Dream Big

It’s a holiday celebrated by only a select few – the first day of official high school football practice in Section 1. It was scheduled for Monday, Aug. 17, and it’s a date that some athletes and coaches have circled on their calendars.

It’s a new beginning.

This is when everybody has big dreams… and rightfully so.

Who doesn’t daydream or fantasize about receiving a medal for a sectional championship? Who doesn’t daydream or fantasize about winning a state title at JMA Wireless Dome on the campus of Syracuse University?

And, yes, that’s a mouthful. I still call it the Carrier Dome, although it probably doesn’t matter whether you are at the Carrier Dome or doing a down-and-out on 191st Street at the garbage bin. A championship is a championship.

This is the time when everybody has great expectations. This is the time when everybody has great optimism. This is when players, coaches – heck, the entire community – wonder what it would be like to have the team bus met at the town limits to be led back to Mahopac, Carmel, Brewster, Putnam Valley, or Cold Spring by flashing lights and a police escort.

They would be heroes.

Funny thing is, they already are.

So dream. Dream big.

If not now, when?

Rich Thomaselli is a longtime sports reporter in the Hudson Valley, and currently covers Putnam County. He can be reached at rich.thomaselli@gmail.com.