I spent 10 years as editor/publisher of a small county seat weekly newspaper back east... I was also the janitor, photographer, darkroom tech, primary layout/paste up person, ad salesman and sports reporter... I had three public high schools and one private one in my market/coverage area... I spent many, many nights dodging spitting players on the sidelines, schlepping 2-3 cameras around and taking notes... some Fridays, I hit 2 (once in awhile 3) games... I had to rely on the official stats person (usually a variably reliable student -- some great, others... not so much)... I never realized how much high school players spit... maybe 3-4 times a min. each...
But football season was EASY compared to basketball season with schools playing multiple games per week... I liked baseball and track seasons much better.
When I left that business in 1983ish and moved here to start over in a new industry, one of my friends here was having a rough patch in his marriage and though he was from Michigan and his wife from Minnesota, they decided to adopt a HS here in San Diego county and go to their games as a "date" night activity (included dinner, etc. and baby sitters)... they moved back east and got divorced a couple or so years later...
A couple of my friends here back in the '80s worked at the local daily newspapers (both out of biz now) and kept telling me about this guy playing just next door to the north for Oceanside HS... I spent the next 3 seasons going to those games to watch Junior Seau play HS ball -- you could tell he was going to be special even back then.
But wild horses could not drag me back to a HS field on a Friday night any more... besides, they don't sell beer at HS games... <ggg> |
