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What does Bud say? He probably refs over there?

I wouldn't call the other schools petty , because these concerns are legit, just overblown when you figure in missed class time for other events, and it only happens every other year. These were my comments on the WSJ Blog:

There are other schools without lights, and they start games at 4:30 or Saturday afternoon(which many don't like either). When you say they only miss an hour, that's not true. Opposing teams usually like to arrive about 90 minutes before game time, so an hour bus ride means leaving at 11:30. Then there is the issue of fans. Do they close down the school early on those days? What about adults fans/parents who need to leave their jobs? How many people miss those games because of work responsibilities? Opposing schools only come to Darlington once every other year, so I'm sure they view it as a hardship.

None of these issues seem to be all that big a deal, or insurmountable, but throw them together...

I'm sure the people in Darlington, esp. the school personnel love this. They can attend/work the games without it completely messing up their weekends. The school has built in game workers, the band kids are already there(I'm a band guy and would be thrilled to start at 2:00), etc. etc. Crowd control is probably easier at that hour as well. No fans who had four beers at the fish fry at that hour!

The coaches probably love it, because they can go scout every Friday night, and that probably rankles opposing schools (our NW Wisconsin school plays it's homecoming game on Saturday and it's like a conference coaches meeting!).

Missed class time is an issue for schools, esp. when schools are under the microscope for test scores, etc., but truth be known, the kids usually are all geeked up by noon on Friday waiting for the big game anyway, so play it and get it over with!