Some trivia and minutia from Week 0…
The biggest margin of victory among Houston-area 5A teams? The Chavez Lobos defeated the Jones Falcons, 49-0, for the most lopsided beat-down of the weekend. Of course, Jones is a 4A school, but they’ve been a pretty fair 4A program in recent years. I doubt anyone would’ve thought that they would suffer such a lopsided loss.
The largest margin of defeat by a 5A team went to the Cy-Fair Bobcats—36 points. The Bobcats had the misfortune of opening their season against the Woodlands Highlanders, who—by many accounts—are going to be a formidable contender in Region II this season. They did nothing to assuage any of those opinions, as they racked up over 300 yards of total offense in their 42-6 win before basically shutting things down after three quarters. The Highlander defense held Cy-Fair to 186 yards of total offense.
Speaking of total offense, Cypress Falls posted 622 yards on offense on Friday night. Of that total, QB Jacob Poole accounted for 409 yards by himself (190 rushing, 219 passing) and accounted for seven TDs. That would have to qualify as a better-than-average first start. David Raffield’s team of unknown commodities won a track meet with Bryan, 52-42. No one knows much about the 2009 Golden Eagles, but you may have to keep an eye on them if they put up another game or two like that.
Tomball’s defense held Morton Ranch to just 35 yards total offense in their 28-0 win over the Mavericks. But, with all the turmoil that Morton Ranch has been through over the last couple of weeks, you can almost give them a free pass in their opener. Head coach Dave Meadows was hired just four days before his first game, and the kid who was supposed to be their starting QB was wearing a Hastings uniform on Friday night.
The Oak Ridge War Eagles’ defense was perhaps as impressive, if not moreso, in holding Caney Creek to just 95 yards of total offense in their Week 0 matchup. The Eagles, whose games will be broadcast at Legacy Sports Network’s site throughout the 2009 season, won the game 34-0.
The best record by a district in the first week of play might surprise you—it belongs to HISD’s District 20-5A. All six schools were in action, and five of the six won their opening games. Only Bellaire, who dropped a 24-8 decision to a pretty good Alief Taylor team, was unable to pull out a victory. Chavez (see above), Westside, Lamar, Madison and Milby all picked up victories to start their seasons.
And yes, technically, District 23-5A fared better, going undefeated last week. But the only 23-5A team in action was Hightower, who defeated Eisenhower, 21-0, on Saturday night. So, can you really call that a district’s success?
Final note: the TexasFootball.com statewide polls are out for Week 0. You can see them here.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Broadcasts are like blind dates
Look it up: I told you that the Strake-St. Thomas game would be much more competitive this year than in recent seasons. And it was. Who’s your Big Daddy now?
Strake still won, for the twelfth season in a row, but St. Thomas should take a lot away from this game that they can build on for their season. For starters, their offense moved the ball pretty well all night. The defense made some big plays too. The problems, and the differences in the game, were special teams, turnovers and fatigue that comes with having multiple players who have to play on both sides of the ball.
Strake appeared to find their field general in Hunter Schiro. We (Brett Mills and I) gave him the nod as Strake’s player of the game. Ron Counter gave three QBs some field time (again, as I predicted…man, I’m good!) but Schiro was clearly the most poised under game conditions.
The final score was 38-27. The game will be archived for you to listen you right here. But, proceed with caution on that front.
* * * * *
Best sponsor name of the night: Elder's Absolutely Cool Automotive.
How money is that name? It's a cheesy broadcaster's dream! And don't think I didn't run with it last night!! "That was an Absolutely Cool play, brought to you by..." Pure cheese! Put a blue star all over it!
* * * * *
Doing a broadcast is a little like going on a blind date with a good-looking woman. You get really psyched up beforehand. You always wonder if this might be ‘the one’. You get there and she’s gorgeous and you are SURE this WILL be ‘the one’. But you quickly come back to the real world and remember that she’s not automatically going to just fall for you…you’ve still got a lot of work to do.
And it’s that work that you do during that blind date that really determines whether she really will become the one, or will be a bad memory or funny story to tell someday—or both.
Last night’s blind date (i.e., the game broadcast) was okay…but I kind of hope she doesn’t want to see me again. I think the other guys—Brett Mills, Michael Silvers, Jeremy Branham and even Kevin Joseph (KJ of 1560 The Game fame)—probably feel the same way. I think we all had higher hopes for the date.
Hopefully, a lot of you who listened didn’t hear a lot of the strain. All of us worked pretty hard to make it a decent date…but we’d like to ‘go out’ with a broadcast that didn’t require SO MUCH work to make it fun. Because, when you do find ‘the one’, it doesn’t feel like work—everything kind of flows naturally.
So, Week 0 Broadcast, we had a really nice time. We’ll call you. Really, we will…no, no—don’t call us. We, uh, we are going to visit our sick aunt in the hospital. But, I mean it, we’ll call you…
* * * * *
A quick word or 100 about the guys I work with: they are the best!
