Digging for Miners’ nuggets on the Linton beat

I’ve covered several high school and collegiate sporting events in the past decade and a half.

I’ve dabbled in the Hoosier State. Bar none, reporting from the sidelines under the Friday Night Lights is supreme.

This pastime stands the test of time. BBQ grills searing hot dogs and being dished out enclosed in aluminum foil for the warm bun. There’s the pregame marching band and the halftime show on the field.

And then all the school pride encompassed by cheerleaders and students alike. Between the lines, kids, some playing football for the final time, hand out pancake blocks and surge to players pursuing the pigskin.

Linton Stockton Coach Brian Oliver described the aura at Roy Williams Field.

“Oh wow, you really look at that, if it’s a playoff game or a Sullivan game, you are talking a couple of thousand people here,” he said. “The grill smoke going across the field, people lining the field all the way around, the stands. [You’ve] got the band going. You got a lot of things going, it just makes the place…there’s no parking anywhere.”

“People parked all the way out here on our practice field,” he added. “It’s just a great atmosphere. And you got people everywhere chanting and cheering. When the track is full [there’s] nothing better. It gets you goosebumps whenever you start thinking about something like that.”

After reporting on Chicago high school action pre-pandemic, I transitioned to southern Indiana.

On Oct. 9, 2020, I wrote for the Perry County News. My first game was a 36-0 pummeling by Perry Central against Springs Valley.

Two weeks later, I watched Linton Stockton for the first time, as it shut out Tell City on its home grounds. The Marksmen were devoid of more than half their team from quarantine.

Fast forward more than three years later — after stints with the Dubois County Herald and Tribune-Star in Terre Haute — and the universe has brought me back to small-town football.

As a stringer with the Greene County Daily World, I’ll exclusively cover the Linton football beat this autumn.

I will have a preview/feature article every Friday. I will have a game recap in print on Tuesday and online the weekend before. I’ll have an occasional column.

There’s ample gold to pick for on this beat, the Miners went 33-4 the past three years. As recently as 2016, they went unbeaten in their 15 games en route to a state title.

The season preview is in the oven. Oliver and company have had startling success. In his 11 years at the helm, they have won just more than an average of four out of every five games at 114-25.

With this being far from my first time in the saddle for colossal moments in prep sports, it’s time to get up and running. The Miners’ experience has a massive billing.

“I feel like it’s a little Texas town,” junior lineman Corey Andrews said. “Football is the biggest thing. Everybody closes their shops and comes out to Friday night games and supports us.”

Linton gets under the bright lights for the first time in the 2024 campaign on Aug. 23 when it hosts the most scintillating team in America with 48 straight wins — Marian Local (Ohio).

“It’s hard to explain how the ‘Roy’ is on a Friday night,” senior running back Jesse Voigtschild said. “There’s nothing like it. Stands are packed every single game. There [are] people lined up in the end zones. It feels amazing. We have a great community around us to support [us].”

Hunter Tickel is a sports stringer for the Greene County Daily World.