Thinning the high school herd

On nights like tonight, with just 8 or so of our 45-plus high school football teams still playing, I marvel at how well things go. It was almost, but not quite, fun.

 

Agreed. I had time to look at stories, not panic at the extra stuff like top players and still had time to write two stories and do capsules while working desk...
As a buddy used to say at this time of year "X down and Y to go...."

 

Yes. We are down to a manageable six teams. There is nothing better than that.

Tonight was easy compared to the last two weeks when we had 20-plus teams in the playoffs. Thankfully, most of them aren't as good as the rest of the state.

 

Do you guys not have basketball overlapping right now?

Six or eight football games is good, but toss in 15-25 hoops reports and it's inching back to Crazyville.

 

We have a bell in the office and ring it every time a team gets eliminated by a team not from our area. It's nice.

 

At one of my earlier stops, when you went to cover a playoff game between an area team and a non-area team, we joked that you didn't do your job if you couldn't get the local team eliminated.

We would call in scores immediately on the way back to the office and the first question from the SE was always, "So, did you do your job?"

 

We always said, "Bring back a loser!" to departing writers.

 

Love that.

 

You'd be surprised by how many states don't have overlapping seasons. Kansas basketball teams couldn't even begin practicing until last Monday and can't play any games until Dec. 4.

 

We dropped our last team last night. It was glorious.

 

Playoffs? Playoffs? [/Jim Mora]

 

I think having 1-2 teams left now is the best scenario. You can make it dominant, not worry about people bitching, etc. Though, there will always be a feeling of relief when the last one falls.