In the Norman Rockwell depicted small town America, communities gather in town around the Christmas tree for holiday festivities in December, and the town flocks to the local baseball diamond for the summer Founder’s Day picnic. In 1950s television sitcoms the townspeople sit around the barbershop and talk about the high school football team and the high school basketball team, equally praising and vilifying the coach each season. But let’s face it, “Floyd the Barber” doesn’t work in Lansdale, and with the North Penn School District consisting of many downtowns from Lansdale to North Wales and Hatfield, it is difficult to recapture these feelings of Americana that (fictional or not) have come to define small town communities because… we really are just not small. The North Penn community is expansive, equally residential, commercial, and industrial. It takes at minimum a solid thirty minutes to traverse the school district in typical traffic. We are home to multiple Little League snack bars, dozens of barbershops, McMansions, row homes, and more schools than exist in most counties. We are large, we are spread out, and we are rarely seen as a central community functioning as one. But before we throw in the towel on our chances of representing Norman Rockwell’s America, we must remember the atmosphere that still manages to find its way into a North Penn High School football game in the postseason.   

All one had to do was count the number of JL Freed or Yocum’s license plate frames parked in Northeast Philadelphia on Saturday to know that there are still some things that manage to bring this community together. We are certainly divided politically, and the business of everyday life impedes us from having impressive turnouts at many school and community events, but it is high school playoff football that reminds us that community does still exists in North Penn, and our schools are still very much at the center of our past, present, and future. Take a seat anywhere on the North Penn side of the bleachers at a playoff game and you are bound to hear talk of former North Penn coach Al Brodhag,( you’ll certainly hear his daughter yelling – “that’s good for a North Penn first down!”!) and you will hear countless references to the 50s, 60s, 70s, and all points in between. Somewhere to the left or the right is bound to be a diehard North Penn fan who comes out to watch every football game, and if you didn’t know any better you might think he was  Ralph Reeves’ grandfather or uncle when he yells ‘Give the ball to Ralphie!” But he isn’t; he is just a fan – a loyal follower of our largest high school athletic program.

It seems that just about every year, the legions of North Penn faithful pack their cars with navy and Columbia blankets and travel around to the immaculate turf stadiums of southeastern Pennsylvania to join in one common cause. Some are former players themselves, some are parents of former players, some are teachers, some are students, and most are North Penn alumni spanning the decades. So many are people from the community who simply love to follow high school sports. Regardless of who they are, they assemble for the one event that, despite our size and our geography, despite our political divide, and despite our 21^st century dynamics, still brings a little bit of Mayberry into North Penn.  If for no other reason, on a community level – this is why high school football matters.

Of course, for many kids, high school football is the means to the ends for discipline, work ethic, commitment, camaraderie, and for some, a shot at a big time college academic and athletic experience. For those reasons alone, high school athletics are a vital component of the mission of our school district. And when we further examine what high school football means in terms of bringing an entire community together, and unifying all of the stakeholders in the North Penn School District (students, parents, staff, administrators, board members, residents, business owners, etc.) we find that there really is no other community event that brings so many people together for one common purpose. The conversations at North Penn football games are often the bridges between past and present. A typical young fan can learn a whole lot about North Penn past through a five minute conversation with a community diehard at a football game, and a long time Lansdalian can learn just as much in five minutes with a high school student of today, even with earbuds fully intact. Playoff football in the North Penn community really is so much more than just a football game; win or lose, the atmosphere that results in the stadium is incomparable. It also kind of supports the value of having a first class football stadium to call home, as a community gathering place – but that’s for another editorial.

Certainly this season’s football experience is no exception. On the field, many of the North Penn Knights are scholars in the classroom, stand-up individuals in the halls, and dedicated athletes. They are strong symbols of a North Penn education, and the hard work and leadership of their coaches is definitive of people who work hard for things they believe in. We are fortunate as fans that we can just show up and be entertained and brought together to see the final product, but what goes on behind the scenes when the lights aren’t on is a work ethic and dedication that represents everything that public education and high school athletics are founded on.

This Saturday afternoon, the North Penn community will again pick up some hoagies from the West Point Deli, pack their cars, booster buses, minivans and SUVs and head down Sumneytown Pike to the Lansdale interchange where they will make the westward trek to Hershey. There are bound to be plenty of North Penn bumper stickers, magnets, and window clings headed west on Saturday, and hopefully, a matter of just hours later, the Towamencin Volunteer Fire Co. will be at the same Lansdale interchange ready to escort champions back to North Penn High School. Regardless of the results, however, this season has once again defined what high school football does for a community. We are large and expansively spread out, even divided much of the time, but our community manages to get a little smaller, and a little more cohesive every weekend this time of year – and for our school district as a whole, that is why football matters.