IHSAA Football Week 1
It’s time for Friday Night Lights. The real thing, and the KCRG prep football recap show.
High school football technically began last week (Week Zero), but tonight was when the games began in earnest. All the local schools opened their seasons, but only two played on their home turf in IC.
If I can, I want to attend a high school game each week. It has been five years since I was able to enjoy high school pigskin in Iowa, and I want to reacquaint myself with the sights, sounds, and smells I knew on many Fridays throughout my life. (Yes, smells. Late summer and autumn nights in the Midwest are very fragrant, making high school football games an intensely aromatic experience.) Tonight, to kick off the season, my old man and I walked up to the BGM-Regina game.
Regina was a last option, which is the only reason I would ever watch one of their football games. I endured way too many Regal football, volleyball, basketball, and softball games when my cousin’s were in high school, and I swore never to voluntarily attended another Regina sporting event.
Never say never.
I knew we were in for trouble right after we got tickets. My dad said “Hi” to a woman he knew at the ticket booth, then turned to me and whispered, “Bitch.”
“What?”
“That woman back there. She’s a huge bitch.”
Okay…
We got stamped and entered the little stadium. The game had already started, and we walked to the visiting side and leaned against the sidelines fence, Euro style. There was no way we wanted to be on the Regina side. As Iowa City’s private, Catholic school, Regina is hoity-toity to the max. It’s basically a pre-pre-business school, with a little religious indoctrination mixed in. The fathers wear polo shirts and garish plaid shorts. The mothers look like they were in the audience at an Oprah taping. The jailbait strut around in Daisy Duke’s and wear their boyfriend’s away jersey. The boys not on the football team are either proto-businessmen with their father’s fashion sense or are shirtless and in the front row with a letter painted on their chest and stomach. There’s nothing wrong with their school spirit…except the fact it’s school spirit for Regina.
Though dad and I didn’t really belong in the BGM crowd, either, they were our public school kin. A couple kids from the BGM side were playing on the empty section of extra bleachers behind us. One said, “This school must be rich. Look. They have this football field, another football field and a track, a press box…” They were small town Iowans, and fans of the underdogs from Class A.
Yep. The Class 2A Regals were playing a school two classes below them. Iowa divides its high school football teams into six classes according to school size. From largest to smallest, they are: 4A, 3A, 2A, 1A, A, and Eight Man. Having attended a 4A school with enough similar sized campuses in the region for competition, I never knew playing outside of class was possible. It apparently is common on the lower tiers of the system, and makes for some lopsided match-ups. Case in point: BGM-Regina.
Stocked with tall, strong, and quick juniors and seniors, Regina is ranked #1 in 2A. BGM’s team is a patchwork of whatever athleticism the school has and is ranked #5 in A. It wasn’t even close. The Regals steamrolled the Bears. BGM had no answer for Regina’s size and quickness, and about 70 percent of the snaps took place inside the BGM 20 yard line. When Regina’s 6’7” tight end caught a pass inside the five and bowled over a BGM linebacker on his way across the goal line, a member of the chain gang, working right in front of where dad and I stood, turned to the BGM assistant coaches and said, “The guy’s a horse.” No shit. With the score 35-0, the clock started running continuously to halftime. BGM didn’t even notch a first down until the third quarter.
For the fourth quarter dad and I moved to the home side. We knew nobody, and people kept staring at us. That’s one thing Regina people know how to do well: identify and ostracize those who are not their own. They also apparently know how to draw former Hawkeye greats to coach football. The Regals’ head coach is legend Marv Cook, and former stand-out wide receiver Ed Hinkel is an assistant. After enduring a couple minutes on the hill filled with Regina’s screaming and rambunctious young laity, and the severe stares from the attending priests (they must have seen dad’s lapsed-Catholic aura or something), we left.
Though it was not as enjoyable as I hoped (if it had been a close game this would have been a different post), I still relished the atmosphere. Friday night, under the lights; the cheers, game noise, and stat announcements filling my ears; my nose tickled by the scents of late summer; and football — sweet, sweet, wonderful football. There’s nothing quite like it.
