I thought about going to a high school football game tonight. There are a couple of tempting big-school matchups happening locally--Olentangy Liberty vs. Dublin Coffman (in New Albany) and Pickerington Central vs. Hilliard Davidson (in Gahanna)--and probably some small-school action as well. I do this pretty much every year, actually. I always think, "Oh, I should go to a playoff game this Friday." And then Friday rolls around and the weather isn't perfect, and nine bucks seems a little steep for a ticket to a game that doesn't feature my team (not to mention parking fees), and staying home just seems like a better idea. And so that's what I do, and that's what I'm doing tonight.
Now, if my beloved Troy Trojans were playing tonight, I would have tried to go, cold and cost be damned. Alas, they were eliminated last week, losing their second-round playoff game to Cincinnati Anderson (with their racist nickname redacted here forevermore) last week, 38-35. I didn't go to that game, and because I'm not a Spectrum video subscriber (although I do have Internet service through them), it wasn't available for me to watch. I did get to listen to the first half, but we had plans with friends, and so I was only able to follow the second half via Twitter (many thanks, @thefong).
The Trojans were up 28-17 at the half of that game. While I didn't get to see or even listen to the second half...that's a game you'd think they should have been able to find a way to win. Only being able to manage seven points in the second half is disappointing for a team with a once-in-a-generation running back and a serviceable passing game. By the same token, the defense had only given up more than 19 points once all season (31, in their other loss, to Miamisburg in week 5). All credit to Anderson for doing everything they needed to do to pull it out, but Troy should have been able to keep it from slipping away.
Of course, I'm always disappointed when the Troy football season comes to an end, no matter the circumstances. I have to admit, though, that this year I was really hoping they would advance to the third round. I started paying attention to Troy football when I was a freshman at THS in 1991. In those 28 seasons, the Trojans have advanced to the playoffs 11 times, if my recollection is correct. In all that time, I've never seen them advance past the second round. In the '90s, when only four teams per region made the playoffs, the second round was the regional finals; since then, with eight teams per region, the second round is the regional semifinals. Either way, in my experience, the second round is where the Trojans go to die. I really thought and hoped that this year might be different, but alas.
So the season is over--my first season experimenting with being a fan almost exclusively from afar. I was happy to maintain my streak of Troy-Piqua games attended (now at 28, going back to 1992), but that was the only time I got to see them play in person. I am very grateful to the THS mass communications program for their live video stream that allowed me to watch the home games from the comfort of my couch in Columbus (although I do regret not making it to at least one home game). I had every intention, when the season began, of attending at least a handful of local games, but much like the playoff situation tonight, if the Trojans aren't involved, I have a hard time getting motivated to go. I did attend one game at Thomas Worthington High School while the weather was nice, but that was it.
All in all, taking a season off from Trojan football has been...not great. Sure, I was able to watch several of the games, and I'm ecstatic that I have that option, but it can't take the place of being there. For the past several weeks I've felt cranky and out-of-sorts, and I really do think that skipping the games has been a big part of that. It's not just about the games for me. The stadium (taking "stadium" as a collective, and not just Troy Memorial Stadium specifically) is my happy place, and going to the game each week is a way of becoming centered, of setting aside a few hours for myself and kind of shutting out everything else that's going on.
And yet the facts remain that I live in Columbus, that I work until 5:00 pm, that games kick off at 7:00 pm, and that traversing that distance in that time (and at that time) is a difficult, sometimes infuriating experience that often acts as a counter to that positive headspace I'm trying to create for myself by attending the games in the first place. It's a conundrum. The solution I'm leaning toward for next year is to pick a handful of games that I want to attend (the number I'm thinking of is three, although there's no need to make any sort of commitment at this early date, and of course the Piqua game will be one of them), and on those days plan to knock off early from work so I can breathe a bit during the drive. And when I don't make the trip, I can still catch home games on the stream, or attend games around here (or not).
Next year will be interesting for the Trojans. They have quite a bit of graduating talent to replace, not least of which is their record-breaking running back. Coming off three straight league championships and playoff appearances, living up to their own standards will be quite a challenge. It'll be a transition of another type, too, as they leave the Greater Western Ohio Conference and re-form the Miami Valley League with Piqua, Sidney, Tippecanoe, Vandalia Butler, Greenville, West Carrollton, Xenia, Fairborn, and Stebbins. Purely from a football standpoint, I don't like it. It's great that Troy, Piqua, Sidney, and Butler (and Greenville, I guess) are staying together as traditional competitors, but I don't especially like that they left Trotwood behind, no matter what a juggernaut they've turned themselves into in football.
The MVL will probably be a pretty decent all-around conference for sports, but for football only, it looks like a loser to me. I'm guessing it'll feature Troy and Piqua as perennial contenders battling it out for league championships, with Tipp, Butler, Sidney, and maybe Xenia in the background, and everyone else being awful. I'm certainly not going to complain about Troy and Piqua being at the top of the heap--it'll be like the old GMVC days! Except there's no Northmont in this group to make it interesting. Instead, there's Fairborn and Stebbins (and West Carrollton, even though they were in the GMVC back in the day), and winning those games isn't going to help much toward making the playoffs, and playing in them isn't going to help your team get better so they can advance to that elusive third round. Especially since the nine-game league schedule is only going to leave one opening for a non-conference game, and that will always be in week 1 of the season.
That's getting ahead of myself, though, and I'd caution anyone to take my prognostications with a heaping spoonful of salt--I remember thinking (and probably saying) when playoffs expanded from four teams per region to eight that Troy would probably never miss them again. Given the run of success Troy was having at the time, it seemed reasonable, but looking back, it was obviously wildly optimistic. But hey, when it comes to Trojan football, that's me all over.
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