Galesburg @ Ridgewood (Football)
9/10/10
Garmin GPS unit, notebook and pen are key necessities on long trips when IHSSN takes to the road. Much to my chagrin, so is cash and change when traveling the tollways of the Chicago suburbs....oops. The GPS unit is for obvious reasons. For those that know my navigating style...it's poor at best. The notebook and pen is for the notes that I jot down while cruising down the road...and as I think about it, probably more dangerous than texting while driving.
The Galesburg Silver Streaks had a long Friday night road trip during week three of the football season, meeting the Ridgewood Rebels in Norridge. The village of Norridge, along with Harwood Heights, are completely surrounded by the city of Chicago. The high school sits just a few miles east of O'Hare Airport.
I am a stickler to getting to my events on time, and when I mean on time....I mean several hours early. In fact, in each of the past two trips for the Silver Streaks football team, I have reached the destination before the sophomore team.
It was an early wakeup call on Friday morning, with a co-worker dialing me at 4:59 a.m. He needed to be walked through on some problems at the radio station. Flying blindly, I was able to walk him right through the problem to get it fixed, which still surprises me. After about an hour of tossing and turning, I was able to get an hour of sleep before heading to the office for a few hours.
Not only to I like to arrive to my destinations early, I insisted that I come into the office at the normal time Friday morning, just to make sure I had everything finished at work. Working under the gun, I was able to finish some last minute projects before 11:30 a.m.
As I took off for Chicago before noon, I hadn't realized that Garmin wanted me to take Interstate-88 instead of Interstate-80. This was no good, because I never carry cash on me. Typically, I always have a lot of change in my car (coffee money), but I was in the radio station Mercedes....errr Ford Taurus.
I stopped in Hillsdale to gas up and to get some cash out of the ATM and get a Gatorade and something to snack on. I wasn't that hungry, since I ate a big breakfast, so I decided to just hit the last exit before the first toll booth (Dixon).
Something I noticed while driving down I-88. I was careening past fellow drivers like I was Mario Andretti. Okay, so Andretti is probably a poor reference for my IndyCar (does that still exist?) or NASCAR fans reading this, so insert the top race car driver in place of Andretti. This is something I picked up on, because it seems as though everytime I take this route, I always seem to be the speed demon at 73 miles/hour. On the other hand, when I drive 73 miles/hour on I-80, I feel like Grandpa Moses in the minivan. The average speed on that stretch of interstate seems to be 90 mph.
I may have even sped up a bit when Spacehog's "In the Meantime" came on the radio. For some reason, each time this song is played, I am reminded of my time at Black Hawk East. It must have been on a mix CD I made during my "coming-of-age years."
So many things go through my head on long road trips. One such thought was the fact that I have not had any phone calls (crossing my fingers before kickoff tonight) from any of my broadcasters saying they don't have this piece of equipment, or this cord, etc. This, too, is more unbelievable because we have added a fourth broadcast to our high school football schedule this season.
The change I made was being extremely organized with the equipment, taking over the broadcast equipment at the radio station in dictatorial status. The problems in the past have been free reign by the broadcasters. In other words, each one of them had their hands in the cookie jar. What happens when a bunch of grubby little hands dive into the cookie jar? The more crumbs that fall out onto the floor! I don't want any crumbs on the floor!!! So....my hand goes into the cookie jar, and if someone wants a cookie...I will get them one, lol.
One of my mind-occupying passions while traveling is searching through the radio dial and naming songs and artists. It's much more fun with a travel companion, but when alone....I can time myself! A song popped on 97.7 in the Sterling/Rock Falls area. The hook was "Anyone Like You" or "No One Like You". You gotta love Google! I just typed in those words, and sure enough...the David Crowder Band popped up. It's a christian rock band, which I normally don't listen to, but really like the song. It reminded me of early Finger Eleven, or the little-known band, 8 Stops 7. I checked, no one was affiliated with those bands (with quick research).
