Wk 11, 2024 --
What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been (1/2)
This is broken into two parts, prologue and gameday. Why? There's an unusual amount of deep prologue from multiple characters on one hand, which actually spans at least 20 years (in some instances even longer than that), and between that and gameday there is a mix of equally unusual happenings. There's going to be a lot of emotion mixed into this, only because this is a rare game (of all the games I've gone to and written about on my threads... this is the only one where I went because it personally was
bigger than football.)
The game I went to was FC/Trimble. Come along this ride, as you encounter the annals of an era bygone, the intersection of two greatly different social geographies bearing out in a high school football playoff series, one flawed man's 15-year journey of HSFB spectatorship, the tying bond of embracing our common humanity, how the internet can bring good people together, and how high school sports can, in fact, be bigger than high school sports. And there's some unexpected twists and turns in this one!
PROLOGUE, PT 1a: Five years removed from an admirable
Cinderella-esque run to the 1998 Division VI State Championship game, my alma mater crossed paths for the first time on the field with a school-community ~50 miles Southeast in northern Athens County. It was not, however, the first time these two schools locked horns in the postseason... and even stranger than fiction was it was not the first time that school's head coach had played the Alma in a postseason sport at that school.
In 2001, the Trimble Tomcats baseball team came to Beavers Field in Lancaster for a Division IV regional semi-final. On the hill for the Irish was future Ohio U. Hall of Famer Anthony Gressick, an indomitable two-way player who later earned All-American honors in Athens and was in the Reds' farm system. FC won that game 3-0
en route to a Final Four bid. Little did Tomcat skipper Phil Faires realize that would not be the last of FC in his coaching career.
In 2003, Trimble came to Fairfield County and lost 33-14. That was not the end of it, however.
The following year, 2004, the Irish came back down to Glouster. By many accounts, although surprisingly enough I never heard it from my Alma's side, the rematch was even worse than the first go around. 33-0; FC 2-0 on the field and 3-0 combined.
Two things worth pointing out, here.
One -- Trimble by that point in time only had a playoff record of 1-3. They won a first round game against Eastern Meigs in '01. A very proud community, for all of the right seasons, with a great tradition in the regular season.
Two -- I was not at either of those games. Big reason being that I had no idea at the time that I would later go to FC. I'm RC, but my family have no ties to that school. Both were Central Catholic League bloodlines. By the time I got there, the magic and multifaceted dominance of FC across all sports had already gone away. Hope sprung eternal that, one day, it would return to whatever extent possible.
PROLOGUE, PT 1b: If you wonder where the
sobriquet 'The Dock' comes from, you might never guess. So, I'll lay it out there. The same as I am today, the same as I was in high school. Relentless in the pursuit of two things: learning, and speaking truth to power (as close to imaginable.) To that extent that, I
do not care how the message I put across is perceived -- there is no way what I understand to be the truth gets eschewed for what is a lie that comforts. IOW, I didn't care then (just like I don't now) if I'm perceived as a D#ck or it's phallic four-letter cousin. And, where does this go....
high school football message boards.
The other handle I carry, on the Southeast Ohio board, became an unintentionally (and unfortunately) prescient name eight years later. With that in mind, it would not be the last that these two schools would meet. Worlds, in fact, collided.
PROLOGUE, PT 1c: To be a upper-middle class child within a school-community of that general disposition, the good's and the bad's come equally. The good is the sense of camaraderie, that indeed moral character and the concept of respect for your neighbor are binding staples within the generally beautiful tradition of Roman Catholicism. The bad is, your exposure to the broader world can be generally dim. That is not to say it promotes negative feelings toward others -- you just don't have the
exposure to others in the process. My disposition growing up had always been that the cups need filled across the board in our society. Smart enough to know how areas are different, how the concept of Appalachian geography in many communities come at a cumulative cost once economic institutions like mines shut down. Not smart enough, then, to recognize that we don't wear those differences, and where we come from, on our sleeve for a reason.
That its our hearts who bear out in the end.
