Three weeks until the 2009 high school football season starts! As I trudge through the long, sultry summer days of southeast Texas, I continuously repeat this mantra to myself. Honestly, as of this moment, it has failed to make the days seem any shorter…or cooler. But I believe that it soon will.

I believe because I’ve experienced it over and over again.

I’ve been in a Houston area stadium on a Friday night in early September, which in reality is very much like a Friday night in early August, when 85 degrees suddenly feels a little more like 70, simply because you see two teams are suited up in their school colors, pads and helmets.

Stadium lights have a way of creating a cool breeze and making the unbearable almost enjoyable. The rhythms and sounds of the marching bands transport you away from the humidity. Cheers from the cheerleaders help you to forget, if only for a couple of hours, that actual cooler breezes are still seven, eight weeks away.

Completed passes and solid open field tackles contribute to that as well. But high school football is, and always has been, about so much more than the game on the field or the numbers on the scoreboard at the end of 48 minutes. It’s about fun, camaraderie, inclusion…all things cool.

That’s why—right here and now—I toil in the summer sun and smile.

Three weeks until the 2009 high school football season starts!