Danny's Bad Season

It starts on Friday night around 7:00 PM.  The Clinton Arrows take the field and the football weekend is kicked off.  Danny C. Davis will be on the public address system at the stadium.  He has been the voice behind the microphone for the Arrows for decades.  He has also covered and written about Clinton Arrow sports for The Clinton News for just about as long.

For many of us, football is fairly important.  Each year, during the doldrums of mid-season Major League Baseball, we begin to think about how long it is before the football season begins.  Somewhere around May to early July, I commit to the purchase of six season tickets for the Clinton HS Arrows and two season tickets for Mississippi State in anticipation of successful football seasons for both.

My friend, Danny Davis (the same one that is on the public address system) supports the Clinton Arrows, Southern Miss and the New Orleans Saints.  In 2009, the Arrows finished their season at 11-2.  In 2010, the Saints won the Super Bowl and last year, Southern Miss went 12-2 and won the Conference USA championship.  The recent past has been kind.  It has held good and fun memories for Danny Davis and the teams that he supports.  At least that is until this season.  Going into the month of October, The combined record of Danny's teams are:  1-13 (Clinton 1-5, Southern Miss 0-4, NO Saints 0-4).  Weekend after weekend, Danny suffers through a defeat on Friday night, more humiliation on Saturday and then the Saints go retro on Sunday and lose like the Saints teams of years ago.

For a true football fan, this is misery.  Having gone to the Clinton games this year and watching us lose in the fourth quarter to Provine and Jim Hill, teams that are usually victories with a moderate amount of effort, it has been painful.  Probably, grown men shouldn't become frustrated with 16-19 year old kids playing a game.

A look at the schedules of Danny's teams show no major relief in the next few weeks and the suffering will probably continue.  But this past Tuesday, Clinton's 8th grade team beat Madison 44-20 while the 9th grade Arrows beat Madison 34-14.  For a football fan, hope is a great thing.  Already, Danny and I can't wait until next year, and the next!  Help is on the way!

UPDATE:  Finally the seasons came to an end for all of Danny's teams.  The Clinton Arrows righted their ship shortly after the above story was written.  They finished the season winning six in a row, finishing second in the district and hosting a first round playoff game against Southhaven whom they defeated.  The Arrows season would come to a close in the second round of the playoffs against eventual state champion South Panola.  The Arrows finished 7-6.   For Southern Miss, the story was not so good.  The Golden Eagles finished with a winless season at 0-12 and fired their coach after just one season.  The New Orleans Saints had moments when they looked good but with a weak defense, they finished 7-9 and missed the playoffs for the first time in four years.  Overall, Danny's teams finished 14-27.