First of all, I got paired up last year with this Mills character and he has turned out to be one of my favorite guys to work a game with. I have had the privilege of working regularly with some genuinely good guys (Eric Folkerts and John Kemper come immediately to mind) but Brett Mills is shooting to the top of the charts.
Most importantly, I think our senses of humor mesh well. We see most things with the same bemused viewpoint. But he also knows the game well and really gives some good insight as to what is going on down on the field. Plus, he’s raised an Aggie, and we Aggies love it when we add to the fold. Did I mention he’s a good guy, too?
Jeremy Branham is a good young and talented broadcaster. You can listen to him and know that, if he wants to, he will be a long-term success in the broadcast bidness. He’s still ‘a kid’ (from my 48-year-old viewpoint) but he’s already well-seasoned behind the mic. He handled last night’s curve balls with ease and grace and his knees never buckled. It’s going to be a lot of fun to have him back at the studio all season.
Michael ‘Long John’ Silvers is the man. He’s the engine, the driving force, behind the on-air product for LSN. He made things go last night. He’s had years of dealing with unforeseen last-minute obstacles and poorly-planned productions, so he’s learned how to make things work when everyone else would be throwing up their hands in surrender—or screaming at the hired hands.
It’s those guys who are going to make us successful on all our weekly blind dates this year.
I’ll be in the studio tonight, hosting halftime and postgame shows. I’ve heard this blind date is nice and has a great personality…
Strake still won, for the twelfth season in a row, but St. Thomas should take a lot away from this game that they can build on for their season. For starters, their offense moved the ball pretty well all night. The defense made some big plays too. The problems, and the differences in the game, were special teams, turnovers and fatigue that comes with having multiple players who have to play on both sides of the ball.
Strake appeared to find their field general in Hunter Schiro. We (Brett Mills and I) gave him the nod as Strake’s player of the game. Ron Counter gave three QBs some field time (again, as I predicted…man, I’m good!) but Schiro was clearly the most poised under game conditions.
The final score was 38-27. The game will be archived for you to listen you right here. But, proceed with caution on that front.
* * * * *
Best sponsor name of the night: Elder's Absolutely Cool Automotive.
How money is that name? It's a cheesy broadcaster's dream! And don't think I didn't run with it last night!! "That was an Absolutely Cool play, brought to you by..." Pure cheese! Put a blue star all over it!
* * * * *
Doing a broadcast is a little like going on a blind date with a good-looking woman. You get really psyched up beforehand. You always wonder if this might be ‘the one’. You get there and she’s gorgeous and you are SURE this WILL be ‘the one’. But you quickly come back to the real world and remember that she’s not automatically going to just fall for you…you’ve still got a lot of work to do.
And it’s that work that you do during that blind date that really determines whether she really will become the one, or will be a bad memory or funny story to tell someday—or both.
Last night’s blind date (i.e., the game broadcast) was okay…but I kind of hope she doesn’t want to see me again. I think the other guys—Brett Mills, Michael Silvers, Jeremy Branham and even Kevin Joseph (KJ of 1560 The Game fame)—probably feel the same way. I think we all had higher hopes for the date.
Hopefully, a lot of you who listened didn’t hear a lot of the strain. All of us worked pretty hard to make it a decent date…but we’d like to ‘go out’ with a broadcast that didn’t require SO MUCH work to make it fun. Because, when you do find ‘the one’, it doesn’t feel like work—everything kind of flows naturally.
So, Week 0 Broadcast, we had a really nice time. We’ll call you. Really, we will…no, no—don’t call us. We, uh, we are going to visit our sick aunt in the hospital. But, I mean it, we’ll call you…
* * * * *
A quick word or 100 about the guys I work with: they are the best!
First of all, I got paired up last year with this Mills character and he has turned out to be one of my favorite guys to work a game with. I have had the privilege of working regularly with some genuinely good guys (Eric Folkerts and John Kemper come immediately to mind) but Brett Mills is shooting to the top of the charts.
Most importantly, I think our senses of humor mesh well. We see most things with the same bemused viewpoint. But he also knows the game well and really gives some good insight as to what is going on down on the field. Plus, he’s raised an Aggie, and we Aggies love it when we add to the fold. Did I mention he’s a good guy, too?
Jeremy Branham is a good young and talented broadcaster. You can listen to him and know that, if he wants to, he will be a long-term success in the broadcast bidness. He’s still ‘a kid’ (from my 48-year-old viewpoint) but he’s already well-seasoned behind the mic. He handled last night’s curve balls with ease and grace and his knees never buckled. It’s going to be a lot of fun to have him back at the studio all season.
Michael ‘Long John’ Silvers is the man. He’s the engine, the driving force, behind the on-air product for LSN. He made things go last night. He’s had years of dealing with unforeseen last-minute obstacles and poorly-planned productions, so he’s learned how to make things work when everyone else would be throwing up their hands in surrender—or screaming at the hired hands.
