As another football season begins: I’m learning again there’s always something interesting on sidelines!

By CHUCK OFFENBURGER

JEFFERSON & DES MOINES, Iowa, Aug. 29, 2026 — Hmmm, so, how was it the last football season came to a close for me?

The Iowa Hawkeyes, the football team of my wife Mary Riche’s alma mater, the University of Iowa, beat the Vanderbilt Commodores, the football team from my alma mater, 34-27 in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa, Florida. And I couldn’t really see it. I had planned to attend that bowl game, but some kind of nerve spasm on the right side of my right eye left me at home with a terrible case of double vision for about three weeks.

And when we tuned-in on TV as Mary’s Hawkeyes were beating up on my Commodores, she turned to me and said, “When you have double vision, does it make this look twice as bad?” It seemed like that back when it was happening.

But I got over it — both the bowl game disappointment and the double vision. Really, I recovered fully.

The Drake Bulldogs, with this early field goal, started the 2026 football season with a lead — but it didn’t hold.

So this past week, as the 2026 football season was opening, I was all excited again. I was in the stands on consecutive nights as two of “my teams” started their campaigns for glory.

Thursday evening in Des Moines, I watched the Drake University Bulldogs lead early, fall behind, re-take the lead but ultimately lose a heartbreaker to the South Dakota School of Mines (are you ready for this nickname?) “Hardrockers,” 38-35.

Friday evening in Jefferson, I watched our Greene County High School Rams lead early, fall behind at halftime, go scoreless during the third and fourth quarters, and lose a heartbreaker to the old rivals from neighboring Boone High School (and here’s another good nickname) the “Toreadors,” 14-7.

In the first 27 hours of this new football season, I was 0-for-2.

Sheesh. It seems like every year I have to re-learn this: While the games often seem to over-promise and under-deliver, at least for a fan like me, there’s more to this than just football, you know?

There’s almost always something interesting happening on the sidelines or in the stands.

Take Drake. As I was looking to the field in the classic 101-year-old Drake Stadium, I suddenly realized I was seeing the university’s President Marty Martin and his wife Laura standing just south of the squad of Bulldogs lining the west sidelines. I watched the Martins watch the whole first quarter from there, then they walked across the track, took seats in the front row of the stands and remained there.

The Martins on the sidelines for the Bulldogs’ games at Drake Stadium.

Is that their tradition?

“I don’t know that I’d call it a tradition, but as long as I’ve been at Drake, I don’t think I’ve missed being down there for the first quarter of any home football games that I’m attending,” he told me later when I asked. “And I try to get to most of them.

“It’s really fun to be around the players during games,” he continued. “You hear them exhorting each other, seeing up close how hard they’re working. I really enjoy the sport more watching it that close. You realize it’s a great team sport, with a lot of really good players on each side of the ball, and they all have to do their jobs for things to work.”

Has he ever been steam-rollered by a scrum of players making a play on the edge of the field?

“No, but I’ve had to get out of the way quickly a few times,” he said.

Has he ever caught an errant pass coming unexpectedly from the field?

“No, I haven’t,” he said, “but I think I’ll put that on my bucket list now that you mention it.”

His final thought on watching part of the game from up close?

“I really admire the team, their fortitude, their commitment,” he said. “You know, year after year, our football team is one of the tightest bunch of students and alumni we have at Drake. And being able to be down there close to them on the field for part of a game is really one of the privileges of being the president here.”

Greene County High head football coach Caden Duncan in charge.

The head coach (left) and one of his assistants — his dad.

On to Jefferson.

One of the fun things to watch at Greene Country Rams’ games is that our head coach is Caden Duncan, who has built a football program to respect. One of his assistant coaches is his dad, Jim Duncan. Another of Caden’s assistant coaches is his father-in-law, Jeff Kruse.

The two assistants have years of experience in high school football, and jumped at the opportunity Caden gave them when he was hired eight years ago for the Greene County head coaching position. I like watching them interact on the sidelines during games.

They had to enforce a tough decision starting this season. Trevon Keely, a senior who is a state champion high jumper and was expected to be the leading receiver on the football team, did not play Friday night against Boone, nor will he play next Friday against Woodward-Granger. Why?

“Very simple,” the coach said. “Trevon is academically ineligible for our first two games because he failed a class last May.”

There are a lot of good lessons right there.

But let’s end this on a happier note.

The fashionably dressed Boone student manager, Alice Thiel.

Looking across Linduska Field, home of the Rams, at Friday night’s game, I noticed one of the student managers for the Boone Toreadors, was unusually attired — in a very fashionable way. So, I walked over to meet her as the game was ending.

She is Alice Thiel, a senior at Boone High, who was wearing a Toreador football jersey. But the more noticeable part of her outfit was a full-length skirt in bright colors of red and green, which are Boone’s school colors, with accents of gold.

“It’s called a ‘Punjab’ style from that part of the world,” she explained. “Punjab skirts are usually made from colorful cotton fabric, worn loosely, and at ankle-length.”

She pieced it together herself. “I’m a seamstress,” she said.

She was also one of Boone’s first participants when the school started a girls’ wrestling team, has been an active 4H member and loves being a student manager on the football team. I watched her enthusiastically hustling bottles of water to the players during several timeouts as the game came to a hectic finish.

“Football and sewing are my life right now,” she said afterward with a big grin.

And I already feel better about this new football season.