If you were a student/athlete when you were in high school I have a few simple questions to ask and I would like to hear your story. Do you remember your last high school game you played? Do you remember the last time you put on your high school uniform? Do you remember what you were thinking and feeling at the time?

I’ll share mine and then I want to hear yours. I remember my last football game like it was yesterday. This was almost 50 years ago and it still hurts today. In 1975 we had a really good football team. The Madison Dragons football team that year was the talk of the town. If my memory serves me right, we hadn’t lost a game midway through the season, as a matter of fact the first 4 games we played the opposing team hadn’t scored a point. Our defense had shut them out. We hosted Ortonville for homecoming and at halftime we were leading 13 to 0. Then Ortonville scored in the 3rd quarter, those were the first points scored on us that season. We went on to lose the game. We rebounded the next couple of games with wins and were to face Granite Falls for the Little Sioux Conference title in Granite.

This was to be the biggest game I would ever play and it would be my last football game. The playoff system was different back then. Only the conference champions went on to a state playoff. It was a rainy cold night in Granite Falls and it was the biggest crowed that I remember seeing. Granite had a really good team as well with a great quarterback. I don’t remember the score, but we lost. I was a senior and what I remember the most as I walked off the field it really hit me that I would never put on shoulder pads again and play a game I loved. As I sat in a quiet locker room on a bench I refused to take my football jersey off. It hurt a lot. I wanted to win and go to state so bad. Even now as a radio broadcaster every time I visit the Granite Falls football field I get kind of emotional about it. It still hurts being there some 50 years later.

I had the same experience losing in the playoffs in baseball for the Madison Dragons, it hurt to turn in my baseball uniform. I will admit, while walking home and knowing that I was done playing high school sports I cried. I didn’t want it to end. I lived for playing sports in high school.

So this past week when I saw the Dawson/Boyd boys basketball team lose, even though they don’t have any seniors on the team I felt for them. I know the hurt. The same goes for the Minneota boys and girls basketball teams this weekend. I really feel for the seniors. But life goes on and you realize that the memories and the good times you had playing sports in high school will last. I have great memories of coaches, friends and games we played in.

So let me hear you stories. Do you remember the last game you played in? Or any high school sports story you might have. Leave a comment. Thank you for reading Raymo’s Ramblings.