“Friday Night Lights’ are upon us. High school football season starts in just a few days, and it is time for another story from my 35 years of officiating football.
Road trips are a part of every season. Officiating games in the Metro area, while convenient, did not offer the camaraderie and memories made on a road trip to a distant school. One of the longest trips was to Sharkey-Issaquena Academy in Rolling Fork.
Rolling Fork is around 90 miles from Jackson. There are two routes to Sharkey…one was the “express route” driving to Vicksburg and then up Highway 61. The other choice was the “scenic route,” traveling up Highway 49, turning west at Bentonia and continuing through Holly Bluff and Oil City on a crooked, winding back road.
Over the years, we all dreaded being assigned the obligatory “one game per year” at Sharkey. The school struggled with enrollment and consequently was never very competitive in football because of a lack of any sort of depth.
However, our attitude about Sharkey totally changed in the late 90s when the SIA booster club began preparing a pre-game and post-game feast for the officials.
It was not unusual to have boiled shrimp, cheese balls, great chili, and plenty of homemade desserts. Suddenly, there was a scramble among our officials to be assigned to at least two games per season!
Road trips are much more enjoyable if a member of the crew had a large vehicle and everyone could ride together. For many years my wife drove a bright green GMC Safari van that comfortably seated 10 passengers.
My family nicknamed the van…”Geraldine, The Green Machine”….which we shortened to “Geraldine.”
One late September Friday, our crew was scheduled for our annual trip to Sharkey. We picked up several of our guys at the Live Oaks Golf Club on Highway 49 and continued the “scenic route” to Rolling Fork.
We drove by the backwaters of the Yazoo River and the emerging cotton fields of the lower Delta. For some reason, I was receiving multiple calls on my cell phone from a customer with whom our company was involved negotiating a large furniture order. Focused on my business, I was oblivious to paying attention, as I was running off the road, weaving across the center line, and poking along at a snail’s pace.
We finally arrived at Sharkey, unloaded and changed into our uniforms, had our mandatory pre-game conference, and then feasted on the sumptuous meal provided by the Sharkey Booster Club.
Lane Jenkins, our Head Linesman for the night, had exclaimed just before we exited “Geraline” upon our arrival…”I’m driving home after the game.”
“I’m not putting up with your horrible driving on the way back.”
“Fine with me…I don’t see that good at night, anyway!”
(Some of you will catch the irony of this statement.)
It is important to point out that at that point in time, Lane, a veteran Mississippi Highway Patrol officer and past Chief of Security for Governor Ray Mabus, was Chief of the Patrol Division for the entire State of Mississippi. Under Lane’s command were hundreds of patrolmen guarding the backroads and interstates across Mississippi.
We had an uneventful game and retired to the locker room to change back into street clothes for the 90-minute drive back to Jackson. As we climbed into “Geraldine,” Lane slipped behind the wheel, adjusted the rear-view mirrors, locked the doors and then turned to the rest of us.
“Boys, fasten your seatbelts, return your tray tables to the upright and locked position, and hang on.”
“This isn’t going to take long.” “And if you see blue lights and we get stopped…don’t move…they will probably have their guns drawn!”
Sixty minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot of the Highway Patrol headquarters on Woodrow Wilson Drive. Do the math…90 miles in 60 minutes.
I didn’t know “Geraldine” would go that fast.
(My wife is still mad at me.)
Kendall Smith officiated high school football for 35 years and continues to run the game clock. He is the author of “Confessions of a High School Zebra”, chronicling his officiating career.
