Saturday, September 02, 2006
It's That Time of Year.........
Today I spent one of my last free weekend afternoons the way such a beautiful day should be spent...watching a high school football game. School begins Tuesday and soon there will be papers, tests and quizzes to grade, lesson plans to write, assinine paperwork to complete. For the record, the home team (my school) was defeated by a team from the other side of the harbor, 25-17, though our boys were in the game most of the first three quarters.
It is quite something to attend a game at which one knows many of the players. Our varsity football lineup is like a veritable English 10/11 all-star team from my classes last year. To have been through a year with them and struggled, at times, along with them through various academic difficulties forms a sort of bond of which I was not aware until today. Truth be told, I never thought I had a great relationship with the football kids. Save for a couple, they were among the most challenging students I had in classes. Not coincidentally, they also came the most challenging backgrounds. One kid, who I saw returning punts today, had his father die during the 05-06 school year. He and his buddy, who starts in the defensive backfield, were always problematic in my sixth-bell class. No surprises there, I guess.
But it was definitely fun to sit up there and cheer on players whose names I heard announced from the press box. And for those who play football, I can say from the one game I attended last year, they seem to appreciate the support. And I came to appreciate having something in common with them after enduring their eye-rolling when I tried to engage them for the umpteenth time about James Bond films.
Though it's hard to get poetically romantic about colorful leaves, cheerleaders, marching bands, etc., at any football game at which one gets sunburned, it made made me think about how different h.s. football is in Virginia, compared to "back home" in Greater Cincinnati. Fewer people in the stands here; more, shall we say "theatrical" marching band performances here; about twice as many players on the field here, compared to the small high school I attended in Erlanger, Ky.
But I couldn't help think about the most beautiful football poem I know, which reflects on the Ohio h.s. football thing, which isn't that different from the Kentucky football thing. Only difference: The Ohio teams always kill the Kentucky teams when they play. But seriously, the damned thing gives me chills every time I read it. It speaks to the intersection of football and life in a small town, which I don't think this area has. Besides the football parents, I don't know anyone in our city who lives and dies with the local high school football teams.
I give you.....
Autumn Begins In Martins Ferry, Ohio
By James Wright
In the Shreve High football stadium,
I think of Polacks nursing long beers in Tiltonsville,
And gray faces of Negroes in the blast furnace at Benwood,
And the ruptured night watchman of Wheeling Steel,
Dreaming of heroes.
All the proud fathers are ashamed to go home.
Their women cluck like starved pullets,
Dying for love.
Therefore,
Their sons grow suicidally beautiful
At the beginning of October,
And gallop terribly against each other's bodies.
Read or Post a Comment
There was a football game?! With like throwing and tackling and stuff? Why didn't you tell me? :)
Clearly, I have underestimated my friends. I was shocked as hell to see the Mayor there. I would have called around had I known there was interest in said game.
I specifically asked the Mayor if he was going. He said, "Why, you interested?" and then it dropped. I guess the Mayor thinks he's too cool for us or something. Getting a wee bit big for his britches.