Welcome to September. And September means football season is back.
I’ve been covering high school football for more than a quarter century. Yeah, I’m old.
There’s something about football season that gets every high school reporter fired up. Nothing against any of the other sports, but there’s nothing to match football season.
Why? Well, here are 10 good reasons why I love football season that go beyond whether you like the sport over other sports or not.
NO. 1, THE SEASON: Football season means it’s autumn. I know the almanac says it’s summer for another three weeks. But Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer and the start of autumn.
I love autumn. Maybe it’s because I grew up in Southern California, where we didn’t have autumn. You had two seasons in SoCal: summer, and not quite summer.
I love autumn. The cooler days, sweatshirt weather, the colors, the falling leaves. All of it.
Football and autumn go hand-in-hand, even though it won’t feel much like autumn on Friday when prep football opens up. The projected high Friday is 89 degrees, and it will be close to that at 5 p.m. when Evergreen opens the 2014 season at McKenzie Stadium against Eisenhower of Yakima.
NO. 2, THE SOUNDS: Football brings unique sounds of cheering crowds, cracking of pads and marching bands. I even love marching bands in early September when you’re not sure which country’s national anthem is being played. It’s all good.
NO. 3, THE SMELLS: It seems like at every high school football game, they are grilling something. At McKenzie, you walk right past the grill on the way to the press box. Hard not to stop. I also like the smell of the grass, at stadiums where they still have natural grass. Heck, there’s even something endearing about the smell of sweaty football players, as weird as that sounds.
NO. 4, THE FANS: Say what you want about football, but the games are events that bring people out like no other prep event. There have been years when the first game of the season would be played before school started. Those are some sorry crowds. But it works best when the first Friday of prep football caps the first week of school.
NO. 5, COMPANY OF COLLEAGUES: At many of the games we staff, The Columbian is the only media member in the press box. But it’s great when we can meet with other colleagues, like Ron Soanka and his posse providing play-by-play via internet radio. And Nick Voll and Fort Sports team will be broadcasting games live from Kiggins Bowl via cable access TV. It’s great talking football with all of them.
NO. 6, THE TRAFFIC: We’re not talking about the traffic on the road, like the kind you might see heading to Camas’ Doc Harris Stadium. We’re talking about internet traffic. Nothing engages readers online like prep football. Twitter, live chats, fans votes. It all explodes during football season.
NO. 7, THE FRENZY: We have a saying in the newspaper business: every Friday night during football season is election night in sports. Well, except we don’t get Friday Night Football pizza. Friday nights are crazy in our business. Some people might stress about that frenzy. Others feed off it. I consider myself among the latter.
NO. 8, THE VIEW: Sitting in the press box, you’re often treated to some great viewpoints in Clark County. My favorite are Doc Harris Stadium (hard to beat anything about The Doc), Columbia River High (not from the press box, because there’s not enough room for the press in the River press box. But the view from the grandstand of trees around Cougar Creek during the fall is great), and Ridgefield High. If you’ve never been to Ridgefield for a football game, treat yourself.
NO. 9, THE UNEXPECTED: Every football season, we get treated to something that we haven’t seen before. I can’t wait what surprises await us this season.
NO. 10, THE DEBATE: Everyone has an opinion during football season. My team is better than your team. You’re an idiot for picking against my team. Come to think of it, you’re just an idiot. Hey, I don’t mind the opinions. Debate is what sports is all about.
So bring it on. It’s football season.
