By David Trinko
The Lima News
There’s a nervous energy as the football players prepare to take the field this weekend.
They’re excited about the blank slate of a new season. They’re pumped about the possibilities for their own accomplishments.
In villages built around their schools across the region, they know they have the hopes and dreams of all their residents too.
“It’s fun to see, like running out on Friday night and seeing a full crowd of people just cheering you on and willing you to win,” said Brody Sommers, a defensive and offensive lineman at Bluffton. “That just makes everything we’ve worked through August and the year, all the two-a-days, just worth it. We know we have a whole town with us wherever we go, and they want us to win just as bad as we want to win. That means a lot to us and everybody on the team.”
Yes, sometimes people put too big of a priority on high school sports. Too many people believe they’ll move on to college and perhaps even the pros, which is highly unlikely. Yet on one of these Friday nights, none of that seems important. It’s just a matter of making your town proud.
For those who know, songs like Kenny Chesney’s song “The Boys of Fall” rings true. I enjoy hearing this song, released in 2010, played at many area high school stadiums.
“It’s I got your number, I got your back when your back’s against the wall,” Chesney sings. “You mess with one man you got us all, the boys of fall.”
It’s something special we take for granted around here, especially in the villages dotting the local counties. Of course the fans support their local teams. Of course they come out in full force.
As anyone who’s seen teams from other parts of the state, that’s not necessarily true everywhere. Some stadiums have more empty seats than screaming fans.
In small places where they hyphenate two village names to have enough people for a small school, it’s a primary source of entertainment and pride. That includes places such as Pandora-Gilboa, a small school in Putnam County with 35 players on the team.
“I just like the adrenaline in the game,” junior quarterback Cory Gerten said. “Everybody’s cheering in the moment.”
That enthusiasm for the team doesn’t end with the game, Gerten said. Fans gather in the parking lot outside the locker room afterward to congratulate players.
“They’re always there to help us,” Gerten said. “They always cheer on us. Now we see a lot of them after the game.”
These are generational memories. I have fond memories of being a below-average football player at one of these small schools three decades ago. You saw painted slogans supporting the team on the windows of downtown businesses and hear their cheers as you ran onto the field.
Sommers heard those recollections from his dad, who played against the Pirates a generation ago.
“He tells me how good they were and how much they meant to the town,” Sommers said. “If we could do the same thing, build a team and get the town to come together like we did last year, that’s just fun to see.”
Sommers is self-aware enough to realize he’s part of something special he’ll treasure for the rest of his life.
“Down the road, 30 years from now, I’ll be able to look back and just remember all the great memories I’ve created and all the great friendships I’ve had,” he said. “The goal is to play as hard as we can, to win games and make us a a team that Bluffton will remember for a long time.”
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See past columns by David Trinko at LimaOhio.com/tag/trinko.
David Trinko is editor of The Lima News. Reach him at 567-242-0467, by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @Lima_Trinko.
