So, what happens when your local high school football team misses the playoffs for the first time in four years?

If your team is the Jacksonville Crimsons, a whole lot of NOTHING is what happens. Things have been too quiet around the JHS football program this offseason. Where once there was buzz, there’s now silence.

But if you listen closely — very closely — you can hear the indignation and old pride beginning to stir itself up, just in time for helmets and pads.

“We’re an afterthought,” said JHS head coach Mark Grounds last week, when I called him to ask what’s up. “Everybody has put us down as an afterthought, and that’s fine with us.”

I hardly believe it’s FINE with the Crimsons to log on at various Web sites and see that nobody is talking about them. But I know that Grounds will use this to his team’s advantage. The silent treatment Jacksonville’s been getting at sites like Illinois High School Sports (.com), KHQA and even the de-facto Central State Eight football site, SHGfootball.com, suggests that JHS’ regular and potential opponents aren’t worried about this year’s Crimsons.

Of course, it’s still only mid-July. There’s a lot of football fans who haven’t yet stirred themselves up. So all of this indignation might be a bit premature.

Still, to folks outside of Jacksonville, last year’s 4-5 record might have signaled a reassuring “return to form” for the once-uppity program. In a CS8 where Sacred Heart-Griffin, Chatham Glenwood and Taylorville are generally accepted as the entrenched powers, there’s just no room for anyone else, except for maybe one more “city” school — we’re talking Lanphier, Southeast and Springfield High.

Gosh, nothing would put mist in the eyes of Capital City gridiron fans like seeing Springfield High back in the playoffs. Wouldn’t it be great, come early November, if Crimson fans could stand up and say, “Sorry, Springfield. You’re all gonna have to settle for Jacksonville again.”

But that wouldn’t be the last laugh. No … come late November, after Sacred Heart-Griffin wins its third consecutive state title, all of Springfield can stand up and say, “Sorry, Illinois. Sorry, Chicago. Guess you’re all gonna have to settle for the Cyclones again.”

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.