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It’s only the beginning of July, and those who know me well are aware of how eager I am to start my fall scholastic sports slates as soon as the calendar flips and the ensuing IHSAA moratorium week passed.
My PA announcing calendar is already chock-full of… hold on… what?
What is Jonesin, you ask?
It’s slang for “having a strong desire or craving for something” according to Mirriam Webster.
In the early 1970s a song in mostly minor keys named “Love Jones” was popular on the soul airwaves.
The popular comedy team of Cheech (Marin) and (Tommy) Chong used the same arrangement using a fictional character named Tyrone Shoelaces as the narrator in “Basketball Jones.”
May we continue?
In the meantime, the United States’ sports seasons, aside from MLB, the minor leagues (each owns July until NFL training camp), and the WNBA (approaching their 4-game season’s midpoint and All-Star weekend, but we – as I note sometime each July – are headed toward the slowest season among the U. S.A.’s professional leagues.
I used to watch the ESPY’s (ESPN’s sports version of The Academy Awards, red carpet and all), but I can’t recall when I’ve done much more than scroll for morning-after highlights.
July is a month when I don’t particularly care what I miss aside from the WNBA action, some chunks soccer matches, and the eventual opening of NFL training camps. It’s also exciting to see the All-Star Game playing at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. So much, though, for reasonably priced All-Star Game tickets, or regular season Indiana Fever tickets or for that matter.
I’m still enjoying late evening meals, and early morning weekend espressos on my porch. I typically eat between 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. most weeknights, and I feel if I sleep any later than 7:30 a.m. each weekend I won’t truly own the day with limited time off as there already is for me.
We’re doing lots of rearranging around the house, and this will be the most fruitful part of July. I’m eager to land in a couple of cozy spots I’ve been eyeballing in my home once everything is in its place. I moved my desk to another area of the house, but I still have sunlight shining in while I toil.
I quickly become antsy waiting for fall scholastic sports seasons to arrive. It’s my busiest PA announcing season: the Tigers’ soccer sides, Friday Night Lights at Fisher Field, Unified flag football, and some NAIA volleyball (when it fits).
I’m excited to have as many as four or five games or matches almost every week between August 25 and October 4. Then it trickles down to football and volleyball two or three nights per week until the Tiger gridders have to turn in their equipment.
My wife teaches, so she is enjoying the summer break, and recharging for another year of middle school English students. While I start counting down days to kickoffs, center kicks, and first serves she just shakes her head and tells me, “I’m not in as much of a hurry to see summer end as you are… easy, boy.”
I especially enjoy Warsaw’s fall sports season because Tiger football is my favorite brand, Unified flag football has energy that brings everyone in the place together, and investing time to understand soccer has exponentially increased my interest in the Tiger programs once the 2022 season launched. I took the mic part time in 2020.
The two press boxes on Warsaw’s beautiful campus – favorite haunts of mine – are minutes from my front door once I shut the power to the mic off and leave the facility once I’ve parted saying “have a safe, wonderful.…”
Bring on fall sports.
