give up my Friday nights to cover games, and I like the people at the paper I freelance for.
Maybe all of this works because I didn’t have a “Friday Night Lights” experience in high school. I went to an all-boys Jesuit school which played its games on Friday or Saturday afternoons. There was some social element, but nothing like Friday nights in Pennsylvania.
I can’t help feeding off the energy at most games. I don’t necessarily root for or against anyone, but I find myself really invested in hoping that everyone just does the best they can. If that happens, there’s nothing like talking to a teenager who has just done something spectacular in front of a big crowd.
That’s why I’ll give up pretty much all my Friday nights this fall (and a few Saturdays). Plus I get to go into a newsroom (the place in this world where I feel most comfortable) and feel that energy, but that attraction is a different topic for a different day.