Year of the Union: Gate City Blue Devils Won't Have a Prayer

Gate City, Virginia, is a small town with a medium-sized school that has a large collection of state championships. High school football is the best publicized of all the sports. I grew up in Gate City, and it is not normal for the football season to end after the regular games, without going into regional playoffs. Fans expect to watch state championship games at least every two or three years.

I last wrote about high school football two years ago; the article was titled "Gate City Blue Devils Still Pray and Still Win." "Blue Devils" is the official nickname of the team, although there is historical precedent for "The Big Blue Cannonball," plus a classic song by that name recorded by a local d.j. The article was about a student protest about being forbidden to express general good wishes, in the form of Christian prayers, before a football game. The kids lost the game at which prayers were forbidden. They won the next game, though, and the next...and yet another state championship.

This felt normal and natural and the way things ought to be. Times change, however, and populations change, and the system was preparing to tilt. Wise County, our neighbors to the north, has finally re-consolidated two of its previously consolidated schools. Although plans for the physical structure of the new "Union High School" are still being debated, students from Appalachia High School are already sharing a building with Powell Valley High School.

Although they've been rivals for dominance of their league in the past, these kids are now playing on the same team. Apparently they're playing well. On Friday night, while Gate City lost its third game in a row (Gate City 7, opponents in the double digits), Union romped over Lebanon, 19-0.

Historically, schools in our league have tended to romp over Lebanon. Historically, all by itself in the small schools' league, Powell Valley has been very competitive. Invitational Saturday afternoon games between Powell Valley and Gate City have been well attended and reportedly intense. The merger with Appalachia, usually their close rival and sometimes Gate City's, has not been expected to weaken Powell Valley.

When the merger was proposed and debated, I remarked that it would adversely affect both Wise County and Scott County scholarship seekers. I anticipated that, together, the Powell Valley Vikings and Appalachia Bulldogs could give Gate City some serious competition...making football games more interesting, and also halving the odds of students from either school winning any scholarships for which a state championship could be useful.

But, the way this football season is going? Not a chance. I've seen Powell Valley win other competitions simply by catching Gate City napping, and this year the Blue Devils are definitely napping. 7-48 to Kentucky? 7-27 to Sullivan South! Please tell me none of these guys is a close relative of mine!

Because there is still time for students competing in other sports to heed a warning from a faithful fan, I will mention that that chattery Little Squirrel, Saloli, has reported that conscience pangs may be what's ailing this year's Blue Devils. Specifically, the ones in that "blended family" in the trailer house. Five high school students (all different colors), two large dogs, an unspecified number of smaller dogs and cats, no visible fathers, and one visibly frazzled mother, in one 40-year-old trailer...we can sort of understand why some of the dogs and teenagers are getting out at night and making themselves nuisances in the neighborhood.

To understand is not necessarily to forgive. While the police are still only watching these guys, my recommendation to the team is that they are under too much stress to be expected to maintain performance standards worthy of Gate City. Picking up litter, getting our scenic highways ready for the annual "leaf peepers," might be a better way to de-stress these teenagers on weekends, instead of having to compete with students who have been preparing to smash their way into a bigger league. The Trailer House Gang need a lot of space, silence, and solitude so that they won't feel a need to invade the space of others.

I'm not sure whether other students at Gate City have been seriously trying to harness the power of a good conscience, lately, but I recommend that they all take this step. Grow some public spirit. Do nice things for your neighbors. Be courteous to your elders. Try, if at all possible, to find a way to show courtesy and good sportsmanship to rival teams that have just clobbered you--I've seen Powell Valley types do that, too. If you don't pray, meditate and visualize world peace. It does help...in other avenues of scholarship-seeking, and perhaps even in football.

So, of course, does training, practice, and awareness that the mere name of Gate City does not (if it ever did) paralyze rival schools with those legendary "blue devils" of anxiety, insecurity, and distraction. Union is obviously ready to start its own legend, and the rest of the league now know that this year's Big Blue Cannonball is not on the track to the state championship...at least in football.

This post is being typed in a computer center that has a Gate City mailing address. A football game is on. Some people have lingered in the computer center to watch the game, and here in Gate City I'm overhearing male football fans say, without shame and without challenge, that those presumptuous louts from Kentucky are now "their team."

Union is not and will never be "my team," but it is, regretfully, the team I'm betting will make it at least to the semifinal round of playoffs.