September 20, 2007

I am not a cheerleader. I hung up my pompons years ago following a pyramid incident that still rocks my hometown. I can’t do flips and twists and I look miserable in one of those short skirts.

I also am not a cheerleader from this desk. Deep inside I hope that all of our local teams do well, but it is extremely rare that I will show emotion at a local sporting event. It is not my duty at this newspaper to make people “feel good” about the latest loss.

I vividly remember a Vicksburg High football game several years ago when the Gators scored 21 points in the final six minutes of the game to win. The sports editor of the paper that covered Vicksburg’s opponent that week hauled off and kicked the Gatorade bucket in disgust.

That being said, maybe we can all become cheerleaders for the next couple of weeks because there is a team in this county not used to losing that is doing just that. The Warren Central Vikings are hurting right now.

In years past, Vicksburg High and Warren Central were in the same division battling for playoff position. Rooting against one another then made sense, because postseason positions were at stake.

But now VHS is in Class 4A and the Vikings are still in 5A. Common opponents are no more and the annual grudge match ended after week 2 with a 7-0 Vicksburg High win.

It wouldn’t be uncommon, either, to see green rooting for red and blue. When Vicksburg High baseball does well, Warren Central people are interested. When the WC girls basketball team reaches the Mississippi Coliseum, deep down the Gators are cheering. It is nice when this county gets recognized for outstanding athletics.

So back to football. Warren Central is in the throes of a three-game losing streak with arguably its best chance for a victory coming up Friday in Hazlehurst. Warren Central, the same team that had nationally ranked South Panola within a touchdown with five minutes to play in the Red Carpet Bowl, has since lost to Vicksburg and a youthful South Pike team. Viking supporters are getting frustrated because they simply aren’t used to such results. They are not used to turning on the Friday night sports on TV and hearing a Jackson TV anchor refer to the Vikings as Warren County High School. The Vikings have been way too consistent over their storied history to have it all fall apart in a couple years.

Be assured of this, those coaches haven’t gotten much sleep lately trying to figure out what ails them. If anything, they go at it even longer than usual trying to turn around a ship without direction right now.

It is easy to be a fan of South Panola or Wayne County, because rare is the day those schools lose on the football field. It is the truly dedicated fan that is there win, lose or tie.

WC will rebound as it normally does, and I will continue to keep my mini-skirt and pompons in storage, but let’s make a small exception in this case and say we hope Warren Central wins this Friday night against Hazlehurst.

It will be better for everyone if they do.

*

Sean P. Murphy is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. E-mail him at

smurphy@vicksburgpost.com