Aug. 24: Fargo Davies (21) at Fargo Shanley (20)

As I pulled into the parking lot at Fargo Shanley High School on Friday night, an odd feeling overwhelmed me.

I couldn't put my finger on it until I began standing in the already long line, looking at the already packed stands on Shanley's west side.

Then it hit me: I'm a fan.

For a moment, I could not remember the last time I attended a high school football game as a fan. For the last seven years in both Wyoming and Idaho, I've been going to high school games mostly as a member of the press. I was covering, not attending.

After I thought about it, I remembered a few -- I caught the fourth quarter of the Natrona JV-Wheatland game in Week 8 last season in Casper. In 2001, I drove out to Hanna to watch my alma mater, Midwest, lose to the Miners. I scouted the Hulett-Ten Sleep game in Buffalo in 1998.

But that was all I could remember. Really, two games (and a quarter) of high school football was all I had watched as a fan in the past 15 years?

No wonder this game felt different.

For those of you who don't know Fargo, Fargo Shanely and Fargo Davies are separated by not much more than a housing development. Shanley is an established, private, religious high school that plays in North Dakota's Class 2A for football; it's big claim to fame is that it was Roger Maris' high school. Davies is the new public high school on the south side of a quickly growing community, a 3A school in its second year of varsity football. To me, it seemed like the perfect introduction to the world of Fargo football.

My wife and I walked into the stadium just as the first play of the game unfolded -- a kickoff that Shanley's receivers could not catch.

In that moment, and as I was reminded throughout the game, one of the things that makes high school football so great is the imperfections.

With about 30 seconds to go before halftime, Shanley had a 14-0 lead and was driving, either to set up a field goal or to maybe get in for a touchdown and really break this game wide open. If that had happened, the wife and I would have probably gone home. (Another benefit of being a fan -- we don't have to stay and watch when the game turns into a blowout.)

And then... imperfection.

Running an off-tackle play left, one of Shanley's players fumbled. Davies defensive back Alek Groth scooped and ran... and ran... and ran... down the west sideline. Touchdown, Davies. 14-7, with 11 seconds to go before halftime.

Now we've got a game.

Or do we?

Shanley scored early in the third quarter, but missed the extra point, to make it 20-7. Again, it looked like the Deacons would pull away.

Then the Eagles found the Deacons' weak point on defense. And attacked it. Over and over and over.

There was some sort of imperfection on the left side of the Shanley defense that Davies found. The Eagles lined up both their tight end and their split end on the same side and sent Groth -- who's also a running back -- off tackle about every other play. 

Poking and prodding that weakness led to Davies' second touchdown, which cut the lead to 20-14 prior to the start of the fourth quarter.

Full-on assaulting that weakness led to Groth's second score, a 50-some-yard dash -- up the east sideline this time -- and a 21-20 lead.

The score stood as Shanley's once-mobile offense fell flat. The victory was just Davies' third varsity victory in school history. And the Davies fans soaked it in.

Just like fans do.

Random observations: One thing I've already noticed about high school sports in North Dakota is that they mirror the society: polite, passionate, passive (forgive the accidental alliteration). ... I should have expected it, but it's still weird to me to see guys in priest collars on the sidelines. ... Props to the Shanley chain gang for going all casual Friday on us with the Hawaiian shirts. ... The guy in front of me and I both had the same idea about the Shanley announcer: He did everything right, except urging the crowd to cheer during key Shanley offensive plays. Even the Shanley players were giving the eagle-wing "Shut up" motion on the few occasions he did that.

Next week: I'm going to take in a Minnesota contest -- Goodridge-Grygla at Moorhead Park Christian, on Thursday. It's Park Christian's second season as an independent program.

--patrick

A North Dakota-Minnesota high school football adventure

To understand why I'm writing this blog, you have to understand a bit about me.

More specifically, you have to understand the slight bit of obsessiveness that drives someone like me to create a website like wyoming-football.com.

That site has logged the scores of more than 22,000 Wyoming high school football games from as far back as 1894. It was a project that took me seven years to complete, and it eventually led to the 596-page tome "A Century of Fridays: Wyoming High School Football, 1894-2011."

In those seven years -- encompassing my final year of undergraduate work at the University of Wyoming, four years as the high school sports coordinator at the Casper Star-Tribune, two more years of graduate studies at UW and several months of temping (as well as an all-but-forgotten nine months in Idaho and another four months working at the Gillette News Record) -- the site and the book were my outlet. 

Some people go fishing. Some people play the guitar. I went to the microfilm machines, and then blogged about what I found there. 

Soon after I finished the research and published the book, I felt both relief and disappointment. My research was done, and that was worth celebrating, but it was the researching I had enjoyed so much and had given me my most tangible creative outlet. 

Now, that was gone. 

At the same time as I was coming to grips with losing my hobby, I was dealing with other changes in my life, as well. 

Shortly before New Year's Day 2012, my wife and I moved from Casper to Fargo, N.D., where I had secured a job teaching journalism at North Dakota State University.

I'm incredibly grateful for the professional opportunity. My wife and I like the Fargo-Moorhead region a lot and we're looking forward to building our lives here. 

But I've had to leave my hobby back in Wyoming. 

It's weird. What do I do now?

This is the question that's bothered me almost every day since I put the finishing touches on the book in January. 

I still don't know, but I think starting with high school football in North Dakota and Minnesota is a good idea....

The F-M area has eight high schools with football -- Fargo North, Fargo South, Fargo Davies, West Fargo and Moorhead, the large public schools; Fargo Shanley, the moderately sized church school; and Fargo Oak Grove and Moorhead Park Christian, the small church schools. 

Oddly enough, the regular season is eight games long.

It is my intent to watch a home game at all eight schools this fall.

If I have the chance, I'll also attempt to take in home games for all three area colleges, too: NDSU, Minnesota State-Moorhead and Concordia College. 

I hope to share some of what I experience with you here. 

--patrick