Archive for September, 2008

It’s not as bad as I guess the sentence above makes it sound, but the end of the Rider-Denton Ryan game Friday night at Memorial Stadium was exciting on and off the field.
As Rider QB Shavodrick Beaver was trying to run the final second off the clock he scrambled back and started to go down as the first Denton Ryan defender reached him.
As Beaver went down a man on a mission from the other team decided he wanted to make a statement. He flew at Beaver as he was on the ground and hit him 2 to 3 seconds after the play and the game had expired.
Beaver gets up and starts a shoving match. I’ll defend his actions because that was one of the worst cheap shots I’ve seen at a local high school football game.
Then both teams decide, after scoring a combined 67 points, that they finally wanted to get their noses dirty.
Everyone jumps in, the games over, but the fight has just begun. No punches were thrown, thank goodness, nobody needs to sit out a suspension, but many, many words were exchanged.
Then it got better.
Two coaches, one from Rider and one from Denton Ryan, started to exchange some words at the ceremonial handshake line. A lot of what was said was under the breath, but it appeared the Denton Ryan coach was at his limit.
I really wish I knew the names of the coaches that were about to go to jail that night. Would have made for a more interesting story Saturday morning. Misdemeanor assault charges all around.
Both teams had their fill I guess. It was a close game. It was played cleanly, so I don’t know why the two teams were so testy besides the cheap shot at the end.
Then I find out after the game, from someone with Rider, that the coaches damn near fought at halftime as they were going to their respective locker rooms.
What a game. It had it all – a ton of turnovers, big plays, big hits and the possibility at the end of a couple of hay-makers.
In the end I’ll say this. Rider has a lot of talent, a ton of talent. Eric Ward is a ridiculous playmaker. James Chambers hasn’t met a tackle he couldn’t make, and the offensive and defensive lines play with man size. Them boys are big.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (WGHP) – Remember the name Edwin
Baptiste from Morgan State. During Saturday’s game against
Winston-Salem State, Baptiste made one of the greatest pass catches
ever caught on tape. Watch for yourself. The Bears defeated the Rams
21-7.

Some people are unable to see youtube linked videos…so, here’s a link to a site that has the video, but is a Spanish website.

If you feel like you might want to get to know Edwin Baptiste, the man with the hand, a little bit more, here’s his official collegiate page. 

Enjoy.

We will make this quick since I just went 12 rounds with the lawn and am wiped out.
Here is what I am thinking for this week’s games:

(more…)

Right now four weeks into the season, there are six area teams with spotless records and seven that are still looking for its first win.
So I thought we could look at which games would stand in the way of perfection, and for the winless teams, which chance represents the best chance at a victory:

(more…)

By now you know Rider is 0-3. But it is still hard to believe.
I have little doubt they will win district, especially if they beat Denton Ryan this Friday. But do these three losses foreshadow another close playoff defeat?
I guess we will have to wait and see. Other thoughts from the weekend:

(more…)

EepyBird’s Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.

I have been thinking it for weeks. Texasfootballratings.com backed me up yesterday.
Usually after a couple of weeks, the Texas high school football website, which has ratings for every team, predicts how a team will finish if the season ended now (based on those rankings).
Then they simulate the playoffs, and the results from this area were not pretty.

(more…)

So I was sitting around the house, and after blogging about covering Bowie and Jacksboro for the first time, I decided to go back and see how many times I have covered each team.
I have been covering games since 2002 (as a full-time writer since 2004), a little bit more than a 100 or so (told you I had too much time on my hands).
Here’s a list of the teams I have covered, with their won-loss record and a note with some of them. Windthorst easily leads the list with 26. Here they are:

(more…)

In my four-plus years of being the area high school football writer for this paper, I have covered lots and lots of teams.
Windthorst, with its deep playoff runs, probably tops the list. Holliday, Iowa Park, Vernon, Henrietta and Graham are all up there too.
There were still three 11-Man area teams I had not covered in person, and two of them were crossed off the list Friday as I went to watch Bowie and Jacksboro square off (Nocona is the other, FYI).

(more…)

It is about four hours until Rider hits prime time, so it is the perfect time to make my predictions for this week’s action.
Two weeks of football are in the books, so some certainties have become transparent. But at about this time last year, Seymour was 1-2. No one dared think the Panthers had a state title run in them.
So a lot can happen over these next weeks. Here are my predictions based on how things are going so far.

(more…)

Here are some of my thoughts after the Sept. 5 weekend:

(more…)