Friday Night Lights

Tonight the Newton North Tigers Football team hosts the Norwood Mustangs at Dickinson Stadium under the lights. It should be a great match-up, with the Tigers working hard to control Norwood's Mike Young (who rushed for 245 yards and 5 touchdowns last week). Go Tigers!

But I have a problem. I have a problem that seems trivial, petty, not worth mentioning... but it bothers me all the same.

Yesterday, the rental company delivered the lights for the game. Each set of four lights is mounted on its own generator. There are eight sets of lights, and each set (generator & lights) sits on the track taking up nearly three lanes. So while the football team practiced on the field, the boys and girls cross-country teams were impeded by the truck that delivered the lights and, of course, by the lights themselves. It's not a big deal on days when our workout is to go run 8 miles on the roads, but yesterday was scheduled to be a track workout. Because of the lights, the workout had to go around the lights into the third lane.

Not a big deal, right? Probably not, but when I asked whether the Head coaches had been informed that the lights would be delivered and set up, they said "no," they had not been informed. And that bothers me.

Having a space for planning and conducting a workout or practice is awfully important to a team. And, when facilities are limited and must be shared, it's awfully important to communicate about their use. It would have been no trouble to plan around the lights, but then, it would have been no trouble to let the XC coaching staff know that the lights were going to be delivered on Thursday. It's the little gesture that goes along way to show that each team is deserving of equal respect.