High School Sports

Michele and I went out on the front porch for twenty minutes last night to watch the fireworks.  That might seem odd for a weeknight in mid-October, but the high school was celebrating the soccer team’s number-one ranking in the country.  When you got it, flaunt it.

How times change.  When Clare graduated Morton in 2010, spring sports were the thing.  One of the baseball players was drafted by the White Sox his senior year, then played a year of community college before he was drafted and signed by the Angels; he made it to high-A.  In softball, Clare and a teammate ended up at different schools in the same conference.  Look at the record books for Elmhurst or North Central College, and you’ll see their names.  But that was then.

The demographics are skewered more toward a Hispanic student body at Morton these days.  That’s definitely good for soccer, and it hasn’t hurt football or basketball, which has a real United-Nations’ roster that does incredibly well in a very tough suburban conference.  But spring sports, not so much.  Working-class families can’t afford travel ball expenses, or, if they can, it’s going to be for soccer.  But everything’s cyclical.  Another Clare is out there, waiting to hit .450 her junior year to get on the radar….