When Ralph Damiani taught algebra in high school in Africa during my first Peace Corps year, I found that there was a huge gulf between taking algebra and passing it with a B and teaching it
Writer left out in the cold
Ralph Damiani
Don't get me wrong. I like sports. There is nothing more I enjoy than going to a baseball game or watching a football game. I like to play golf and think sport in general is a great thing.
But when I taught algebra in high school in Africa during my first Peace Corps year, I found that there was a huge gulf between taking algebra and passing it with a B and teaching it.
The same applies to sports. Because you like sports does not mean that you can cover it or report on it.
I am filling in with sports for a couple of weeks as we are in transition from the old sports editor to a new one starting the end of the month. Now, I say filling in and that is being very generous to what I am doing.
(I offer my apologies to any coach who scratches his head at any of the stories I happen to pen here.)
But mostly, I am taking calls, trying to organize some coverage with coaches and get the pages out. But I do have some history of actually covering sports and if you understood my experience with this, you would understand why I like news.
I was the editor at the Optic years ago (won't say how many) and the sports editor had to be out of town on some personal matter. So I decided that I'd cover Highland's last football game of the season.
They were something like 1-9 and were expected to lose big (were playing a Colorado school but can't recall who.) So how hard could it be.
Well, woke that morning to one of the coldest days I had ever experienced. It was like 5 below zero and there was an icy wind blowing across the city. Surely, they'd call the game off.
Nope, the AD told me on the phone, kickoff was set for 2 p.m.
I don't know how things are now, but then the press box was open air so what it was outside, it was in there. Arrived about 1:30 to do some pre-game interviews and thought I had missed the thing. There was not a soul around.
Went in and everyone was inside, skipping the warm-ups. Just before 2 we all went out. It was eerie.
There was not one person - not one - in the stands. But the game got underway and I was right about one thing, it was no contest. At half-time it was 49-0 - in favor of the Colorado school.
I went downstairs to the locker area to warm up - I don't think I took half a page of notes it was so cold - convinced that they would call off the second half.
But no, they said the game must go on. And it did - sort of.
With the kickoff the clock never stopped. Out of bounds? Keep the clock running.
Incomplete pass? Keep the clock running. Call a timeout? Keep the clock running.
Even at the quarter change as the teams moved around, they clock kept running. It was the first - and only time - I have ever seen 30 minutes of football take 30 minutes.
To this day I don't know how I didn't lose a foot it was that cold.
But the gun went off and everybody took off. By the time I got down from the press box there was no one left within view.
And I made a note to talk to my sports editor Monday and see if his out-of-town trip was nothing more that an effort on his part to avoid being frozen.
Oh, the final score? 49-0.
