Driving along Interstate 69 through southern Indiana makes you feel disconnected from everyday life yet more connected with the world around you all at once.
Between Bloomington and Evansville, and not all that far after Indianapolis, it’s one of those freeway stretches with which there’s 10-15 miles between exits, let alone fast food or gas stations.
Every year, my goal is to hit the road for a week on a loop to somewhere new, different and/or desired on one of my three summer vacation weeks. In 2026, that weeklong aimed for Indiana, Kentucky and back up through Cincinnati, crossing off long-aspired destinations but remaining sensible in mileage and cost.
Among the freeway hours, the time spent on I-69 was among my favorite. Smooth, soothing and serene.
No negativity implied here. But a road trip’s objective is to get far away from work. Because those memories and miles make grueling work days throughout the year more tolerable.
But then, there it was.
Traveling southbound, done with a day in Vincennes and headed toward Louisville, the monotony of solace (if you allow it to be) that can be rolling hills and farmland was interrupted by an all-too-familiar sight.
To my left were a stadium’s light standards and its adjacent high school.
As we begin another year together discussing high school sports in this space, that school springs to mind to make an important point.
Upon further investigation later, that school surrounded by farmland that caught my attention from the road is North Daviess Junior/Senior High School on State Road 58 in Elnora, Indiana.
Home of the Cougars, North Daviess is, according to the Indiana High School Athletic Association’s classification list, one of the smallest public schools in Indiana with football. There is an enrollment of 280 in grades 9-12, placing it smack-dab in the middle of Indiana’s smallest football division, Class 1A.
North Daviess went 10-2 last fall with a pair of playoff wins, its most victories in a season since 2009, and opened its 2026 season Aug. 21 under Coach Trent Fine with a 47-12 rout of Class 3A Washington.
That’s the extent of my knowledge of North Daviess.
Yet 6 1/2 hours away in Northeast Ohio, it’s not really the extent of knowledge in the grand scheme, either.
Toil in the weight room to get stronger. Sweat on the practice field to become refined.
Community support on signs around town and in families’ yards to do their part with proud representation.
Meet-the-team nights, fundraisers, pep rallies and bonfires to build anticipation for another upcoming season.
Optimism this season can be better than the last to instill belief in those responsible for its implementation.
Excitement of a Friday night. Sound of a band and buzz of fans walking into a stadium for the first time that fall.
The trapeze act that is balancing sports, work and life for any family.
The desire to play well. The wish to not see anyone get hurt.
The stringent hope that all of it leads to being just a little better than your neighbors for an evening before moving on to the next potential conquest.
The want and wherewithal to see the young people from your community succeed — literally your own friends and neighbors — and maybe succeeding enough with them along the way to take that talent to more prominent stages on a state level as a team or college football thereafter.
The memory to tell the stories about that night in a pouring rain, a Week 9 comeback with the playoffs hanging in the balance or a goal-line stand that envelop bleachers and barber shops, parks and parties alike for years to come.
And the determination to do it all over and over again — good, bad or indifferent — season after season, year after year.
We don’t know North Daviess. They don’t know us.
Yet we know the journey on which each side embarks. Urban, suburban and rural. Coast land, inland and heartland.
That sight of North Daviess along that remote stretch of I-69 was exactly what I needed coming into another school year.
Because it reminded me how connected we all are in the end — despite sensing discourse and division so often.
We can argue about public vs. private, NIL, transfers, eligibility, finances, sport implementation, rules, rule-breaking, spotlight, pet peeves and the controversy of the day.
We can have differing viewpoints on how to reach the finish line on any topic, regardless of knowing it may never arrive at all.
We can try, during that conversation even if and when it may grow contentious, to locate some semblance of common ground.
No matter our backdrop or background, though, that shared purpose brings us together in a smaller world than we realize.
That same day I discovered North Daviess, that morning I was at the Red Skelton Museum of American Comedy as part of a multi-stop day in Vincennes. As a history buff — sports, presidential, television and much more — it’s fascinating to step foot in these places.
Before the introductory movie for the museum played, the docent asked where I was from.
Upon hearing Painesville, he put out his hand for a fist bump with a smile.
“I’m from Wickliffe,” he said.
After walking through the museum, I updated him on things back home, new school and all.
Clearly that day, someone was trying to tell me something.
Throughout this year, we’ll argue. We’ll disagree.
We’ll unite. We’ll find solutions.
We’ll be joyful in triumph. We’ll lament when it veers the other direction.
And while doing so, we’ll bond over the interwoven commonality high school sports provides.
Because really, as that day along I-69 reinforced to me, we’re all North Daviess.
We’re a community seeking the best, however or whatever that entails.
May we never, ever lose sight of that commonality.
