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This past Friday, our football team made the long trip to Saint Paul to take on the Humboldt Hawks. Humboldt is one of six Saint Paul public high schools that compete in the St. Paul City Conference. The Hawks have a brand new artificial turf football field and a beautiful complex for their football team to call home.

Our young team fought hard in the metro heat where the temperatures were in the 80s. You could feel the heat radiating up off the artificial turf. The young men from Cook County kept the game close, trailing 6 - 12 at halftime.

In the second half, Humboldt's speed and size took over as they blew open a close game to win 12 - 32. While our team may like to forget parts of the game we played on Friday, I hope they never forget the experience of making the trip to St. Paul Humboldt High School.

From the time I stepped off the bus, I was impressed with every person I met at Humboldt. The young people were polite, helpful, and very sincere. The athletic director, school staff, and coaches were welcoming and very accommodating.

The neighborhoods of Saint Paul and the neighborhoods in Cook County couldn't be more different. While Cook County is predominantly made up of white kids in a rural setting, Humboldt's school is made up almost entirely of students of color from an urban setting.

After the game, Humboldt graciously put on a pizza feed for our team because of the long distance we had traveled. Humboldt's athletic director, David Mergens, told both teams to eat together and get to know one another. What a great experience this was for our young men on the football team! For the next 35 minutes, they ate pizza and shared fellowship with young men from all different walks of life.

Our coaches and I had an equally good time sharing our thoughts and reflections with their coaching staff. I can tell that Coach Anthony Minus and the entire Humboldt coaching staff have had a tremendous influence on their players. The Humboldt players were friendly, fun to be around, and incredibly respectful. I'm not sure that I have ever met a more respectful group of young men in my life.

Next season we don't have the hole in our schedule that we did this year. In a way, I wish we did. Humboldt's coach said his team would come up to return the favor, but next season's schedule is already filled by our conference opponents. I would have liked to continue this match-up.

Our young people learned a lot about people from other cultures and the great game of football helped bring that together. It was a great experience for our young men and one that I will remember for some time to come.

 

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