Friday the 16th: made a special-guest-starring appearance on the mic at a football game between two schools considered rivals of my own school and each other. Hempfield athletic director Steve Polonus is an old acquaintance, he was an assistant basketball coach at McCaskey in the early 1990s and was also AD at JPM for several years. He had contacted me about a week earlier, his regular guy couldn't work on this night and he asked if I might be available. Since McCaskey wasn't playing at home and I was not otherwise occupied I wasn't about to turn him down. Manheim Township was the opponent, when I was on the field in the pregame MT head coach Mark Evans was pleasantly surprised to see me there. Coach Evans and I have a unique connection: we already knew each other from football when he took over doing the scorebooks for MT's boys basketball team a few years back, the first time we worked basketball together was at a game at McCaskey. When we visited Township later that season he was doing the PA as well as the book, he told me he had not done both until we worked together that night at JPM. He said working that game with me inspired him to want to do the PA at his home games. I realized he was paying me one hell of a compliment and I greatly appreciated it especially since it was coming from a man who has enjoyed a great deal of success in the coaching profession and mentoring the young men who have played under him. In the game itself Township took control almost the word GO and won easily 49-7. There were actual real live people in attendance, Steve told me they were capped at about 400 with most of the tickets reserved for parents and family members. There were some fans who recognized me, I got a few "Frenchy, what are you doing here?" reactions but nobody seemed to mind the fact that I was there. It's always unusual to work a game not involving your own team but I managed to muddle through and make it sound like I knew what the hell I was doing. Take care, thanks for reading.
