BY MICHAEL D. CLARK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
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Lakota West fans Craig Akers and Ricky Gray scream for their team.
(Aimee Obidzinski photo)
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When the weight crushes his chest and his muscles burn, senior Matt Lawless knows it's time to run the Lakota West football schedule through his head.
A 10-game season, he thinks, and then he counts them off.
One rep on the bench press for each game, no matter how much it hurts.
But it's West's third game of the season -- tonight's first-ever battle with Lakota East High School -- where Matt pushes the barbells the hardest.
"It's the biggest game. Even in church I'm thinking about it," says Matt, a team captain for undefeated Lakota West.
"Our pride is on the line. All the buildup . . . it's going to be an awesome game."
The same passion can be found in the more than 10,000 fans who will crowd into Galbreath Field tonight for the historic inaugural game between Lakota West and East high schools.
And across the Tristate tonight thousands more will continue America's love of a high school sport that excites and binds communities together like few other events.
Glorious night festival
Tonight, and every Friday night from September through November, high school football fans will crowd into modest bleachers throughout Greater Cincinnati.
They are parents, students, boosters, neighbors and simply fans of an amateur American sport and a night-time entertainment that unites neighborhoods, families and students.
As bright lights beat back the night and the on-field action heats up, the lines that divide our society melt around the field.
Powerful business executives stand in the same lines for soft drinks as those who are paid to work by the hour. Adults who would never bump into each other in the real world find themselves joining forces to lug band equipment, arrange car pooling and sell programs.
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FOOTBALL FEVER FACTS
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According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, football draws more participants -- about 957,500 nationwide -- than any other high school sport.
On any given fall Friday night in the United States, there are about 7,000 high school football games involving about 14,000 high school teams.
According to the Ohio High School Athletic Association, 708 high schools field football teams among Ohio's six athletic divisions based on student enrollment size. An estimated 42,434 Ohio boys played high school football during the last school year.
The federation's national listing of athletic participation in all sports has Texas with the most students playing at least one high school sport (731,059), followed by California (514,139), New York (321,468), Illinois (298,207) and Ohio at 293,242.
Indiana ranks 14th, at 153,238 participants in all sports, and Kentucky 29th, at 77,494 players.
Officials said attendance for regular season football games is not compiled by most states -- including Ohio -- but the federation recently estimated that more than 1 billion people attend all high school sporting events each school year.
More than 331,000 fans attended Ohio's state high school football playoffs last year.
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Kids mingle and toss foam footballs as they eye their idols on the field. Teens eye one another hoping to start a conversation that might lead to a date to the homecoming dance.
Strangers pressed close in the stands will spontaneously high-five and begin to chat.
Parents and their children talk about something other than homework and house work. Mom and dad reminisce how they met at a game at the same field decades ago.
It's a glorious night festival -- repeated at 7,000 schools across American each Friday -- giving rare celebration to the boundless energy of youth while creating a new, remixed micro-community around every high school football game.
Pep rally first
But you can't have Friday night football until you have another high school event that also brings Americans closer -- the Friday afternoon pep rally.
These energetic rallies are the sparks that ignite a community's evening excitement.
Edgewood High School is a football toss from cornfields just off of state route 73 in north central Butler County.
Inside the school's gym, Jessica Ridener bounces up and down standing and clapping in the front row bleachers.
She, and other senior girls, sport their Edgewood Cougar T-shirts. With archrival Ross High School invading Edgewood's Kumler Field, almost everyone in this small, rural community knows where he or she will be on this particular Friday night.
"Football is a big part of our community," shouts Jessica over the booming bass drum reverberating through the packed school gym. "Our school is really close."
David Hazelwood, Edgewood athletic director and a veteran school district official, knows well the universal tie that binds schools and the communities every fall.
"I think people are looking for something to be proud of -- their communities and schools and, of course, their children," said Mr. Hazelwood.
He talks with appreciation and awe about parents whose children graduated from Edgewood 10 years ago and how they continue to volunteer as school booster workers -- operating concession booths, selling programs and helping to direct traffic for every home football game.
"They do it for the kids," he said.
Big in Ohio
Bill Kurelic, a national high school recruiting analyst, says few states love their football more than Ohioans and few produce more high school "Blue Chip" college players than the Buckeye state.
"Football has always been big in Ohio. And in terms of the passion for the game, Ohio is as good as any state," said Mr. Kurelic, whose Columbus-based business provides recruiting information for colleges all over the country.
