By Bobby Tingle

 

Are you ready for some Football?

Van Wade, sports editor of The Orange Leader, has begun working on our annual Football season preview.

Wade puts a lot of his heart and soul and sometimes his blood, sweat and tears into the sports world.

He will be taking photos, gathering accolades, tabulating statistics and making predictions regarding local teams.

You can get a bird’s eye view of the expectations for this season from area coaches and players by reading Football 2018 to be published in The Orange Leader August 25, 2018.

Wade is a treasure trove of information. If he figures out the stock market you should definitely hire him to invest your money.

He slices, dices and analyzes team and player statistics sometimes faster and more accurate than a ten key operator can do it on their machine.

Yes, football starts in July, actually sooner for players and coaches. But in newspaperdom it starts now.

Wade always plans on a mid-July through Christmas time frame for football.

For a six year old, talking about Christmas in July just makes them think it will never get here.

For a sixty year old, it makes you wonder how it can be July again already.

But for Wade, it’s just been his experience.

Inevitably, he will end up in North Texas watching high school football just before Santa Claus comes to town.

All the while he is adding up his numbers.

I urge you to check out his Football 2018 section.

It is a unique compilation of high school football focused on Bridge City Cardinals, Community Christian Lions, Deweyville Pirates, Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears, Orangefield Bobcats, Vidor Pirates, and West Orange-Stark Mustangs players and coaches.

Not everyone in the office shares Wade’s enthusiasm for three yards and a cloud of dust.

Candice Trahan thinks foosball and football are the same sport.

Dawn Burleigh just wants to know where she can get another spool of yarn for knitting or crocheting.

But they are always ready for the mid-season look at cheerleaders, drill teams, bands and homecoming queens.

You can see their compilation usually in October in their Halftime report.

Football season kicks off this year on August 31.

It will be Labor Day weekend, the traditional end of summer.

But it will be hot.

So get ready to support your favorite high school football team.

The season is right around the corner.

Mark your calendar so you won’t forget to pick up your copy of Football 2018 in the August 25 edition of The Orange Leader.

Bobby Tingle is publisher of The Orange Leader. You can reach him at bobby.tingle@orangeleader.com.