Friday Night Lights

Have you seen this? It's the new sports complext at Goddard High School. That's right. "Sports complex". The place has several practice fields, softball and baseball fields and a soccer/football field that seats 7,000 fans and includes press boxes with two concession buildings. See that grass? It ain't even grass. It's Astrograss. Can you believe that crap?

No more Up/Downs on the hard deadpan fields west of the high school during football practice. No more having to time your slide tackles around the goalie box on the south side of the soccer field to avoid picking stickers out of your ass later that night. Hell, back then we had to walk halfway across town after school just to reach the soccer field. Football games were at the junior high and our first soccer uniforms? Handmade by our moms.

See the huge "G" in the middle of the field? Someone in the athletic department has gotta be an NFC fan; they apparently miss the frozen tundra of Lambau Field and swiped the Packers' logo as a result. And yet with all that the football boys couldn't win a game this season. Recently talking to Conover, he's pretty sure the sad state of Goddard football is a direct result of the players taking off their helmuts while standing on the sideline during the game. Guess you can commit no greater sin than that...

Looking at that new facility, you'd think we had to gather buffalo chips before class just to keep our cast-iron stoves warm during the winter and fend off Indian attacks during recess.

Talk about feeling your age.