Driving past the DeKalb Oasis, I wondered....when did rest stops become Oases? Up until the past couple years, I remember only being able to get a Pepsi, Snickers, and USA Today at a rest stop. Now...you can get gas and McDonalds! I did some research, and found that these Oases were renovated in 2003-05 and there are seven in the Chicago-area. An interesting read on the Illinois Tollway Oases here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Tollway_oasis
When I got closer to O'Hare, it became difficult to follow my Garmin. Many times in fast thinking situations with many exits, the Garmin is just not quick enough. What we need, is a Sam Kinison-voiced Garmin. Yeah...you know when your turn is approaching, Sam (in his calm voice) says turn left....but if you're not turning left he starts his yell. Turn Here....then the sarcastic Sam Kinison voice speaks out condescendingly....TURN HERE....and then when you don't.....AHHHH....AHHHHH.....TURN HERE YOU FREAKIN MORON!!!! OHHHHHHH!!! I would buy that product.
It was about 3:15 when I pulled into Norridge, and took a drive by the high school. I wanted to grab a water, so I hit up a gas station a mile down the road. By 3:45, I was back at Ridgewood High School and headed in.
Athletic Director Pat Woods met me at the gates, and the soccer team was on the field practicing. We chatted for a minute, and said he had just spoken with Galesburg, and they were eating their pregame meal in Morris.
Ridgewood has some brand new facilities, with FieldTurf, and an all-weather track around the football field, a new softball complex, and a brand new gym. Pat gave me a brief tour and showed me the gymnasium. The Rebels were able to get three basketball games in the new complex last season. I asked him about the soccer team, and he said they were 7-1 and had a pretty good team this season.
I got all set up and took down some notes and walked around a bit. Jim Lee from WGIL arrived shortly after I did, and the sophomore team arrived around 4:15. I had two special guest announcers for the game. One was Ursula Kucharski, a trustee for the village of Norridge. She was going to be my guest in the first half to talk about the history of the village and what it has to offer. Rich Mussaro was my second half announcer. He came up at about 4:30 and we talked extensively about each community (Galesburg and Norridge) and a lot of sports.
The Galesburg varsity team came in sometime around 5:30 or 6:00. According to coach Wes Olson, it was about 45 minutes later than they had planned. Apparently they took a wrong exit, and were caught in traffic. I talked with Wes, defensive coordinator Shawn Hickey, and freshman coach Brad Swanson for a moment.
Then, I did my pregame interview with coach Olson. As I started, I mumbled my words, so I needed to start over. I blurted out an expletive, to which Olson replied, "You can't say that on the radio!" Good thing he reminded me, so I could delete it right away. There have been times, when the wrong track on the digital recorder gets pushed for whatever reason. That wouldn't have been good!
Swanson came up a little later to our broadcast position in the back row of the bleachers on the Ridgewood side in front of the press box. In the renovations made....no press box was added. The team gets very little press coverage. I joked to Brad, asking him if the big dinner wasn't enough, as he had a plate of nachos with him, but he had driven up himself, so did not partake in the Morris meal.
The Silver Streaks played a solid game, winning 42-6 and did many good things in the running game, and for the first time this season, threw the ball and had success. During their first two games, not too many passes were thrown. I was also impressed with the skill players by Ridgewood. The Rebels only ran the ball about a half dozen times, but made some spectacular plays in the passing game. Both the sophomore game (43-3) and varsity (42-6) finished with the mercy rule.
After the game, I packed up after a quick postgame interview with coach Hickey, and headed out. It was about 10:00 when I left the Ridgewood parking lot....in search of a late-night meal. I was thinking Gyro, but ended up stopping at White Castle for four sliders and a coke.
Fortunately, I was staying at my parents' house in Annawan, and not driving all the way back to Macomb...because I would never have been able to stay awake that extra one hour forty minutes. The final half hour of the trip down I-80 was a chore. I did all the tricks for a late night stay up while driving (window down, radio up, constantly turning the radio, checking my cell phone).
It would be a quick night's sleep, before heading out in the morning for a day of college football broadcasting between Monmouth College and Grinnell.
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