There is an ongoing joke amongst my friends that Jersey Shore has the nicest bushes of any stadium around.
Sure, you can find a couple nice bushes in the town along the west branch of the Susquehanna River, but in back-to-back years the trip to Jersey Shore has yielded more than initially expected.
In 2011, Shamokin and Jersey Shore were playing a football game in a foot of mud on a Monday after Tropical Storm Lee smashed into the area with record force and rainfall. It was not quite one week after rain had forced evacuations of homes and caused what we now know to be hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage in the state.
We were not spared here. Jersey Shore was not left without scars from the storm. And yet, the teams took the field and for over two hours they trudged through the mud and those brave enough to attend forgot about the mold that would creep through houses in the city or a creek channel that would need to be replaced. Sports has a way of taking our minds off the rest of the world just when we need it and offering a wake-up call at the same time.
This past Friday was no less jarring emotionally for some of the Indians' players and fans.
The sky was cloudless. Rain was not an issue, and yet plenty of hearts were heavy as news of 2012 graduate Mike Spade's death spread.
Mike played golf and basketball for the Indians, and by all reports was a likeable kid who was attending Coastal Carolina University in Myrtle Beach, S.C. He left behind plenty of friends still on this year's football team.
The details are not ours to report here, but suffice to say his death was unexpected by those who knew him and the Indians had to play with those aftershocks in mind.
I am not a paid psychologist and I did not stay at a Holiday Inn, but it seems the transition year immediately after high school is one of the hardest for young people to navigate. We go from being at home with a place to be every day and teams to be a part of, to large blocks of empty time to fill, many times away from our families.
Which brings us to this: Anyone with a child, a grandchild, a brother or sister, a neighbor kid or a student, tell them to find someone they trust to talk to. Tell them until they roll their eyes and get sick of hearing it. Tell them to find someone who understands the flood always seem worse while the rain is still falling.
If the game from 2011 can teach us anything, it's that it's better to postpone a game on Friday and play in a foot of mud on Monday.