Sanity and sports

Sometimes the world seems like an extra crazy place. It’s why we seek escape in comfortable places and pastimes like games or sports. But, nowadays even these can be challenging and confusing.
Just in the last week we were told there is water on Mars and we might not be alone in our solar system anymore. The Speaker of the House resigned, forced out of Congress by his own Republican party. The Pope came to visit and lectured us about taking care of our planet, the hungry and the unborn. We sent sympathy and help to our Valley Fire neighbors, and then became outraged at news of fire zone lootings and thefts. We took pity on the millions of Syrian and Middle East refuges, chased from their war-torn homelands. And then we pitied ourselves for paying too much attention to all this noisy news we can’t do anything about.
This is when sports and games can help. Just like the fire-ravaged community of Middletown came together last Friday at a high school football game at Lower Lake, so do many of us each week under our Friday Night Lights. (Never mind some of the prep football and soccer games are played on Saturdays.)
More people fill the Rec Park bleachers and sidelines at the Greyhounds football games than ever attend a school board or city council meeting. Truth be told, there might be more Greyhounds’ football fans than church worshipers in Healdsburg, but that’s not an entirely bad thing.
The Friday night football scene has been repeated for many generations. It is a community ritual that reminds us all is not wrong with the world after all. Some years the Greyhounds win more games than others, but the final score never dims our pride for our alma mater.
It used to be the same for our favorite professional sports teams and heroes, too. But last week we watched a pro baseball player choke his teammate during a fight in the dugout in the middle of a game. Some of our football heroes have been arrested for child abuse and domestic violence. Aldon Smith, the 49ers’ best defensive player, was cut from the team after his fourth DUI and weapons arrest, only to be hired by the Oakland Raiders.
All to say, this crazy world is infecting our sports pastimes, too. We must be more careful in keeping our local prep sports and student-athletes apart from what’s happening in professional sports. They need the right kind of role models. Athletes used to be better choices than politicians and celebrities. Now too many are criminals.
Each week, this newspaper devotes lots of coverage to the boys and girls who play sports. We want to encourage the healthy pursuit of team play and individual accomplishments. We aim to salute the volunteer coaches, supportive families and school boosters for their contributions to some of our community’s most cherished gatherings and pastimes. We are often told that our sports editor Greg Clementi is an unsung hero for his tireless work through all the seasons of the local sports calendar. He’s been covering the local sports beat for 12 years now. Besides the Friday Night Lights football games, we cover girls golf, volleyball, coed cross country and boys and girls soccer. Greg reports on five high schools, as well as collects results for pee wee football, youth soccer tournaments and some adult sports leagues.
Our weekly newspaper doesn’t cover the Pope’s visit, Mars explorations or professional big money sports. But we can’t promise some of the more local news we cover won’t seem crazy or confusing from time to time.
When that happens we have a suggestion. We’ll meet you in the bleachers at the next home game and we’ll cheer for some real winners.
 — Rollie Atkinson