Jim Mashek

NEVER MADE IT TO SPARTANS’ GAME ON FRIDAY NIGHT; WILL VISIT BOTH SOUTH AND BGHS IN NEXT COUPLE DAYS

South Warren High School’s football squad was the only team in South Central Kentucky playing during Fall Break last week.

The Spartans had won five of their first six games before their open date in the final week of September.

Bowling Green High School, South’s archrival in the KHSAA’s Class 5A, 2nd District, took its break to heal and get ready for the stretch run to the playoffs. The Purples have won five of their first seven games, outscoring four opponents by a staggering total of 214-13 after a hard-fought, 38-35 loss to Lexington’s Bryan Station on September 2 in Bluegrass Country.

I told BGHS coach Mark Spader I was getting bored, after monitoring WKU’s 35-28 victory over Louisiana Tech — on the radio and via the Internet, mind you — on Thursday night in Ruston, Louisiana. So I touched base with South Warren’s Brandon Smith to put together a little preview for the Spartans’ game against Louisville’s Moore High School on Friday night in the Derby City.

The Mustangs were sporting a 4-2 record themselves, so I figured I’d make the two-hour trip up Interstate 65 to see Smith’s squad one last time before South plays host to Bowling Green on Friday night. Made arrangements with my neighbor, Juaun, to take care of Piper until I got back to town on Saturday.

I’m at an age where I NEVER travel long distances, by myself, at nighttime while covering sports. Actually, I hit that age about 15 years ago, when I was still toiling for the daily newspaper on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

My primary beat during my 18 years at the Biloxi-Gulfport paper was the Southeastern Conference, and if you’re familiar with the Magnolia State, you know it’s a long way from the Coast to Starkville — the home of Mississippi State — and even longer to Oxford, where the Ole Miss Rebels do their thing about an hour from Memphis.

So a quick trip up to Louisville? No problem. And Brandon Smith reminded me that the game would actually kick off at 5:30 p.m., Central Time, so there was a chance I could get back on the road in time to at least CONSIDER driving back to Bowling Green.

The way South and Bowling Green both have been rolling non-district opponents, there was an excellent chance the Spartans could build a 36-point lead so they could implement a running clock for the second half.

(Besides, I wanted to make sure I was parked in front of my TV for Texas-OU in Dallas on Saturday. The less said about that game, the better …)

I jumped in the Gray Ghost, my 2011 Acura TSX, about 3.5 hours before South’s kickoff with Moore High School. Got some gas on the other side of town, toward Warren East High School, before getting on the interstate. Was ready to roll …

So I rolled.

Set the cruise control for 73-74 mph, just a tad over the speed limit, and hit the road. Listened to a couple trusty CDs when I wasn’t fiddlin’ with the radio. My GPS told me that I was about 45 minutes from the stadium when the traffic in front of me started to slow down in Bullitt County.

Quickly.

Then everything came to a stop.

The traffic. My trip. Pretty much everything.

We’ve all been there, running into obstacles on the road, and at first, I figured it would be no problem.

I figured wrong.

After 30 minutes or so, we’d moved a grand total of the length of a football field. Maybe. I checked the time and decided I could still make it to Moore High School in time for kickoff.

Again, I figured wrong.

There’s a lot of road construction going on, between Elizabethtown and Louisville, and this was one of those spots. Two or three first responders made their way up the interstate on the shoulder, a narrow shoulder of gravel that descends into a bona fide ditch on the edge of the woods.

I started wondering what was happening.

About an hour after coming to a stop, a sheriff’s office vehicle and two fire trucks made their way BETWEEN the parked cars on the Interstate, and at this point I figured I could probably get to the game by the end of the first quarter.

Again, I figured wrong.

Darkness began to set in. It was getting colder outside. Some drivers started getting out of their cars. There were plenty of tractor-trailers, too. I started calculating my odds of making it. After we’d been stopped for 90 minutes, they were already playing football at Moore High School.

So I looked for a streaming service, or radio station, that could give me some updates. I went on Twitter. Nothing seemed to be working. When we’d been stopped for two hours, I sent South coach Brandon Smith a text message. I told him what had happened, and that I doubted that I would be able to make it.

I didn’t.

Brandon texted me back after we’d been stopped for three hours, and 10 minutes, and it was another 15-20 minutes before the traffic finally started to move. He texted me back, of course, because THE GAME WAS OVER.

South Warren had drubbed the Mustangs, 48-15.

And I was exhausted.

I booked a room near Shepherdsville, the same motel where I stayed after Warren Central’s dramatic 13-0 victory over Bullitt Central High School to open the 2022 season. That triumph snapped Warren Central’s dismal 63-game losing streak, and the Dragons went on to win five games last year. Now THAT was a rewarding story, watching how veteran coach Mark Nelson and his gritty WCHS team put the ignominious streak in the rear-view mirror.

Had a chance to get some dinner at a Mexican restaurant near the motel, and tuned into Louisville’s 11 o’clock news before going to bed. They mentioned the backup on Interstate 65, but never said what had actually happened. Or I missed it, changing channels.

South Warren won that game at Moore High School, in a walk. Junior SWHS quarterback Bryce Button was quite efficient, completing 10 of 13 passes for 215 yards and FOUR touchdowns. (That gives Button 26 TD passes for the season.)

The Spartans’ Jimmy Sales had 141 yards rushing. South’s Colton Veltkamp had another big game, with two touchdown receptions. The Spartans’ Parker Smith had four tackles for losses. From the stats summary on the KHSAA web site, it was obvious Brandon Smith had emptied his bench.

Now, I’ve had my share of misadventures on the road. Taking my 1995 Honda del Sol into three feet of water, during a tropical storm on the Gulf Coast, before a New Orleans Saints game in 2004 immediately came to mind.

(That was a long ride in a tow truck back to Mississippi.)

Bottom line, of course, is you have to be prepared when you get on the road. If you’re traveling by yourself, you can’t take unnecessary chances. The best advice I’ve ever given myself in these situations, of course, remains “I’ll get there when I get there.”

So I’ll take in the tail end of South Warren’s practice on Monday, and then Bowling Green’s on Tuesday. Both schools have won KHSAA Class 5A state championships in the last three seasons, and the Purples were the 5A runner-up last year.

And I’m looking forward to the 10- to 15-minute drive to South on Friday evening.

My advice, particularly to myself? Get there early.

Definitely looking forward to the game.