As you probably already know, the Knox City Greyhounds lost their season opener to Crowell 47-36.
It was a rough way to start the season, but at least it wasn't a District 9, Division 1 conference game. Those don't start till Oct. 21 when Gordon comes to Greyhound Stadium, and when you're in a four-team conference with two of three games at home, that's a very good thing. We'll get to that later, because Chad McGhee — as promised — called east to report back about last weekend's game.
As one would expect, Chad was boisterous in his support from the stands: "Banging on the rails. Stomping my feet. And I had my little noisemaker with me."
As one wouldn't expect, a couple of the Knox City ladies a row behind him were even louder, having fashioned laundry detergent bottles to somehow make a racket. Whatever it was, they were totally louder than the Crowell folk. That might be a result of them "baking in the sun for two hours." Or, it might have been a result of the Crowellites having to travel an estimated 300 miles while the Greyhounds backers only drove 90 miles.
That worries Chad, what with the economy and price of gas and whatnot. Most people took big yellow school buses, but Chad caught a ride from Tex Cox of Tex Cox Ministries. ("Tired of religion? Tired of 'church as usual?' Join us and get ready to 'throw off the weight of religion' in order to run the race that is set before you!!")
He thought something was hinkey from the get-go when his beloved Greyhounds were slip-sliding all over the Gorilla Stadium field. It was like Crowell was just running all over them. He and Knox City Mayor Jeff Stanfield just looked at each other and shook their respective heads.
"It looked like they were on ice," an unexpectedly upbeat Chad said after a day of running and working out. "It wasn't until two days later that I found out what was wrong: They didn't have the right cleats for playing on Astroturf. Man, who let that happen?"
Knox City managed to get a couple leads in the game, despite footwear malfunctions. It was a back-and-forth type game. Exciting up until the end because "the minute we thought they were out of it, they fought right back. ... They were just getting into their groove in the fourth quarter when time ran out. If there were five more minutes, they'd have won it!"
As Chad tells it, in the closing minutes of the game, the Greyhounds returned an interception for a touchdown, but it was called back for unsportsmanlike conduct. He couldn't tell you what happened because it looked like "a bunch of wild lions going at each other down there," but the player on whom the penalty was called is taking it rather hard.
Granted, he heard they had a multi-hour film session at the school today, but he hasn't been able to get in touch with the coach about his fledgling stat-and-game-tape career. Little worry, though, since he's whipping himself into shape for an October wrestling match, proceeds to benefit the local police and fire. (More on that another week).
"I'm not worried, but I am concerned," he said of the Greyhounds season outlook. "Some other people are saying 'the refs were paid off' this or 'the refs were paid off' that. Refs are human. They make mistakes. It is what it is. The Greyhounds need to focus on this week and the rest of the season instead of that last game."
There's not much time to do so. The varsity boys host the Ira Bulldogs at Greyhound Stadium on Friday night, under the Texas lights.