Okay, so my kid’s gearing up for tryouts, right? Fall football season at Columbia High. Thing is, we got vacation plans smack in the middle of October. Needed to check the game schedule now to figure out if we gotta shift things around or if we’re good. Simple problem, or so I thought. Needed the Fall 2024 Columbia High Football schedule.
The Obvious First Step: Hit Their Website
Grabbed my laptop, figured it’d be easiest. Opened up the browser, typed in the school name, looking for their athletics page. Found it eventually, clicked around. Saw a big ‘Athletics’ section. Got excited, clicked it expecting to see ‘Football Schedule’ all nice and clear. Nope.
Landed on this page full of announcements about registration deadlines and concussion protocols. Scrolled down, scrolled further. Found links to other sports – basketball, soccer, baseball… even tennis! Football? Seemed like it was hiding. Found a tiny ‘Teams’ link way down in the footer. Clicked that. A list popped up, found ‘Football’. Clicked again. Boom. New page… with last year’s schedule still proudly displayed! Fall 2023. Big red letters even said “2023-2024 Season”. Felt like I was digging up fossils.
Plan B: Calling the Athletic Office
Okay, website’s a bust. Time to actually talk to a human. Looked up the school’s main number online, rang them up. Told the lady who answered I needed the football schedule. She patched me through to the athletic office. Rang for a while, then voicemail. Left a message saying I needed the Fall 2024 football schedule, pretty please. Waited a day. Nothing. Called back the next morning, got the same lady. She sounded tired when I mentioned football schedule again. She sighed, “Hold on.” Came back after a minute. “We haven’t finalized it,” she said. “It’ll be on the website soon. Check back later.” Gave me the same feeling as when you ask your kid to clean their room and they say “Later.” Knew I was stuck.
The Wild Goose Chase: School Paper Trail
Went down to the school myself. Figured someone, anyone, must have a draft version. Went to the main office. Nice lady there had no idea. Suggested the district website. Sigh. Went back online, hunted through the district’s site. Found board meeting minutes, lunch menus, budget reports… buried deep in some ‘Athletic Initiatives’ subsection? Found a PDF list of all sports events for the district Fall season. Football was there… but only showing opponents and dates starting in August. Only the first few games. No times, no specific location for home games, and nothing past September. Felt like getting teased. Printed it out anyway. The paper was still warm, but it was basically useless.
What Didn’t Work:
- The Official Website: Stuck in 2023.
- The Athletic Office Phone: Voicemail purgatory and “check back later”.
- District Master Calendar: Half-baked info, no complete schedule.
The Accidental Win: Finding the Right Spot
Got frustrated. Spilled coffee on the useless district printout. While grumbling on a parent group page online (not the school one!), someone else asked the same thing. “Where’s the football schedule??” And buried in the comments, a seasoned football parent chimed in: “They usually list it under ‘Team Rosters’ on the athletics site after tryouts.” No way. Went back to that fossilized school athletics site. Navigated back to the football team page. Ignored the “Schedules” tab. Clicked around until I found “Players” or “Rosters”. It was empty. But right above where the roster would go… Boom. There it was! A link labeled “Fall 2024 Game Schedule”. Felt like finding buried treasure in my own backyard.
Turns out, they upload it there instead of updating the main schedule page they never use. Why? Who knows! Maybe tradition. Maybe someone forgot how to change it. Grabbed the PDF, downloaded it. Had every game, dates, times, opponents, home or away. The whole thing. Finally had what I needed. Saved it, printed a clean copy, threw the coffee-stained one away. Lesson learned? Sometimes the info’s right under your nose, just in the dumbest possible place.