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I have been doing football games for 50+ years. There is a routine in the week of preparation.
For football, it was always to prepare for Lafayette football on Monday (stats for both teams, projected starting lineups, pre-game notes, etc.) and Tuesday (press conference, read game notes, do trivia, and prepare game-day sheets).
Wednesday and Thursday were set aside for high school football with duties very similar to the Lafayette prep without the press conference and the game notes. That information was my job to gather.
However, as you know, there is no Lafayette football to even prepare for. And high school football is starting a month later than it usually does. Many refer to this time as the “new normal”. For me, this past week has been more like the “never normal”. It has been a week like none other. Allow me recap the six days:
Monday – First, I completed my blog for the week. Knowing that our first game was 12 days away, I asked for and received the rosters of both Central Catholic and Parkland. Those rosters were entered onto my game-day sheets. I then requested from my various sources the stats from last year, with particular interest in those players returning. I then read up on the prospects for both teams for the upcoming season.
Tuesday – I entered the stats from last year for Parkland, since they would not play until October 2. I did the pre-game sheets and highlighted the impact players. I sent those sheets off to our graphics person so he could get a head start.
Wednesday – This was a ZOOM day with one virtual meeting scheduled and one in-person meeting held at our studio. The ZOOM meeting was a company gathering to bring everyone up-to-date on business operations. Next, was a studio meeting to discuss how we would be doing the games in this environment. The big difference, and it is big, is that the announcers would not actually attend the game. Instead, my color analyst and I would announce the games from the studio watching television monitors. In other words, we would call the game watching like our viewers at home. This would be a career first and, despite trepidation, seemed doable. We rehearsed everyone’s role and left both fearing and anticipating Friday’s broadcast.
Thursday – I began to gather starting lineups for our first game and organized all the information. Another ZOOM meeting followed. District XI held a meeting to go over the thoughts on the football playoffs. They made a wise decision to forego state playoffs in favor of holding District playoffs (the two would have overlapped one another). A vote would be upcoming, but there was quite a bit of certainty that the votes would be there to have Districts, not states.
Friday – I made plans to attend the Central Catholic-Nazareth football game that night in order to scout both teams. A morning e-mail arrived from Whitehall saying that their game against Bethlehem Catholic was postponed. No reason was given, but it was not hard to surmise the reason. Within an hour, Parkland sent out an e-mail saying they were shutting football down until October 2. Channel 69 reported the virus had infected a member or members of the team. I attended the Central-Nazareth game that night, with the knowledge that Central-Parkland the following Friday night probably would not happen.
Saturday – I read that our scheduled first game Central at Parkland would not take place. We would need to replace the game.
It was time to start the prep all over again for two new teams. The “new normal” has become more like the “never normal”. I look forward to the challenge. Watch on Friday night, no matter who is playing. Rest assured, we will do our best.
ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)
- It turns out the Phillies needed to win just one game against the Rays in their final regular season series in order to make the playoffs. They could not do that. Season’s over as they lost seven of their last 10 games.
- There was poetic justice on Sunday when the Bengals took on the Eagles. Both teams were so bad that the football gods decided neither should win so it was an appropriate 23-23 tie. Both are now 0-2-1.
- As I suggested last week, the NFC East is not good. This past weekend, the Cowboys, Giants, Eagles, and the Washington Football Team all lost. The division winner may very well not have a winning record.
- I decided to scout some high school football on Friday night so I went to Andrew Leh Stadium to watch Central Catholic at Nazareth. The crowd was sparse, but maintained social distancing and wore masks. Nazareth was very impressive in their win, showing emotion and speed. They will be a tough opponent, for sure.
- Our scheduled high school football opener was affected by the virus. Parkland was forced to postpone their game against Central Catholic. We will bring you Northampton at Freedom LIVE on Friday night at 7:00pm.
Gary’s Guesses: NFL Picks – (LAST WEEK – 9-6-1; OVERALL- 35-12-1 – 74%)
Denver
