Now, I'm not saying that the Heaton kids were jinxing the Tigers; I'm saying it was me. (Though my brother and sister probably didn't help the team any.) Consider: after high school, I spent two years at the local community college; in 1988, when I left Illinois to go to college in Iowa, the Tigers made it to the playoffs for the first time. In 1992, after I moved to DC, they started winning championships. Meanwhile, the Washington Redskins have gone from being a perennial playoff contender to being a consistent under-achiever. They won the Super Bowl in three of the ten seasons preceding my move to DC; in the 17 seasons since, they've made it to the playoffs only four times, never advancing past the second round. Coincidence? Perhaps, but who can say?
Anyway, the point of all this is to say congratulations to my high school alma mater for winning their sixth state football title. Go them!