Today I woke up thinking “Man, really need that Cardinal Ritter football schedule for my nephew”. Figured it’d be simple. Grabbed my coffee and sat at the kitchen table smacking the mouse on my laptop. Went straight to the big search engine thing – typed in “Cardinal Ritter High School football schedule 2023”. Boom, pages and pages of junk. Mostly old stuff from last season or sketchy betting sites. Dead ends everywhere.
Finding that schedule felt like a wild goose chase
Okay, plan B: their actual school site. Clicked through like five different menus – athletics, student life, calendar section. Found one schedule for basketball and another for volleyball. Football? Nowhere to be seen. Seriously! Got kinda frustrated. Took a big gulp of cold coffee and tried clicking every tab again. Found a “Trojans Athletics” page buried deep. Just photos of old trophies. Zilch.
Remembered someone mentioning “MaxPreps” for school sports. Pulled that up on my phone. Searched Cardinal Ritter. Saw their team page! Victory? Nope. Schedule section said “No events scheduled”. Blank page. What even is that? Felt dumb staring at an empty grid.
The paper trail worked in the end (sorta)
Called the school office. Nice lady answered. She said “Oh honey, that schedule’s a PDF”. Told me to check the newsletter section on the website. Went digging again. Found the August parent newsletter hiding under “Resources”. Scrolled forever. Finally saw it: “Trojans Football Schedule”.
Downloaded that PDF. Felt good till I opened it. Tiny font, weird columns. Could barely tell September games from October ones. Dates jammed together like:
- Sept 8 – @Chatard 7:30 PM just smooshed together
- Sept 15 – Brebeuf Jesuit Home 7:00 PM
- Oct 6 – Guerin Catholic Home 7:00 PM
Annoying. Printed the whole messy PDF. Highlighted the home games pink and away games yellow like it’s high school homework. Scribbled reminder dates for playoffs and senior night in the margins with a leaking pen. Called nephew: “Got it! Sending pics”. Snapped horrible photos of paper smudges and texted them to him. Problem solved… ish.
Still bugs me though
Why’s this so hard? Every parent doing scavenger hunts for basic info. That PDF’s a headache – can’t stick it in my phone’s calendar right. Spotted some dates missing too – heard about a charity game not listed anywhere. Just bad coordination if you ask me. Schools should post clear schedules upfront. A simple page! Instead parents play internet detective every fall. Whole thing feels backwards.