Seriously, is it the perpetually moppy grass at Beach High School or the lightning-fast and splendid turf fields at Killdeer High or the Biesiot Activities Center? It might be the cozy feel of the Richardton-Taylor grounds and the packed-stands for Heart River games — with the outside of the stadium ringed by pickup-trucks — which create incredibly homey experiences, while you can expect the entire population of the city of Bowman (and the surrounding area) to show up at each-and-every Bowman County High School home-matchup.
You know, Florida-Man comes from the best pound-for-pound football state in the US, with a smaller population than California, New York and Texas and just-as-many top-tier gridiron standouts on active NFL rosters as — if not more-than — those states. So, while it’s not bragging when something is true, I have to be thrilled to have covered football in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Mississippi and my beloved Sunshine State.
It’s been a wild-ride, throughout, but I’m gonna give credit-where-credit-is-due to North Dakota. Having witnessed some of the hardest-working athletes anywhere, who dense-pack oodles of training into truncated sports-calendars, one would think the traditions aren’t nearly as refined … nor abundant.
But they are most-definitely well-worn and -earned, while offering a foreigner a truly unique experience all-the-same. One never can be quite certain how-quickly those winter temperatures might roll in, so the football players here have to “make-hay-while-the-sun-shines,” like one young man at Beach’s practice over the weekend, wearing a cowboy-hat and -boots and a buckskin jacket while filling in as a defensive-lineman so the offense could run plays around him. For all I know, the player — whose name is Blaze Zachmann — actually had just BEEN bailing hay before practice, but I must admit it was the first time I’ve seen a cowboy-hat amidst helmets during practice drills (zero-contact-or-not).
Not to change the subject, but have you ever heard a more “movie-star” name than “Blaze Zachmann”? I know I haven’t … that young-man’s name is awesome.
But truth-be-told, I can just add it to the list of sports-curiosities I have witnessed in the 25-plus years I’ve been working in the newspaper industry, and that’s half the fun of it: Being able to see something new and taking the time to embrace what is going on between the white lines.
Don’t get me wrong, football is the top-draw in every American community — whether it’s the aforementioned football-meccas or Anchorage, Alaska or Honolulu, Hawaii or Hettinger County, ND — and that’s just the way it is. But I love how football carves itself into the identities of rural, big-city or country-as-a-chicken-coop communities, what the weather is like, how they perform in inclement conditions or heat and what kinds of food gets served at games. Each location has its-own flavor and each little universe revolves around that oval-shaped track that rings the football field, or the fence that gives fans something to rest their arms on while they enjoy the games and chat with their friends for an hour or so on a Friday night. The reality that they get to see how far the “neighbor-kid” has come in the game over the last few years or whether their grandson is finally gonna get the starting-nod at quarterback is incidental to the enjoyment, but adds layers to the intrigue.
Yeah, football is king in a kingless country and as distinctive in each individual town or community as the people who populate the stands. I’m just glad I get to see y’all’s approach from the outside-in, while reporting on the game from the inside-out.
Meanwhile, The Dickinson Press special prep football section will be released in a little over a week, so get ready for that, and the season will be here before you know it. We will be on-the-spot with as much information as we can get from the coaches, fans, players and families, so keep it comin’, folks.
Here’s to football season, let’s hope the weather holds up for a little while.
Gaylon is a sportswriter who originally is from Jensen Beach, Fla. and his column appears weekly. He can be reached at
and/or 701-456-1213.
Opinion by
Gaylon Wm. Parker
Gaylon is a sportswriter from Jensen Beach, Fla., but has lived all over the world. Growing up with an athletic background gave him a love of sports that led to a journalism career in such places as Enid, Okla., Alamogordo, N.M., Pascagoula, Miss. and Viera, Fla. since 1998. His main passion is small-town community sports, particularly baseball and soccer.
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Publish date : 2024-08-12 02:48:00
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