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Loading...Stansbury High School deserves a gold star for its spring sports atmosphere judging solely on how my senses felt on Tuesday.
With the school’s soccer field directly parallel to its softball field, a person could easily watch two games simultaneously and without much hassle. The view of the mountains with just a little bit of snow on top coupled with seagulls hovering the soccer field made for a pleasant sight. A light breeze and temperatures in the low-50s made for a comfortable environment. Throw in the sweet aroma of grilled burgers and you’ve got yourself a Weezer song. “Stansbury High, that’s where I want to be.”
Everything about being there on Tuesday is the way things are supposed to be during the spring. We suffered through the doldrums of winter with no smell or friendly sights, but one afternoon at SHS can solve that problem.
Remember those moments that remind you of being a kid but you just don’t know why? I had one of those moments on Tuesday, and I’m afraid the smell of burgers had more to do with it than anything else. After all, we don’t have seagulls in St. George; we have jars of red dirt. But for some reason I felt 12 years old again, and I was right back at the Santa Clara City Park just up the hill from Snow Canyon High School. The year was 2000, and I was at the plate in a little league baseball game trying to add to my .033 batting average.
“Briggs, you’re supposed to turn the other way if you get hit by a pitch,” Landon Smith’s dad said to me once. Meanwhile, a black and blue circle starts to form on my chest. Ah, to be 12 again. Also, none of you know Landon Smith, but at the same time, don’t we all know a Landon Smith from our childhood?
It was at that same park the exact same year as my infamous “hit by pitch” where I decided to show off on my bicycle. The concert stage at the park has a small cement staircase, and I decided to ride my bike down the steps to do some “tricks.” Sure enough, bikes aren’t made for riding down stairs. I crashed and sliced deep into the inside part of my right leg, albeit the wound wasn’t that wide. I still have the scar as proof.
So for some reason during the SHS soccer and softball games on Tuesday, my mind raced back to the spring of 2000. So for that, thank you, Stansbury High School. The spring sports season features the sports we all loved to play most as kids — soccer, baseball and softball — so to have an environment at SHS that helped me go back to those days meant a lot.
The atmospheres at Tooele High School and Grantsville High School have that same open and friendly kind of atmosphere, but there was something in the air on Tuesday. Whatever that something is (I’m doing my best to avoid “Bambi” references right here), it felt spectacular. I felt ready to climb to the nearest mountain and just shout for no apparent reason.
Hopefully you will too this spring.
