Red Rider Tradition..DEFINED

A distraction from Wooster Week, but I don't think anyone will mind. If you're from Orrville or an alumni of Orrville High School, or a student at OHS, this will make your day.

I received an email from a reader, thanking me for what I do on this site. I never get tired of that...but what this reader went on to say was one of the more impactful emails I've gotten on this site in quite a while...and I wanted to share with all of you.....

As much as I enjoy watching our Red Rider team on Friday night this year, I have enjoyed watching them even more on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Those are the nights that several of them coach the teams in OABGC's 3rd-4th grade flag football league.

Watching "tough guy" football players trying to line up kids more interested in waving to mom, listening to teammates verbally jousting across the field as opposing coaches and seeing the joy in the little guys' faces when they have a great play and get to high-five their coaches is priceless.


There are lifetime memories being made for the little guys and a great experience for the older kids, too.
 
Please thanks on to the OABGC, Coach Davault, and most especially the players for doing this.
 
The Red Rider tradition is growing everyday.

Good stuff, right?  This is precisely the kind of stuff that doesn't get a lot of attention, but is the stuff that builds character in young men.

I remember a few years ago after we beat Wooster, I was just finishing up speaking to Coach Davault for OrrViews and he told one of the players to get out the rakes.  It was for a community service project to help rake leaves the next morning.  The kids just got done beating Wooster and were headed to the playoffs, but not before helping people of this town with raking leaves.

They've helped the Orrville library on numerous occasions, helped move boxes into the new middle and elementary schools and lots of other stuff that doesn't get seen, heard or bragged about.

I'm sure lots of Orrville athletic teams and groups do this as well, my point is, we should be proud of our students and the impact they have on this community.

Are sports important, yes (especially football).  But so is building character and hopefully these young people return to Orrville after college and put down roots and do this process all over again with their kids.  That's how you build a town and that's how you build tradition.

So....before we grumble about what we see on the field and courts of play...let's just try to keep the prespective that these are kids, learning life lessons and developing character...and also playing a game they love, for our entertainment....and for the continued tradition of Red Rider football and all of Red Rider athletics.

If these aren't your kids, they will be someday, or they were in years past.