"The popularity of football in general is soaring. What makes the high school games different from college or the pros is there is more local school and community pride involved."
"Baseball used to be known as America's pastime but I think football has replaced it and that has filtered down to the high schools," he said.
More than most, Kane Krizay has seen the shift to local football passion.
Since 1979 Mr. Krizay has thought nothing of driving from his Medina, Ohio home throughout northern Ohio -- often traveling up to 60 miles -- to catch a big prep game.
"I try to go to a different game every week. I love following the smaller schools because it's a community thing," says Mr. Krizay, author of the book Cheers and Tears: 25 Years of the Ohio High School Football Championships.
"People who haven't witnessed it just don't understand it," he said.
Cheerleaders and bands
Senior Lakota West cheerleader Tera Sheperd knows her role during Friday night football games by heart. But her heart surprised her last week.
Minutes before Lakota West Firebirds' game last Friday against Talawanda High School emotions overwhelmed her during the national anthem.
"This is my last season," thought the senior. She spontaneously reached for another cheerleader.
"We grabbed each other's hands. It was a real emotional thing," said Tera. "I just love these games. This has got to be the time of my life."
Many who fill the stands feel the truth of Tera's emotions when they think back to their own high school days.
Senior Lakota West band member David Moore stands ready to take the field for a pre-game show. But he longingly glances toward the stands as the reality of his final season as a trumpet player with the Lakota band sinks in.
"It's just like a time for these people to get together and have fun," says David.
"The parents come out and give us a lot of emotional support," he adds before a shrill whistle snaps him, and other band members, to attention.
Under an azure sky fading to dusk, they march smartly onto the field with cheers ringing in their ears.
'A sense of family'
Regardless of the football score, the band never loses.
High above Lakota West's football field stands Hal Tobe, a seven-year veteran school booster. Perched on the roof of the press box four stories high, Mr. Hobe raptly watches the school's marching band perform during halftime of the Talawanda game. Like many, Mr. Hobe often pays more attention to the band than to the football game.
"There's a sense of family almost. We all look forward to Friday night football. It's a great atmosphere for building relationships with other parents," says Mr. Hobe.
"Just standing here . . . watching the band kids perform makes me proud to see the kids do so well," he says. "You come away with a feeling that there are a lot of people out there in the world with a common interest and of course the biggest common interest is for the kids."
Below him in the stands Jim Lallathin sits watching the football game with other Lakota West parents.
In his pocket is a newspaper clipping with a photo of his son, a soccer player for Lakota West. Also in his pocket is an all-sports pass purchased for $135 that gets him into every Lakota sporting event.
Last year another son, who played on Lakota West's basketball team, graduated.
No one on the field against Talawanda is related to Mr. Lallathin, but still he carves hours out of his schedule to root for the Lakota West team.
"You don't think about being any where else on Friday night," he says, smiling.
Bob Wasson has felt that way for almost three decades.
Since 1970, regardless of rain, cold or snow, he has missed only a handful of Lakota football games.
"I just enjoy high school sports," said the former Lakota Board of Education member whose own children graduated from the high school years ago.
He plans to being there tonight when the two new Lakota high schools, split from the old high school in 1997 into Lakota East and West, meet on the football field for the very first time.
"These kids are trying so hard. And it's one of the best places to watch athletes playing something for the pure pleasure of it. They don't get a scholarship like in college or get paid like the pros," says Mr. Wasson.
For Lakota West high school football coach Larry Cox the students, on and off the field, are evidence for his theory that Friday night football represents what has been and remains good about America. "Friday nights in the fall, with football, is the greatest time of the year," explains Lakota's football coach. "People have always rallied around sports in general. That's a part of society that will never be taken away."
Few other occasions allow teens to work as a unit, whether it be football, the band, cheerleading or pep sections, he says.
"That's what I love about high school football. To me it's a statement about what's right about our society," he says.
No next year
Lakota West linebacker Matt Lawless never sleeps much the night before a football game.
This week, he's dreaming of a football victory tonight against undefeated rival Lakota East.
The football schedule he memorized and recited during countless hours of weight training is dwindling in number as are his days of high school gridiron glory.
Regret softly tinges his voice when he talks about high school football. He'll miss how the game allows a young man to test his limits and hone his competitive spirit.
A game that brings so many of his peers, friends, neighbors together -- creating a high-voltage current that powered all those who gather near it.
But he knows for high school seniors there is no next year.
"This year I'm realizing that more now than ever. I don't think I could do anything that is more fun than playing this game," he says.
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