Bet you didn’t open the 2012 Blitz High School Football Preview thinking there would be a pop quiz.

And yet, here it is:

Try to think of something else as uniquely and definitively American as going to a high school football game on a crisp, fall Friday night.

Try to come up with a better example of pure Americana.

Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Anything yet?

Baseball? Nope. It’s been played everywhere for decades.

Basketball? It’s increasingly an international game.

Hockey and soccer? Not a chance.

Give up yet? You should.

High school football?

This is who we are in America and especially in northeastern Ohio.

It doesn’t matter if we never played a down and don’t know a toss sweep from a waggle or a bubble screen from a zone blitz.

Few people in the stands on Friday night have ever spent a minute — much less hours — breaking down film.

But they’re no less passionate than players or coaches.

That’s why we’re here, bringing you the latest information on your favorite players and teams.

It’s why thousands of you converge on Stambaugh Stadium for the annual Holy War between Cardinal Mooney and Ursuline, or on Mollenkopf Stadium when Massillon and Warren Harding meet.

It’s why the football fields in small towns like Berlin Center and McDonald draw fans like moths to a flame every Friday night from August to October and, with a little luck, into November.

No matter what else is going on in our lives, high school football takes us to a comfortable place.

It’s time to go back there again.

Ed Puskas is sports editor at The Vindicator. Email him at epuskas@vindy.com and follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edpuskas85.