The segue is when you do get that exposure, and realize there are in fact people in your life (that you know from your Alma) whose roots are in, whose instillation of character was formed by, these proud communities. Brick by brick, as you encounter in college and the real world, it sets a better mind. An institution of my school's community, 60+ years of coaching football, is a Pomeroy High School alum. One that remembers the old
South-
East
Ohio
Athletic
League rivalries before consolidations in the 60's swept some of them out. Pomeroy later merged with Middleport to form Meigs High School, and the Buchtel-York Bruins merged with the Nelsonville Greyhounds to form Nelsonville-York. I mention Nelsonville-York for two reasons, here: 1) because they are the community that one of my very good friends' traces his heritage to, going back to his parents as well as so many generations of his family... and 2) neighboring districts that share an intense, vivacious rivalry with the subject school of this post, with the famously scenic
State Route 78 running through both districts, aka the "Appalachian Byway of Ohio."
PROLOGUE, PT 2: Remember what I said about message boards? Let's break that down. HSFB message boards tend to be largely dominated by one of three factions, intersecting or not: 1) fanbases of dominant programs, 2) fanbases of legacy programs, and 3) individuals with generally well-known associations to large centers of population that begets large schools as well as a ton of football.
When I joined Yappi in 2010, this board was largely NEO (Greater Cleveland, Stark County with some flavoring of the Mahoning Valley) and Hamilton County. A few rare smatterings of Lucas County (Toledo) and north central Ohio. There was no opportunity nor real pathway to talk about COH football. And there sure as s--- wasn't much opportunity to thoughtfully discuss where
your school fits in whatever given competitive framework to be had for football on a statewide board. As was the case with mine.
When I joined the Southeast board about five(?) years later, it was kind of much the same in the beginning. Except it was refreshing to read about teams, leagues and programs that weren't getting anything on here (not getting anything respectful at least.) The year 2018 came, and it was definite the Alma would return to the playoff picture. As fate would have it, in Region 27 that year it was #6 Fisher going to #3 Trimble.
The thing that I recall being 'tough' (oh, what a hard life) going into the lead-up to that game is... being aware that the two programs had diverged greatly since that drubbing in 2004. FC last made the playoffs in 2006, and the school's enrollment had shrunk from 317 to 160 or so by then. Meanwhile, Trimble was three years removed from a similarly-Cinderella esque run to the State Final. You read, and you recognize that these people are probably not BS'ing about how good that year's team is if it's being discussed in as high (if not higher) praise as that '13 team whose season went into December. You
also recognize that, while
your school is bleeding dry with many of the greats of yesteryear not coming back and staying within the school-community after their direct vestments in the school (parents, alumni) have passed... these folks OTOH happen to have long memories. Long enough to remember 2004, that beating in "The Sty" your school delivered fourteen years prior.
Kind of have to walk a fine line! Really no point being served well exaggerating the quality of your team, or talking smack. Not to people who have plenty of good reasons to dislike your school, but even more to the point, the fact you don't really expect your team to win either! I'm not a fair-weather fan, far from it. Never was in person nor online. You have to speak that by action, though. Especially to strangers, if that point of pride actually matters to you -- whether its a personal point of pride or whether you believe its the vehicle that best represents your school-community in a positive light.
I actually don't recall how the 2018 game went in terms of meeting these guys in person. I recall how that 2018 game went (oh, it was a disaster!), but I don't recall if it was previously arranged online to chop it up at the football game or if it was one of those "you happen to talk to fellow fence-hangers who can draw a straight-line conclusion to your forum activity." But, however it came about, it was if it was meant to happen. That loss was a dark moment for the program, truth be told. What I came away with, though, was an invaluable first impression of people that I otherwise wouldn't be exposed to. And it was, frankly, beautiful for the soul and mind.
2021 rolled around, and
once again we're in the same shoes coming into 2018. Except the 2021 team had about of 1/5 the talent and 1/6 the size of '18, a team that had four opportunities early on, 1st and Goal on the six-inch line, to get across only to get STOOD UP. But, interestingly enough, that '21 team played with more grit and heart than a significant portion of that '18 team. It was still a blowout, but, you had a good account on the field of the points of pride you'd want in the program whose name you hone online. That time, coming in, it got arranged to rendezvous and get back together with the online buddies. I held my end of the bargain, not picking and choosing when it was convenient to 'be a fan', and we broke bread once again as friends.
But, never did I think there would be a 'Round 3.' I really didn't have that as an expectation, truth be told. I thought '21 would be the last encounter. Little did I know... there would be one more opportunity.
)