Week 8: A Closer Look with Mark Miller

It is hard for me to believe we are down to the last 2 weeks of the high school football regular season. League championships are being decided and playoff seeding is becoming clearer. As usual around Stark County, many local teams are positioning themselves for a great playoff run. On WHBC this year, our 80 th for high school football, we have had so many close, competitive games but Friday night was not one of them. CVCA is a really good football team and they beat Northwest by a big score. I give credit to the Indian coaches and players though as they played hard the entire game.

It was senior night with pregame and halftime festivities to honor the senior players, cheerleaders and other football team personnel. The coolest thing I saw though was after the game ended and players shook hands at mid-field, all the afore-mentioned students gathered in the endzone and then it happened. The senior guys and girls lined up beside each other across the goal line, clasped hands with those on either side and slowly walked the length of the field. Once they reached the opposite goal line, they turned and walked back to the original end zone where all their underclassman teammates were waiting for them. I’m sure it was something they all looked forward to and will remember the rest of their lives but doing it after a lopsided loss was not what they had dreamed of. In any case, good for whomever thought that up. It was awesome to witness.

About every school has some traditions they do year in and year out. Sometimes new coaches or administrators allow traditions to expire because they didn’t think of it or it seems too old- fashioned for today. When I was in high school at Canton South a little song called the “Muskrat Ramble” was played before every home basketball game. The cheerleaders had a dance that went along with it and people sang along, the little girls learned the dance, and to this day it is one of my very fond memories of high school. They no longer do it. They no longer win with the dominating regularity of the 60’s and 70’s either. Was winning based on playing the Muskrat Ramble? Certainly not, but it separated us from everyone else and gave us pride that we were different and maybe better???

My college alma mater, Bowling Green, had traditions when I arrived and I am so happy to say, those traditions have remained through many new coaches and athletic directors. One is a special handshake and the other is Ay Ziggy Zoomba, like the Muskrat Ramble, a little song unique to the Falcons. To this day, when I see a former teammate, we greet each other with that handshake and at every athletic event, and many other times, Ay Ziggy Zoomba is played
and sang along to by students, alumni and even our President! My message to schools, even if you think a tradition has outlive it’s usefulness, remember those that went before. It often is very important to them.