Two weeks ago I read this column by Zach Lowe (my favorite NBA writer, RIP Grantland) and it reminded me of my once-love of the Spring Valley Cardinals. Growing up, I was a loyal follower of the Cards. River Falls was never really good at football, and since my dad grew up in the Valley and my mom taught there, that’s where we’d spend our Friday nights, in the shadows of the earthen dam.
I remember Tom Sauve breaking tackles and running for a touchdown after a halfback pass from Troy Timm, just before halftime vs. Owen-Withee in the 2001 payoffs — a play my dad and I still bring up. It got the team momentum going into the locker room, and eventually to the state championship, where they beat Hilbert 34-3. I remember jumping into Brian Turner’s arms after beating Clayton at Spooner Sectionals and telling him to “pack his bags,” as they’d just clinched another trip to Madison in basketball. I remember hearing the Eau Claire Regis student section chanting “Trailer Trash” at the SV faithful the night before, and having no idea what they meant.
I cared about the Cardinals more than River Falls, and maybe any other sports team. I imagined I’d end up going there and being the next Ryan Stangl — a God in my eyes — who started at point guard as a freshman on the 2001 state team and later lead them there as a senior in 2004. Eventually I became more active in RF sports (and was the ball boy for a couple years), and the Cards took a backseat as their glory years faded away. I’ve maybe been to one football game and a handful of basketball games in the last ten years.
Now here they are, undefeated, and playing Pepin/Alma — also undefeated — on Friday in Level 3 of the Wisconsin State Football Playoffs, and I don’t know a single player.
More recently, P/A has become my most followed high school since I was able to watch my cousins Sam and Ben play for them while I attended nearby Winona State. I went to almost every home game and every playoff game for the past couple years. Watching Sam quarterback them to a state runner-up last year was probably the most I’ve been hooked to high school football since those Spring Valley teams. I paced the sidelines through three quarters against Bangor (until Heit’s pick-six), nervous that the #1 team in the state still had a comeback in them. I walked off the field that night yelling and fist pumping in euphoria — maybe the most excited I’ve been after a sporting event since high school basketball. I remember having beers with friends and family at the Dam View afterwards and cheering as we watched the highlights on the La Crosse news. I remember walking off the field a week later in Viroqua, hugging my Grandma, after the Eagles throttled Potosi to clinch the schools’ first state football championship game birth. I also remember the somber ride home after that state championship loss, discussing with my Uncle Tim why the hell they tried a fake punt on 4th-and-12 inside their own 20.
I miss it all — the lights, the cold, the car rides, the Dam View. With a combined enrollment of under 150, Pepin/Alma was the epitome of small-town high school football, and I loved it. As I sit here typing this, I can see the lights at Albia High School shining bright, the Blue Demons about to kickoff a playoff game of their own. Being in Iowa has kept me from getting to a P/A game this year, and it sucks.
It will be weird having the only non-RF schools I’ve ever had a connection to face off in such a big game, and even more weird to not be in attendance. Even though they have the worst logo in Wisconsin, I’ll be pulling for the Eagles in this one. Hopefully they’ll have “Benny Time” to end it!