Tonight could be the night
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The prevailing sentiment around the friendly neighborhood sports desk — among other places — this week is that it could.
For the past few days, as you’ll see on page two of this very section, staffers and others have voiced their opinion that the White County Warriors, who come to town tonight for a 7:30 contest, will be the first team to fall to the hometown boys since Centennial, way back in 2001.
Oh, how fondly I remember that Centennial game. The joy. The excitement. The celebration of an 18-game losing streak finally coming to an end.
Eighteen games? That’s all? That seems like a walk in the park these days, doesn’t it?
Since that night, however, dark times have descended on the Pioneer football program — dark times that could be over by around 10 o’clock tonight.
Plenty has changed since the last time WCHS tasted victory.
We’ve seen numerous staff moves, resulting in almost the entire middle school staff from the 2001 season now serving as high school coaches.
We’ve lived through the infamous helmet incident in Shelbyville, with all its accompanying suspensions and legal actions.
We’ve cheered on the youngsters, while watching the middle school program climb to its current level of success.
We’ve watched Nunley Stadium be transformed from an ancient, crumbling home-away-from-home into one of the nicest high school facilities in the state.
We’ve changed the way we talk about the Pioneer game on Saturday mornings, as the main question has switched from “Who won?”
to “How bad did they get beat?”
And all the while, we’ve waited — sometimes patiently, sometimes not so patiently — for the Pioneers to win again.
So what makes tonight so special? What makes fans, including the six of us who offer our opinion (for what it’s worth) on football winners every Friday, think tonight’s the night?
Maybe it’s the new productive offense we’ve been seeing. The Pioneers haven’t won this season, obviously, but over the last couple of weeks this hasn’t been the same squad we’ve watched lose over and over through the years.
This hasn’t been the team that fell steadily behind over 3-1/2 quarters, only to post that “token touchdown” against the other team’s JV in the closing minutes. This team shows signs of life.
Two weeks ago, these guys actually led a game. They came out for the second half with an actual chance of winning.
And last Friday, they drove the ball against one of Class 5A’s perennial state powers.
Granted, miscues deep in Lincoln County territory helped the Falcons pull ahead, but think about it. When was the last time, especially with both team’s starters on the field, our football team could be described as being “deep in Lincoln County territory?”
Sure, they’re 0-3. But what the Pioneers have shown in the past two games, if they have any morale to them at all, has to make them one the most confident 0-3 teams around.
Maybe keeping that newfound ability to move the ball, and adding some ability to stop how well White County is able to do the same, could lead to even more confidence. And maybe, just maybe, all that confidence could lead to the end of this three-year slide.
It could happen. It could happen tonight.