Chip Shots: I’ll Get To Those Fall Sports Thoughts

Good morning.

My thoughts you’re reading here are from a table at P.F. Chang’s in West Des Moines, Iowa. I’m enjoying a Kung Pao chicken late lunch that feels more like Kung Pao celery due to the abundance of the aforementioned labor-intensive (to eat) veggie in my bowl.

It’s funny how I’ve thought about trying my hand at being a local restaurant critic, but your restaurants you’d praise or pan are likely buying ads from your local print publication. It’s kind of a sticky situation from an advertising revenue perspective.

I’m too much of an honesty broker when it comes to my dining experience whether it’s fast food, a local diner, or a fancier establishment.

Serving the Time-Union as your local restaurant critic is a recipe for disaster.

Here are some fall sports thoughts instead.

Here are some predictions I have from my Friday afternoon, geographically separated view.

Warsaw will beat Plymouth, but not just because Plymouth beat Wawasee 21-20, and Warsaw beat the same opponent 41-7.

The Tigers will win because the coaching staff and the athletes executing the game plan watched the film from their 38-7 loss in week five action (versus Concord) for a few reasons:

• They watched what they didn’t do well last Friday and fixed it with focus on Plymouth’s game plan.
• Any injured athletes – whose contributions while they’re healthy were greatly appreciated – will be ostensibly unavailable, but the program is designed to replace them with the next person on the depth chart.
• The Tigers still get – depending on how the ping pong balls land – another shot at the Minutemen in their sectional.
• No one on the team or on the coaching staff will say or think something like, “If we beat Wawasee by 34 points we’ll beat Plymouth by 33 points.”

Regardless of the outcome, area football fans are waking up to a game against an old, old archrival whose program is finally making progress toward rivalry-worthiness again.

Look, since 2020, it’s been more like, “ooooohhhhh, you guuuuuyyyyys.”

I didn’t like last year’s outcome at Fisher Field, but it certainly stoked the flames for the team to do some self-evaluation… that ended with a 7-game streak until the Class 5A IHSAA State Finals loss to Decatur Central.

What a run that was. There are some people who think this team is different from last year’s team, so a run to Lucas Oil Stadium isn’t in the cards. All the other Class 5a teams are different this year, too, so any poo-pooing of another state finals run this early in the season is stinkin’ thinkin’.

This coming week’s completion of action will be the beginning of the natural attrition among several fall sports, and once again it feels weird not to host a boys’ or girls’ soccer sectional. The last sectional was the girls’ sectional in 2023.

October 2 (Thursday) features a girls’ match at the Tiger Soccer Complex with a conference title share on the line for the Lady Tigers’ home and season finale. Aside from the October 6 (Monday) Elementary soccer championship at the complex, the only prospect of a home soccer match would be a regional semifinal in mid-week either Tuesday October 14, or Wednesday October 15.

Tiger soccer fans would welcome either side to just one more home game in that case, wouldn’t they? We shall see how sectionals go for the boys’ and girls’ sides.

My meal is finished, the service was as good as expected (they let me pound my laptop keys as long as I need to), and the food was adequate. I’m eight hours from home if you throw in a stop for gas.

I hope each of you enjoy a beautiful fall weekend.