With holiday wishes to everyone who’s graced our site in 2018, we share some of the best and recent opinions on Press Pros content in the last month. Most good, but some coal in our stocking, as well.
On the November posts about ‘Remembrance Day’ and lessons learned from the celebration of history in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, there were decidedly differing views:
“You quoted Lincoln and correctly made the point that we cannot escape our history, and who we are because of it. For that reason it’s good that there are reminders of how we’ve become better from our national experience. ‘Remembrance Weekend’ in Gettysburg is one of them.” … Robt. Huelskamp
“I go annually and thoroughly enjoy the experience of ‘Remembrance Weekend’. It’s sad to see that the unenlightened have chosen to disparage the context of the event.” … Chris Topping (Emmitsburg, MD)
“While some like you enjoy the military barbarism of the Civil War, it is still a painful reminder to other Americans of the darkest hour of American history and the enslavement of those that some fought to keep in bondage. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. But perhaps you could write with a bit more sensitivity for the fact that the period of history you seem to favor is painfully reminiscent of the present.” … Syl
(Ed. Note: There’s no question that some of the Confederate states fought for state’s rights, as you suggest. But again, the issue is what have we learned from our history? And by the way, there is really nothing in current culture that’s reminiscent of the culture from 1863…except some have more money than others.)
Our ‘Hate For The Sake Of Football’ Column (Nov. 28) brought some expected responses:
“It’s just a football rivalry that people have fun with. Is it that big a deal?” … Tim (Troy)
“All you can write about is money, so of course you would write that the Ohio State-Michigan game is all about money. Stupid article.” … Don Smith
(Ed. Note: Thanks for writing, and when you have more time write again and explain to me why a ticket to the Michigan game is $175. Personally, I think it’s about the money.)
“Excellent story about the history of the game and the relationship between Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler. You might be interested in this. My grandfather lived in Columbus during the time they built the Horseshoe and always said it was a waste of money because they’d never get that many people to a football game.” … Tom Montgomery (Columbus)
“To your point about all things Michigan, my dad was an Ohio State graduate and told us for years that it was OK to hate Michigan. I asked him why and he told me you don’t need a reason. I enjoy your website, and Merry Christmas.” … Tom Killilea
(Ed. Note: Did he ever mention other sports besides football? Because there seems to be no mention of it after football season.)
ML Dunn has moved. Check out their new location on West National Road in Englewood.
Our state tournament blog about competitive balance and the realignment of Divisions V, VI, and VII was widely read, and we heard this:
“Competitive balance, redistributing the wealth, leveling the playing field, or whatever you want to call it, it sucks.” … David Puthoff (via Facebook)
“You can have your ‘competitive balance’ and good luck getting people in the stands. Take a look back when Coldwater, Marion, and Ft. Recovery were all there. I was there for all three of those games. How many of these other schools you think would do that? Zero!” … Kevin Sheffer (via Facebook)
“I wonder if you went back to six divisions of football you’d effectively achieve competitive balance by having a better concentration of better teams playing each other. As it is now there aren’t enough good teams to justify seven divisions.” … Terry McCurdy
“Explain competitive balance and the need for seven divisions to me when you have schools trying to play with 15 kids.” … Gary (Sidney)
“What’s important to realize [is] that many districts in other parts of the state have more issues to combat through competitive balance than those football schools you wrote about from the MAC. Hence, the importance for socio-economic factors and traditions to be considered as a balancing effort. You mentioned ‘dynasties’ in your article, and because kids only have a short time to compete in high school it does seem like a monopoly. Left as it was, the rich were always going to get richer.” … Ed Trepanier, Sr.
(Ed. Note: As for the notion of the rich getting richer, history dictates that they didn’t get that way by worrying about leveling the playing field.)
A different type of competitive balance...Kenston's Anna Sanders (#37, above) became the first female to score a point in an OHSAA football final game when she kicked six extra points against Kettering Alter. (Press Pros File Photos)