For the last 20 years or so, my best buddy and I have been going to a high school football game every Friday night during the regular season, then every Saturday for the playoffs, finishing off with four State Championship games (12 hours outdoors) on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
He played for Lockport and I played for Barrington (back when dirt was new), so we always catch a few of their games. For the last two years we’ve focused on Naperville Central games since his son is the starting center, and I live in Naperville, so it makes sense.
When I woke up today, we still had NCHS and Barrington in the playoffs. They were two of the remaining eight teams. By the time the sun went down, so did our two teams. Barrington lost to Glenbard West, while Simeon had their way with Naperville Central. A three-quarter game would have been great, since they both lost in the final quarter. Each made a fumble that caused their seasons came to a quick end.
It won’t be long (142 days) until municipal elections (April 7). Some city council members time at the dais will come to a quick end if they’re not among the top eight vote-getters. Now twenty weeks and two days may seem like a long time, but when you consider what’s coming, it can go by quickly, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and maybe a run-off election or two. If the snow is anything like last year, as soon as we shovel 80+ inches of snow, we’ll be voting.
It’s late in the game for this city council, it’s 4th and ten, and any type of fumble can make the difference between who wins and who loses. It doesn’t take much to sway a small number of votes between the person elected with the fewest votes, and the one not elected with the most. Just ask Naperville city councilman Dave Wentz who was elected with the least votes (4,475), while highest losing vote-getter (Kevin Coyne) came in with 4,346 votes. 129 votes made the difference between getting elected and not getting elected. One fumble and the season is over.
