By Roslyn Ryan
Editor

There have been whispers as of late — ok, maybe more than whispers — that the rural charm so many people have come to value in Powhatan may soon be a thing of the past.

But if you happen to be on a hunt for that thing oft-described as ‘rural character,’ if it’s something you can’t find as plentifully as you once could, I could think of at least one place in the county where you could still get a healthy dose of it: Powhatan High School football games.

At least to my knowledge, the Oxford English dictionary has never adopted a formal definition of rural character. But what else would you call a high school coaching staff where just about every member was not only a graduate of the school but a former player as well? 

How else could you define fans that have not missed a single game, home or away, in two decades, even though some of Powhatan’s opponents are located two hours away?

And what else would you call place where, for at least a sizeable handful of the spectators, the game itself is just an interesting backdrop for the chance to catch up with old friends they never get to see anymore.

Maybe Powhatan will not look the same in 10 years, or even in five years. But as far as I can tell, at least until Walmart figures out a way to host a Friday night football game (good luck on that), complete with half a century of tradition and much better fans than money could buy, there will always be at least one place that feels just like home.