Five syringes discarded on the side of a Rocky Mountain road just outside of Boulder, Colo., were not exactly what I expected to see. Yet, as I cycled through some of the most scenic and challenging roads in all of Boulder, the site was unmistakable. I knew that many competitive riders used the high altitudes to train for races; but it appeared that it wasn’t just the altitude that would enhance their performances that day.

The world of sports has taken a beating this year.

“Eyes.” The word has a special meaning here. When the Rogers Mountaineers hear it, it’s as if an automatic instinct kicks in. 

“Eyes!” they echo back while in a crouched stance ready for the next command, their eyes staring right into their coach’s. But for 30 senior Mountaineer football players on this night — a warm, muggy, crystal-clear evening in the dog-days of August in the middle of Central Arkansas’ mountainous wilderness — there’s no need for the command. That’s because Ronnie Peacock, the head coach at Rogers High School, already has their full attention.

The locusts come every 17 years.

For Tommy Bowden, this bizarre phenomenon of nature remains a vivid memory from his days in West Virginia. Bobby Bowden, Tommy’s coaching-legend father, had moved the family from Alabama to Morgantown when he became the Mountaineers’ head football coach in 1970. Tommy, who played as a walk-on wide receiver for the Mountaineers from 1973 to ’76, still recalls the peculiar insects, with their freaky red eyes, thick black bodies and incessant drone. Every 17 years, they would crawl out of the ground by the millions to mate, spawn and die, all within several weeks.