High School Sports

Morton West, Clare’s old high school, made it to the state soccer semi-finals before losing, 2-1, last night.  Forty-nine buses packed with proud, excited Mustang backers made the trip to Hoffman Estates for the match. 

When Clare went to Morton, spring sports mostly ruled.  Her softball teams won regionals four straight years, and the baseball team was pretty good, too.  In fact, one of the pitchers, a year ahead of Clare, was drafted by the Angels.  He made it to high-A ball.

I never played high school sports, and I didn’t particularly like the guys who did.  You have to understand I went to an all-boys Catholic prison back in the Dark Ages.  Nobody liked the honors’ students, and they didn’t like anybody back, not that it ever bothered the football players, trust me.  But as a parent, I soon realized that my high school experience had no bearing on my daughter’s life.  Truth be told, I can’t imagine Clare without sports.

And I will admit that sports can bind a community together.  I keep thinking of the school personnel who’d run out of the building to watch Clare hit and how we’d meet people on the street we knew from school because of sports.  The same is happening right now with the soccer team, I’m sure.  Texas high school football may be as tainted as the college version, I don’t know or care.  But from what I saw with Clare and in the time since, high school sports in these parts are what sports are supposed to be like.  We’d all be better off if pro teams had more rah-rah to them and less police blotter.