Funny, I’ve always felt bad for the kids who were the superstars in high school because they always spend the rest of their lives looking back at their glory days.
It must be awful for these kids to hit college or a career where no one gives a damn that they made a touchdown in some forgotten and obscure game. Or that they dated the captain of the basketball team.
I should feel fortunate that I was never any good at anything. But I was a good kid. Unlike my brother who was a holy terror. My parents tried everything to rein him in. Even money. They bribed him to be good but I was good for nothing.
The former hs football coach, that won a title 40 years ago last fall, did so at a neighboring school district. IL schools had joined the national trend of post-season play 9 years before (1974).
That simply ramped up the emphasis to win, with every school wanting a state trophy. Unfortunately, a KID can end up lamenting all his life a missed tackle, block, a fumble, etc, because he ‘cost’ his school a state title. Pretty sad.
But we make ‘gods’ out of athletes. Or we say, “but this or that athlete glorifies Jesus with his testimony”. I guess that’s better than not doing so.