The nice thing about fall

We made it through a few weeks of hot weather like we always seem to do. I know we complain about it, but that just helps us feel good about feeling bad.

It happens every year because around here, we do have summer. But the one thing we don’t have a lot of is humidity. That is a problem when dealing with fires, but it is a lot more comfortable without humidity.

Interestingly enough, I had the chance to visit with several people from New Jersey on different occasions this summer. The one thing I asked them was, “How do you like this area’s lack of humidity?” They all said, “This is nice!”

We take things like that for granted, but all you have to do is go to the east coast or Midwest when they are having a heat wave. You’d wonder if you were going to be able to breathe or make it to an air conditioned building before passing out.

To give you an idea about how harsh a summer can be, areas with a lot of humidity have what is called a heat index, which roughly means that instead of it being 95 degrees it actually feels like 107 with high humidity. Think of it as being wind chill factor in reverse.

It looks like the weather mellowed out for a bit and with the calendar change to September we will soon wish we had a few warmer days. We have trouble being satisfied.

The change in weather also brings about the important days of fall football.

If you attended the jamboree on Friday night, you would have seen some fun football. Maybe not great but the night was a good measuring stick as to where each team is before they play their first game tomorrow night.

I talked with several Broncos players after the game and they were happy about having played someone else besides their own teammates.

It gave them the opportunity to feel game speed, which is good.

Better to experience it in a controlled atmosphere with officials and make adjustments for the first game rather than be surprised quickly in a game.

It felt good to get my hands on the chains again and be so close to the action. Friday night football at Jimmie Snider Field is a real kick, no pun intended.

The league is a bit different this year as there is a north and south division for football and basketball. With basketball, the Broncos play everyone from the south twice and from the north once.

Since Chewelah joined the league, there’s one too many teams to do a true round robin in football. So the Broncos play every team from the south as a league game and scheduled several from the north as non-league games.

Again, it will be different, but as teams change classifications we have to expect those things to happen and we as fans will just need to adapt.

I’ll be traveling to Cheney on Saturday for an early season test between Eastern Washington University and Central Washington University. These two teams were great rivals when they were both NAIA schools in the old Evergreen Conference.

Central is now NCAA Division II. They are coming off an undefeated 2017 regular season. They lost in the playoffs to the eventual National Champion team from Texas in a hard fought close battle.

Central is led by former EWU QB Riley Hennessey, who was the Washington State Gatorade Player of the Year when he played for the Camas Papermakers a few seasons ago.

Gage Gubrud, the man who beat out Hennessey for the starting spot in Cheney three years ago, leads EWU. This is a big game for CWU who has nothing to lose and everything to gain.

For Eastern it is time to improve each and every week in order to make it back to the playoffs that eluded them last season. The Eagles can’t afford to stub their toes against most any team, especially to Central.

But beating the Wildcats won’t be easy because they would like to have some bragging rights against a very good EWU team.

It should be a great week with the fair in town, high school football and the start of college football as well. It’s kind of the great thing about fall that I certainly enjoy!