On This Date in 1998

JoAnna and I are navigating a split sports schedule this morning. She and Andy are in DeForest, about fifteen miles northeast of Middleton, for Andy’s second football game of the season. Eddie and I will be leaving the house within a half hour for his soccer game. Earlier this morning, he had his team and individual pictures taken at Elm Lawn School.

Eddie scored his first goal of the season on Wednesday. Unfortunately, no one from the family was there to see it. JoAnna was at a meeting of the Dane County Airport Commission, of which she is a member. I was teaching a class, as guest lecturer, at the library school. Andy, who had accompanied Eddie to his game, was off playing with some of the siblings of Eddie’s teammates.

As has been our habit on fall Friday evenings, we attended Middleton High School’s football game yesterday. Last week Middleton played at Sun Prairie, a perennial “Big 8” conference power and were manhandled in a 28-7 loss. Middleton won the conference championship last y ear, not to mention the Division I statewide honors, but this year looks like a rebuilding season. Last night, they demolished Madison LaFollette by a score of 57 to 13. Halfway through the third quarter, the public address system announcer explained that the remainder of the game would be played with a “continuous clock”, i.e. no time out for first downs, out-fo-bounds plays, dropped passes, etc. Otherwise, the game would have lasted for more than 3 hours.

Soccer has definitely cut into the quality of the Madison prep football program. The four high school – Memorial, West, East, and LaFollette – are usually at the bottom of the standings. LaFollette’s program is especially weak, their record so far this season a dismal 0-4, with no hope of a victory in sight. One of the Madison newspapers recently ran an article about the glory days of Madison high school football, which are now more than 20 years in the past.