I’m very fond of the little village in which I grew up: Vicksburg (pop’n 3,617). Between what my old VHS classmates tell me and what I read in my monthly South County News (1), I pretty much keep on top of what’s happening there. This month’s SCN featured stories of the good fortunes of two Bulldogs teams. I thought it was news worth spreading. I’ve assembled a list of every classmate with an e-mail address and use it to round ’em up for monthly Zoom meetings. Yesterday, even though I had no pertinent Zoom announcement, I sent everyone on that list the following (not everyone lives in the ‘burg or reads the SCN).
“Good evening friends
No Zoom news with this one, just using my database to pass on some news of our ‘burg. Kathy Oswalt-Forsythe, VHS English teacher and South County News editor-in-chief is nice enough to send me her paper every month. You in the ‘burg can pick it up for free at Mar-Jos and other establishments. The farther flung can access it at https://southcountynews.org/. Send Ms O-F a small check, and you can get your own paper copy every month. She’ll even put your name on the back of the paper the month your check clears.
The paper exudes all the small town charm of the old Commercial, Meredith Clark’s baby, whose other baby – the late Sue Moore – was founding editor of SCN.
This month there was some great news about 2 of our sports teams. Our footballers would have been undefeated in the regular season were it not for those mean kids from Edwardsburg, who finished undefeated and never put up less than 50 points on an opponent after they opened the season beating Montague by a mere 38-0. Unfortunately, our old nemesis from 16 miles south – Three Rivers – ended our playoff run by nipping us 9-7 at Canavan Field 2 days before Halloween. That game – dubbed “Battle for the Bone II” – was projected as the most interesting game in the state that weekend (2). We’d beaten them handily – 46-27 – during the regular season. SCN must have gone to press before that playoff game. The story (3) is not on line yet, but here it is:
Although this Bulldog team didn’t go far in the playoffs, there’s another team of Bulldogs that won it all. Last month, our equestrian girls won their second state championship in 3 years (they came in 3rd last year). As I have a 16 year-old equestrian niece in California, I started to pay attention to this team when they first won state in ’19. They’re quite the power. Starting as a club sport in 1999, they won district in 4 of their first five seasons after becoming a full-fledged varsity sport in 2009. They’re cute to boot. Here’s the story (4).
I also like this picture of them hoisting their just-won State Championship trophy.
Finally, no tune this time. I couldn’t find a recording of our fight song. But, hey, check this out:
Just 9 days to November 16. Looking forward to seeing youse there.
Bob”
What more can I say than “Red and white fight! Fight!
References
1. South County News online https://southcountynews.org/.
2. Bernreuter H. ‘Battle for the Bone II’ between Vicksburg, Three Rivers most intriguing game in state. MLive.com 10/29/21 https://www.mlive.com/sports/2021/10/battle-for-the-bone-ii-between-vicksburg-three-rivers-most-intriguing-game-in-state.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mlivesports_sf&fbclid=IwAR35A8FiBLpeJKVFBZxEAAu17L17EeUEtRlURJ1w5vmaVjAIHexv7UYfGMk
3. Smola T. Bulldog football finishes season with 8-1 record. South County News November 2021, p 20.
4. Vicksburg equestrian team captures state title. South County News November 2021, p19.
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