So I decided to start tracking Orono High football scores after missing three games last season. Was tired of refreshing that awful school website where scores showed up two days late.
Here’s exactly what I did step by step:
First I grabbed my laptop and went straight to the school district portal. Man, that thing looked like it hadn’t been updated since dial-up days. All I found was some PDF schedule from 2022 buried under twenty layers of menus.
Next morning I drove to the athletic office during practice. Coach Williams recognized me from booster meetings and gave me his personal email. “Text me every Friday night when the clock hits zero,” he said. “Just don’t spam me about why the QB threw that interception okay?”
Bought a $9 burner phone just for this. Set it to silent except for Coach’s number. First Friday rolls around – game starts at 7 PM. By 9:45 my palms were sweaty waiting. Then at 10:17… BZZZT!
- Final: Orono 24
- Bangor 14
- QB Mason rushed 2 TD
Almost dropped the phone running to my desktop! Copied Coach’s text verbatim into WordPress and hit publish before even taking off my shoes. Later realized I’d typed “Banger” instead of “Bangor” – fixed it real quick.
The nightmare part
Homecoming game got delayed by lightning strikes. My stupid burner ran out of battery waiting. Ended up calling assistant coach’s wife who was live-streaming it from the bleachers. She screamed updates between thunder cracks: “TOUCHDOWN OROONOOO!!” Had to edit that post four times.
Now it’s automatic muscle memory. Hear buzz, run to computer, copy-paste-save. Readers keep telling me they check my site before the team bus even leaves the field. Best part? That burner phone lives permanently plugged in my kitchen outlet tasting dust. Worth every penny.