Enjoy every last moment

So, it’s officially come to this.

A season that began many moons ago, with conditioning in the dead of winter giving way to training camp in the dead of summer to finally the playoffs in — Halloween’s coming up, right? — the dead of fall.

What was a guaranteed nine-game season has translated into what could be a five-week run or a 48-minute heartbreak. Either way, the competitiveness, agony, jubilation, excitement, and any other adjective you care to use to describe the football state playoffs, is what makes them so, well, I guess I’m out of them, great.

For 256 teams across the state, spilt into eight different divisions, the 2007 playoffs begin Friday night. And of those 256 teams, only eight — less than 4 percent if you’re counting — will end the season with a win.

But my advice has little to do with wins, losses, play calling or strategizing, I leave that to the men with the headsets and flashy jackets. Instead, for all 256 teams, and however many thousands of players that entails, I offer one small bit of advice.

Enjoy this time, however long or short it may be.

Enjoy every last second of it.

It won’t be long before you find yourself in class, at a party, celebrating a holiday, or anywhere in between, and the words, “remember at football…” will come pouring from your mouth.

It may be a story about training camp, a story from the locker room, from practice, from a game, from a bus ride or the playoffs — anything and everything is fair game when it comes to reminiscing about what was such an integral part of the high school career.

A play that may have been a 2-yard touchdown run with seven minutes remaining in the first quarter will turn into a 55-yard score with 12 broken tackles. Hey, there’s nothing wrong with exaggeration, it makes stories better.

While we all tend to look back at what was, many of us look back and wish they could have it once more.

Make one more bus trip.

Listen to one more pre-game speech.

Run onto a field of screaming fans one more time.

For the 256 teams that will take the field this weekend, that “one more time” is still in front of you. Cherish it as if it’s your last. Remember every little detail, every face, every name you go to battle with.

I tender this advice not as a lecturing adult who thinks he knows all (and walked to school uphill both ways in the snow), but as a former player who experienced it.

It was 2000. A bitter-cold November morning with the brightest sun I’d seen in days beamed down and welcomed us into this second-round playoff day.

As our team walked from the locker room to the chapel for a quick prayer before boarding the bus, one of my best friends gave a me a swift slap and said, “Enjoy this walk, you never know how many we have left.”

That was the last one.

My “remember at football…” conversations began days later.

Where have all the stickers gone?

Think back to when you were a kid.

Think back to when mom or dad strapped in you the back of that 1987 Aerostar for a dreaded trip to, yes, the doctor’s office!

You just knew that, no matter why you were at the doctor, you were in for one of those dreaded shots.

Of course, once a bandage of some sort was placed on your arm and most of the tears had dried the thing that made this all worth it, for me anyway, was when the nurse came back with a sheet of stickers — and I got to pick one.

That's right, a sticker took away my pain and brought a smile to my face.

OK, I know, a lot of set up to get to this, but while there may not be as many shots or waiting rooms anymore, am I off base in suggesting that high school football players still enjoy getting those little stickers and stamping them on the back of their helmets?

Good plays, big hits, touchdowns, interceptions, fumble recoveries — any type of individual play that was made for the betterment of the team — was rewarded with a small sticker, or decal if you will, the next day at practice and instantly placed on the helmet.

Is it just me, or are fewer and fewer teams doing this now days?

Maybe it has a lot to do with the “team concept” so many coaches swear by now days.

Maybe it has something to do with the way society has developed.

You know, the same society where schools across the country are outlawing playing tag or kickball because they can be too physical or too selective to less athletic kids.

Maybe the notion of one player having more noticeable individual awards than another is just not accepted anymore.

The way I see it, though, it's tradition.

Having decals and stickers on your helmet is one of the cool things about high school football. You’ll never see a professional team do it, but you’ll never see a professional team have a game and a homecoming dance or drive in an old school bus two hours to get to a field for a Friday night in front of 700 fans. You’ll never see it done by the pros because they are staples of high school football and just a few of the great traditions of the game.

