Semoball

Column: Enjoy this special evening

Jackson junior Logan Bruns kicks the ball in the opening kickoff against Farmington at Jackson High School in the MSHSAA Class 5 District 1 championship game.
Southeast Missourian file

Christmas remains four months away and only a handful of people throughout Southeast Missouri probably celebrate their birthdays today. However, for football fans – and as it turns out, coaches and players, as well – today is a euphoric day of the year.

The 2021 high school football season officially opens this evening and like every season, the next three months promise to be a rollercoaster of emotions for every person that follows the game.

“I have loved the game from my childhood into my high school years,” Cape Central coach Kent Gibbs said. “I wasn't a great player, but I really enjoyed the game, the bus rides, practices, and my teammates.”

Gibbs has been walking the sidelines of Southeast Missouri for nearly five decades. Some his age are spending their Friday nights eating out with their wives, watching a movie, and falling asleep in their favorite chair.

Gibbs is spending three hours learning if his hours and hours of preparation throughout the week were fruitful or not.

“It was an easy decision for me to make when choosing my career path,” Gibbs said. “Football to me is kind of like putting on a warm glove in the wintertime, it just feels good to be a part of.”

Gibbs has centered his life around the game of football, while Southeast Missouri State coach Tom Matukewicz has centered the game around his life.

“I owe everything that I have to this game,” Matukewicz said, “to the men that play it and to the men who coach it.”

Matukewicz said being around the sport “has made me a better father and a better husband,” Matukewicz said of the impact of the sport. But unlike Gibbs, Matukewicz sees a day he won’t be leading a team.

“At the end of the day,” Matukewicz said, “I won’t do this forever. Football has a shelf life, like milk. We all have expiration dates. But I am telling you, the best thing that I did was choose a profession that was going to demand for me to get better in every area of my life.”

There was no more successful coach in the state of Missouri last season – the Chiefs’ Andy Reid included – than Jackson coach Brent Eckley. But when he was asked what he loved about the game, it had little to do with the scoreboard.

“I am reminded every day about the special relationships that are created within the team concept,” Eckley said, “as well as the difficult times that bring people together. I love that it helps boys become men, by presenting them with challenges. It helps them become tougher, and to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.

“I love that sometimes the best thing a person gets from football is that it's ok for it to not be about me, the team first and if I'm not the star, I can still contribute to something greater than myself. I can't do it, but we can.”

Each of these coaches made the conscious decision to make the game a significant part of their lives even after their playing days ceased. However, the love of the sport began, as Gibbs noted, when they were on the field.

That is where former Cape Central athlete, Dony’e Taylor and former Jackson star, Bryce Norman, find themselves at this stage of their lives.

Both play for Matukewicz at SEMO and both are passionate about the sport.

“I don’t get butterflies,” Taylor said of the start of the football season. “But I’ve been around this atmosphere my whole life, so every time football season comes around, I get more pumped and more amped up to play.”

Norman and Eckley made history together last fall, as they (and the rest of the Jackson program) claimed the MSHSAA Class 5 state championship to cap an unbeaten season.

Norman said he does feel some anticipation on opening night.

“You’re always nervous about the first game,” Norman said. “How is your team going to play? Is something bad going to happen and you’ve worked all summer and all fall camp? You’re just ready to get after it.”

For the people connected to this magnificent activity, enjoy tonight. And that includes the media, which get paid to watch and analyze the happenings of this evening. We’re all lucky tonight and we should also be incredibly grateful.

Happy football season.

Tom Davis is the regional sports editor for Semoball.com and oversees the sports departments for the Standard Democrat in Sikeston and the Delta Dunklin Democrat in Kennett.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: