First Game Thoughts of 2006

Loco Helmet
Originally uploaded by mdt1960.

After all these years of documenting small town high school football in Wyoming and Montana, one would think the gridiron in Cody, Wyoming (just down the road 22 miles) was covered years ago. However, I ashamed to say that last night was my first game in Cody.

As expected, neither team was very polished and neither was I when it came to working with my equipment in this initial outing of the 2006 season. The cameras felt awkward in my hands and often I found myself not very decisive in how to go about my work. Nevertheless, it was worth attending as the 5A Cody Broncs of Wyoming hosted Montana's Class A Laurel Locomotives.

Laurel has great tradition in football—a few years ago they won it all in Class A play. The number of Laurel fans in attendance almost matched the Cody fans. It seems that there are so many things going on in Cody, one gets the impression that high school football doesn't stand out like it might in a place like Laurel.

The Locomotive roster was smaller in numbers, but for the most part their starting eleven matched up well with Cody's first team. Either school could have won this game dominated by turnovers and costly mistakes. In the end, it was Cody who gave the game to Laurel although Laurel tried hard to give it to the Broncs. Laurel 6, Cody 2. Despite a threatening drive near the end, Laurel held off the Broncs and celebrated wildly on the field as if they'd won another state title.

Then there was this stupid cold from "down under" that I picked up from my wife who acquired it from her daughters when they returned from Australia for the summer. And if it weren't for having a cold, between the second and third quarters the rain came down in buckets that left me with a bad chill—suddenly summer seemed long gone.

My weather-proof Olympus digital camera held up well during the rain—in fact so well, I couldn't turn it off... Hmmm, perhaps some dampened circuitry in there somewhere. Hopefully a couple days of drying out will take care of that little glitch.

Perhaps the newest thing about the infant football season has to do with growing old. It seems that my eyes have finally weakened enough that a pair of reading glasses are needed along with the light meter, extra batteries and film when I take to the gridirons. This is a problem that I haven't quite determined how to solve. Undoubtedly by season's end, I should have an acceptable solution to this newest twist of life.