Time for a cheer for the Hopewell-Loudon Chieftains' football team as they head into the state semifinal playoff game this weekend.
Coach Brian Colatruglio will return to Frost-Kalnow Stadium with his team Saturday night to take on Delphos St. John's. The winner gets to play for the Division VI title.
Trying to get some often-delayed fall chores done this weekend, I sometimes watched on TV and sometimes listened on ra-dio to the Cleveland Browns' 22-0 win over the Miami Dolphins last Sunday.
I happened to be watching when coach Romeo Crennel put rookie Charlie Frye into the game for a series in place of starter Trent Dilfer. The TV commentator smugly remarked at the time that, in doing so, Crennel was opening himself up for the dreaded "quarterback controversy."
Wrong. I think it was the perfect time to see what the young quarterback from The University of Akron, and, before that, Willard High School, could do in a game situation.
For one thing, it gave the kid some game experience. There was a risk, however, in that a really poor showing by Frye in front of the quick-to-boo Cleveland fans could shake his confidence. Fortunately, he was able to rise to the occasion well enough to keep the fans on his side.
The Browns, though they cannot ever count on a victory until the game is over, did seem to have things in hand well enough that, if the Rookie did implode, it should not change a W to an L.
And, maybe most importantly, it showed that Frye may not be quite ready for prime time. For us fans here in Seneca County, it has been easy to wish that Crennel would sit Dilfer and play Frye, our "almost hometown boy," in those games when Dilfer was playing poorly. And there have been a lot of those, it seems.
We only had to look to Ben Roethlisberger of Findlay by way of Miami (Ohio) and his 13-0 start as a rookie with the Pitts-burgh Steelers to see what a talented rookie can accomplish. Crennel's decision showed that "Charlie Frye ain't no Ben Ro-ethlisberger," yet.
There was some good news this past week for those of you who enjoy the sporting opportunities on the water of Lake Erie.
Gary Wisby, a reporter for The Sun-Times Company, published a story saying that governors of Great Lakes states have reached an agreement on what is called the "Great Lakes Basin Water Resources Compact." The governors are supposed to meet in Milwaukee December 13th to sign it.
The Premiers of Quebec and Ontario have agreed to the principles of the Compact.
The five lakes contain 20 per cent of the fresh water on the surface of Planet Earth. That amount is 90 percent of the fresh water on the surface of the United States.
And other places want it.
Wisby says that fast growing communities from as far away as China would like to tap into the precious resource.
The agreement requires conservation and efficient use of the water by the eight bordering states. It also allows sale of Great Lakes water in containers smaller than 5.7 gallons, it just prohibits sale of the water in mass quantities.
The agreement says water in the lakes is "a precious public natural resource shared and held in trust by the states."
The next step after the signings by the governors is to get approval of the legislatures in each state to give it the weight of law.
Wisby says that Congress lets the states regulate water withdrawal and conversation but that Congress will take over if the states do not do anything.
The story says that the signers of the document feel it is important to get the standards into Federal law before the 2010 cen-sus, which is likely to give thirsty West and Southwest states more seats in the House and make it much harder to keep the states' rights principle in force.