And if that's the case... Payton Steward, his mother, Fern and I best be asking for leniency from East Marshall Athletic Director Scott Wheater.
Let me explain.
As many in these parts know... a major facility upgrade at the EM football/track complex has been taking place all spring and summer on the north west side of LeGrand. Lots of digging, tiling, fencing, cementing and blacktopping has gotten the joint ready for the top layer of spongy track surface and in a few short weeks... what many thought may never happen... will happen.
East Marshall will have an all-weather track.
So what does THAT have to do with THIS senior session.
With about a week and a half left before school began, I was informed by Mr. Wheater that our normal location for Mustang football and cheerleading pictures (the fb field, naturally) was going to have to be changed because the MOST of the work had been completed at the complex... but the fallout was that new grass seed had been planted in many of the torn up and worked on areas around the complex... and the powers that be wanted as little traffic down that way as possible before the first home football game.
So football pictures were moved... and while they turned out just fine on the old practice field next to the high school, I took a look at the calendar and thought...
Uh oh.
The day BEFORE the scheduled team pictures was a session for none other than Payton Steward.
One of just 7 returning seniors for East Marshall's football team, I KNEW he'd want to have images taken at the field. His brother had two years ago... most players do... it's almost a given.
So when we were going over outfits and talking game plan at a little before 8 a.m. on the LAST day of freedom before Payton embarked on his senior year officially... and I told the senior quarterback/strong safety and his mother that I had reservations (if not direct ORDERS not to be out on the field) I could see the disappointment in their eyes.
It was a dilemma for sure.
Mama Fern put the ball in my court.
"If you don't feel comfortable going there... then we just won't... Whatever you think."
I suggested that in many cases over the years I was susceptible to leaning towards the old credo of just doing it and asking for forgiveness later... but i wasn't gonna lie... I thought we were on thin ice. But I suggested that if we were CAREFUL and TIPTOED... perhaps we could get in... get out... and no one would be the wiser.
Fern: "I'm good with that if you are!"
So Mission Stealth Mustang was on like Donkey Kong. Senior Cadet Payton, my tiny Lieutenant Fern, and I were on a top secret operation. Get in... get out... and Capture. Those. Images!
Thankfully, when we arrived and set foot on the forbidden grounds, no sirens went off... and no snipers were in place. We avoided all the grass-seeded "landmines" and in no time we had completed our mission.
WHEW!
After all that tense risk taking, reality was, we were not even 20 percent done with our overall mission on this day. Sure the biggest risk was behind us... but we still had much more to be completed with my troops.
Not surprisingly then, while over in a nearby town to capture urban style looks... we spied a state trooper one block from our coordinates hopping out of his land cruiser brandishing a high powered rifle. (No lie here... for reals). Suddenly, we wondered if Coach Wheater had found out about our transgressions!
Luckily, we escaped before being apprehended and it was back to the safe haven of Montour.
Many more images were captured back at the home base and in the end... it was a completely successful operation. We completed our mission and there were no casualties.
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