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| Written by PI Editorial Staff | |
| Friday, 05 September 2008 | |
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Other sports deserve support The issue Everyone’s excited for the start of high school football season, the big draw of all the fall sports. Our position We love the Friday night lights as much as anyone, but there are plenty of local fall athletes that deserve more support. Your stand We want to hear what you have to say. Share your thoughts at www.pattersonirrigator.com. Letters to the editor may also be e-mailed, mailed or dropped. By this time next week, we’ll officially be entrenched in autumn. No, the temperatures might not reflect it. But it’s football season. The NFL opens this weekend, college football began in full last week, and the Patterson High football team will play its first game Friday. It’s been an exciting half-decade or so for these Tigers — the team’s steady improvement under coach Rob Cozart culminated last season with an appearance in the section championship game at the University of the Pacific in Stockton. And local fans have responded in force with well-deserved support. Fans will no doubt pack the bleachers of Patterson Community Stadium on Friday night and cheer on our local team with impassioned fervor. Members of the Irrigator staff will be there, both for work and for pleasure. After all, there’s just something addictive about those Friday nights under the lights. There’s an energy to it that’s inescapable. Football, like boys basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring, gets the lion’s share of the attention during its season. And while there are plenty of valid reasons for that, it doesn’t mean we can’t shed some of that limelight on other sports — particularly those involving the other gender — once in a while. The most current example of a team that deserves our support is the Tigers’ boys soccer team, which is — year in and year out — one of the school’s most successful squads. Early results indicate this year will be no different. But it doesn’t end there. Volleyball season is also under way, and Patterson has a young, growing team in the season’s premier girls sport. And there’s girls golf, which wasn’t even its own sport a decade ago but is now going strong. Then there’s cross country, too often thought of as simply a warm-up for track and field or conditioning for other sports later in the year. The biggest challenge these sports face in terms of gaining the support of casual fans is familiarity. Just about everybody knows football and basketball and baseball. Very few know the intricacies of volleyball or cross country. But that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve our cheers. At the Irrigator, like most local newspapers, we do our best to give these teams a fair amount of coverage. We hope sports fans around town will devote some of their own time and go watch these kids play. From what we’ve seen, the new spectators won’t regret it. Comments
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On another note... I want to mention the Redskins Football league. This league seems to get a lot of support from the people of Patterson. At the same time, I hear criticism about the coaches, how they conduct their teams, the money, etc. I personally don't know how they run the league finances or the Board business and such. I do know that the coaches that spend countless hours per week with our children, all volunteer their time. Most teams have practice Monday thru Thursday for two hours a night and then have the games on Saturday. With traveling, that can mean another 5 to 7 hours a week. All total, these volunteers are putting in anywhere from 13 to 20 hours a week to provide a positive experience for our children. That's a part time job!
I would like to see these community volunteers recognized for their commitment to our youth in Patterson. So many people find a way to complain and place fault on a system that is clearly a benefit, but find no time to help or volunteer to make it better. Kudos to all of those volunteers that take the time with our children to teach them the sport, and better yet, some very important life lessons!