2016 Year In Review
I attended the fewest games in a season since 2011, though still managed to attend 84 high school football games in person. My wife attended 63 games alongside me. And despite attending 43 games fewer than I did in in 2014, I had a very good reason. Earlier this past year, my wife and I welcomed our first child. A beautiful, little girl who both requires and deserves a lot of my time. And, throughout her first eight months, she attended 48 games with us.
Keeping with previous years, this is a breakdown of my travels. This year, I attended games in 9 different states. I attended games on 18 different weekends. My first game of the year was August 18th in Clinton, Tennessee and the last game was on December 17th in Arlington, Texas. I watched games in 51 different stadiums in 50 different cities or towns in 9 different states. I saw 145 different teams in those 84 games. In all the games I attended, the only game I missed part was Niles McKinley-Girard. The line was much longer than I expected and got into the game a few minutes after kickoff, and with the ensuing lightning delays, we left during the second delay at the end of the third quarter.
In games I’ve attended, there were 4,198 points scored, for an average of 49.97 points per game (1.00/game more than last year). The cumulative score was 3,010 to 1,188 for an average score of 35.833 to 14.143 compared to 34.61-14.361 average last year. There were 13 shutouts–three more than last year despite 13 fewer games attended–and the most points scored was 96 by Richland Springs in a 6-Man championship game in Texas. The most for an 11-man game was Meadville (PA)’s 67 against Grove City (PA).
Most games witnessed in one week was 12 in Week 17 (Wednesday through Saturday) in Arlington, Texas. The fewest games in one week was 3 in Week 2. I didn’t attend a Thursday game that weekend.