Good people, good projects

From the Sidelines

1048

Greenville is a good small town, lots of businesses, good citizens, low crime, and hard workers.  Of course, the same could be said for our whole county. Every community in our county has a core group whose sole purpose is to try and make us all more proud of our towns and villages.  Every town is also proud of their schools, and rightly they should be.

We have good student-athletes here, and our schools do an excellent job of preparing our kids for the future.  A lot of places aren’t as lucky as we are, and I think we all need to stop and count our blessings. I especially used to when I was Commissioner and was coming back from a function in Columbus. I realized how fortunate we all were!

I mention this for a specific reason.  One of our good people here in Greenville is Scott Fitzgerald. Scott and some others built a cannon several years ago to be shot off at football games when Greenville scored. Scott got the idea when the U.S. military wanted the old original cannon replaced or made unworkable, for lack of a better word, that the long ago group of men known as “The Tidal Wave” purchased for the same purpose. The Tidal Wave was formed to bring some spirit back to Greenville football after several less than mediocre seasons, so they decided to goose things up a bit.  It is a fascinating story, and can be read on the internet at this site on the old Darke Journal:

https://www.darkejournal.com/2014/03/the-tidal-wave-how-wave-wagon-and.html.

Anyway, Scott and his group built a really cool cannon several years ago for football games and now he is seeking permission from the school board to take the old cannon and restore it and build a memorial to be placed in Harmon Field beside the new one.  This will tie the old spirit with the new spirit he and his men are trying to revive.  I think it is a great idea!  I remember those days and that crazy group who took the cannon behind an old open jeep to games in the old MVL.

In 1971, we had a new coach, several new assistants, an agreeable school board, and the Tidal Wave.  Some magic happened that year, and we were the only team in Greenville history to go undefeated, 10-0. Was it a combination of all of the above?  Sure it was! But that cannon…..it meant something special……when we showed up for games, with huge followings from Greenville, people knew who we were and what we were about!

People like Tom Hanes, Bud Stegall, and Jim Thwaits are still around, and Scott has that same mentality, anything can be accomplished with the right help and determination.  Let’s see as a community if we can’t bring back some of that fire and determination that the Tidal Wave had! We have a new coach, a few new school board members, and I know the community wants a winner.  There is no reason it can’t happen, it just needs to come together!

So please members of the board, Brad Gettinger, Mark Libert, Kristi Strawser, Krista Stump and Tom Warner, make the right decision quickly so Scott and his “merry men” ( yes, I stole that from Robin Hood!) can start to bring back the enthusiasm for Greenville football that it needs. It will cost the school nothing, Scott already has everything planned out. I am sure that Scott would appreciate the help.

Greenville and Darke County are lucky to have such people around.  That’s why no matter how many places my wife and I have been, no place to live is better than here….and that’s because of the people! That’s the way I see it…..from the sidelines!