By MONTE DUTTON

Friends, are you anxious every time you turn on the TV? Are you developing an emergency aversion, which is to say, an aversion to emergencies?

Football starts next. What could go wrong?

At the very least, athletes learn how to manage anxiety. Many even excel amidst it.

I love so many things about translating sports into English.

It’s all out there. A kid either catches the pass or he doesn’t. In most everything, people make the equivalent of slam dunks – they even call them slam dunks – and airballs. In most everything else, it happens behind closed doors.

Not only can you see it. It’s brightly lit.

I hope the next few weeks are going to follow the yellow-brick road to glory.

Kids still believe in something. A linebacker may throw them to the ground, but the world hasn’t beaten them down yet.

They still know how to dream, and with time for them to come true.

Folks spend so much time and money to raise those kids. It couldn’t hurt to learn something from them now and then.

Ain’t that America? (Little pink houses for you and me.)

Single-game tickets are on sale at Presbyterian College, where six football opponents are to visit Bailey Memorial Stadium this fall.

The home opener is Sept. 14 against Virginia University of Lynchburg at 1 p.m.

General-admission seats are priced at $20 each, children 15-under are $10 per ticket. A two-year-old tyke gets in free.

This is the 22^nd year of competition at Bailey Memorial Stadium and the third season of the Steve Englehart era.

Presbyterian take on four Pioneer Football League foes – Davidson, Drake, Dayton and Butler — at home.

The Blue Hose return 11 players who received postseason recognition from the PFL last fall, including first-team selections Worth Warner (TE), Dominic Kibby (WR) and Alex Herriott (LB), as well as freshman All-America kicker Mack Mikko.

Eight of the 11 games last fall were decided by 10 points or less, including a road triumph at Wofford, the only time in history a PFL team has defeated a member of the Southern Conference.

Click here for ticket information.

Laurens players collected five of Golden Strip Post 271’s six hits in a 4-3 victory over Lexington Post 7 on Monday night in Simpsonville.

The Warriors started Raiders across the outfield in Bennett Edwards, Asher Goss and Owen Pridgen in the outfield; Coleman Coker, Ben Willis and Hunter Nabors in the infield; and Jordan Hudson on the mound.

In fact, Hudson – 2 hits, one run, four walks and seven strikeouts in six innings – got the win and Willis the save.

Tyson Moses tied the game with an inside-the-park homer in the bottom of the third inning.

Toby Sobieralski went 2/4 for Lexington.

Goss had two hits for Golden Strip (9-3), which visits Lexington on Tuesday night at 7.

Greenwood Post 20 returns to Legion Stadium on Tuesday night after absorbing a 12-2 loss at the hands of Camden Post 17.

Camden piled up 16 hits off three Post 20 pitchers. Zach Haney rapped three hits, two of them doubles, driving in four runs.

Laurens’ Jaedon Goodwin singled, stole second base and scored a run in the first inning, giving the Braves a very short-lived lead. Jackson Martin went 0/3 as the Greenwood (7-12) designated hitter. Ty Ridlehoover had three hits.

Shortstop Blair Moore went 3/3 with a double as Chapin-Newberry Post 193/24 opened its American Legion baseball series with a 7-5 victory over Richland Post 215 on Monday night on the road.

Richland took a 4-2 lead after three innings, but winning pitcher Jacob Clark and Liam Davenport limited it to a single run the rest of the way.

Chapin-Newberry (13-8) hosts game two on Tuesday at Newberry College. Game time is listed as 7:30 p.m.

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