By MONTE DUTTON

At Clinton High School, Corey Fountain put his football team on the official-practice field at 7:30 a.m. Friday. Laurens and Laurens Academy practiced into the cool instead of out of it.

The morning dew had been swept from the fields at CHS. Gnats swarmed as the temperatures and the sun rose. Fountain and staff were up-close and personal, teaching fundamentals, technique, cuts and catches. Sweat glistened on the necks and arms.

The Red Devils have some kind of call that involves yelling, “Money!” At first, I wondered what I had done, or what anyone could possibly have to say to me. Thankfully, I didn’t yell, “What’s up, Coach?”

Once upon a time, back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, Clinton played Strom Thurmond in a home playoff game, and the Senator showed up as well as the team. When the Senator was introduced, the Wilder Stadium crowd went wild, but it was because the Red Devils were running on the field. South Carolina’s senior senator thought they were playing his fight song.

Cheer, cheer for old Strom Thurmond …

That’s kind of the way I felt Friday. It was less than a year after I spent a month as an intern in Thurmond’s office. He was then a mere 77. He served in the Senate until he was 100.

I gambled and came up snake eyes in the afternoon. I estimated it was more likely to catch the Crusaders at 5 p.m., but LA was indoors waiting out the heat, and when I arrived at LDHS, the Raiders were on the practice field. It was useful to become more acquainted with new Laurens Academy head coach Jolly Doolittle, but I headed for LDHS where I discovered the Raiders had been approved to practice with the stipulation that no one wear helmets.

So it was easier to see what everyone looked like.

I spent a fair share of the day “setting sail, spinning tales and fishing for whales,” to borrow the words of William Callery, sung with feeling by Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker and others. I like hanging out at ballfields, where little things mean a lot.

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