I can't believe school has already started! And that means it's also time for football games to begin, with weekly coverage of games and sports stories to write and photographs to take.
Taking quality photos at the games is always a challenge, especially when darkness comes earlier and the low light forces me to use higher and higher ISO settings which also reduce the image quality. A few extra lights on the field would help a bunch, but I doubt that will happen this year.
Writing stories about the games is even a bit more challenging for me since I'm not the most loyal football fan and, when I do find spare time, I seldom spend it in front of the TV watching a game. But, even with my limited experience as a sports writer, I try.
I remember one sports writer on staff at a previous paper who sometimes spent more time describing the weather on game night than the game itself. That might be easier for me, but I do try to focus on the game.
It's not that I have no experience with the game. I remember playing football daily in high school -- no, it was not on the varsity team; it was in P.E. because I worked every night after school. But our P.E. class took football seriously and we had more injuries than the varsity team. I managed to break a finger -- probably the only reason I received enough sympathy from my typing instructor to get a passing grade in the course. One of my favorite plays as a receiver was to go deep, not necessarily for a long pass but into the deep flooded part of the field where the defenders feared to go. A portion of our football field was usually under water during the winter months when it rained in California.
Speaking of experiences with the game, I did loose my two front teeth at a football game in Gentry. Even though I thought I had stepped clear while taking photographs, a last-minute direction change on the part of a quarterback as he was being tackled and thrown out of bounds caught me in the mouth. Hey, but I saved my camera!
Sometimes I tell folks of all my rushing yards for the Denver Broncos because I covered more ground than any player on the team. I measured it in miles rather than yards. It was back in 2000 when Denver's new stadium was being built for the team. I hauled steel all the way from Phoenix and Los Angeles to Denver to build that new stadium, and I traveled through rain, sleet and snow to do it. And even though a few other drivers spun out on the icy roads and put obstacles in my way, I made it to the goal without incident each time. You can ask Mrs. Griz. She was along on those trips!
There are times I miss those days in the truck. I fondly named my trucks so I could tell people who I was spending all my time with when they asked -- this one was a blue conventional Freightliner with a Detroit engine and 15-speed transmission named Elsie Mae. Yes, Elsie Mae and I spent considerable time together and saw a lot of the country. But I had other girls too, a Peterbilt and several Internationals. Even though the work was often long and hard, there is something about being off somewhere away from everyone and everything, listening to the music of 18 wheels rolling down the pavement and shifting through all the gears.
Once in a while I tell Mrs. Griz of longings to climb back up into the cab of a big old "Pete" or "Freightshaker" and drive off into the sunset. She sometimes catches me staring when one of those pretty girls goes by and I see the curves of the fenders and hear the sound of a Cat or Cummins under the hood. But then I remember the long hours, tarping loads in the wind and sub-zero temperatures, truck stop meals and showers and never being home. I come to my senses and figure watching, photographing and writing a little about football isn't so bad even if I know a lot more about the driving down the road in a big truck than driving down the field on the grid iron.
Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 08/19/2015