Elder football ready to kick off in 2010

Christmas, New Year’s Day, college football season kicking off and of course, my favorite, Brickyard 400 weekend. They all excite me. They all have a certain meaning. But maybe nothing gets my juices flowing quite like high school football.

Why? I’ve stated it numerous times before. High school football is as close to pure football as it gets. Even though players in high school are thinking about college, most of them aren’t considering playing football in college.

When I see NFL scouts at UC football games, I know that some college players want to go pro. It’s their ultimate goal. And most will get at least a shot to play in the NFL, whereas numerous high school players won’t even get a shot to play at the next level, at least for a big-time school.

High school football is all about school pride—at least here in Cincinnati where we have numerous nationally renown programs. Moeller, St. X, Elder, Colerain—all schools that battle it out in Southwest Ohio for supremacy.

Last year, before the Colerain-Elder matchup that was broadcast worldwide on ESPN, Paul Daugherty, the Cincinnati Enquirer’s sports columnist, wrote, “It’s just different at places like Elder and Colerain. Football doesn’t define those communities. It does help explain them. Football is a stitch in the fabric, a color in the local cultural palette. It’s an heirloom, mostly.”

Come to Price Hill on a Friday in September or October. It’s an experience you’ll never forget. People clad in purple walk for miles to see high school kids play. Current UC beat writer and LaSalle grad Bill Koch wrote a book about Elder High School called The Pride of Price Hill: Cincinnati's West Side and the Elder Mystique. In it he notes, “Perhaps there is no other school in America with such a huge legion of faithful. There’s truly something different about this place.”

And there is. When Elder takes the field on Friday night at UC against defending Division-II state champs Winton Woods, there won’t be one Elder fan who doesn’t think that the Panthers will roll the Warriors.

And for the seventh year, I’ll be sitting in the pressbox, doing stats and helping the coaching staff with whatever they need after the game. They enjoy having me back, and I’m just glad I still have the opportunity to do what I love at two different levels of football.

When people ask me how good Elder is supposed to be I tell them I don’t know, and this is one of the few years in the past decade where I really don’t know exactly how good the Panthers will be. But I know I’ve heard nothing but good reports from Elder fans and coaches.

I’m looking forward to seeing high school football. The question is, are you?