Radio Free Kirkopolis

I haven’t been to a High School football game in like 18, years. As a matter of fact I think the last one I went to was the year after I graduated- that would be 1990 for those trying into guess my age. Anyway, when I was in school the South Seven Conference consisted of Marion, Herrin, Mt. Vernon, Carbondale, Harrisburg, Murphysboro, and some sort of combination of Centralia, W. Frankfort and Benton.
It was nice. You had rivalries of close towns that made things interesting. I can remember a buddy of mine (a linebacker) dating a girl from W. Frankfort who’s ex boyfriend was their quarterback. Made for an interesting match-up. And that kind’a thing happened all the time. Now it’s all confusing. For the last several years the South Seven has morphed, composed of all sorts of towns like Cahokia. Cahokia? How can you have a rivalry with a town like Cahokia? It’s like 2 hours away! The farthest we ever had to go was once a year when we faced Paducah – Tillman. Not sure why, but we still visit P.T. I guess the athletic directors were just trying to broaden our horizons by introducing us to Kentuckians.
Back to my point- I was reading the paper this morning and, being a small area where most the folks live vicariously through their kids and take H.S. sports WAY to seriously, the paper had their weekly H.S. football preview. With that they included an overview of tonight’s Marion v. Highland battle of the giants. Um, Highland? Where the heck is Highland? Here are the directions they gave-

From Marion, take I-57 for 42 miles toward Mt. Vernon and stay left onto I-64 for 39 miles. Take Exit 34 toward Albers and turn left on Albers road.
Turn right on I-160 North for 17 miles and turn right on Broadway for one mile. Take a left on Poplar Street and enter the roundabout and take the second exit onto I-160. Turn left onto Troxler Avenue to get to the high school.

Are you kidding me?
I don’t want to sound like an old, complaining fart here, but ‘back in my day’ the directions to the game were “go to the Herrin football field- try not to start a fight.” Everyone just knew. Now, Highland? Whatever.
Like I said, I haven’t been to a game in a long time and frankly I’m not sure if I’ll ever go to another. Not that I don’t have any pride for my alma matter (they had a great season last year and I was rooting for ‘em) but I just don’t wanna be that guy that lives his life in his hometown’ bubble. Sure I still live in the area and really don’t care to move away, but a man’s gotta have his limitations. None the less, I just don’t see the point in what the ISHA is doing here. It would be like moving the Cubs and Cardinals into two separate divisions. Rivalries are one of the key ingredients to sport, why on Earth would you take it away?
Even way back when, I never pretended to have the slightest clue to what the ISHA was thinking at any given moment, you just sorta took them as a powerful organization hell bent on taunting the state with ludicrous decisions, but this is just goofy.