It’s those guys who are going to make us successful on all our weekly blind dates this year.
I’ll be in the studio tonight, hosting halftime and postgame shows. I’ve heard this blind date is nice and has a great personality…
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Ready for some football!
On Friday night, Brett Mills, Jeremy Branham and I kick-off our inaugural season of the 1560 Game of the Week (on KGOW 1560-AM, of course) at Crusader Stadium on the campus of Strake Jesuit College Prep. Strake faces off against St. Thomas and there will be a lot of interesting subplots to this game.
Ron Counter’s Strake team is coming off a 2008 district championship in District 18-5A, but they lost some key contributors on both sides of the ball that they have to replace. Notably, 2008 QB James Scott is gone to SMU, and Coach Counter says that, for the first time in his career, he doesn’t know who his clear-cut No. 1 signal caller will be. We’ll likely see two—and possibly three—players take snaps under center for the Crusaders on Friday night.
Strake has also had to deal with more than their share of adversity in the weeks leading up to the season. They’ve lost some players to injury, and beyond that, they’ve had two players who have had to deal with health issues that go far beyond the average ankle sprain or bruised ribs.
Defensive lineman Kaosi Egbunike has been diagnosed with and treated for a heart condition. While he won’t be available on Friday, Egbunike is, by all accounts, recovering well and even has hopes of playing football this season.
Also, TE/DE Bucky Ribbeck has been diagnosed with a form of cancer known as Ewing’s Sarcoma and had surgery related to that on Monday. Doctors were to remove a portion of bone from his arm in an effort to contain the disease and prevent further spreading. He has already been receiving chemotherapy treatments as well.
Here’s an interesting sidebar to the story. Doctors had originally advised Ribbeck and his family that they were going to do the surgery this Friday, August 28, but Bucky and his parents said that they wouldn’t schedule it for that date because that was the St. Thomas game date! So the doctors figured out a way to re-schedule it for the preceding Monday.
Though his physicians have firmly maintained that there is a 3-5 day hospital stay associated with the recovery from the surgery, Counter says that Ribbeck, who will be one of the Strake co-captains this season, is determined to be on the sideline for the game on Friday night.
If that happens, you have to think that Strake will definitely receive an emotional boost from it.
Beyond the obvious health concerns, Ribbeck’s absence as a defender will be felt. The Crusaders will likely start just two seniors on defense, with a good likelihood that one or two sophomores will be among the starting 11 on that side of the ball. Counter says he can’t recall ever being that young on defense with any other team he’s had. Because of that, the pre-district schedule—St. Thomas, Clear Lake and Clear Brook—will be crucial to building the experience level of that unit.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town…
St. Thomas gets ready to begin the second season of the Donald Hollas era. Season One didn’t go quite according to script.
The 2008 Eagles finished the season 2-6 and were winless in TAPPS District 3-Division I play. But they were adversely affected (like most of the teams in the greater Houston area) by Hurricane Ike. Not only did they lose a pair of games that might have been wins, they lost a lot of practice reps in September, which were critical for a young team trying to learn a new system. While they showed some glimpses of potential, they just never could get off the ground.
This season, the team has the benefit of a full season in Coach Hollas’ system, but they will also be a team looking for some on-field leadership. Gone is Conor Mills, who stepped in at QB last season and filled the spot admirably. Gone are others like John Reed, Nick Larrow, Armando Rocha, Kyle Rynd and others who were key contributors in Hollas’ first season.
Brett Mills has seen the Eagles in their pre-season workouts and scrimmages and reports that the comfort level in the offensive scheme appears to be good. They, too, will have a battle at QB, and we expect to see both senior Scooter Fisch and sophomore Hunter Kopycinski take some snaps on Friday night.
Returning starters Byron Henry and Connor Biggio will give those QBs some experienced receivers to throw to. St. Thomas will run the spread offense, so we’ll watch how they’re able to move the ball as one of the measuring sticks of their progress.
In 2008, the Eagle defense also experienced some rough times, especially in district games against St. Pius and Bishop Kelly, and they will hope to make some positive strides this year.
They will again play Pius and Kelly twice (home-and-home) for their four district contests. That leaves six pre-district tune-ups: Strake, Vidor, Magnolia West, Santa Fe, Del Valle and St. John. If Coach Hollas could finish his second season with a .500 record, you’d have to think that would be a major step forward for the Eagle program.
St. Thomas has the added motivation of trying to end a losing streak to Strake. The Crusaders have defeated the Eagles 11 consecutive years, the last St. Thomas victory coming in 1996. That means Ron Counter, starting his eleventh season as the head coach at Strake, has never lost to St. Thomas. In recent seasons, it really hasn’t been close. Since 2003, Strake has outscored St. Thomas, 238-39. That’s an average score of 40-7.
