2008 Shelby Whippets Football Schedule

(also see: 2009 Shelby Whippets Football Schedule)

The 2008 varsity football schedule for the Shelby Whippets has been posted! (scroll down for schedule)

Before long the Shelby stadium bleachers at W.W. Skiles Field will be full of anxious fans cheering on their hometown heroes. The first-time starters and the rest of the team, well-trained and well-prepared, will have those first-game butterflies in their stomachs. The coaches, anxious to find out if their boys have learned their plays and if they will execute them sharply, will soon know what kind of season they'll have. While preparation is key for the first game of any new season, the results of that first game will reveal what improvements must be made.

There's something really very special about playing under the lights on the freshly-cut grass of Skiles Field. It's the first warm football Friday night of the year and you're in front of the entire town of Shelby, Ohio USA. The Shelby Marching Band is performing many Shelby High School and Ohio State University fight songs to encourage their team as they rip through the GO SHELBY WHIPPETS banner before the game starts, while preparing for a crucial 3rd and long, or giving the defense a boost.

My days as a junior and senior class football player under head coach Bill Varble have long passed me by but the memories are vivid and enjoyable.

(also read "Shelby Whippets Football: Hometown Giants")

The schedule below was taken from the www.HungryHounds.org website. Go there for game results.

DAY	DATE	OPPONENT	HOME/AWAY	TIME	RESULTS	W-L
FRIDAY	8/22/08	Madison	HOME	7:30
FRIDAY	8/29/08	Lexington	Away	7:00
FRIDAY	9/5/08	Ontario	Away	7:00
FRIDAY	9/12/08	Tiffin	HOME	7:30
FRIDAY	9/19/08	Norwalk	Away	7:30
FRIDAY	9/26/08	Fostoria	HOME	7:30
FRIDAY	10/3/08	Willard	HOME	7:30
FRIDAY	10/1008	Bellevue	Away	7:30
FRIDAY	10/17/08	Upper Sandusky	HOME	7:30
FRIDAY	10/24/08	Galion	Away	7:30

Shelby Daily Globe, Mansfield News Journal

Most small towns have only one newspaper. We had The Shelby Daily Globe locally but many people also subscribed to the Mansfield News Journal - the newspaper of the nearest city 12 miles away.

The Shelby Daily Globe was always delivered Monday through Saturday by a young boy of maybe 12 years old, riding a coaster bike and maybe streamers attached to his handlebars. While I don't recall what time the paper was delivered, it USUALLY reached the front porch with a muffled "thump!" or the front door with a "bang!". Or, sometimes, the paper would reach the bushes and we'd have to go searching for it.

The Shelby Globe is very professional for being a "small town newspaper". It carries roughly 9 pages of national and international news, local news, local sports (of course!!), and 2 or 3 pages of classifieds. It really has a little of everything packed into a little space. When I was growing up The Globe was only printed in Black & White and with grainy photos. Now different colors are used and the color photos are sharp.

The Mansfield News Journal also had everything but in greater depth and individual sections you could pull out. All the usuals included Sports, News, Home & Garden, Classifieds, and on and on. While one could subscribe to the News Journal daily, most people in Shelby would only get it on Sundays. We kids always looked forward to the Sunday comics, reading such old-time favorite comic strips as "Blondie and Dagwood", "Peanuts", "Hagar the Horrible", "Sad Sack", and my personal favorite, "Andy Capp".

While not so much when I was very young, I always got a kick out of reading the Shelby Globe section that listed the births, deaths, marriages, and engagements. It was always easy to keep up on local news this way, knowing what your neighbors were up to without personally intruding. This section also included - get this - police calls of disturbances, fights, and traffic violations!!! Oftentimes you'd read that (for example) John Smith, residing at 123 West Street, was ticketed $20 for failure to stop at a stop sign, arrested for drunk driving, or arrested for a domestic dispute. How embarrassing this must be for the person (maybe a well-known person) arrested for public intoxication and not only see his name but also his address in the newspaper! OH THE SHAME! THE SHAME!

Saturday mornings in the autumn were always much anticipated days to receive the Shelby Daily Globe. This was the day the entire town could read about the previous night's Shelby High School football game and find out how many yards their classmates ran, for how many yards their neighbors threw, or how many touchdowns their boyfriends scored. And as wonderful as it is to see your friend's name in the local newspaper, it's 10 times better seeing your own name in the newspaper. When this happens we glow with pride - or cower in shame - when walking down Main Street.

The News Journal always carried a very brief description and scores of all the area high school football games but nothing more than that. The Sunday Mansfield News Journal was always the best place to read about the previous day's Ohio State Football game, complete with statistics & photos. The anxious sports reader could also read pre-game Cleveland Browns articles - which often left the same reader somewhat depressed on Monday morning upon hearing the results.

Shelby's newspaper was always - and still is - a good read. Sometimes the national and international news would sadden but the local news was never terrible, never disastrous, and never made you want to lock your doors at night - or during the day - because there were never any murders or rapes. The occasional tragic car accident fatality would emotionally devastate the community temporarily but this was about as bad as the news got in Shelby. Mansfield, however, was another story.