This past weekend I was outside and could just smell my favorite season of the year. I love the fall. The weather cools off, the leaves change colors, and the smell of a football field on Friday night is tough to beat. A fall weekend seems as close to heaven on earth as I will ever find.
Earlier this summer on July 16, a football mom e-mailed me telling me how excited she was for football season to begin. I thought to myself, “Wow, it isn’t even August yet!”
At the bottom of the e-mail was a YouTube video of country singer Kenny Chesney’s new song, The Boys of Fall.
The instant I heard the song, I knew Chesney had to have played high school football. He did his best to capture the essence of the game in less than four minutes of music.
Just this past week, the football coaches watched an hour-long documentary on ESPN titled The Boys of Fall,
which was a tribute to high school football produced by Chesney himself. I wish every parent, teacher, and child could have seen that video. Many people think football players are a bunch of Neanderthals running around hitting each other at full speed. These people miss football’s camaraderie, relationships, and lessons learned by young men through the journey of a season. What young men learn during the journey of a football season often comes back to help them in their future when dealing with real world adversity.
While my years of schooling have benefited me greatly, there are few places where I learned more about life than on the football field. Whether it was in junior high football and learning to stick up for myself, or when I was a varsity starter learning how to take my talent to the next level, football was and still is a steady influence on my life.
Football season has officially started and I strive to soak up every moment of it. College football on Saturdays, Viking games on Sunday afternoons, backyard football with my kids on a cool fall weekend and of course the best of them all, high school football on Friday nights under the lights.
Like many others who have come before me, there is a certain pride and nostalgia in being a part of the Cook County football family. When I was a boy I would watch guys like Danny Marks, Peter Borson, Terry Sjadak, and other. As I got older, I then played football on Friday nights under the guidance of Lyle Anderson. I never would have imagined that one day I would be coaching under those same lights.
My passion along with the passion of my fellow coaches is to provide today’s Cook County Vikings with the best high school football experience possible. Thisyear’s team is a young group of players who are extremely hard working and enthusiastic. While young, they are also incredibly talented.
Even if you haven’t done so in previous years, I encourage you to get out of the house in the coming weeks and join the community of fans who enjoy high school football on Friday nights. The Vikings play at home for the next three Friday nights in a row. It just might be the best entertainment of the year.
You never know, once you come out to watch these young guys play, you too might be hooked on TheBoys of Fall.
Mitch Dorr, a Cook County
High School Class of 1993
graduate, is now a social
studies teacher and coach at
his former alma mater. Mitch
coaches Vikings football and
boys’ basketball. Coach Dorr’s
comments do not necessarily
reflect the opinion of the
ISD 166 school board or
administration.
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