Heartland Heartache

High school.  Stirs many memories, both wonderful and painful.

Small towns.  Where everyone knows everyone, for better or worse, usually both.

Football.  An American classic from pee-wee through pros and backyards to domes.

Combine those factors, and you get something magical.  High school football has been accused of being a religion in some small towns, but it’s really about community and growth.  It’s the place to catch up with friends, neighbors and those people you have to put up with because they live in town.  It’s the place to watch boys grow up, challenge themselves, prove themselves.  Learn to win.  Learn to lose.  It’s the place to be on Friday night.  Partly because there’s nothing else to do and partly  because it’s fun to be a part of what happens there.

Countless stories – from the inspiring to the heartbreaking — come out of these small towns.  Local stories.  But one small Iowa town has received national headlines for the inspiration and heartbreak they’ve endured in just a few short years.

Parkersburg, Iowa, was devestated by a nasty tornado in late May, 2008.  The town was decimated, the high school in shambles, and the football field unrecognizable.  Help came to the town from miles around.  And so very slowly, the town tried to put themselves back together again.

As so often happens in small towns, high school football brings everyone together, and long-time head coach Ed Thomas committed to getting the football field in shape for the 2008 season.  Rival teams came to help pick up debris on the field, while team members helped their families, teammates and coach. 

And Coach T kept his promise.  The Falcons had a field.

Inspiring.

Although it takes years to recover from the kind of devestation Parkersburg saw, a football season brought a measure of healing to the town.

And summer 2009 rolled around with life feeling normal again.

But then, one summer morning, a former football player, the son of a former player, walked into the high school’s weight room in the midst of summer workouts.  And fatally shot Coach Ed Thomas.

In small towns, guys like Coach T are the pillars a community stands on.  As a coach for over a generation, he was the kind of tie that bonds fathers and sons and brothers as they grow from pee-wee to NFL pros (yes, Coach T had a couple of those).  And after helping the town recover from the twister, his loss was the kind of sucker punch that can knock you out.

The team and community was devestated once again.  To watch your town blow away.  To watch your coach die.  What do you do with that?  Especially as a high school student?

Heartache.

Sports Illustrated covered this story.  And last night, the first-ever Iowa high school football game was nationally televised.  The Aplington-Parkersburg Falcons defeated Dike-New Hartford in their season opener.  The second season on their revived field.  The first season without their coach.  

The Falcons have traditionally been an Iowa powerhouse in their division, thanks primarily to Coach T.  They have a shot at state again this year.  And winning does help healing. 

The alleged shooter’s younger brother is a senior lineman, a member of one of the most tightly knit groups to play on what is now Ed Thomas Field.  His parents were in the stands.  The family is grieving with the rest of the community, even as the community is reaching out to them.

And all this goes beyond both inspiring and heartbreaking.  The best and the worst of life, all played out on a football field in a small town in the middle of nowhere, Heartland, U.S.A.

Above #1

Is it possible to start the season ranked higher than #1?  It seems that this year’s pre-season #1 team, Florida, certainly is. 

Something like 98.2934897% of voters put the Gators in the top spot for 2009.  And it was a national news story when an SEC coach failed to rate senior-Heisman-trophy-winner-national-champion Tim Tebow the best QB in the conference. 

Might as well make your plans to travel to Pasadena, Gator fans.  Why even bother to play this season?  Surely the Gators will glide through the SCE undefeated… 

No doubt the Gators are talented, and they’ve earned the acclaim, but they are also being set up for a fall.  The SEC isn’t exactly an easy conference, especially on the road.  Oh, and I think Tebow sat out a practice or two to make sure he stays healthy. 

Now, as much as I hate to admit it, I do appreciate Tim Tebow.  The kid has a good head on his shoulders, a compassionate heart, a warrior spirit, a tireless work ethic and the ability to laugh at himself.  He could very well lead his team to another national championship.  But he’s not the second coming.  He actually has lost a game before.  Really.  And it could happen again.  That’s not to say the Gators won’t lose and still make the BCS Championship Bowl.  But given the headlines, the casual observer might think Florida has it all tied up. 

What about Texas and Oklahoma?  Ranked 2 and 3, they also play in a competitive conference (at least offensively) and have plenty of returning experience.

