A Programming Note or Two

High school football season is nearly upon us. Indeed, around the state of Ohio tonight most teams were in action, putting in their final preseason scrimmage in preparation for their regular season opener this coming week. My beloved Troy Trojans hosted their annual exhibition against the Dunbar Wolverines, dominating en route to a 42-0 victory in 3 quarters of action. I'm not sure what you can glean from that considering that Dunbar's team had around 1/3 of the numbers Troy did in terms of players, but at the very least it seems as though Troy is well-positioned to continue the run of success they've had in the past two seasons under Matt Burgbacher.

I've been writing about the Trojans for a long time and following them even longer, since my own days at THS, going back a depressing number of years to the fall of 1991. Over the years, to my neverending surprise, I've had a handful of people reach out to let me know that they were following their hometown team through my blog from a number of far-flung places across the country and even around the globe, which has touched me more deeply than you can probably imagine. And so it's with a heavy heart that I must announce that I won't be doing that this year.

A number of factors went into the decision, but what it boiled down to was that the joy and peace I derive from being at a Trojan football game have been counterbalanced the past couple of years by the angst involved in getting from Columbus to Troy (or wherever in the surrounding environs said game is being played) by the 7pm kickoff time that is, I think, now nearly universal throughout the state.

Now, there are a couple of caveats. First is that, as of now, I absolutely do plan on attending the Troy-Piqua game that closes the regular season on October 26. I haven't missed one of those bad boys since the aforementioned fall of 1991, and I see no reason why that streak can't continue. The second is that it's entirely possible I'll make it to other games--my family still lives in Troy, after all, and so if I happen to be heading over that way anyway, what the hell. I just have no specific plans in that direction, so if it happens, it'll probably be a spur-of-the-moment type thing. And if the Trojans should happen to make the playoffs for a third consecutive season...I'd hope to be there, but it would depends on where the game was being played, and at what time.

So how will I fill the next nine Friday nights, you may ask? Well. High school football in the fall is so much a habit with me now that I can't imagine sitting out the season entirely. The most likely scenario is that I'll see if my itch can be scratched by attending games at one of the two local high schools. Thomas Worthington is my neighborhood school, but I feel more affinity for Worthington Kilbourne, probably based on the fact that Troy faced (and, sadly, lost to) them in the state playoffs in 1997. Also, last year Troy's home games were video-streamed online, so I'll probably take advantage of that on occasion if it's still the case.

This may turn out to be a temporary, one-year type situation. All I know is that if I keep driving to games without finding out if it's feasible to follow the Trojans from afar, I'm going to run myself ragged, and probably drive myself and my wife crazy in the process. Rest assured I'll still be interested and invested in the team and keeping tabs on them by any means available, and we'll see how it goes.

Moving on from that...I just want to note, although I have no concrete plans and am just blue-skying at this point, that I've been thinking about changing the layout of my blog and possibly moving to a whole new site altogether, in an effort to reinvigorate my interest in keeping it updated. So much of the online community has abandoned the blog format for other, generally shorter-form social media, and the Internet has been worse for it, to my way of thinking. At any rate, if it should happen, there are a couple of things you can count on. First is that some of my favorite posts from this site would likely be migrated over, sort of a "greatest hits" type thing to get things started off on the right foot. Second is that it won't be a secret, with this blog staying live to point to my new landing spot, wherever it may be. I have no idea at this point if there's anyone out there who is even interested, but if you're out there, I'll make sure you can find me.