Don’t expect that kind of domination this week, though. These teams are likely as evenly matched as they have been in a long, long time.
* * * * *
We’ve also got a Hurricane-Ike game this week. Hightower Hurricanes and Eisenhower ‘Ike’ Eagles. Get it? (SORRY! I’ve been saving that one for a long time!)
On Saturday, Michael Silvers, Brent Moody and Jerrell Branch begin our second season of Saturday Night Football on the Voice of Texas on KSEV 700-AM. Branch joins the pair that called the Class 5A Division 1 state championship game last December at Reliant Stadium. That game featured the Hightower Hurricanes against the Allen Eagles.
So, that means that the crew will be doing back-to-back Hightower games, as Michael, Brent and Jerrell head out to Thorne Stadium in the Aldine ISD to broadcast the Hurricanes vs. the Eagles. (So what if there’s been eight months in between broadcasts?) And it will be interesting to see if the ‘Canes pick up where they left off in Shane Hallmark’s first season.
Hallmark, who took over the reins of the Hightower program after Gene Johnson left following the 2007 season to assume the head coach/campus coordinator position at Cypress Ranch High School, almost managed to pull off an undefeated first season. Allen held off Hightower for a 21-14 win in the 5A-D1 championship.
Still at a school that has seen success on the football field from its inception, Hallmark already has the highest winning percentage as a head coach in the program’s history (.928, 13-1). Of course, his predecessors—Johnson and Kevin O’Keefe (now at Seven Lakes)—had very good win-loss records too.
And though it’s an abbreviated history, it is short and sweet. Since the school began playing varsity football in 2000, Hightower has won 80 games (ranked 16th in Class 5A for number of wins in this decade) and posted a winning percentage of .721 (80-31, ranked 18th in Class 5A in this decade). That puts them in the company of older stalwarts like North Shore, Katy, Southlake Carroll, Euless Trinity, Austin Westlake, Converse Judson and Spring Westfield, to name just a few.
The Hurricane program has never had a losing season. In 2005, they went 5-5; they defeated the Bush Broncos in their final game that season to attain the .500 mark. That was also the only season in school history that Hightower hasn’t sent a team to the playoffs.
Plain and simple: Hightower has become a Houston-area football powerhouse.
In 2009, the ‘Canes will have to replace some significant contributors. The Hightower 2008 senior class may one day be known as a college all-star team: AJ Highsmith, Darius Johnson, Colton Valencia, Dele Junaid and 28 other lettermen graduated last spring. Still, experts around the area and state feel that the ‘Canes have enough talent returning to be one of the quality teams in 2009.
Eisenhower’s football pedigree is no slouch either. What Hightower has been in the 2000s, Eisenhower was in the 1990s. Their overall record in the final decade of the 20th century was 86-36-3. They made playoff appearances in seven of the 10 seasons.
The Eagles made it to the state semifinal game on four occasions—each time getting bumped from the playoffs by Converse Judson—before they eventually played in the Class 5A Division 1 1999 state championship, which they lost to Midland Lee, 42-21. In 1993—in the land before overtime—the Eagles play the Rockets to a 27-27 tie in the state semi, but Judson advanced on the dreaded penetrations.
Ike has been good for a long time, too. Beginning with the 1992 season, Eisenhower has sent a team to the Class 5A playoffs in 14 of the 17 seasons. In this decade alone, they’ve fielded a playoff team in seven of the nine seasons so far. But, they haven’t made it past the second round since 2002.
Last year Hightower won the first-ever meeting between these two schools 35-21, also on the opening weekend. We should get a nice idea of what kind of teams both these schools have in 2009 from our Saturday night matchup.
* * * * *
We’ve got even more at the website this week. St Pius and Westbury, both under new head coaches, will square off on Friday night. Over in the Golden Triangle, the Nederland Bulldogs and West Orange-Stark Mustangs will tee it up for what should be a hard-hitting, hotly-contested game. And in Central Texas, the Groesbeck Goats open their season against the Madisonville Mustangs. LSN teams up with Massey Broadcasting to bring you the action there.
We’ve got great football from all over the state this weekend. Whether we see you at the stadium or at the website, Week 0 should be very entertaining!
Ron Counter’s Strake team is coming off a 2008 district championship in District 18-5A, but they lost some key contributors on both sides of the ball that they have to replace. Notably, 2008 QB James Scott is gone to SMU, and Coach Counter says that, for the first time in his career, he doesn’t know who his clear-cut No. 1 signal caller will be. We’ll likely see two—and possibly three—players take snaps under center for the Crusaders on Friday night.
Strake has also had to deal with more than their share of adversity in the weeks leading up to the season. They’ve lost some players to injury, and beyond that, they’ve had two players who have had to deal with health issues that go far beyond the average ankle sprain or bruised ribs.