Or maybe this will finally be the year for USC to make it all the way to…Pasadena.  After all, they know the way.  But I’m sure they would be happy to play on January 7 instead of January 1.

The Crimson Tide rounds out the top 5 in the preseason polls, and they could roll through the season, as well…

And while pre-season rankings give die-hards (myself included) something to talk about before the season, recent NCAA D1 football history has constantly suprised us with the unexpected.  Exciting upsets.  Close games.  Great entertainment on beautiful fall Saturdays.  And I expect no less in 2009.

Let the season begin!

Third Time a Charm?

Personally, I hate making decisions.  And I often second-guess myself.  So I can understand where Brett Farve is coming from as he makes his third entrance to the NFL. 

No. 4 will be wearing purple this time…a dramatic change from the green and gold of the cheeseheads or the east-coast version of green.  The Vikings welcomed Farve to practice today.

A couple thoughts…

First, it must be nice to be able to change your mind umpteen times about your career, and still have lots of people cheering for you as you walk into practice.  As I said, making decisions is not one of my strong points.  But when I change my mind umpteen times about even the minutia of life, like what I want to order for dinner, I get eye rolls and snickers from my friends.  No cheering from the masses.

Second, as TheWittyOne pointed out, it will be nice to have No. 4 back in the division.  She rightly pointed out that the Bears secondary missed him and his passes last season.  Now he can once again throw to them, and all is right with the world.

Team number 3…perhaps this will be all Farve has hoped for as his football career draws — with great hesitation — to a close.  I must say that despite his indecision, I have to respect the man.  I’m not sure what else he will come up with to prolong his career, but he’s a competitor.  He loves his game.  And he does his job well.

In the meantime, what’s the over-under on TDs to Ints for 4 and the Vikings?

Summer Daze

Cubs fans are a loyal, longsuffering lot.  For years, they have followed their team, firmly believing “This is our year” every spring.  It hasn’t been, but they generally don’t give up.  Yes, they have moments or seasons of frustration (‘09 is a case in point), but still they watch, cheer, hope.

Why?

I believe the answer lies, at least in part, in a park just off Lake Michigan on the North side of town.  Give a Cubs fan a beautiful Chicago summer afternoon, ~80 degrees, sunshine, breeze off the lake, and they flock to Wrigley.  They got killed the day before?  I’m still there.  On a losing streak?  Just off a disappointing road trip?  Doesn’t matter.  Give me a seat (prefferably not in the sun) at Wrigley anyway. 

I made it to one such game recently.  The Cubs had been playing poorly, and that afternoon was no exception.  But the midweek afternoon crowd at Wrigley still topped 41,000.  And although drinks flowed freely, the fans knew what was going on.  We saw the excellent pitching of the opponents and the poor Cubs offense.  We saw the defense make mistakes, the pitcher give up home runs.  We cheered, booed and groaned as needed.

But even though it was a rough game to watch, I had a great time.  The summer sunshine, bright green infield, dark green ivy, popular local celebrity singing the stretch, a light breeze, the old-school scoreboard…it all combines into a lovely daze that binds true Cubs fans to their team.  Good times, even with the L…

Yes, as I’ve said before, there is some kind of magic at Wrigley that keeps us longsuffering Cubs fan loyal…

In Training

It’s August.  The Chicagoland heat index is finally pushing 100 degrees.  Talk of x games up or back is starting to matter on both the North and South sides. 

It’s time to focus on what really matters here.  Football.

The Bears are in training camp just down the road, and fans are deliriously excited.  By most accounts coming from Bourbonnais, Jay Cutler looks to be all he was billed to be.  Jay is excited about his recievers.  He and Brian are joking about alleged “wimp” comments. 

The Bears coaching staff is confident that their young, fairly unknown recievers will provide Jay the targets he needs for the Bears to throw first, and control the clock with the run once they get the ball.  Yes, I’m talking about the Bears.  Haven’t seen any flying pigs, but as cool as this Chicago summer has been, there may be signs of frost in hell. 

There are promising rumblings about rookies in the defensive secondary.  And excitement over former Lions head coach Rod Marinelli as the new D-line coach is also feverish.

All this to say that though they are still training, Chicago fans legitimately have more to look forward to this fall than they’ve had in recent memory.

Welcome to Chicago, Jay.  Please don’t break our hearts.  (We aren’t very forgiving if you do.)