Big off-season is needed

Monday at Columbia High School, the basketballs and wrestling mats will be rolled out for the first time.
Winter sports practice starts across the state.
Friday, the fall season came to an official end when the Tide lost to Steel-High in the first round of the District Three Class A playoffs.
I will tell you that the Rollers will be playing into December because they are the best team the Tide has seen in the last few years.
Columbia was 3-8 this season. Its the school worst record since the 1977 season when the Tide went 2-8. It was also the first time Columbia has had a losing record since 1986.
I really didn’t see this coming. I’m sure I am not the only one.
Because of my summer illness, I only got to see the Tide twice in the off-season. One early in the summer and one just before practice started. I saw improvement.
I think losing that first game to Eastern by a touchdown took a lot out of the Tide. Win that, the season might have been different.
There was also the schedule factor. Half of the teams Columbia played made the playoffs.
Early in the season, Columbia couldn’t tackle anyone. But since there were few fans in the stands watching most of the last five or six games, those those attending the games saw the improvement.
Columbia also got no breaks. The ball just didn’t bounce their way this season.
So now that the off-season is here, its time for those players, even the ones out for a winter sports, to rededicate themselves to football. They need to get in the weight room, participate in off-season drills and get to those sessions.
Too often during the season I was hearing horror stories about players not coming to practice, yet showing up on Fridays. That’s not a good situation. One, with a small squad, you can’t really get a good practice, and two, why show up on Friday, expecting to play when you didn’t practice all week.
Sure, there were a lot of fans who jumped off the bandwagon and I can get a bunch of parents of players, who stopped attending games. That’s not right.
How do I know that about parents? Well, Columbia sold 41 tickets for Friday’s game. There are just 25-28 kids on the team, that should have been maybe 60 tickets. Also, when the team celebrated Parent’s Night against Pequea Valley, as I was walking up to the press box, I saw one set of parents walking out of the lower gate with their flower, well before the game started. That’s not good.
Oh yeah, there were also a couple of players that didn’t have parents to be escorted onto the field with. Real sad!
I can remember being in school and asking my parents not to come to something, but they still came anyway. I think its a parents’ responsibility to be involved in their son or daughter’s activities. Attending games is one way.
The Columbia football program can be turned around fast, but its going to take a lot of dedication on all parts to do it. If they aren’t willing to work hard, the season could be long again next year.
The next move is up to the players!

Don't jump off the bandwagon

Columbia High School fans are loyal. If you win, the fans will travel from Columbia to Scranton or even Pittsburgh to watch the Tide play.
Friday night in the rain up on the hill, that thud you heard after the game was what I will call”not so loyal” Crimson Tide bandwagon after a disappointing opening night loss to Eastern.
Granted the crowd wasn’t as big as many thought because of the weather. had the weather been nice, the stadium would have been packed.
Friday night, the Tide is home again for another non-league game with York Suburban, a team they haven’t played in a few years.
Will the stadium be packed to support the Tide? I don’t even need to answer that one. The answer will be no.
That’s because the Tide lost one game. Sure, it was to a rival, but it wasn’t Lancaster Catholic.
The cheerleaders were selling t-shirts over the summer, with the phrase “there are two kinds of people -- people from Columbia and people who wish they were from Columbia.”
In our town, and its not all fans, there are people from Columbia who jump off the bandwagon just as quick as they jump on.
Folks, it’s just one game. There are still at least nine more left in the season, and who knows when the Tide starts to right its ship this weekend, there will probably be a trip to the District Three playoffs.
Although I haven’t heard much of it, but I’m sure there are plenty of nay sayers, who may have or may not have went to the game on Friday, who have nothing good to say about what happened. To those folks, I say, and always will, stay away, we don’t need you or want you to attend games.
The players on the field, along with the coaches are giving their best. Remember, they are only high school athletes and the last I looked they weren’t getting paid millions to play.
Perhaps a few words of encouragement would be better.
I’ve said my piece and I will always be on the bandwagon.

Odds and ends...

• Went to a junior high football scrimmage last week at Northeastern High School in York County.
They are playing varsity football for the first time this season.
Nice facility, but they only have bleachers on one side of the field.
Hit of the scrimmage happened on the far sidelines when a player from Northeastern did a “Joe Paterno” to one of the Columbia coaches. Let’s just say, it wasn’t that graceful!
• Is it just me, but didn’t it seem like it rained every Friday night last football season.
A new season started Friday night, and it rained again. And the weather forecast for this week isn’t looking that great either.
• Watched the Phillies last week.
I know I am writing about him almost every week, but right now the two games that Charlie Manuel blew last week with his moves may have cost the Phillies the division.