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
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