Junket for the Football Junkie: Looking for a rivalry, catch an Indians-Tigers game

Whoever came up with the phrase "rivalry weekend" must have been from Clewiston or Immokalee. And this game lived up to all of the hype.

If you like hard hitting and speed to spare, then this was a game for you.

Indians sophomore running back Javarris "Baby J" James didn't live up to the "Going-pro-right-out-of-high-school" billing that his cousin and Indianapolis Colts running back Edgerrin James gave him. The star of the game was Louis Gachette, who reminded me of the old Chicago Bears quarterback, Bobby Douglass. The senior left-hander was running for his life most of the night but managed to complete a few more passes than Douglass did in his career.

MILES FROM NAPLES: 43

STADIUM: Gary Bates Stadium is your typical high school stadium where most of the adults sit in the stands and the students roam the open areas. The student body is more concerned with who's dating whom instead of who's scoring on the field.

ATMOSPHERE: The cheering was so loud that it drowned out the dragsters at nearby Immokalee Speedway. With the crowd reacting to every hit, incompletion and first down, if you would have closed your eyes you might have thought you were at a big-time college football game. It did get awfully quiet when Clewiston took a quick 7-0 lead.

CONCESSIONS: Besides the general fare you'll find at any high school concession, the specialty item was a delicious pork steak sandwich. Served between two pieces of white bread, this delicacy was a bit greasy, which made it difficult to type up the rest of this column.

ENTERTAINMENT: The Indians band, while small in size, had a big sound. Its rendition of the Tomahawk Chop fight song was energetic. It was nice to see them abandon the traditional halftime show and give the fans a little hip-hop, shake-your-grove-thing performance.

YOU HAD TO BE THERE: A bone- crushing hit by none other than the Indians kicker, Renan Saint Preux. The senior hit a Clewiston returner so hard that he got showered with a big "ooooooh" from the Immokalee faithful.

Now that's something you'll never see from the Bucs' Martin Gramatica. Saint Preux happens to be a linebacker, too.

GRIPE: On the way to the game, a couple of local yahoos called in to the sports radio station spouting off that there would be 8,000 to 10,000 fans at the game. Someone needs to send them a copy of School House Rock's video "Addition and Mathematics." A safe estimation was more like 3,000, which isn't anything to gripe about.

Tom Hanson's "Junket for the Football Junkie" covers eight games over a 10-day span, starting with Friday night's Immokalee High playoff game. It ends with the Bucs vs. Jaguars Sunday night game on Nov. 30.