BE CAREFUL . . .

Having been disappointed since the start of last year's high school football season that there was not room in the Review's Friday Morning Quarterbacks feature page for me to participate,

and, having whined about it,

and, having reminded my editor, Jim Mackey (repeatedly) that should such a time arise when a spot became available, I wanted to participate;

This past week, that day finally came.

I am now on the FMQ roster.

I sent a text message to my predecessor today, apologizing in advance for trashing his tied-for first record I inherited. The response I got back was: "Yikes!"

It's week four and games are going on as I am writing this, so I don't yet know the outcome of my picks.

It's all in good fun, however; No harm, no foul (Oops, I think that's a basketball reference), no football pool here.

As I always say, I would never bet on sports at any level, and especially not football. Why anyone would want to put their hard-earned money on the line for a sport in which the ball is pointy at both ends is beyond me. (Take, for example, the Steelers' game last week, of which I will comment on no further, since I'm trying to forget it.)

My thinking on choosing my picks, which we have to turn in by 5 p.m. Thursday, was first of all, that all the 0-3 teams would win their first games. There were a few no brainers, and in a couple of those, I played the upset card.

I also did not want to come out of the gate offending anyone on my news beat, so I picked Oak Glen, a pretty safe choice this week; and Southside (Hookstown, Pa.), which everyone told me this morning was insane. Oh well.

I am a Lisbon David Anderson alumnae, and so I will have a hard time picking against my Blue Devils, even though they have not won many games in recent years, and I don't know any of the players. Probably some of them are my classmates kids, or even grandkids by now (Wow, I'm old!)

But, Coach Jim Tsilimos has returned to coach the Devils, so that should count for something. The last time I was at a Devil game in which he was patrolling the sidelines was a Friday, Dec. 5, 1995 in Ohio football Mecca, Massillon's Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, in a little game the Ohio High School Athletic Association likes to call the Division V state final. Getting to that point was amazing in itself, as the Blue Devils sometimes struggled, sometimes rolled to a 10-0 regular season, then four playoff games (one of which I recall they won on a last-gasp, fourth-and-the-moon play.

My mom, who is also a Lisbon grad, and I were squeezed into the bleachers at Tiger Stadium on that December day like a couple of sardines. By the time I met her at work in Canton, we drove to Massillon, parked, walked across the parking lot and around the stadium to our seats the Devils were already losing. I recall there was a touchdown before the half that the Devil faithful thought was inbounds, but the refs didn't. Thankfully, things improved in the second half, and we all got to see the Devils prevail and win a state title.

I nearly hyperventilated and at one point I think I was beating on and or shaking my mother (is it OK to shake a parent?) as the Devils won is heart-stopping fashion. It was a great day. It's hard to believe -- no, make that frightening to believe -- there will be a Devils home game in 2015 marking the 20th anniversary of that undefeated, state championship season.

And while I'm on the subject, not to step on the toes of whoever did the work in 1995, can we do something bigger than small highway signs to mark that great feat? A shrine at each highway entrance to town, perhaps?

Anyway, here we are, at week four of this year's high school football season. I've been out of high school a lot longer than I want to admit, and I still love Friday night football; a bunch of high school kids working hard to earn the right to go out each week and play hard, and have fun.

Several of my coworkers have kids on area teams. One was clipping stories out of the newspaper today to save for her son's scrapbook. Another gave us news that after being ill, her son might still get to play yet this year when he didn't think he would, and how excited he was about that.

I watched a feature on Weather Channel this morning about a fire-ravaged town in Texas where more than 2,000 homes burned because of wildfires. Most everyone in town is living somewhere else, but they all came back Thursday night, driving through the charred neighborhoods, to get together for a high school football game. And the home team won.

Friday Night Lights. There's nothing like it.

And -- Let's Go Big Blue!!!!!