Koy Palmer returns to defend his state title from last spring in the 110 hurdles. Photo by Alan Versaw.
Let's begin here with a little introduction to the town of Granada. We'll start with pronunciation.
It's not pronounced the way you think it would be, as in "Hello mudda, hello fodda, here I am at Camp Granada...." Rather, it is pronounced with the second 'a' as a long vowel sound. At least it was when I was in high school when we played a state playoff game there. Our regular center got hurt, and a much younger 135-pound me got the assignment to snap the ball and stare down (well, actually, I mostly stared up at, from by backside) a nose guard who outweighed me by about 100 pounds of lean body mass.
We lost 26-6, and the beating I took that day is still not expunged from my memory. Nor is the way they pronounced the name of their town. It's possible those two recollections are linked somehow.
Why they picked on the second 'a' to make it a long vowel sound and not the first or third 'a'...
