2011 IHSAA Football, Week 1

Though tonight was technically not the opening night of the IHSAA football season, it sure felt like it. All the teams hit the gridiron tonight in the first, true Friday night of high school football.

Tonight my old man and I went to Bates Field for the Dubuque Senior-City High game. We went early to get good seats and found that the sophomore game had not even reached half time yet. Kickoff was delayed 45 minutes due to lightening. A short little storm system moved through the area around 5 pm, but I do not remember any lightening. Regardless, the sophomore game did not finish until 7:30 and the varsity game did not begin until sometime around 8 — an hour after it was scheduled. I was a little peeved, but all was good.

So it is “back to football” in Iowa, and what a lovely thing it is. The sights, the sounds, the smells.

There were not too many smells tonight, except for the nauseating scent coming from the old man sitting in front of me. When my mom and sister joined us, we moved behind an old couple sitting with seatbacks. I was on the edge, behind the man, and every couple minutes my nose received a jab of what I thought was ether. It was awful, like he had been shopping around for an ideal funeral home, or cooking meth. Thankfully, the smell abated after a while during the varsity game. Perhaps he was passing gas.

ANYWAY. The second ranked Little Hawks took on perennial doormat Dubuque Senior. I had no clue what kind of team City High was going to field this year. They lost a lot of talent and versatility on offense, so I wanted to see them earn that number two ranking. I do not think they did.

Either Senior came to play (they had a HUGE defensive line) or City High is just not that good this season. Though they blanked the Rams, the Little Hawks looked one-dimensional. They either handed if off to their scatback or bruising halfback, or utilized their quick QB for a designed scrambled or short pass. City High’s defense looked solid, but I think this season will be much tougher. Two weeks from now is the annual Battle of the Boot against West, and West returns all of its starters from last season. ALL of its starters. That is unheard of. The Little Hawks also play Cedar Rapids Xavier away, which will be a very tough contest, especially in light of last year’s last second Little Hawk victory.

So here was the highlight of the game for me. The Little Hawk player pictured above, Amos Lavela, a tailback and defensive lineman, basically puked in front of the entire home stands. After hitting the ground hard or getting a helmet to the gut while playing defense, he limped to the home sideline. He was directly across from where I was sitting, and I noticed the ball boys run away from him as he took his helmet off. He appeared to be heaving. Sure enough, after throwing his helmet to the ground he leaned over and a stream of fluids flowed from his mouth. There was a collective “Ooooo” from the stands, and a woman behind me started laughing. Afterward, Lavela played very few snaps, probably because he was dehydrated.

All in all, it was another good night of high school football. Next week, my old man and I will likely watch the Solon-Regina clash. I hope Solon kicks Regina’s ass.