No more Thursday games!

I shall admit it. I don’t like change. High school football games are supposed to be played on Friday nights.

Right? Uh, wrong, at least when it comes to the games during the annual state teacher meeting.

So I have but one small request to post here, one that will probably not make one bit of difference.

That is how most of my requests wind up, in the trash can. This one will probably wind up the same way, but I must voice this simple request: NO MORE THURSDAY NIGHT HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAMES!

There, it is off my chest. Actually, it was never on my chest. But it was on my mind, and hopefully on the minds of others.

Now the Thursday night game between Panama and Spiro to open the season was fine. My problem is the Thursday night games the week of the state teacher meetings.

All the county games were played Thursday. I know a lot of people enjoy this change of routine. Most of the coaches do because it gives them an extra day to prepare for the following game. Some of the players probably like it, also. It even gives the fans and supporters extra time for a long weekend.

So what is my problem? If you are going to play these games on Thursday, it should only be between teams that are a short distance apart, like Panama and Spiro.

Valliant played at Spiro and Poteau visited Broken Bow. Most of those schools didn’t have school on Friday. Poteau did. So after getting back from the game well after midnight, Poteau’s players, coaches, band, cheerleaders and students were expected to attend school all day on Friday.

I doubt a whole lot of learning took place Friday. From what I understand, Poteau was the only county school to actually have school on Thursday and Friday. The players were also expected to not miss one second of class on Friday, per the upper echelons of administration.

But that is not the only negative. How about the fans from Poteau and Valliant? Fortunately, Poteau’s game ended early. Valliant’s game at Spiro ended at 10:50 p.m. thanks to the pinball-like scoring and an injury timeout that lasted over 30 minutes.

Those fans, many who likely had jobs, probably did not get home until the wee morning hours. Hopefully some of them had the day off or did not have to report early.

Others did. Friday was not a good day for the old Craigman. After the late night on Thursday, I got up early to work on the Journal (as usual), then worked from 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. I did it, but it wasn’t easy.

So I hope the school administrators and coaches will take this into consideration before games are scheduled for the 2011 season and realize these Thursday games are not a good idea, especially those featuring long drives.