As I was driving home from Goshen Friday night after Warsaw’s 35-7 win over the Redskins, I was thinking ahead to the Tigers’ next opponent – Wawasee. Wawasee battled Plymouth right down to the final quarter, eventually losing to the Rockies, 29-20. As most of you know, the Plymouth-Wawasee game was a very unusual scene. The Plymouth community had been mourning the death of one of its brightest stars the weekend before. There was a memorial service for him on Thursday. They played a football game exactly 24 hours later. At the coin toss before the game, two Rockie captains each took a sleeve of the boy’s No. 23 jersey and carried it with them to the center of the field. Some fans cheered. Others covered their faces to hide as their tears boiled over. It was an incredibly powerful moment that no one who was present in Syracuse will forget. But most of the focus of that moment, and understandably so, was on the Plymouth side of that. It was their leader. It was their teammate. It was their friend. But what about the Wawasee kids? I would like for you, for just a second, to stop and think about what playing Plymouth in that moment in time was like for the Warriors. Wawasee is a school that has dealt with more than its own share of tragedy and loss. Those kids have had friends and classmates die too. They’ve had to face mortality way more than kids that age should. So having lost a friend, Plymouth took the field last Friday to play Wawasee, a school that knew exactly what it was going through. Kinda ironic, don’t you think? So what must have been going through the minds of those boys decked out in all forest green uniforms Friday? How do you prepare to play what was about to be the most physical game of the season against a team that you know is going through what Plymouth was going through? Think about it: Plymouth has been the ‘bully’ on the block for a while in the Northern Lakes Conference. They aren’t out there to make friends. They certainly don’t care about your feelings. So the Rockies came to town after the death of one of their players the weekend before and you have to want to beat them more than anything else in the whole world at that moment. That’s hard! Wawasee played a great game Friday, maybe its best overall of the season. But I wonder if there weren’t three opponents on the field that night. Is it possible that each team, Plymouth AND Wawasee, were in a battle with each other and also with the ‘ghost’ of a player whose presence was unmistakable? So that game ends with Plymouth the winner and Wawasee a valiant loser on a night where the Hollywood script said the Rockies were destined to win. And when those Warriors woke up Saturday morning to start watching film and preparing for the next foe, it was their old nemesis staring them in their faces. The Tigers … for the “W” Trophy. The emotion that comes with this country rivalry game each year is enough to wear a guy out, but on top of what happened last week, can you imagine what these eight days will have been like for them when it’s all over? And of course, it IS the “W” game, so records and history and all of that matter exactly ZERO when they tee it up at 7 p.m. at Fisher Field. Warsaw has the flashy offense that can score from anywhere or race down the field on an 80-yard drive in eight plays. Wawasee will line up and tell you they are running it left, then run it left and get four yards, then do it again and again and again. It is a fascinating contrast in styles that just two years ago was completely the opposite, Wawasee throwing it all over the place and Warsaw grinding it out with record-setting running back Tristan McClone. Friday afternoon the “W” Trophy will board the bus with the Warriors and make its way to Fisher Field. Whether or not it gets back on the bus with them will be determined on the field, but I can’t help but think that the kids on the Wawasee football team will be really glad when these eight days are over. They’ve been through a lot.
