“I wouldn’t want to be Jacksonville right now!” — an SHG fan.

“Please have mercy on our young Crimsons this week.” — a JHS fan.

This is sad, folks. I don’t know which is more odious: The SHG fans who deem Jacksonville High football their whipping boy, to take out the Cyclones’ frustrations after having a long winning streak snapped … or the JHS fan, meekly simpering up to the SHG crowd on the SHG Web site.

Oh, Crimson fans. Are ye not men too?

Yeah, yeah. SHG lost a game. Somebody has to pay for that. Whatever. I’ve no doubt that head coach Ken Leonard will have his boys prepared, hungry and focused this week. Not because SHG lost, but because he ALWAYS has them prepared, hungry and focused. That’s the stuff back-to-back state titles are made of.

Do you know what state titles AREN’T made of? “Oh, please have mercy on us …”

There’s a too-easy perception in high school sports that the fans speak for the players and coaches. It’s not true. Fans — and, OK, the media too — have the luxury of saying whatever they want, because they don’t have to get in the arena and fight for it. Nobody on the SHG football team is going to take Jacksonville lightly until victory is at hand. Nobody on the JHS squad or coaching staff is going to ask the Cyclones to “go easy” on them. In fact, they’d probably be mad as hell if anyone else did, on their behalf.

Three weeks ago, I ate lunch with a few of the Crimsons’ team leaders and we talked about the possibility that SHG could be 0-1 when the two teams play in Week Two. Do you know what the JHS players said? They hoped the Cyclones would beat Lombard Montini, not because they were worried about incurring SHG’s wrath, but because the Crimsons wanted the opportunity themselves to break the Cyclones’ long winning streaks, which stopped at 28 overall and 46 in the regular season.

As for that other comment, “I wouldn’t want to be Jacksonville right now,” that’s just fan talk, missing the whole point. I cannot speak for all the Crimson football players, but I know that head coach Mark Grounds LOVES to play SHG. Win or lose, Grounds counts on the SHG game to sharpen and toughen up his players. The earlier, the better.

He says it every year, “Whether we win or lose, we feel like we are a better football team after playing SHG than we were before playing them.”

One more thing: Jacksonville football doesn’t plan on losing to SHG, unless the Cyclones themselves impose that on the Crimsons. It’s called competition. SHG might be the class of the CS8, but JHS would like to be considered one of the programs in the league that makes sure the Cyclones keep earning that distinction.

It doesn’t come with the uniform.

It’s 8:45 p.m. on a Tuesday in late August. I am bored. Normally, this would irritate me. But not tonight. I’m listening to the faint drone of equally bored Apple eMacs in a mostly empty office. Only the tick-tick-tickety-click of my fingers on this keyboard interrupts the quiet.

The quiet before the storm, that is.

As I said, it is Tuesday. This is the last uneventful Tuesday I’ll get to enjoy for a while. On Friday, the Crimsons will kick off their 2007 football campaign against Jerseyville. Earlier that day, the JHS soccer squad will travel to Charleston for its annual season-opening tournament. Then next week, local sports will be at full gallop: volleyball, cross country and girls’ swimming will get going. Soccer and football will not only keep going, they’ll speed up.

Illinois College will kick off its gridiron season a week from Saturday at Millikin. That’s an afternoon game in Decatur. That same evening, Jacksonville High will battle Sacred Heart-Griffin in Springfield. Yeah, I plan to see and write about both games. I drink Red Bull. I am hardcore.

You didn’t ask, but my summer’s been great. I got my butt in shape (more on that some other time), took many days of vacation and, for the most part, steered well clear of deadlines. Meanwhile, we all got pretty ambitous around here about the sports seasons to come.

If you haven’t heard yet, something truly eventful is going to happen this Friday. Sure, the release of the annual football tab is big, but there’s more: We’ll be launching a new Web site totally dedicated to local sports: MyJournalCourierVarsity. I’ll leave it to our sports editor to tell you all more about it, when he’s ready, but I can tell you this: It is intended to bring readers and fans even closer to the sports, athletes and coaches we follow. We hope that’s a good thing.