Defensive lineman Kaosi Egbunike has been diagnosed with and treated for a heart condition. While he won’t be available on Friday, Egbunike is, by all accounts, recovering well and even has hopes of playing football this season.
Also, TE/DE Bucky Ribbeck has been diagnosed with a form of cancer known as Ewing’s Sarcoma and had surgery related to that on Monday. Doctors were to remove a portion of bone from his arm in an effort to contain the disease and prevent further spreading. He has already been receiving chemotherapy treatments as well.
Here’s an interesting sidebar to the story. Doctors had originally advised Ribbeck and his family that they were going to do the surgery this Friday, August 28, but Bucky and his parents said that they wouldn’t schedule it for that date because that was the St. Thomas game date! So the doctors figured out a way to re-schedule it for the preceding Monday.
Though his physicians have firmly maintained that there is a 3-5 day hospital stay associated with the recovery from the surgery, Counter says that Ribbeck, who will be one of the Strake co-captains this season, is determined to be on the sideline for the game on Friday night.
If that happens, you have to think that Strake will definitely receive an emotional boost from it.
Beyond the obvious health concerns, Ribbeck’s absence as a defender will be felt. The Crusaders will likely start just two seniors on defense, with a good likelihood that one or two sophomores will be among the starting 11 on that side of the ball. Counter says he can’t recall ever being that young on defense with any other team he’s had. Because of that, the pre-district schedule—St. Thomas, Clear Lake and Clear Brook—will be crucial to building the experience level of that unit.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town…
St. Thomas gets ready to begin the second season of the Donald Hollas era. Season One didn’t go quite according to script.
The 2008 Eagles finished the season 2-6 and were winless in TAPPS District 3-Division I play. But they were adversely affected (like most of the teams in the greater Houston area) by Hurricane Ike. Not only did they lose a pair of games that might have been wins, they lost a lot of practice reps in September, which were critical for a young team trying to learn a new system. While they showed some glimpses of potential, they just never could get off the ground.
This season, the team has the benefit of a full season in Coach Hollas’ system, but they will also be a team looking for some on-field leadership. Gone is Conor Mills, who stepped in at QB last season and filled the spot admirably. Gone are others like John Reed, Nick Larrow, Armando Rocha, Kyle Rynd and others who were key contributors in Hollas’ first season.
Brett Mills has seen the Eagles in their pre-season workouts and scrimmages and reports that the comfort level in the offensive scheme appears to be good. They, too, will have a battle at QB, and we expect to see both senior Scooter Fisch and sophomore Hunter Kopycinski take some snaps on Friday night.
Returning starters Byron Henry and Connor Biggio will give those QBs some experienced receivers to throw to. St. Thomas will run the spread offense, so we’ll watch how they’re able to move the ball as one of the measuring sticks of their progress.
In 2008, the Eagle defense also experienced some rough times, especially in district games against St. Pius and Bishop Kelly, and they will hope to make some positive strides this year.
They will again play Pius and Kelly twice (home-and-home) for their four district contests. That leaves six pre-district tune-ups: Strake, Vidor, Magnolia West, Santa Fe, Del Valle and St. John. If Coach Hollas could finish his second season with a .500 record, you’d have to think that would be a major step forward for the Eagle program.
St. Thomas has the added motivation of trying to end a losing streak to Strake. The Crusaders have defeated the Eagles 11 consecutive years, the last St. Thomas victory coming in 1996. That means Ron Counter, starting his eleventh season as the head coach at Strake, has never lost to St. Thomas. In recent seasons, it really hasn’t been close. Since 2003, Strake has outscored St. Thomas, 238-39. That’s an average score of 40-7.
Don’t expect that kind of domination this week, though. These teams are likely as evenly matched as they have been in a long, long time.
* * * * *
We’ve also got a Hurricane-Ike game this week. Hightower Hurricanes and Eisenhower ‘Ike’ Eagles. Get it? (SORRY! I’ve been saving that one for a long time!)
On Saturday, Michael Silvers, Brent Moody and Jerrell Branch begin our second season of Saturday Night Football on the Voice of Texas on KSEV 700-AM. Branch joins the pair that called the Class 5A Division 1 state championship game last December at Reliant Stadium. That game featured the Hightower Hurricanes against the Allen Eagles.
So, that means that the crew will be doing back-to-back Hightower games, as Michael, Brent and Jerrell head out to Thorne Stadium in the Aldine ISD to broadcast the Hurricanes vs. the Eagles. (So what if there’s been eight months in between broadcasts?) And it will be interesting to see if the ‘Canes pick up where they left off in Shane Hallmark’s first season.
Hallmark, who took over the reins of the Hightower program after Gene Johnson left following the 2007 season to assume the head coach/campus coordinator position at Cypress Ranch High School, almost managed to pull off an undefeated first season. Allen held off Hightower for a 21-14 win in the 5A-D1 championship.
