My stepson Adam poses with our former next door neighbor and starter for the Panthers in 1998 and '99, Jason Anderson. |
Now,
strange as it may sound, it’s my therapy. It’s the diversion from a fairly
hectic work schedule.
So when I thought about all the ways I could get involved with Springboro football – keeping statistics maybe, or doing the laundry, I don’t know – I decided to do what I enjoy the most.
I can’t tell you how thrilled and honored I am to write about the Panthers this season.
I’ve spent a lifetime around this program. It’s part of who I am.
I thought about all that a week or so ago when I sat in on a team meeting over at Camp Higher Ground, where the Panthers went on a retreat. Head coach Ryan Wilhite does a great job of teaching more than just the fundamentals of football, and this particular meeting was devoted more to personal growth than anything having to do with a blitz or a bomb.
I looked around and saw players who do more than just represent the 2012 Springboro football team. Instead, they represent an entire program that has a loud and proud history.
Dick Mahan led the Boro defense in the early 70s. |
The faces I saw all inherit a significant history. And they know it, even though there’s no way yet they can fully appreciate it. That won’t come for several years.
I’ve been around for just about all of that history, in some way or another.
I remember the Homecoming Game in 1967 or ’68 when the temperature was like 10 below zero (would a 7-year-old stretch the truth about something like that?) and quarterback Bill Crocker took a hard hit to the head and immediately came out of the game. Word soon spread that Bill’s helmet split right in two and he was on his way to the hospital, a report we immediately accepted as true. Because he didn’t play the next game, we thought he was dead. You’ll be happy to know that Bill Crocker and still alive and well to this day.
I remember the entire 1972 season and how, because the tiny locker room inside the school couldn’t house the entire football team, they instead huddled in a tree-lined area just at the north end of the school. My friends and I would sneak up to the corner edge of that area so we could hear all the coaches as they shouted directions at the players, who all looked so BIG. Head coach Don Ross never shouted, but then he didn’t need to. When he talked, everyone listened.
In a strange twist of fate, my family moved to
I became sports editor of what was known then as The Star Free Press, which directly competed with The Franklin Chronicle in reporting all the events in
I remember the first time I met head coach Bruce Smith, whose father Everett had been one of my pee wee coaches years ago (a legend, by the way, the George Halas of Springboro football). He kept saying his team would go 1-9, maybe 2-8 if they were lucky. And he sounded serious.
Bruce Smith, head coach of the Panthers from 1974-86 and then again in '88 and '89 |
My writing career lasted until 1987. After that, when I went to Springboro football games, I was a fan in the stands, believing that my writing days were over.
I saw the ’91 team, with Stuckey as head coach, win 9 of its 10 games. I saw the first-ever game in what is now known as Care Flight field, in 1996 against
Rodney Roberts became head coach in 2002, which gave me two years to go to Boro games. Not only did I know of quite a few players because my stepson had played football with them over the years, now I had a fellow Wildcat in Panther land. Though I didn’t know him well, we nonetheless shared a bond. And when he enjoyed success, I proclaimed it was because he was
When I wrote the book, “The Heart of the Panthers,” I did so because I had this huge longing to record some of Springboro’s football history. As the town grew bigger and bigger, that little town we used to know has all but disappeared. The present day scenes feature the Panthers under the direction of Rodney Roberts.
The 2012 Panthers after their final pre-season scrimmage against Franklin. |
Then Facebook brought an entire reading audience to my living room computer.
I created a page devoted to “The Heart of the Panthers,” where I could post photographs, write new developments – what’s more – get instant feedback.
That was great, but still something was lacking. I didn’t have the press credentials that gave me a real reason to ask questions of the coaches and players.
Now, with this position with The Springboro Sun, I do.
I’m not a coach, so I’m not around to say who should be on the field and what play ought to be run. I’m too old to play quarterback. So this is the best way I know to be part of the program. I’ll help create scrapbook material, and put it in context of Springboro’s overall story.
Are you ready for some football? Yeah, me too.