The Sesser-Valier-Waltonville-Woodlawn Devils will be a huge underdog when they travel to Mount Carmel on Saturday to take on the undefeated Golden Aces. But, after 25 years of broadcasting and a lifetime of following high school sports, let me point out that this game is not about … well … it’s not about ‘just this game.’
Certainly, everybody wants to win and move on but I have always been a big believer that Saturday afternoon football in Week No. 10 and beyond is about much more than the team with the most points at the end of the fourth quarter. It’s about the ‘experience.’
Let me explain.
For SVWW, this matchup on Saturday is about weight-lifting and conditioning last winter. It’s about getting up before daylight and the sold-out, above the line commitment to a program, your coaches and teammates. It’s about football camps and 7-on-7 scrimmages on hot summer weekends. It’s about two-a-day (and maybe three-a-day) practices on sweltering hot and humid August days. It’s about the anticipation of week one. It’s about Friday night lights and the weekly grind and routine of a nine-week football season. It’s about rebounding mentally from a tough loss. It’s about counting, recounting and then counting again the number of playoff points your favorite team has. It’s about knocking off a very good Carmi-White County team in week nine to get that fifth win. It’s about setting a goal to make the playoffs and then reaching it. It’s about scratching and clawing for that coveted fifth win and then feeling the joy of knowing that you will have more practices, more game prep, and more time with your teammates and most important — you will play one more game. It’s about preparing for an opponent while more than 300 other teams are looking ahead to wrestling and basketball. It’s about a team breakfast on Saturday morning – Game Day — with guys that you love and respect and would go to the gravel for. It’s about a long bus ride with your teammates on a glorious fall day. It’s about playing against one of the storied football programs in Illinois. It’s about playing at “The Pit” – a one-of-a-kind facility that will give you ‘goose-bumps’ when you see it for the first time. It’s about embracing every moment, every smell, every visual effect, and every noise of the game, the experience. It’s about memories – not any old memory that will fade away but lifetime memories that will still be vivid decades and decades from now.
Yes, there’s a football game Saturday when SVWW will be the little guy in a David vs. Goliath match up. I’ve said it for years, the game is super important … but it pales in comparison to the experience.
Enjoy. Every. Second.
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