Still at a school that has seen success on the football field from its inception, Hallmark already has the highest winning percentage as a head coach in the program’s history (.928, 13-1). Of course, his predecessors—Johnson and Kevin O’Keefe (now at Seven Lakes)—had very good win-loss records too.
And though it’s an abbreviated history, it is short and sweet. Since the school began playing varsity football in 2000, Hightower has won 80 games (ranked 16th in Class 5A for number of wins in this decade) and posted a winning percentage of .721 (80-31, ranked 18th in Class 5A in this decade). That puts them in the company of older stalwarts like North Shore, Katy, Southlake Carroll, Euless Trinity, Austin Westlake, Converse Judson and Spring Westfield, to name just a few.
The Hurricane program has never had a losing season. In 2005, they went 5-5; they defeated the Bush Broncos in their final game that season to attain the .500 mark. That was also the only season in school history that Hightower hasn’t sent a team to the playoffs.
Plain and simple: Hightower has become a Houston-area football powerhouse.
In 2009, the ‘Canes will have to replace some significant contributors. The Hightower 2008 senior class may one day be known as a college all-star team: AJ Highsmith, Darius Johnson, Colton Valencia, Dele Junaid and 28 other lettermen graduated last spring. Still, experts around the area and state feel that the ‘Canes have enough talent returning to be one of the quality teams in 2009.
Eisenhower’s football pedigree is no slouch either. What Hightower has been in the 2000s, Eisenhower was in the 1990s. Their overall record in the final decade of the 20th century was 86-36-3. They made playoff appearances in seven of the 10 seasons.
The Eagles made it to the state semifinal game on four occasions—each time getting bumped from the playoffs by Converse Judson—before they eventually played in the Class 5A Division 1 1999 state championship, which they lost to Midland Lee, 42-21. In 1993—in the land before overtime—the Eagles play the Rockets to a 27-27 tie in the state semi, but Judson advanced on the dreaded penetrations.
Ike has been good for a long time, too. Beginning with the 1992 season, Eisenhower has sent a team to the Class 5A playoffs in 14 of the 17 seasons. In this decade alone, they’ve fielded a playoff team in seven of the nine seasons so far. But, they haven’t made it past the second round since 2002.
Last year Hightower won the first-ever meeting between these two schools 35-21, also on the opening weekend. We should get a nice idea of what kind of teams both these schools have in 2009 from our Saturday night matchup.
* * * * *
We’ve got even more at the website this week. St Pius and Westbury, both under new head coaches, will square off on Friday night. Over in the Golden Triangle, the Nederland Bulldogs and West Orange-Stark Mustangs will tee it up for what should be a hard-hitting, hotly-contested game. And in Central Texas, the Groesbeck Goats open their season against the Madisonville Mustangs. LSN teams up with Massey Broadcasting to bring you the action there.
We’ve got great football from all over the state this weekend. Whether we see you at the stadium or at the website, Week 0 should be very entertaining!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Interview with a 'new' coach brings back old memories
Getting around to see some teams and coaches is starting to whet my appetite for football even more! I hope these tidbits will help whet yours as well. We’re down to one week until the games begin! And…at the risk of being smug, I say with certainty that it IS ‘whet’, and not ‘wet’, as you may see on various sports-related websites.
First, a quick tip of the cap to my broadcast partner, Brett Mills. He has a blog called Lone Star Pitch and Gridiron and he has posted a preview of the 2009 St. Thomas Eagles there. Brett and I got to see a lot of Eagle football last season and, while they struggled a lot in Donald Hollas’ first season, you could see glimpses of potential from time to time. It’ll be interesting to see if they realize any of that potential this season. We’ll see them next Friday!
* * * * *
Meanwhile, I had a chance to visit with Todd Thompson, who will be in his first season as Langham Creek’s head coach. The story from that visit is now posted at the LSN website. Coach Thompson was the OC at Cypress Falls from 2003 to 2008 and talking with him about his career brought back some nice personal memories. When he talked about the 2004 playoff run by the Golden Eagles, I thought back to my older daughter’s freshman year.
Sarah was in the Cypress Falls Golden Eagle Marching Band in 2004, so I got to see many of the Cy Falls games. And, I managed to be able to broadcast several of those games for the broadcast group I was working for at the time.
Thompson talked about the Tomball game where Cy Falls unveiled their no-huddle spread offense and I remembered the Saturday afternoon it happened. They had a couple of underclassmen, one named David Brekke and the other named Ross Bruns, who had been tag-teaming the QB spot all season. I’m trying now to recall which one eventually won the job that week, but I think it was Bruns. I believe Brekke moved to an inside receiver spot.
The success of that game carried over into the Magnolia game the next week. The Eagles shut down Ray Kenjura’s team, 35-7, and finished the district season at 6-2. The team had qualified for the Class 5A Division 1 playoffs. I remember that the school spirit was through the roof…at least among the band.
