By Randy Capps
I have some creative talents, but drawing is not among them. So, the fact that I used to sketch out football fields on pieces of notebook paper in my classes is noteworthy.
I’d use the lines on the page to match the ones on the field, scribble a logo at midfield — Clemson and that paw print were the most often attempted — and then diagram a play or two.
I liked football long before I understood it well enough to write or talk about the game, so that’s why the fact that I churned out hundreds of words of copy on Johnston County football was very much a labor of love.
I’ve had a hot and cold relationship with the North Carolina High School Athletic Association — a former director once called me in Shelby to take me to task for a column — but this offseason has been one of the strangest in memory.
The old four-classification system is gone, and instead of going to six (which I and a few fellow media types had long suggested), there are now eight. So it’s new schedules and new conferences for everybody.
All of that is covered inside these pages. What isn’t spelled out later is this:
One night in October, or if you’re lucky, November or December, it will be over. Your son will pull his jersey over his shoulder pads for the last time. He’ll turn in his equipment, clean out a locker and say his goodbyes to his teammates.
Never again will he run out on the field while the band plays on a perfect fall night, while the flags wave and his friends and family cheer. He won’t stand in a huddle, facing triumph or adversity, learning how to be an adult all the while.
That part of his life, and yours, will be over.
Enjoy this season, no matter what role you’re playing in it. And may your field, actual or metaphorical, be perfectly laid out and ready for infinite possibilities.
