Gridiron predictions not an insult

In just a few, short years, the high school football pre-season prediction column has garnered a following like virtually no other. Feedback abounds in the weeks after the prognostications appear, as I attempt to gaze into my crystal ball and somehow sort through the SDSSA gridiron puzzle.

Such is the growth of this one particular article that I’m actually devoting two weeks to the process this year — and for good reason. It seems the time has come to set the record straight on at least a couple of counts.

Not a week seemed to pass last year without a team suggesting that “they were not receiving any respect.” Their claim would note that “they say we’re only going to win a game or two,” or that “they think we’re going to finish last,” etc.

And since, to my knowledge, I’ve been the only one who has actually gone on record, outlining the exact records that I have predicted for each and every team, it strikes me that “they” is me.

Let me state categorically that I respect every single one of the young men across all nine schools, who devote the hours of practice time necessary to be able to perform at a decent level come the second week of September.

It’s quite fair to say I actually have an even greater respect and admiration for those athletes who persevere in the face of adversity, who strap on the pads week after week in spite of the fact that wins may be few and far between.

Predicting a winner of any given game does not necessarily imply that one lacks respect for the opponent. If pressed to pick a Stanley Cup champion last spring at the moment the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins entered the championship final, I would have picked Detroit.

As it turns out, I would have been wrong. It certainly wouldn’t have been the first time. But I would contest the conclusion that because I would have chosen Detroit, I had no respect for the Penguins. The fact is, in being asked to predict a winner, it really makes far more sense to select just one team.

I guess I could complete the SDSSA predictions, listing all teams as posting records of 6-0 at year’s end. It would not constitute a particularly realistic preview of the upcoming season, but no team could lay claim to being disrespected. I’m just not convinced that it would make for very good reading.

The high school football prognostications always come with an important caveat — the entire exercise should be viewed as a fun-filled attempt to add a little more interest to the local league.

It’s not like I study scouting reports on incoming players, or spend countless hours reviewing game film to really analyze which teams gain an advantage in certain match-ups. No, the entire process is pretty much limited to trying to take in as many games as possible from the previous season (typically 25 per cent or so) and then visiting as many teams as possible during training camps this fall.

The bottom line here is that players should not take any given prediction too seriously. That said, feel free to utilize whatever is written to motivate you and your mates if necessary.

Which kind of brings me to another important point: as much as some players might claim that I do them no favours by predicting a less than stellar finish for their squad, many of their coaches would disagree.

Many a coach has told me, off the record, that they far prefer to be under-estimated rather than over-estimated when it comes to either concrete pre-season predictions, or even the ongoing school-to-school discussion that is undertaken at this time of year.

The fact is that only the St. Benedict Bears opened the 2008 campaign with the knowledge that they could not possibly better the educated guess I had made at their final record. To their credit, they matched the 6-0 mark that was predicted.

It was one of the times I would get it right though — as coach Kevin Ellsworth is prone to remind me, I did not get it right when it came to the city finals and the Knights’ impressive dethroning of the two-time league champions.

No, it wasn’t the first time my predictions were wrong and it most certainly won’t be the last. But that won’t stop me from enjoying the fun that lies in seeing if I can get it right. Here’s hoping that every single player in the league also understands that fun is what it’s all about, at least when it comes to next week’s pre-season predictions.

How’s that for a build up to remember?

Randy Pascal is the voice of Eastlink Sports and the founder of SudburySports.com.