The first playoff opponent was Eisenhower. I knew of Eisenhower’s reputation and, though I believe Richard Carson had already left by that time to go to College Park, I felt like Cy Falls had drawn a tough opponent and their playoff experience might not last more than one game.
But, that offense—that system—was something to behold at Klein Memorial Stadium that cool, windy Saturday afternoon. I remember sitting with my young son watching Cy Falls dismantle Ike, 34-13, and saying, ‘This is a pretty good football team.’
And they were. It was a team who had players like Andre Sexton and Ricky Price, who would move on to play big-time D-1 college ball. But they were so young then that who knew?
Falls would defeat Kempner in the second round that year, 35-17, again making things look almost too easy. Because the Division 1 playoffs just had one district representative at that time, Cy Falls had qualified for the Region III final against Westfield.
The Eagles had already lost to the Mustangs in their second game of the year, 26-9, and I remember hearing talk of getting revenge for that one. The game would coincidentally fall during the holiday week around Thanksgiving, and would be played the Friday afternoon after Thanksgiving at Rice Stadium.
But in that game, the youth of that team began to show against a venerable Westfield squad and the Mustangs forced turnover after turnover and coasted to a 42-14 win. At my house, it was okay, because—for my daughter—the novelty of extra football games had turned to dread over having to perform that same halftime show again and again.
Thanksgiving had come and gone, and now it was time to start thinking about Christmas. The Eagles had done enough to carry us that far.
That team would set the tone for the following two seasons when Cy Falls would play football into December both years. Those seasons bring back some fond memories too, but those recollections will have to wait for now.
* * * * *
Speaking of Cy Falls…I also had a chance to visit with David Raffield, their head coach, in writing the story about Todd Thompson. We talked about his team—a team that nobody really expects to do anything this season—and I’ll share some of his thoughts on that in the next post.
First, a quick tip of the cap to my broadcast partner, Brett Mills. He has a blog called Lone Star Pitch and Gridiron and he has posted a preview of the 2009 St. Thomas Eagles there. Brett and I got to see a lot of Eagle football last season and, while they struggled a lot in Donald Hollas’ first season, you could see glimpses of potential from time to time. It’ll be interesting to see if they realize any of that potential this season. We’ll see them next Friday!
* * * * *
Meanwhile, I had a chance to visit with Todd Thompson, who will be in his first season as Langham Creek’s head coach. The story from that visit is now posted at the LSN website. Coach Thompson was the OC at Cypress Falls from 2003 to 2008 and talking with him about his career brought back some nice personal memories. When he talked about the 2004 playoff run by the Golden Eagles, I thought back to my older daughter’s freshman year.
Sarah was in the Cypress Falls Golden Eagle Marching Band in 2004, so I got to see many of the Cy Falls games. And, I managed to be able to broadcast several of those games for the broadcast group I was working for at the time.
Thompson talked about the Tomball game where Cy Falls unveiled their no-huddle spread offense and I remembered the Saturday afternoon it happened. They had a couple of underclassmen, one named David Brekke and the other named Ross Bruns, who had been tag-teaming the QB spot all season. I’m trying now to recall which one eventually won the job that week, but I think it was Bruns. I believe Brekke moved to an inside receiver spot.
The success of that game carried over into the Magnolia game the next week. The Eagles shut down Ray Kenjura’s team, 35-7, and finished the district season at 6-2. The team had qualified for the Class 5A Division 1 playoffs. I remember that the school spirit was through the roof…at least among the band.
The first playoff opponent was Eisenhower. I knew of Eisenhower’s reputation and, though I believe Richard Carson had already left by that time to go to College Park, I felt like Cy Falls had drawn a tough opponent and their playoff experience might not last more than one game.
But, that offense—that system—was something to behold at Klein Memorial Stadium that cool, windy Saturday afternoon. I remember sitting with my young son watching Cy Falls dismantle Ike, 34-13, and saying, ‘This is a pretty good football team.’
And they were. It was a team who had players like Andre Sexton and Ricky Price, who would move on to play big-time D-1 college ball. But they were so young then that who knew?
Falls would defeat Kempner in the second round that year, 35-17, again making things look almost too easy. Because the Division 1 playoffs just had one district representative at that time, Cy Falls had qualified for the Region III final against Westfield.
The Eagles had already lost to the Mustangs in their second game of the year, 26-9, and I remember hearing talk of getting revenge for that one. The game would coincidentally fall during the holiday week around Thanksgiving, and would be played the Friday afternoon after Thanksgiving at Rice Stadium.
But in that game, the youth of that team began to show against a venerable Westfield squad and the Mustangs forced turnover after turnover and coasted to a 42-14 win. At my house, it was okay, because—for my daughter—the novelty of extra football games had turned to dread over having to perform that same halftime show again and again.
Thanksgiving had come and gone, and now it was time to start thinking about Christmas. The Eagles had done enough to carry us that far.
