I don’t have a son playing high school football this year. I never have. I don’t even have a son. Nor do I have a nephew or even a neighbor playing in the games.
What I do have, though, is a desire to be part of my community, even if it’s for just three hours every Friday night.
My family truly enjoys heading out on Friday nights in the fall to a local stadium to watch the boys representing our town do their best. I enjoy being in the bleachers with like-minded people, who also want to see our local boys do well.
I’m not sure how much of it has to do with gaining yards or scoring points. It’s more about putting the unity in community.
Let’s face it, the world wants to divide us apart these days. It doesn’t matter whether it’s politics, religion or food preferences, there are elements of the world that want to break us into groups. You’re either with us or against us.
High school sports can be a great unifier, though. Sure, you may not have much in common with some people, aside from you happen to live within the same school district boundaries. That’s OK. At least you have that in common.
We tend to sit in the same general area of the bleachers, and over time we’ve gotten to know some people. We see these people on occasion, but we’re sort of “wave and say hi” acquaintances. Yet every football season, we’re back in the same area and can have some really enlightening conversations.
There’s just something about having a common desire in the close proximity of a cheering session that brings people together.
I’ve always enjoyed going to games. I remember growing up in a rural village where high school football games were the most exciting thing we could do there. When there were home games, one of my sisters and I would stop at the bank to withdraw a little money from our savings, so we could get into the game and maybe buy a snack while we were there. (In hindsight, I feel bad for those tellers watching us come in with our passbook and withdrawing the paltry sum of $5.)
In that town, football made us feel like we were part of something. Growing up there, all I wanted to do was be a part of that football team. By high school, I was, and those memories of camaraderie helped make me who I am today. It didn’t turn me into a football star by any means. Every “highlight” story from four years of football involves accidentally doing something well.
Still, I knew my community wanted our team to succeed. They wanted me to succeed.
And every so often, I’ll hear from someone in my hometown, expressing some sense of pride that I’ve made a career out of making observations, talking to strangers and cracking an occasional joke. It turns out they feel like they’re a part of those successes too.
That’s what team sports do at their best. They prepare you for the things you won’t learn in a book, like how to deal with losses, how to deal with successes and how to constantly fight to improve. Those kinds of lessons carry you for a lifetime.
Now I look forward to my Friday nights, cheering on my team, our players and my town to succeed. So while I may not have a son on the team, I’m certainly invested in them doing well, for now and for the future.
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David Trinko is editor of The Lima News. Reach him at 567-242-0467, by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @Lima_Trinko.
