Eat 'em up Panthers

Larry - Deb's husband (the sometime Creston News Advertiser sports guy) took this photo and sent it to me - calling us "Fans of the Year" Um I guess we look less than enthusiastic...and our team was winning!  

Pablo, Deb and I went to the Creston Panthers boys game last night vs. Shenandoah. We figured it was one they could win, so it was a good game to attend. We were right. The boy's team this year is made up of mostly underclassmen - so they're taking their licks in conference play.

It was a sparse crowd - and made me miss the days of Kyle McCann and Ben Gerleman. Click here for school sports website and to hear the fight song if you're feeling nostalgic.
http://www.creston.k12.ia.us/

Our neighbor Colby Taylor plays for the Panthers, along with Luke Eblen, the son of a friend Pet. Colby is a young skinny tall sophomore and Luke is finally a senior - he's played varsity since his freshman year. There are a couple other kids I know from church. But the farther we get from the years our kids attended CHS, the fewer we know.

What a difference - to attend games when your child isn't involved. I remember the passion involved when I perceived the refs were "screwing" our team. Or when players from other teams were trying to hurt my kids. Amy did "break her f'in nose" (one of my favorite lines from The Longest Yard) in a game years ago. Luckily it didn't end up flattened sideways on her cheek. I could have run out on the court and elbow checked the chick that did it.

Girls' sports in Creston haven't had a very good fan-following through the years. This year they've had some boy-girl double headers. The link above has photos from one of those when there was an event going on - a fund-raiser for lupus or similar disease a hs student suffers from. Good support there.

Jud's group always had fairly decent support as they were a pretty good team. We enjoyed traveling with those parents and often car-pooled to games. We're still friends with those parents. They were a fun team to watch too, even though my baby boy didn't get to play as much as his parents would have liked!

But yes, I was once one of those over-the-top parents. Yelling things at referees that I shouldn't. Bitching about the coaching - though I usually reserved that for my husband's ears only on the drive home from the game. Our lives were pretty wrapped up in sports back then - it was hard to fast-forward to a time when we wouldn't care so much. Like now.

The crowd at last night's game was pathetic. I talked to Peg Eblen after the game - her youngest is now a frosh. She talked about how his teammate's parents are mostly first time parents - uninitiated about the ways of sports. They think that just because their kids were undefeated in junior high, that their kids will be great in high school. Peg was once that parent - back when we were the veteran parents.
A never-ending cycle. I hope they have some success so they have better crowds than last night!