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& Chattahoochee Chronicle
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I hope to see all of y'all at Eagle Field
The Marion County High School football team is comprised of a group of talented players who have worked extremely hard to bring the community its first ever region championship and home-field advantage in the State Playoffs. Even if you’re not a football fan and haven’t attended a single game yet this year, I encourage you to put on your favorite red sweatshirt or coat and help pack the stands for this Friday’s playoff game at Eagle Field.
The main reason is simply because they are our hometown boys. They are “us.” They have also put in an awful lot of hard work and gone the extra mile to prepare for the start of the season and for every Friday night that has followed.
In addition, they have conducted themselves with class while winning. It’s often said that a good test of a person’s character is how he acts when the going is tough, but an often-overlooked test of character is how people act when they rise to the top. It’s easy to be humble when you’re getting your rear-end kicked every week, but often times with success comes arrogance. Our Eagles are confident, but not conceited and there is a big difference between the two.
The last two weeks dotted amongst the sea of red in the stands there have been spots of black, as students from Schley County High have come to cheer for the Eagles. When your rivals come to cheer for you, that’s saying something (of course, it shows class on the part of the Wildcats, too).
I’m sure one of the reasons for the Eagles’ class is the good influence of Mike Swaney and his fellow coaches, as well as the players’ parents. It also probably helps that the team has truly found its success by playing as a team. Sure, there are some very good individual players, but no single athlete has carried the load – nor been expected to.
That’s one reason that I’m excited about the possibility that this could be the year that the Eagles really “make some noise” at the state level. The team is remarkably well balanced, from offense to defense to kicking and special teams.
As Angie Hagan points out in a letter to the editor this week (see the right side of this page), the band and cheerleaders are also very good.
Those reasons should be good enough for every Marion Countian to invest $8 in a ticket this Friday night, but there is another reason that I want every single local resident to be at Eagle Field. It seems to me that Marion County has been treated a bit like Rodney Dangerfield this season by the out-of-the-area media. It hasn’t been overt and maybe I just read too much between the lines, but I haven’t seen much respect.
MCHS won 9-of-10 games in one of the most competitive regions from top-to-bottom (Brookstone didn’t even make the playoffs). In spite of that, when the Eagles entered the first round of the playoffs nothing much was said about their accomplishment of winning the Region 4A title. Instead, it was pointed out that they were now going to have to face a team from “the powerful Region 2A.” … Well, after a 64-26 whooping, I just hope they had enough power left to make it back to Ashburn.
Let’s all show our hometown kids some respect this Friday night by showing up at the game as a way to show them that we appreciate their hard work, their attitude, and their success. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. Be There. Wear Red!
More columns by Richard Harris are listed below.
Macho Mishap ... or Example of Superior Male Intellect?
Travel Review: Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Grizzard could tear out your heart and make you laugh till you cried
Thanks for the Lesson, Latavia
Forget Santa, I'm writing to Uncle Sam
Grandma's two great loves: God & Family
Is recall in best interest of Marion County?
What's next? W's Concepts of Small Business?
Truth, Lies and &#*! Statistics
Computer problems = mega-headache
Holiday trees, hunting, taxes and basketball
(Richard Harris is also the author of various "Daddy Duty" columns.
To view samples of those columns, click here.)