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By Coulter Fussell
By the time this column is published it will be February! We are already one-twelfth of the way through 2023. I’m not sure if that sounds like a little progress or a lot of progress, but it does make me feel glad to be generally moving forward through this miserable winter month. Late January in north Mississippi is doing what it does – just chilly enough to be annoying, just drizzle-rainy enough to need windshield wipers at the slowest speed where they make that mind-dulling thumping sound across the glass, ground so soggy that the toes of your socks get wet inside your shoes while walking to the mailbox for your tax bill.
This is exactly how the weather was last Saturday at the Water Valley High School baseball field for their Meet the Blue Devils event. But the drizzle didn’t dampen the good time. The kids looked great out there and lots of family and friends came out to support our team. From what I’m hearing, the players all really like Coach Camp and are excited to play under his leadership. If the kids are happy then it’s already a success.
My baseball player kid is almost halfway through high school so when the junior high team ran onto the field at Meet the Blue Devils I was reminded how physically little my kid and all his teammates used to be. It was only a couple years ago that the sophomores were little munchkins, too! In the next couple of years, these current seventh and eighth graders will shoot up in height and size and that’s a fun thing to see.
I’ve never been one to want my kids to stay babies or pine for the days when they were cute little toddlers. I mean, what kind of crazy person wants to relive toddler days? Teenage days are close enough anyway. So many similarities! The constant eating, the tantrums, the suddenly realizing you have no idea where they went….
I enjoy watching the kids and all their friends grow up, do their own things and turn into their own people. But, through all the changing years, I can always count on one thing to stay exactly the same – and that is the musical selections played over the intercom at the Water Valley baseball fields.
First, they start off with a little “Takin’ Care of Business” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive and then slide into a little “Life is a Highway” by whoever the goofy guy was who sang that back in the last century. There always comes a time when Slash slowly picks the intro to “Paradise City” and, as a parent, one must practice self-control by not scream-singing. Then they hit you emotionally by playing John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Small Town.” But then the line about “little opportunity” comes up and you’re pulled back to reality.
All this to say, y’all come out and support the WV High School and Junior High Blue Devils baseball teams this year!
Last thing: big props to WVHS Student Council and Main Street Association for pulling together a Valentine’s dance this year! The kids are buying up tickets and they appreciate having social opportunities that they so often see happen for their friends at other schools. Keep it up! You can’t go wrong with more baseball and more dances!
