JJ Says: Store prep sports excitement, and there is no energy crisis

One of the great things about high school athletics is that the emotions are real.

Every young athlete who has ever participated in the Egg Bowl has gone into that game wearing his emotions on his jersey. It is special. But every game is important. With very few exceptions, every high school athlete goes into a game in any sport excited about the competition.

Obviously, some games are more important and create more excitement than others.

In volleyball, the game (more properly, the match) doesn’t get any more important than last week’s contest between Analy and Petaluma.

Volleyball is an extremely exciting game, requiring exceptional athletic ability. It is fast moving, but it is also a cerebral game. To the casual observer (like me) it appears that the players simply react. One team hits it over the net, the other stops it before it bounces on the floor and hits it back.

It is not that way at all. Players have to always be thinking ahead. They have to think about the play that has been called, the positioning of the defense, their own strengths and the strengths of their teammates. All this in the eye blink it takes to dig, set and hit.

But the truth is that it usually isn’t a well-attended spectator sport. That is not the case at Petaluma High this autumn where the success of the Lady Trojans has captured the attention of many more fans than the usual parent and grandparent crowd.

At Sebastopol on Oct. 22, there was a large contingent of student rooters, including several members of the football team. Petaluma had as large a fan base as the home team Lady Tigers, who aren’t used to being challenged in their home den.

With first place on the line and the fans screaming, the atmosphere was pure high-octane emotion.

The amazing thing wasn’t that the two teams came out fired up; it was that they remained fired up the entire match. Every point brought an honest display of pure emotion. You would have thought the teams had won the World Series every time — every time — they scored. If that excitement could have been captured and stored, there would be no energy crisis.

Petaluma ended up losing in five thrill-stuffed games, but, while disappointed, the Petaluma girls had to come away feeling good about themselves and their effort.

It is what high school sports are all about. They are about the winning and the losing, but much more, they are about team, friends, effort and excitement.

Haircut needed

It is all a matter of perspective when it comes to comparing high-school playing facilities. Petaluma and Casa Grande high schools’ football and soccer fields are in excellent condition considering how much use and abuse they get. Casa’s has a few bald spots, a residue of this month’s early rain, but Petaluma’s Durst Field is in excellent shape.

Still, compared to Rancho Cotate’s Cadallac complex, the local fields are pretty shabby, but compared to Analy’s vintage Karlsen Field, they are first class. Analy’s field not only has bald spots, but, at least for the Petaluma game last week, was badly in need of a haircut.

I won’t say the grass was high, but there is still a search party looking for a junior varsity running back.

I had my first game-time look at St. Vincent’s spectacular Yarbrough Stadium at Kiely Field. It is as impressive as advertised, but it is tight. It took very precise engineering to squeeze a football field, baseball diamond, softball diamond and soccer field into the space available.

There is one minor inconvenience. Every time there is a PAT kick at the east end of the football field, the ball ends up on Keokuk Street. A warning to passing motorists — beware of falling footballs.

(Contact John Jackson at acsports@arguscourier.com)