Determination...and grit.

[subdjoe]

Real America

Not the elite statists from the coasts.

Reporting from Trona, Calif. - Eight hours before game time and Mark Goins takes the field. For 30 autumns, the Trona High School groundskeeper has carefully tended a football field unlike any other, a fragile foothold on pride in this withering desert mining town.

The sign above the lightly used press box welcomes people to Griffith Field. But no one calls it that. This is the Pit, home of the Trona Tornadoes, where the Friday night lights illuminate games played on an unforgiving bed of sand, grit and rocks the size of a baby's fist.

Goins wouldn't know bluegrass from Bermuda. He grooms dirt.

[The New Guy]

now that's how you play football!

great story, joe.


when we were kids we loved to play football most after a good rain and the field (usually someone's backyard or vacant lot) was nice and muddy and plenty slick. i can still feel the pain of numerous near concussions and getting the wind knocked out of me time and time again. those were the days!

[subdjoe]

I was in Catholic school in junior high. All the Cathlic schools in the area had some sports. Couldn't afford the gear and insurance for tackle, so we played 11 man flag, with the same rules as used for CIF tackle, but an obvious tackle was a 15 yard penalty. Helmets, no pads. Played on two fields like that and a couple of grass fileds That was fun.