There are worse places to be, even if it means summer’s exit has started

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but summer is almost over.

Yes, the calendar will tell you fall won’t start until Sept. 22 and there is truth to that.

But another truth is summer ends well before that, and it’s just not fair.

Not that you really needed me to tell you any of that. I’m sure most people are seeing those signs that tell everyone in their own individual way the back end of summer has arrived.

From the perspective of sports editor and sports dad, you see it when you realize you’ve reached the last lines of all those schedules you’ve had posted on the wall or your refrigerator the last few months. It hits you when you find yourself posting the Legion baseball post-season tournament schedule in your sports pages. Like most folks, you’re realizing you can’t see as well as you did just a few days earlier when you’re outside at 9 p.m.

From the sports editor point of view, you wonder how did this period of slowing down for a bit go by so quickly? It doesn’t make sense.

One day you’re at the state track and field championships knowing the heavy lifting of the school year is reaching its end. The next, so it seems, you’re on a football sideline getting pictures of contact days and reacquainting yourself with the names and faces you’ll need to know in just a few short weeks. That happened Tuesday morning –– exactly two weeks before the Aug. 2 first day of practice for traditional 11-player teams. (Pictures to appear next week). What happened to those seven weeks in between is the annual mystery.

This leads me to another true statement –– there are worse places to be than a football sideline.

A trip to Friday’s Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Eight-Player All-Star Game served as a great reminder of that. From hearing play calls, to overhearing players telling each other what they’re seeing out there, to hearing the banter between coaches and officials, coaches and coaches, as well as coaches and players, to being able to talk to officials directly about what they’re seeing, to hearing and feeling the pads popping and, unfortunately, seeing the pain that sometimes goes with the sport, there is no better front-row seat in this job.

While “team” is stressed in every sport we cover, I would make the argument there is no place that tops a football sideline for actually feeling that bond and momentum on those rare occasions when everything is going right for a team or a goal has been met.

I’ve been lucky enough to have been on a sideline for 99% of the high school football games I’ve attended since 1995. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to handle watching a game from the distance of the bleachers or a press box when that time comes. It’s going to seem like being two miles away.

If memory serves, Friday was my fourth trip to the All-Star event in Oshkosh, my first in over a decade and my first time watching the eight-man game. It’s a cool event and worth the trip over if you have any vested interest in who’s playing. Or even if you don’t and just like to watch some football in the summer.

And, especially now with three games over the weekend, it raises a ton of money for a great cause, the Children’s Wisconsin hospitals. The talent is always impressive, especially when it comes to speed and, in some cases, size. You’ll always notice the speed on the defensive end. Many times you’ll think a play looks like it’s busting wide open for the offense, but then the hole closes up just like that as the defensive pursuit catches the ball carrier in the blink of an eye.

Gilman’s Bryson Keepers is far from the state’s largest defense end/outside linebacker, as he’s listed at 6-2, 160 pounds. But the South simply couldn’t block him Friday night, especially in the second half when he was able to pin his ears back and speed rush. It was something to watch.

The North’s 23-6 win was a great sendoff for Gilman’s Keepers and Julian Krizan. They are two big reasons why the Pirates are a combined 17-2 in their two years as an eight-man program. Heck, any program eight-man or 11-man in this area would have loved to have had them on their teams as they both played multiple positions quite well in their time as Pirates.

Being on that North sideline, which included Gilman assistant coach Tom Tallier, you could feel that team had built a pretty strong bond for having been together for just five days. They wanted to win and dominate while doing so. Pretty cool stuff.

Within the next week, all National Football League training camps will be underway, and college and high school programs won’t be far behind. Locally, Medford’s girls tennis and swim programs will be back at it on Aug. 9, along with Gilman’s eight-man football team. The first football scrimmages are Aug. 12, the rest of the fall sports start practicing on Aug. 15 and the Medford Raiders kick things off at New Richmond on Aug. 19, while Rib Lake-Prentice is at Marathon that night and Gilman hosts eightman scrimmage sessions that morning.

In the meantime, it’s time to take the sports editor’s transition to another gear, getting rid of old files, clearing space in the file cabinets and on the computer and updating new spreadsheets and schedules before summer’s end gets here. And it’s that annual time of the year to wonder how in the world I didn’t get to do all that great stuff I had planned to do during that slow summer period.

Matt Frey is the Sports Editor at The Star News.

Gilman’s Bryson Keepers grabs the loose football and scores a touchdown for the North All-Stars, clinching the team’s 23-6 win over the South Friday night in the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Eight-Player All-Star Game, held at UW-Oshkosh’s Titan Stadium. Keepers and Chequamegon’s Ryan Losh (gold helmet) hit South quarterback Connor Taylor, forcing the fumble.PHOTOS BY MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Prairie Farm’s Jacob Rassbach, Bryson Keepers and Julian Krizan celebrate after the defensive touchdown scored by Keepers that put Friday’s All-Star Game out of reach in the fourth quarter.

Gilman assistant coach Tom Tallier addresses the North All-Star team in its group huddle following Friday’s 23-6 win over the South.

Gilman’s Julian Krizan drops Lena running back Logan Shallow for a 3-yard loss to get a third-down stop for the North during Friday’s third quarter. Prairie Farm’s Quade Larson helps finish off the tackle.