It would be much easier on me if the two Emery High basketball teams could either win by a huge amount or lose by a huge amount because under either circumstance I would not feel inclined to let the officials bother me and therefore I would not make a fool of myself. As it currently is, I am mouthier than I wish to be and I am quite sure much more than my wife would like me to be.
I keep trying to figure out why, is it because I have a granddaughter playing and I am protective or is it because I know the players quite well, especially the boys and again a little protective, or is it because I am just older and maybe just a little blinder. I personally do not think that it is any of the above reasons but I haven’t come up with the real reason yet.
Actually my first choice should be that the officials are just plain getting worse but unless they hate Emery, that is probably not the reason. Although it would be easy to go off on the hate Emery thing, I am quite sure that is not the case. I am a neighbor to one, friends to others and know most of the others and I know these people just love the sport the same as me and they actually are quite good people.
My second choice is that I just get caught up in the game the same as those that I sit with or around or in the vicinity of but since most of those are family, the wise man would not go there. Don’t purposely irritate your wife or daughter or any other female that I might be sitting around is a wise motto to follow.
So what is it? I don’t know. Honestly I don’t. I am quite sure though that more than one person out there will offer me their uncalled for opinion and probably several of those opinions could not be written in this newspaper.
I am going to work on it this week. With four home games, there will plenty of opportunity for me to try and analyze the situation and come to a proper conclusion. I enjoy going to games, I don’t think I need to being telling you that but just in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I will tell you that I enjoy high school ballgames. I think I have averaged around 50 games a season the past twenty five years or so.
So since I want to go, I need to go and I am going to go, I must relearn the art of shutting up when I really want to scream something that would be best left unsaid. I will try my hardest the rest of the season to keep a smile on my face and my opinions, negative ones that is, to myself. Now if I could only get others to do the same.
Sports Stuff by Gary Arrington
"Cutline"