Ahhhh – Homecoming.
When you say that word, what is the one thing that comes to mind? For me, it’s football and even more specifically, high school football.
Today as Friday Night Lights, Week 4 approaches, it’s important to note that the Platte County, West Platte and Park Hill high school football teams will all take the field tonight for Homecoming clashes. The Pirates will face a dangerous Grandview team, West Platte will play host to a quick Lathrop team that may wind up as KCI Conference champions and Park Hill faces a winless Truman team in Trojans head coach Josh Hood’s first Homecoming on the Hill.
No matter what the final outcomes are tonight, there’s plenty y of season left. Playoff berths will not be won or lost, nor will conference crowns, though losses by any one of the local Platte County schools mentioned above will not help their chances to win league titles.
But make no mistake about it - gridiron victories are an essential component of the Homecoming experience. This is true not only for the students and student-athletes involved, but for their parents and other school patrons and community members.
I have stated often over the years that when the home team wins, it makes everybody feel better. Conversations at the grocery store or post office the next morning are often more pleasant and fans of the home team get a little extra pep in the step. Heck, just look at the euphoria surrounding the Kansas City metro after the Chiefs’ win Thursday night at Philadelphia made them the NFL’s first 3-0 team this season.
Likewise, a Homecoming loss is always something of a buzz-kill and the flowers don’t seem as bright on the Homecoming corsages.
So, good luck to the Pirates, Bluejays and Trojans – and all their fans, too.
LOVE THOSE ROYALS
Citizen ad manager Pam Ulitschan asked me during a staff meeting this morning if I would Tweet something nice about the Royals this weekend. She said that the only time I tweet anything about the Boys in Blue, it’s negative.
After further review, I would say she’s mostly right – I don’t tweet a lot about the Royals, but when I do, most of the time it has been negative comments. This is mostly because Royals manager Ned Yost drives me crazy sometimes – the guy just makes too many head scratching moves for my taste.
Anyways, I’m taking Pam’s suggestion to heart and starting off this weekend – which includes a crucial Royals vs. Texas Rangers 3-game set at the K - with some rah-rah Royals rhetoric.
First of all, I doubt there is a bigger Royals fan on the planet there’s yours truly. There may be plenty of folks out there who share my passion, but I would challenge anybody who says they bleed more Royals blue than me. I went to my first game in their first year – 1969 - I was there during all the glory years and I’ve been there for the past 20 or so non-glory years. I would guess I’ve probably been to nearly 1,000 Royals games in my 51 years.
In light of that, this season has been a lot of fun – normally the Royals are 20 games out of first right now and have been relegated to the inside pages of The KC Star’s sports section. The mere fact that with 10 games left, they are just three games out of a playoff spot as of this writing is exciting stuff.
And the Royals have some players to be excited about – Alex Gordon, Billy Butler, Eric Hosmer, Salvy Perez, Mike Moustakas, Greg Holland, James Shields, etc.
I will be in the stands on Sunday when the Royals play their final regular-season home game.
Here’s hoping it’s the not the final game, period.
And here’s also hoping I don’t have to tweet this anymore this season: #yosted.