Football weather already arrives

Raiders fall in tourney opener
5/25/12
Rough 1st inning sets up Tipp exit
5/25/12
Mesoraco's slam sends Reds over Braves
5/25/12
Local Scoreboard for May 25
5/24/12
Ohio State AD says 12 violations minor
5/24/12
> More sports headlines

By Michael Cooper, Staff Writer 12:02 AM Friday, September 9, 2011

As the Wizard, my job is to make predictions.

I don’t know everything, and I’m often wrong. Even on a good week, one of our knowledgeable readers beats me. It’s not luck on their part, either.

Today, I’m going to make a different type of prediction, with some help from the weatherman — it’s going to rain today.

Every year, we’re dealt one week where rain wreaks havoc on the games, the schedule and my Friday night routine.

The week leading up to the game usually tells what the weather will be like that Friday night.

This week, it’s been cold, rainy and blah — which means I better get my North Face gear ready. I’d start getting the rain gear out if I were you, too.

The five-day forecast doesn’t look too promising. My colleague, Rich Wirdzek at WHIO-TV, said the showers could be hit or miss.

“From what I’ve been looking at, some on and off showers may be lingering into the Friday time frame. May be one of those nights ...,” he told me via Twitter, “where a few places get a little wet, while other games stay dry.”

The rain only leads to things I don’t exactly like.

As a quarterback, the ball gets so slippery, you can barely hold it. And you can forget about the passing game, my favorite part of football. I like to watch smashmouth football as much as the next guy, but what I really want is a shootout.

As a sophomore at Southeastern, we played in a monsoon at Clinton-Massie. The field was absolutely flooded, but without any lightning strikes, we kept on playing. We were losing pretty badly in the fourth quarter when I scrambled to pick up a first down, only to be flung into a giant puddle on the sideline, right in front of my Grandpa, who screamed out, “Ohh yeah!” I couldn’t help but laugh, even if I was soaked, cold and miserable.

The rain also leads to weather delays — and I hate those. Every time you see lightning flash, it’s another 30 minutes. I understand it’s about safety, but I’ve got deadlines to make.

Believe me — a weather delay is a sportswriter’s deadline nightmare.

Saturday night’s Wittenberg game was no exception. The game was delayed two hours, and my co-worker, David Jablonski, was forced to call me in the office with the details from the field as they decided whether or not to keep playing, postpone the game until Sunday or call it a no-contest. That, coupled with network problems at the office, led to one of the worst nights I’ve had in the office in a long time — and it was all thanks to the stupid weather.

Sunday’s rain delay during the Kirk Herbstreit National Kickoff Classic at the Horseshoe didn’t help matters. Springfield’s game with Upper Arlington got postponed by an hour and 15 minutes.

All of those things are a sign of things to come for tonight.

Again, I’m not very good at predictions, but I have a hunch some rain is coming.

Let’s hope I’m wrong ... again.

WIZARD'S PICKS

FRIDAY

High Schools

Kenton Ridge over Ben Logan

Cedarville over Paint Valley

Mechanicsburg over Centerburg

Greeneview over Cin. Riverview East

Springfield over Cin. Sycamore

Graham over Columbus Briggs