Documenting my travels and thoughts from around the country
Midwest States (Week 13 & 14)
The past two weeks have been quite eventful for myself. After seeing 74 games through 13 weekends of high school football, I ramped it up a bit with 25 games in 10 days on a trip through the midwest. The trip started on Tuesday, November 18th and finished Sunday, November 30th. In between, were: 3,011 miles of highway; 11 states; 24 state championship games in 4 states; a Thanksgiving Day game in suburban St. Louis; and, a lot of fun.
Week 11 (New York)
This was one of the best weekends of football I’ve gotten to experience in a while. In four days, in three cities, I and my girlfriend took in 13 NYPHSAA Sectional Championships. The week’s planning started with two triple-headers at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, NY. Because of a Bills home game on Sunday, the high school games were set for Thursday and Friday. This meant that Saturday would be open.
The original plan was then to drive into Pennsylvania, and see a District 10 Quarterfinal between Greenville and Northwestern, and then a short trip over to suburban Youngstown for Liberty-Gilmour Academy. It was during this planning, that I noted Syracuse was hosting four Section 3 championships at the Carrier Dome on Sunday. As the Browns were already playing on the road Thursday, I wasn’t in a big hurry to get back home. A further glance of the schedule shows Rochester was playing their regular Section 5 championships at Sahlen’s Stadium on Friday and Saturday. So, my mind was made up for me.
2014 Regular Season (Weeks 4-10)
With the conclusion of the regular season in most of the country, I’ve finally found some time to write a brief recap of the weeks since the kickoff games in Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, and New York.
The two most noteworthy games I wanted to write about were my two games outside the states of Ohio or Pennsylvania.
2014 Weeks 0 through 3
Unlike in years past, I haven’t been able to write more frequently. This will probably continue through the rest of the season. So, despite my lack of time, I still want to write about my travels for high school football games. And instead, will go to a more quarterly approach to the season.
2013 Year in Review
Once again, I went into the last week of the season in line to see 100 games in a year. This year, I had seen 90 games through 17 weeks with Texas’ planned ten championship games remaining. For the third year, I drove to Arlington, Texas for those games and must admit it should be on the bucket list of any high school football fan. After the Cedar Hill-Katy game, I had totaled 100 games for the second straight year.
As I’ve done the past few years, this is a breakdown of my travels. Continue reading “2013 Year in Review”
2013 Postseason
My postseason adventure began on Friday, November 8th at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. After having watched 50 games during the 11 regular season weeks, the trek began again.
2013 Regular Season
Well, I had intended to write something up regarding the 2013 season week by week. Due to some personal and business related reasons, I haven’t found the spare time mid-week to start writing. And once the weeks rolled on, I just decided to wait until after the regular season was over.
Pennsylvania (Week 17)
In what would be Ohio Week 17, I drove to Hershey, Pennsylvania for the PIAA Championship Games. I was here two years ago, and had a low opinion of the games. I wasn’t expecting much. My low expectations were surpassed, and I had an enjoyable weekend in Chocolate Town.
New Jersey (Week 16)
Due to the unfortunate tragedy wrought by Hurricane Sandy, New Jersey had pushed back their titles games to the week after the OHSAA finals. Because of this, and the lack of really any sort of doubleheaders in Pennsylvania to see, I decided to drive out to the Garden State to take in their championships being held at MetLife Stadium. It was going to be a rather tight weekend, as I planned to drive to Cleveland for the Browns-Chiefs game on Sunday with my dad. This wasn’t going to be easy.
Pennsylvania (Week 14)
The past two weeks have been games in the Keystone State again. My reasoning is simply there’s more games available than in Ohio with the lone single game on Friday night and single game on Saturday night.