Friday night is going to be both a great night for me and at the same time a sad night for me.

Put quite simply, the objective part of me that is a sportswriter, the part that’s supposed to remain neutral when covering games, is going to take a one night vacation.

Why? My nephew is coming to town.

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Well, close enough to town. He is actually going to be starting and playing for Ascension Catholic High when the Bulldogs travel to Delcambre this week for a non-district game.

Having missed seeing my other nephew play high school sports, I fully intend to be in Delcambre Friday night to see Matt play at least once in his career since he graduates in the spring.

When the last Louisiana High School Athletic Association reclassification occurred two years ago, both Hanson and Delcambre had scheduled games against ACHS.

Last year, both of those games took place in Donaldsonville, where Ascension Catholic is located.

So I was anticipating getting to see him twice this year, once at Hanson to start the season and then later on at Delcambre.

So all throughout last year I gave both coaching staffs at Hanson and Delcambre grief by telling them that ACHS was going to win both games and that Matt was going to kick the winning field goal in each game.

Well, Hurricane Gustav changed those plans as Hanson’s game against ACHS in week one of the season was canceled.

But unless, another storm forms and hits the area between now and Friday (knock on wood), I will get to see my nephew play against the Panthers.

That’s the happy part of the equation.

What makes it sad is that I’ve never made a secret of the fact that the two programs that I feel the most for around here are Delcambre and Hanson.

Not that I don’t do my best to report on the other schools in the area, but since I went to a small, Class A school (St. Edmund in Eunice), it’s only natural that I feel some kinship with the two schools around here that, one, I played against, and two, remind me of home in some small way.

And covering those two schools while they were winning softball state titles, Hanson in 2006 and Delcambre in 2007, were two highlights of my career.

So I hope that coach Darcy Delcambre and the rest of the football coaching staff at DHS, and the fans, can find it in their hearts to forgive me Friday night if I get a little too excited and start cheering for Matt and the Bulldogs.

I promise that it will only be for this one week and after that I will be the same, objective sports writer doing his best to report on the teams in the area.

Until my son, Rhett, starts playing high school sports.

Neal McClelland is assistant sports editor of The Daily Iberian.