Just eight or nine years ago, when I was going to homecoming dances, riding old buses and playing in front of a couple hundred people, I did so with decals on my helmet. Some teammates had more than me, some had less. Come to think of it, that’s why they looked so cool.

Maybe it’s a sign of change, where flashier uniforms and more arm bands and spatted cleats are the things to do. Maybe, although tough to admit, traditions have a way of changing.

After all, I still go to the doctor. And once in a while, I still need a shot. But I can't remember the last time I was offered a sticker.

Sports helped guide us back six years ago

Believe it or not, and it can be tough to grasp, but it’s been six years now since an ordinary Tuesday morning became a living hell on earth for so many Americans.

Six years since the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked. Six years since some ordinary people became heroes by crashing a plane in Pennsylvania, instead of its intended target, whatever that may have been.

Six years since two numbers stood for more than a date, but a change in history.

For many of us, for many of our own reasons, it’s a day that will never be forgotten.

For me, the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001 was spent on the football practice field at Albion College. It was as eerie of a feeling as you could imagine. The sky above, as blue and clear as could be, was simply quiet. Usually a plane of some sort made its way past, but not on this day.

Talk at practice, while limited, had little to do with our scheduled game that weekend. As a matter of fact, we didn’t even know if we’d be playing.

Plays at practice, while still executed, carried less weight than they usually did. Incomplete passes, missed tackles and dropped balls were just mistakes, nothing more.

It was the first time in a long time that sports for me, and the rest of the country, were put on hold.

Instead, it was phone calls home, prayers in church or just watching the news unfold.

If we think back to that awful day and the weeks following, after a few days off games at all levels resumed, but the meaning of the games changed a bit.

Instead of wins and losses, just playing the game was celebrated. Being in the stands with strangers, having the ability to cheer and boo, having that freedom slowly restored.

Never did I think sports could bring a country together in the small ways that it did. Never did I think I could watch an entire Yankees game and spend more time watching the crowd than the actual game itself. Never before did I think that the playing and singing of the national anthem could, all by itself, force me to stand in front of my TV with tears in my eyes.

Think about those days this week and this weekend. Think about that as you sit in the gym cheering on your volleyball team, or when you crowd into the bleachers around the football field.

Get caught up in the game. Celebrate the good plays, go nuts for victories. It’s our freedom as Americans to get worked up over something as trivial, yet important, as sports.

A freedom that couldn’t be stopped, not even six years ago.

Let the games begin

There’s something about reading one’s opinion, whether you disagree with it or not, that makes you want to know more about that person.

Who are they? What’s their background?

And maybe, most importantly, why do they think they can even have that opinion?

With that said, and with this new concept of blogging here at C & G, I figured what could be better for my very first entry other than a little, "Get to know Mike Moore."

In short, I’m a 24-year-old sports writer who has been working at C & G since January of 2006. I came here roughly seven months after graduating from Albion College, where, you may find it good to know since I do write about sports, I was a four-year member of the Albion College football team.

As a lifetime backup QB I did more clipboard holding than playing, but it was more than worth the time and effort.

Prior to Albion, my allegiance rested at Dearborn Divine Child High School. I spent two years as the starting QB at DC, which is why it brings me great pleasure to actually cover some of the Catholic League this season, since it is some of the best football in the state.

A little biased? OK, maybe.

And speaking of coverage, I might as well let you know just exactly which teams I’ll be writing about this fall, aside from some of the Catholic League football. My football responsibilities also include the Macomb Area Conference Gold and Silver divisions, as well as the Metro Conference.

As far as European football (soccer) goes, you’ll see me covering Divisions II and III of the Oakland Activities Association, as well as some Metro Conference and some Catholic League teams.

There certainly is an argument that fall is the most anticipated time of the sports calendar. I look forward to working with all these teams, coaches, fans and readers. I welcome feedback at all times, and as the summer months slowly fade into September, let the games begin.