Tonight’s NFL Draft. My high hopes. – SCN Encourager 4/25/13
The NFL has invited 6 of our competitors to attend!
This was the subject line in an email I received recently from an excited teacher at our high school. Since I never thought this teacher to be a sports fan at all, his excitement was nothing compared to what was beginning to stir inside of me.
No doubt like the frenetic Deputy Barney Fife who’d often exclaim, “This is big, Andy!” I could hardly wait to rush over to the high school and get the full story.
This was indeed “big!” The teacher asked me to see him at the high school – so I dashed over from our administration building.
On my way, I thought about “next steps.” This is what we seasoned school communicators do.
Hmmmm. I imagined having to ask my superintendent to borrow his secretary for a few days. I was about to get pulled away for something “big!” I’d need help with my calendar and moving several school projects along, as I anticipated freeing up time for interviews on the “Mike & Mike Show,” The NFL Network, and Sports Illustrated (maybe even the swimsuit edition!).
This was like winning the lotto for a school communicator! Updating the website with our concert dates, graduation events, and baseball re-schedulings is all right – but this… this could potentially put our district in the national spotlight. “This is big, Andy!”
I guess it never occurred to me while zipping over to see the teacher that our high school football team didn’t actually win a single game last fall. Chances are, though… I wouldn’t have cared. My mind was racing. (“On a roll,” as they say.)
Besides, who knows? Maybe a few NFL scouts noticed our school’s invigorated “strength & conditioning” program and felt that with some “coaching up” our school had six players who could possibly land on NFL rosters. Hey, it could happen. And certainly, these players would be salary cap friendly, too. Extremely salary cap friendly.
So with my reporter’s spiral notebook, pen, and camera in tow, I arrived at the teacher’s door.
He was in the midst of a lesson, so he just waived me in and handed me a sheet of paper. It was an official media release. “This spells it all out,” he whispered. “And I’ll need your help in getting our kids there. Come back later.”
“Count on it,” I replied as I left, wondering if I’d be able to go to Radio City Music Hall with the coach and players. (What do you even pack when going to New York this time of year?)
It was then that I noticed the logo at the top of the release. It was from the National Forensics League. And our six competitors were award-winning speech students, not football players. And they were invited to Alabama (not NYC) for a national tournament.
Of course, after meeting the six hard-working and talented students, I’m glad things worked out the way they have. Whenever you see what 98% of ALL of our students are accomplishing, you develop a great feeling about the future of our planet.
But I sure had my hopes up. And now I have yet one more reason to despise our school related acronyms (ELL, APR, ISD, NSPRA, MASA, et al).
I guess I’ll go back to hoping to win the Lotto. Of course, with my luck, I’d win less than $160,000 and still be unhappy. (according to yesterday’s Skandia International survey)
Tom Page, SCN
