To suit up once again would be amazing. To run onto the field with teammates through the paper banner held by cheerleaders to the loud cheers of fans and music from the band would be the greatest gift.
But as the late singer Eddie Money sang, “But I can’t go back, I know.”
The oldest active athletic field in the Wyoming Valley, Hanover Area’s Memorial Stadium, is scheduled to host its first varsity game this Friday versus Marian Catholic for the first time since 2023.
Lead dust from sandblasting the home bleachers got into the locker and storage rooms underneath in June 2024.
What made last year’s unfortunate situation worse, Memorial Stadium was shut down for its 100th year.
As I wrote previously, I grew up in the shadows of Memorial Stadium and played on that holy ground for nine years from Mini-Hawks through varsity Hawks in high school.
My senior season, 1988, we had a huge offensive line (I played right offensive tackle/defensive end) with a freshman running back, Jaime Proctor. We were a running team so opposing teams would play nine or 10 players in the box almost every single play.
The Wyoming Valley Conference rushing title came down to the last game of the season.
Coughlin’s George Wolfe took the lead in rushing yards Friday night, Nov. 11, 1988. Proctor needed 130 or so yards in our final game against our rival, Nanticoke, on Saturday, Nov. 12, 1988.
By the middle of the third quarter, Proctor gained 283 yards on 17 carries, winning the Wyoming Valley Conference rushing title with 1,410 yards and the honor of being the first freshman in Pennsylvania’s high school football history to rush for more than 1,000 yards. By the way, the game ended Hanover 29 – Nanticoke 22.
That last game of the 1988 season was not my last on the field.
I coached Hanover’s girls’ soccer as my daughters and their teammates proceeded through high school and we played our senior games at Memorial Stadium.
Since I graduated a year earlier than normal, I always joked I still have a year of eligibility left to play high school football.
So, as the Hawks — under new head coach Eric Richardson and his great corps of assistant coaches — run onto the field this Friday, I may suit up wearing my #73 jersey, go back to my routine of listening to Guns N’ Roses “Rocket Queen” on a Sony Walkman in the locker room before the game, and run onto the field with those young men. Perhaps I could get into the game before I get caught and banned for life from Memorial Stadium.
Hanover Area’s Memorial Stadium, at least the football field, hosted its first game against Edwardsville on Sept. 20, 1924. The bleachers and wall (erected to prohibit free-onlookers) were constructed in 1938/1939 and opened in 1940, making it the oldest active athletic field in the Wyoming Valley.