Let me admit to a little secret: My high school football career was limited to my freshman year and a handful of games. I was on the field all the time, probably more because of number of available players than skill.
That was the end of it. Sometimes I may have intimated at more of a career — memory edits not uncommon of men my age — but it didn’t happen. I did love the game, and kept statistics for the high school team, but, instead of practicing and playing, I went to a job after school.
My dad grew to adulthood during the Great Depression, leaving home at age 14 to live at old St. John’s Hospital so the could be work when not at Iola High, where he walked each day. He didn’t say don’t play football, but it was obvious he thought working was more important. Who was I to argue.
A million times I’ve regretted the decision not to play — and a million times I haven’t. If not for my job at the Humboldt Union, writing a little but mostly doing printer’s devil work, I very likely wouldn’t have gotten a job at the Pittsburg Sun while attending Pitt State. Then came an opportunity at the Register, better than 53 years ago.
While I didn’t play much football, I’ve had a vicarious time on the gridiron through son Bob and grandson Noah.
That came to an end Tuesday night, sometime toward the end of the game with my eyes wetting a bit, as Noah played for the final time of his senior year at Humboldt High.
Years earlier I thrilled watching Bob be a very large part of Iola High’s football program in the late 1980s. He started on the offensive line and at defensive end a couple of years and earned all-Southeast Kansas League honors his senior year.
Then came Noah.
He was good in rec ball, better in middle school and then, from the first game of his freshman year through Tuesday evening, he started every game for four years.
Best of all, perhaps, he never missed a down because of injury, and always has been considerate of teammates and opponents, a muchly gratifying aside.
I’m extremely proud of my six grandchildren. Hudson is in his sophomore year at Lubbock (Texas) Christian University; his sister, Olivia, is a senior at Goddard High in Roswell, N.M., and plays on the varsity volleyball team.
Noah’s twin sisters, Alayna and Emma, are cheerleaders and multi-sport participants at Humboldt; his brother, Maddox, is a seventh grader and is just as taken with sports.
Sports are a wonderful outlet for kids, and much may be learned from participation.
However, the measure of my grandchildren’s lives that resonates most with me is that they are good students and good citizens. Also, and this is important, they get along well with each other and their schoolmates.
Sports participation is fine, but other aspects of their lives will be more enduring and much more important.
