Chad Conine: Take the rest, I stick to high school football in high school

The joy I saw on the faces of the players during and after the games of the last high school football season was one of the things that kept me going. That spirit returned to the building when Trib hosted a high school football photography day at Waco ISD Stadium on Wednesday. We didn’t get it last year because putting together 200 footballers in the same place would almost certainly have put us in public shame.

This year we moved a little. We extended the time window and asked the coaches to send us a few players from 9am to 12pm. So of course, when football time is football time, the first players showed up on Wednesday morning at around 8.30am. We knew they were doing and we were set up and ready to leave.

This year, we came up with a game called “25 Second Clock” to store game videos. I asked each player to say their name and school and then sent them quick questions based on the dice roll series. We will be posting them continuously over the next couple of months on WacoTrib.com, starting with the couple who will be working with this column on our website.

Questions ranged from football-centric to whose NFL’s best return? Can the Dallas Cowboys win the Super Bowl this year? really revealing What is the best vegetable? How old is your coach?

It was a great way to have fun and interact with the players. Frankly, we spend most of the season learning about these teams by interviewing coaches. Player interviews are sprinkled when time allows. That’s why it’s really fun to spend a photo day mostly with kids.