Whenever we sports writers drive to an unfamiliar place for a game, particularly in small, rural towns, there’s an old saying to “Just look for the lights” to know you’re in the right area.

Whether it’s a football Friday night in the fall or a warm spring night when baseball is in season, there’s definitely something comforting about seeing the warm glow of giant fluorescent lights on the horizon and your local school’s buses in the parking lot.

And then, on the flip side of that, there are times when those lights are shut off and there’s only the dark and cold to make you wonder what’s going on.

On Tuesday night, I had planned to cover Vicksburg High’s basketball game against Forest Hill.
The schedule said it was the last home game of 2017.

The schedule was a lying sack of doo-doo.

I got to VHS when the boys’ game should have been about to start, only to see no buses, no lights, and only a few cars. The game had been moved to Jackson.

No big deal, I thought. Porter’s Chapel Academy is also playing a home game. I’ll head that way and cover them.

Get there and, again, no buses or lights except for a single street light giving off an eerie glow across the parking lot. PCA’s game with Discovery Christian had been postponed because of exam week.

Plan C was St. Aloysius vs. Copiah. Thankfully it worked out for me, if not for the home team. St. Al lost both the girls’ and boys’ games, but seeing a full parking lot and an idling Copiah team bus made me feel as if I’d completed a quest.

There are few things as alternatingly delightful and terrifying as driving up to a darkened school or field. On the plus side, it can mean you’re done work early. During football season we sent news reporter Brandon O’Connor across the river to cover a football game, only to find out Tallulah Academy’s opponent had forfeited. He got to go home early.

On the down side, it means you suddenly have to fill a giant hole in the next day’s paper. Your brain goes into overdrive as you ponder options and scenarios, and even question your own ability to read a schedule right.

There were plenty of options Tuesday. I managed to get to St. Al in time, and Warren Central was also playing at home if I needed a Plan D. Thank goodness. When it comes to this stuff, I’m a little afraid of the dark.

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Ernest Bowker is a sports writer for The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com