Technically, my high school ceased to exist in May of 1982 when a guy whose last name started with a "Z" walked across the stage, handed our principal a puzzle piece, got his diploma and shook hands with the school board president. We were consolidated with our crossstown rivals that fall, and the new school had a new mascot, new colors, new school newspaper name and so on. The kids a year behind us had the new name, and our school faded into history.
So when I see the high school from my hometown play sports, I root for them, but I don't know if it's the same as when you root for your old alma mater.
High school is probably one of the last arenas for sports where the team really does represent the group it's named for, and where the team members are actually a part of the community they represent.
It doesn't happen in the pros -- players switch teams or are traded, and they might not even own a home in the town where they play. And as for being a part of that community? Well, try jumping the fence at some multi-million dollar mansion to offer your favorite guy a few pointers on his play and see how long you last before you find yourself gripped by the long arms of the law.
Major colleges are much the same. Elite players may have their own dorms, where ordinary students don't get to live. They almost certainly have their own schedules, with classes set at times that allow for practice and they focus on majors that don't add overwhelming study hours to the full-time job of being a "student-athlete." Lots of them won't graduate with anyone they started freshman year with, if they graduate at all.
But in high school, the star QB might have the locker next to yours. You might have been at his sixth birthday party. The high-scoring forward on the girls' basketball team might be your big sister's best friend, or maybe she's your lab partner in chemistry.
That kind of community connection is one of the reasons I enjoy watching high school sports, fans in the stands and all. So when the school that replaced mine -- the Bartlesville Bruins -- was scheduled to play not far from my current town, I made plans to go.
The night represented pretty much the perfect high school football scene: It was cold, so people were huddled up in the stands. Mist fell for much of the game, sometimes pretty heavily and anyone who had a hood on ducked under it. As befits the visiting team, the band was in street clothes but just as loud as they might have been at home.
It was a tough night, though. The high-octane Bartlesville offense sputtered through most of the game after a first-series interception stalled a drive deep in the opponent's territory. The pitch-and-catch machine that hung 40 points on 2008 state runner-up Jenks didn't show. But the defense that most of the season had more holes than a chain-link fence and let 2008 state runner-up Jenks ring up 60-plus on them did.
I'm afraid I bailed at 35-14, with about five minutes left in the first half. Hey, it was cold, mist was falling and I could hear the game just fine on the radio inside my dry truck cab and the one inside my warm home. The final gruesome 49-28 thumping wasn't as close as the score showed.
Ah well. Basketball starts in a couple weeks. New sport, new chances. Good luck, Bruins. Wildcats are rootin' for ya...
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