High school football technically began last week (Week Zero), but tonight was when the games began in earnest. All the local schools opened their seasons, but only two played on their home turf in IC.
If I can, I want to attend a high school game each week. It has been five years since I was able to enjoy high school pigskin in Iowa, and I want to reacquaint myself with the sights, sounds, and smells I knew on many Fridays throughout my life. (Yes, smells. Late summer and autumn nights in the Midwest are very fragrant, making high school football games an intensely aromatic experience.) Tonight, to kick off the season, my old man and I walked up to the BGM-Regina game.
Regina was a last option, which is the only reason I would ever watch one of their football games. I endured way too many Regal football, volleyball, basketball, and softball games when my cousin’s were in high school, and I swore never to voluntarily attended another Regina sporting event.
Never say never.
I knew we were in for trouble right after we got tickets. My dad said “Hi” to a woman he knew at the ticket booth, then turned to me and whispered, “Bitch.”
“What?”
“That woman back there. She’s a huge bitch.”
Okay…
We got stamped and entered the little stadium. The game had already started, and we walked to the visiting side and leaned against the sidelines fence, Euro style. There was no way we wanted to be on the Regina side. As Iowa City’s private, Catholic school, Regina is hoity-toity to the max. It’s basically a pre-pre-business school, with a little religious indoctrination mixed in. The fathers wear polo shirts and garish plaid shorts. The mothers look like they were in the audience at an Oprah taping. The jailbait strut around in Daisy Duke’s and wear their boyfriend’s away jersey. The boys not on the football team are either proto-businessmen with their father’s fashion sense or are shirtless and in the front row with a letter painted on their chest and stomach. There’s nothing wrong with their school spirit…except the fact it’s school spirit for Regina.
Though dad and I didn’t really belong in the BGM crowd, either, they were our public school kin. A couple kids from the BGM side were playing on the empty section of extra bleachers behind us. One said, “This school must be rich. Look. They have this football field, another football field and a track, a press box…” They were small town Iowans, and fans of the underdogs from Class A.
Yep. The Class 2A Regals were playing a school two classes below them. Iowa divides its high school football teams into six classes according to school size. From largest to smallest, they are: 4A, 3A, 2A, 1A, A, and Eight Man. Having attended a 4A school with enough similar sized campuses in the region for competition, I never knew playing outside of class was possible. It apparently is common on the lower tiers of the system, and makes for some lopsided match-ups. Case in point: BGM-Regina.
Stocked with tall, strong, and quick juniors and seniors, Regina is ranked #1 in 2A. BGM’s team is a patchwork of whatever athleticism the school has and is ranked #5 in A. It wasn’t even close. The Regals steamrolled the Bears. BGM had no answer for Regina’s size and quickness, and about 70 percent of the snaps took place inside the BGM 20 yard line. When Regina’s 6’7” tight end caught a pass inside the five and bowled over a BGM linebacker on his way across the goal line, a member of the chain gang, working right in front of where dad and I stood, turned to the BGM assistant coaches and said, “The guy’s a horse.” No shit. With the score 35-0, the clock started running continuously to halftime. BGM didn’t even notch a first down until the third quarter.
For the fourth quarter dad and I moved to the home side. We knew nobody, and people kept staring at us. That’s one thing Regina people know how to do well: identify and ostracize those who are not their own. They also apparently know how to draw former Hawkeye greats to coach football. The Regals’ head coach is legend Marv Cook, and former stand-out wide receiver Ed Hinkel is an assistant. After enduring a couple minutes on the hill filled with Regina’s screaming and rambunctious young laity, and the severe stares from the attending priests (they must have seen dad’s lapsed-Catholic aura or something), we left.
Though it was not as enjoyable as I hoped (if it had been a close game this would have been a different post), I still relished the atmosphere. Friday night, under the lights; the cheers, game noise, and stat announcements filling my ears; my nose tickled by the scents of late summer; and football — sweet, sweet, wonderful football. There’s nothing quite like it.
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