Daily Rant, April 19: No, I didn’t forget (and high school sports fans are high-turnout voters!)

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No, I didn’t forget my rant. I usually do it in mid-to-late morning, but today got a little flipped around. Busy with some personal stuff, wife leaving for Tennessee on business, pick up kids, drive to airport, feed kids at Applebee’s (thank goodness for 2 for $20). One of those days.

I came across this study while wandering around the ‘Net the other night and found it fascinating. High school sports is obviously very high on my list of interests (right behind family and waaaaay ahead of beer, although at one time they were running longneck-and-longneck). But there are a lot of other things on the interest list: Politics (I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m conservative/libertarian with a small – very small – hint of liberal leanings, but I cannot stand the folks on my side who trash liberals just because they think it’s avant garde), history and art (when my first wife was working in Gaithersburg, Md., I used to spend whole days visiting every Smithsonian and museum in D.C. while she was at work), puzzles (such as: why do sports writers get paid for doing the easiest job in the world?), travel (sadly, the Caribbean is as far as I’ve gone). It’s a big world out there; unfortunately, the clock is ticking.

Still, you can imagine how excited I was to see this survey by the National Media Research Planning and Placement group. Not because it shows that most voters who are highly interested in my favorite sports skew Republican, but because the researchers took the time to include high school sports.

And here what really fired me up: The number of people who fall into the researchers’ “very interested” category for high school sports: 9%

That might not sound like a lot, especially compared to the bug guns of the NFL (29%), the Olympics (28%), college football (23%) and and major-league baseball (17%). But it is the same number, percentage-wise, as the NBA and the PGA Tour and more than NHL (5%) and pro tennis.

In other words, high school sports are very popular nationwide. Lots of people are into it.

The difference between high school sports and major or pro sports is that the interest in the latter category is comparable to a whitewater river while the interest in high school sports is like a bay, widely spread and much more placid on the surface.

But that interest often turns white-hot depending on the sport and the region of the country. By now, I’m sure all of us have heard about the nearly $60 million football stadium Allen, Tex., High School will soon build. The RivalsHigh website has an excellent story with slideshow here.

The money is being raised through a bond issue, not directly through taxpayer funding. And in Texas, as the story points out, there is a clear delineation between education dollars and capital projects, i.e., money raised for capital projects cannot be used for general education and vice versa, no doubt to keep the teachers and administrators from becoming filthy rich. They built the schools first, OK? And they’re spending nearly as much on a performing arts center. So that rips away my reflexive anti-tax complaint. I mean, it’s their money …

So my next question is: When does Wilkes-Barre start to build its state-of-the-art, 18,000-seat stadium?

Look at the last page of the survey (page 5). The No. 1 metro area nationwide where interest in scholastic sports is very high is Wilkes-Barre, where 20% of respondents placed high school sports in the “very interested” category. Kind of makes me jealous that I’m not writing for the Times-Leader or the Citizens’ Voice. Kind of.

I mean, if Wilkes-Barre outscores the Dallas-Fort Worth area in scholastic sports interest, shouldn’t its citizens approve a $219 million bond issue for new schools and a fancy new stadium? You have to admit that W-B Memorial, one of the state’s tightest fits, has seen better days. Although I admit I liked the charm of covering a game from an open third-floor window in adjoining E.L. Meyers High School.

There. I stayed away from the politics of NMRPP study. But I won’t avoid the Big Point, which is this: If you’re a high school sports fan, you’re not an oddball. You’re mainstream.

And you vote.

Republican.

Knew I couldn’t help myself.