On West Virginia Day, I am happy to report some good news out of one of the more disappointing “local culture” events in the past year.  In a post here on December 1st I  mused:

There is no postponement of The Big Game.  We are all playing it right now, and the sooner the adults involved in the West Virginia AAA State Football tournament debacle wake up to that reality and what we are teaching kids with this ridiculous behavior, the better.  It may be too late, because at the moment the field is littered with nothing but losers as far as the eye can see.

It’s not in my nature to end on a note of hopelessness, however, and so my final thought was this:

On an up note, one great thing about The Big Game is that there is often a thrilling emergence of an unexpected hero.  My hope is that hero turns out to be the kids themselves.  Time will tell.

My friend and fellow blogger Jason Keeling reports that the kids are in fact all right.  On this day of celebrating West Virginia’s statehood, pay a visit his blog post about how the young people involved in the original on-field fight that wound up in court have turned the corner on conflict and are moving forward.

Happy Birthday, Mountain Mama!  You have a poetic way of ending your stories well, even when it takes a very long time.

Your people will not let you down.

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