Since school is now underway, my thoughts have turned to high school athletics—-football is the big draw—-but I have promised my wife not to write again about odd team names. She claims that I do it every year.

With that advice, this writing is not about the Spuds of Ojai, Calif., Lambkins in Fort Collins, Colo., Syrupmakers of Cairo, Ga., Hot Dogs in Frankfort, Ind., or Battling Bathers of Mount Clemons, Mich.

Nor will we spend time on the Orphans and Annies of Centralia, Pa., Pretzels (how does the mascot get into costume) of Freeport, Ill., and the fierce Awesome Blossoms in Blooming Prairie, Minn.

After more than 30 years of following and reporting on high school sports teams, 25 of those years in Fairfield, I have realized a couple of simple truths; winning is good for the entire school and town, and no-pass, no-play does work.

Some folks think that sports receives too much emphasis in schools and uses money that can be better spent on academics. The primary job of schools, they say, is to provide an education. I can’t argue there, but believe that sports and other extracurricular activities can set the tone for learning.

Football is king in Texas, and as the opening sport of a school year it gets a lot of attention. Some towns all but cease regular activities on game days; many close down to make a road trip to the playoffs. Is that going a little too far . . . maybe not.

A successful football season sets up students for a successful year on and off the field. Wins on the gridiron carry over to a winning attitude in classes and in the next sport on the schedule. If the football team has a good season, the basketball team picks up the enthusiasm and will perform better. A losing football season can put a damper on the rest of the year.

I am not slighting volleyball, also a fall sport that can help build school spirit. We try to give the spikers as much ink as the gridders. Football, though, has been around longer in the high school ranks and has built a larger following and rivalries going back decades. And in the case of Fairfield high school, volleyball has enjoyed more success than football the past few seasons.

My belief is that if you win in fall, in whatever sport, a school sets itself up for a more productive year in all areas.

In 1984, Texas put the no-pass, no-play rule into effect and I was opposed to it then. No-pass, no-play requires that participants in extracurricular activities must pass all their classes to be eligible to participate. The rule was not popular among coaches at the time.

My initial opposition to no-pass, no-play came from statements I heard from coaches and former high school athletes. The common thread was that if students has not been involved in sports, they would have dropped out of school. Sports is what kept them coming to class.

Well, fortunately, the folks who invoked the rule were smarter than a lot of us. Today I hear athletes say that they have to make their grades so that they can continue playing. No-pass, no-play has worked to the benefit of education.

Next year about this time maybe we can take a look at the Obezags in Annapolis, Md. Where did that name come from? It is gazebo spelled backwards.