Playoff look

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The BigRich Sports Report

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  • Richard Rhoden
    Richard Rhoden
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My beautiful wife is all but over my new hairstyle. 
I’m usually on a tight schedule when it comes to my haircut. Every three to four weeks, like clock work, the buzz cut comes out. 
Rinse, repeat. I’ve had the same look since probably the third grade. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. 
Over the second half of my 30 years, I’ve added the full beard to the classic look. A couple variations over the years, but I found my style.
But, there comes a time every October, February and May where superstitions take over and haircuts be damned. Once the playoffs of the respective sports seasons roll around, my lifestyle enters playoff mode. 
Much like professional players who grow out beards for the playoffs, it’s the same for me. I absolutely do not and will not cut my hair until all of the teams are eliminated from state championship contention. 
This year, though, this run of superstition started much earlier than normal, and the Hampton Hawks are mostly responsible. 
Back on Sept. 9, the Hawks lost a game to Sterling and started the year 1-2. Not great, but anyone who was there knew something was building. 
Hampton coach Jereme Jones said something to his team after the Sterling loss that rang the bell for me. If Hampton wanted to qualify for the 6-man playoffs, every game from that point forward was a playoff game. 
Oh, really?
I absolutely agreed with him. I agreed so much so that I entered playoff mode almost a month early. 
Listen, I’m not here for I-told-you-so’s or anything like that, but the Hawks qualified for its first football playoffs and posted its first winning season since 2010 and everything above my shoulders is starting to look like a deranged caveman. 
I’m not sure how much longer it will be until I hear something from the HR department in terms of my workplace appearance, but there’s nothing I can do about it right now. 
Two of our football teams are playoff bound, the Hawks ending a long dry spell while the Aurora Huskies have the C1 top seed and look primed for another deep run. 
That’s great news for the Huskies and its faithful fan base. It’s absolutely devastating for my haircut. At this point, my clippers are running out of unemployment margins. 
For Hampton specifically, the Hawks been so much fun to follow for the last month-plus, everywhere from Elba to St. Edward and all the way up to Stuart last week. 
The road trips aren’t over, either. Hampton plays at Red Cloud Friday night, looking for its first playoff victory since 2009. There are two assistant coaches for the Hawks that know a thing or two about that. 
As for the Huskies, if it’s not Carlos Collazo, it’s Drew Knust, Carsen Staehr, Jack Allen, Wade Ohlson, Koby Nachtigal and “insert name here” for many others. 
There doesn’t seem to be a gameplan out there to slow down the Aurora attack. And with home field advantage throughout, best of luck to anyone coming into Husky Stadium. Only six teams have won on Husky field not named Aurora since 2017. 
For most of you, my new hairstyle won’t be much of an issue underneath my backwards cap. But, if the hat comes off, don’t look up. Just know it’s in the name of winning a championship. 
RICHARD RHODEN can be reached at sports@hamilton.net.