HASHMARKS; Covering HS football a grind compared to the college game, but you can't beat the purity

Sep. 2—In 22 seasons of doing this in the Gee, I've experienced everything from semi-pro football to national championship games, all live.

Semi-pro set aside, I'll start by saying there's nothing nicer and less stressful than covering college football in person, which is a few years into my past here.

There are official stats. There's game notes and game quotes — provided by the school's staff. Me, I'd go down post-game and find my own quotes, including one-on-ones done after requesting particular coaches or players. I'd do my own stats every now and then for note-taking purposes, but it was far more assuring knowing there were 10 or so game day people assigned to every possible statistic there was.

The press box food was pretty good too, although OSU wins in that category among state schools. T. Boone always tried harder. Whatever the stadium suites were having, the press was having. I always liked how Mr. Pickens would make his rounds in the press box pre-game, available for most anything you wanted to ask, or if not, just shoot the bull. I heard of a few of his Muskogee stories. Nice guy and you can bet OSU misses him.

Any of you who think covering college football is "next-level" to high school, well, let's hold the phone. Prestigious? Maybe. NILs and scholarships? Certainly, when you're talking about playing at the next level. But there's no NIL deals for scribes. (Although anyone who has an offer, who am I not to listen?..)

Let me say unequivocally, covering high school football is much tougher. Basketball, baseball, same goes.

First, you may not always get a seat these days in the press box. You always knew some seats went to coaches as well as clock and announcing crew, and a radio crew on occasion. But now some of those seats make up VIP sections sold to the highest bidder. Radio or streaming used to consist of two or three people, but with these student-produced production, it's grown at a rate faster than facilities to accommodate (would you ever expand a science curriculum without enough lab space?)

On one occasion, I was directed to the room where such a student group was. In a seating capacity of three, they had 14 kids, most of them standing, most looking puzzled as to what they were to do up there.

Thankfully, most of our area schools take care of our guys at home games. That's rarely the case on the road. All those filling seats mentioned above pretty much squeeze us out.

So seat or no seat, we've still got to stat the game. There's a good chance all the various media there will have stats that differ. Some larger schools and some private schools now have their own official stat keeper, but those are rare.

If you get a seat, you've got to deal with those who think you're sitting there with a pizza in a recliner, and will constantly text you for personal-service score updates. Folks, myself and our freelance guys post scoring updates on our Facebook page, Muskogee Phoenix Sports Plus. If you know how to use Messenger, you know how to use Facebook.

Press box food? Muskogee does it as well as anyone. But in most places, even here in the area, you're on your own. Which is fine. It is a luxury item, but it does seem that by comparison that basketball venues consistently offer them. Football, not so much. So you just have to plan ahead to avoid standing in line like you're a casual fan.

Restrooms? Another slam dunk for Rougher Nation. Otherwise, plan accordingly, and while you're adding up halftime stats, be sure to politely dodge radio people who request your presence on air at halftime. You have a round-trip to make, and there's no express lane in the powder room for press box people.

You won't find quote sheets at a high school game. You get your own and hope it's not a three-hour game with a coach who takes an excessive amount of "team time" in the locker room before anyone becomes available.

At game's end, and similar to colleges, our area high school teams are quite graceful in allowing us time to get our stories done from the box. On the road, you're liable to have the lights shut off, or, like happened to me one night at Poteau, have the gates locked. Thankfully it was homecoming and the gathering and an emergency contact was just beyond the fence. And, thankfully, I had filed my story — otherwise, our press start time of 12:40 a.m. might have been challenges.

That phenomenon of hurry and get out continues for the most part right up until the series of state championship games, which are played at college stadiums where thankfully, you get the college understanding for working people.

There's other differences. The college press box elevator might break down — it did one year at the Sugar Bowl, and it did at the Red River Rivalry one year, but you'll never get rained on. You might get rained on if you're visiting a high school stadium with flap doors on the front of the press box rather than windows, which leads to potentially nasty things being done to laptops and other electronic items.

But high school football, for all its work hazards, is still pure and somewhat innocent. It probably won't be for long, what with the NIL monsters creeping. But it's still all that is right and good with the world.

This week, we go full scale into another year of it. Five games staffed, summaries on others, a quick read on copy, pages built, and all done, about three hours after game's end.

Last week, the 30 rows to the un-air conditioned visiting press box at Enid was my preseason scrimmage of sorts. A couple of rounds of squats this morning and I'll be in week one form.

Let's get it going.