I went to a high school in suburban Chicago that was generally considered to be a basketball school. For the most part, when the school’s athletic department got any kind of money to spend, it all went to the basketball team. They had the nice court, the nice practice facilities, the new uniforms every year, all that stuff. I played on the football team, and needless to say, we didn’t get any of that crap. On our practice fields there were so many dips and divots in the ground that they caused more twisted knees and sprained ankles than anything else.
Which is why I should have gone to high school in Ohio. In Massillon, Ohio, there is Massillon High School, home of the Tigers. The school has a rich tradition in football seeing as how Paul Brown was once a history teacher and a football coach there. The school also has a rich tradition of having students who grow up to be rich and donate a bunch of money to it, allowing Massillon to build themselves an indoor practice facility for the football team.
From RIVALS.COM:
The 80,000-square-foot building, which is 20,000 square feet larger than the Cleveland Browns’ indoor facility, doesn’t simply benefit the football team.
Most other prep sports at Massillon – whether it’s the golf team or baseball team hitting into the intricate net system, the softball squad staying warm in the middle of winter, the band fine-tuning its performance or the participants in the youth flag football league playing – take advantage of the enormous building.
We couldn’t even get new practice uniforms at my high school, though we did have an indoor field house, but they wouldn’t let the football team hold practice in there.
In case you don’t quite get the significance of a high school having one of these, consider that the practice facility the Tigers use at Massillon is not only bigger than the one the Cleveland Browns use, but that the Bengals — who, ironically enough, were owned by Paul Brown — don’t have one at all.
In other news, the school had to cancel it’s English and Music programs.
11:07 am on November 19th, 2008
glad to see everyone else is catching up with texas. My school has had an indoor practice faciltiy for several years now. Most schools around have them as well.
11:22 am on November 19th, 2008
Football players don't need to study English. They speak it good.
11:40 am on November 19th, 2008
Massillon High School has long been known as a football hotbed with rabid local support. Getting their own 80,000 sq. ft. training facility doesn't surprise me too much.
11:52 am on November 19th, 2008
Being in Ohio, is the facility "Hi" in the middle and round on both ends?
1:18 pm on November 19th, 2008
Saw headline, guessed Massillon or St. Ignatius.
2:02 pm on November 19th, 2008
Takes me back to the old two-a-day pre-season practices in August in Tennessee. 95+ degree temperature, 98% humidity but hardly a cloud in the sky. You would look at the sky, spot one lone cloud, and PRAY that at some point during the practice, it might cover the sun for a few seconds. To make matters worse, back then coaches believed in "water discipline" - limit your water intake until AFTER practice, because otherwise you will just throw it up!
Under those conditions, the rocky bare ground they called our practice field was the least of our concerns. But what we wouldn't have given for an indoor, air-conditioned practice facility!!!!!