That team would set the tone for the following two seasons when Cy Falls would play football into December both years. Those seasons bring back some fond memories too, but those recollections will have to wait for now.
* * * * *
Speaking of Cy Falls…I also had a chance to visit with David Raffield, their head coach, in writing the story about Todd Thompson. We talked about his team—a team that nobody really expects to do anything this season—and I’ll share some of his thoughts on that in the next post.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
NMSU coach: Who was supposed to bring the snacks?
A lot of scrimmages on tap for this weekend. I am working on some stories that will be published here and at the Legacy Sports Network website. Keep tuning in…
* * * * *
Wow…here’s a new old-man cliché that I can start dropping on my kids: “You think you’ve got it bad? There are kids playing football for New Mexico State University who are so poor, they can’t even have snacks!!”
Apparently a state university in the state next door can’t afford to run to Kroger and pick up some Butterfingers (trust me, I know for a fact that Butterfingers are a popular college team snack) for their players and they’ve sent out a letter to their boosters to request snacks for those kids. Oh, the pictures this conjures up.
First of all, there will be no need to use the words ‘New Mexico State’ and ‘big-time college football’ in the same sentence this year. Imagine college recruiters grabbing this bit of news. Imagine being a NMSU coach on the recruiting trail. “If YOU will come play football for us, we promise that your mom will only have to bring the Cheez-its for one game—no more than that!”
I checked NMSU’s athletic website for a snack schedule, but, as of this writing, it apparently hasn’t been finalized yet.
Can’t you just picture some player’s dad dragging a cooler over to the bench area as the fourth quarter clock winds down during the September 5 home opener against Idaho? Capri Suns for everyone! But keep your little brother away until everybody on the team has gotten one first.
The most embarrassing thing? The NMSU team name is Aggies. I don’t even want to hear it from any of you…
Next on the NMSU athletic department bulletin board:
· Your mom needs to wash your uniform and have it back by Thursday.
· Sign up for carpooling to the Louisiana Tech game.
· We need to know who will and won’t be at practice on Wednesday.
Here’s something to circle on your calendar. On September 12, NMSU hosts Prairie View A&M. They may not be able to scrape up enough department funds between the two schools to buy Happy Meals for everybody after the game. And I PROMISE you that there will be at least one kid wearing a uniform that doesn't look like the rest...his mom didn't know that they had to have a specific color pants and she bought him the generic white ones.
Right now the only Houston-area player on the NMSU roster is 2005 Spring HS grad and OL Joseph Palmer. I wouldn’t expect to see any others any time soon.
PS—don’t ever ask my wife or sister about my ‘big-time’ college athletic experience. They will NOT confirm that I know what I’m talking about when I mention Butterfingers as a team snack. At least, they better not…
* * * * *
Wow…here’s a new old-man cliché that I can start dropping on my kids: “You think you’ve got it bad? There are kids playing football for New Mexico State University who are so poor, they can’t even have snacks!!”
Apparently a state university in the state next door can’t afford to run to Kroger and pick up some Butterfingers (trust me, I know for a fact that Butterfingers are a popular college team snack) for their players and they’ve sent out a letter to their boosters to request snacks for those kids. Oh, the pictures this conjures up.
First of all, there will be no need to use the words ‘New Mexico State’ and ‘big-time college football’ in the same sentence this year. Imagine college recruiters grabbing this bit of news. Imagine being a NMSU coach on the recruiting trail. “If YOU will come play football for us, we promise that your mom will only have to bring the Cheez-its for one game—no more than that!”
I checked NMSU’s athletic website for a snack schedule, but, as of this writing, it apparently hasn’t been finalized yet.
Can’t you just picture some player’s dad dragging a cooler over to the bench area as the fourth quarter clock winds down during the September 5 home opener against Idaho? Capri Suns for everyone! But keep your little brother away until everybody on the team has gotten one first.
The most embarrassing thing? The NMSU team name is Aggies. I don’t even want to hear it from any of you…
Next on the NMSU athletic department bulletin board:
· Your mom needs to wash your uniform and have it back by Thursday.
· Sign up for carpooling to the Louisiana Tech game.
· We need to know who will and won’t be at practice on Wednesday.
Here’s something to circle on your calendar. On September 12, NMSU hosts Prairie View A&M. They may not be able to scrape up enough department funds between the two schools to buy Happy Meals for everybody after the game. And I PROMISE you that there will be at least one kid wearing a uniform that doesn't look like the rest...his mom didn't know that they had to have a specific color pants and she bought him the generic white ones.
Right now the only Houston-area player on the NMSU roster is 2005 Spring HS grad and OL Joseph Palmer. I wouldn’t expect to see any others any time soon.
PS—don’t ever ask my wife or sister about my ‘big-time’ college athletic experience. They will NOT confirm that I know what I’m talking about when I mention Butterfingers as a team snack. At least, they better not…
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