View from the Sidelines

The long dog days of summer are not quite here yet but, as a sports fan, I am already beginning to feel a little deprived.

After all, with the NBA and NHL seasons concluding last week, we have now entered that uncomfortable time of the year when there is no basketball, no football and no hockey to watch; all we are left with to watch on TV is regular season major league baseball. Or, at this early point in the MLB season, snoozing through it.

It’s kind of like a dead zone of sorts out there right now with a dearth of watchable sports available to keep us sports junkies going. It happens every year sure, but it never seems fair to demanding fans like me.

Oh sure, college baseball fans have the College World Series to watch these next few weeks but, after that, we will all be feeding on sports crumbs like golf and tennis tournaments and soccer games until football season finally winds up again in August.

I know I shouldn’t be so elitist with my sports likes and dislikes but I really do like the big games – you know the World Series, the Super Bowl, the NBA finals, etc. – and there just aren’t any big games coming up right now.

In desperation, I might just have to tune in to some early-round Wimbledon tennis matches or reduce myself to watching some college baseball these next few weeks. Woe is me!

Oh boo hoo you might say to this overpaid and underworked sports scribe, but walk a mile in my stinky shoes and feel my pain… I am certainly not capable of that myself anymore anyway and could use the help.

And your sympathy, at the very least.

Until football season then…

***

Speaking of football, ol’ Previs Field just ain’t what it used to be. And neither is the game of football which will now be played there.

What it used to be was 100 yards long and 53.3 yards wide. What it is now is 80 yards long and 40 yards wide.

Welcome to the world of 8-Man football Blue Hawk fans as this fall will represent Thompson Falls’ first season ever as an 8-Man entity.

It’s already a little strange driving by Previs and seeing the goalposts more squished together out there in the middle of the field. And it’s made a little stranger yet by the absence of bleachers on either side as the wooden ones that were there have been removed.

It seems kind of stark out there on the unlined Previs turf right now, and only games with eager players on the field and fans in the yet-to-be constructed stands will cure this malady.

The Hawks’ move to the 8-Man game is not unprecedented in Sanders County as all four area squads have now undergone some kind of a realignment or another.

Beside the Hawks, the Plains Horsemen also dropped down to the 8-Man game from 11-man several years ago, the Hot Springs Savage Heat yo-yoed between the 8-Man and 6-Man games for a few years several seasons ago before settling back into the 6-Man configuration, and Noxon now has a few seasons of 6-Man under their belts after playing the 8-Man game for a few decades previously.

It seems like the movement to smaller-team football has been successful in all three of those other schools, it will be interesting to see how the Hawks adapt this fall.

Until football season then…