Dream becomes a reality Friday

There’s a tendency to be short-sighted.
When there’s an amazing catch in a football game (Odell Beckham Jr.), it’s declared the greatest. When there’s a terrible call (Colts fake punt), it’s called the worst of all time. When a Super Bowl game is compelling down to the very end, it quickly becomes the best ever played.
We tend to forget the past, elevating recent events above their realistic place in sports history.
But when it comes to the Indians this week, it’s hard to overstate the reality.
It’s not the biggest game in the history of Fort Recovery High School football — that honor belongs to last season’s regional semifinal against Marion Local, for now — but it has to rate as the most exciting.
For the first time, the Indians will host a playoff game at Barrenbrugge Athletic Park.
Let that sink in.
Fort Recovery is in the playoffs. At home. In football.
At any time in the just over two decades from the program’s beginning in 1992 through 2013, those words would have seemed ridiculous.
Sure, there were a couple of years in which the Indians had an outside chance to make the playoffs if they could have squeaked out another win or two.
But a home game? Dream on.
Well, on Friday night, Fort Recovery fans get to live the dream.
FRHS has turned around a program that was mired in losing. (That’s not to say its hasn’t had some good players and even good teams, but it’s difficult to break through when competing in the best small-school conference in the state.)
Consider the following:
•The Indians went 1-9 in four straight seasons from 2003 through 2006.
•They won three or fewer games in 15 of 19 years from 1995 through 2013.
•Until 2014, they had never finished .500 or better in the Midwest Athletic Conference and had won more than two games in the league in a single season just once.
Those are difficult numbers to overcome. It’s tough to convince athletes they can win when all they’ve ever known is losing, when all a program has ever known is losing.
But over the last two seasons, everything has turned around.
Fort Recovery earned its first playoff berth thanks to a 6-4 regular season with its key win coming 31-26 over St. Henry, a school it had beaten just once before. A No. 5 seed, it went on the road and toppled Fort Loramie by 21 before falling in the second round to eventual Division VII state champion Marion Local.
That experience built the belief that success was possible, and this season’s Indians have continued the trend.
They opened the season by clobbering a pair of playoff teams, blanking Lehman Catholic 36-0 and cruising past Fort Loramie 34-6. They beat Anna, a Division V school, for the first time in nine tries. They shut out Parkway and New Bremen by a combined 81-0.
Statistically, no Tribe team has ever been better.
Fort Recovery’s eight wins are the most in school history. Its 6-2 MAC record is the best in school history. Its 10 points per game allowed, including three shutouts, far surpasses the previous record of 16.4 set in 1994.
And its No. 3 seed in the Division VII Region 26 playoffs, well, we know nothing like that has ever happened before.
Barrenbrugge has already unofficially seen the two largest crowds in its history this season.
The first was Oct. 9 against 2014 Division VI state champion Minster, a 14-12 loss. The stands were even more packed Oct. 23 when the Indians fought off St. Henry for an 8-7 victory that guaranteed them a playoff berth.
Friday night should be no comparison.
Parking areas should be overflowing, from the stadium, to the gravel lot, to the elementary/middle school and high school and beyond. Tailgaters should be out in full force. The 50/50 drawing should reach numbers never imagined before.
The crowd should be so loud that it drowns out the cannon after every touchdown (of which we hope there are many).
The Indians have a chance to make a deep playoff run this season.
That’s no dream. It’s reality.
Let’s kick off the journey in historic style.