Well, let me rephrase that as almost over!!! I will be working the San Antonio High All Star football game at the Alamodome on January 4th and it will be televised on CW35 and prior to that game is the US Army All American Bowl which I am going to watch as a fan!
There will be end of the year High School football BLOG and I will definitely write a BLOG about the UIL re-alignments in February.
What was I writing about? Oh, yeah, Yellow Jacket basketball…“sting em jackets.”
On Thursday, I was at the HIVE as the St. Anthony Yellow Jackets hosted the St. Mary’s Hall Barrons. This was my 3rd Yellow Jackets basketball game…the first was a great win over Hawkins and the second was a 1-point loss to TMI.
I actually went into those games not really knowing anything about the team and I was so thankful that Coach Smisek gave me some pre-game audio about the team before the TMI game.
I came prepared on Thursday night as I printed a roster. I know who Brandon Armstrong, Jax Chavez, Isiah Saenz, and Stephen Wallace are, but I needed help with the rest of the Yellow Jackets!! I folded it very small because I didn’t want it to be that obvious…LOL!!! Yes, I used it!
When I arrived at the Hive, I chatted with Stephen Wallace’s dad; he was so thrilled to show me that a school in Boston may be interested in Stephen. I was also very happy for both of them as well; that is awesome!!! Last year, I RANTED in one of my St. Anthony BLOGS that the smaller schools really get overlooked when it comes to National Signing Day and that is extremely disappointing cause even though St. Anthony doesn’t have any super star athletes, they sure got a lot of smart and athletic kids. My advice for Colleges and Universities Coaches and scouts, come and take a look at the athletes in the smaller schools because they have a lot of gems. Trust me, they will work very hard, never give up, and always give 110% for each game!!
I then proceeded to locate a seat and I saw somebody GOOD from my past…
In 1996, I was a 19 year old student at UTSA and just started doing stats for Cuero High School basketball (the radio play-by-play was a friend of mine). I also had a part-time job at a small computer company in San Antonio…I built and repaired personal computers. My boss at the computer company was Joe Cooper.
Joe has two kids and one of them, Russell, is on the JV team for St. Mary’s Hall and they were playing the St. Anthony JV team. Joe was in the stands filming the game and I was very surprised to see him (I was like huh!!). WOW!!! What a small world!!! Dude, I remember when Russell was a baby…holy crap, I am getting old!!!
I have bumped into Joe in the past but I never thought I would see him at High School basketball game, especially at a Yellow Jacket home game.
You know something, it was really great to see Joe and after the JV game ended, I contemplated back and forth on if I should say hello to Russell, but that never happened.
Joe, please send me your email address so I can send you some pictures I tried to take of Russell. Oh, let’s do lunch sometime (weekends are good for me) and catch up on old times.
I didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye to Joe as I had left my seat to take photos of the St. Anthony Yellow Jackets running onto the court. I try my best not to get in there way and am always looking for a run-a-way basketball that I know one day will come to face-to-face with!! But, I also want to be the in the way so I can get the “perfect photo!” I am by no means a professional photographer; I just snap away but I love the detail shots (like the jump ball). When I come home, I always show my wife all the great photos and I can’t stop talking about them…see, I get excited very easily!!!
I did have some questions written down that I wanted to ask Coach Smisek, but he was busy. We did chat for a moment but I just didn’t feel that it was the right time for me to whip out my phone and get some pre-game audio. Oh well!!!
For the first half, I sat towards the end of the St. Mary’s Hall bench. St. Anthony was shooting at the basket in front of me (I like being close to the action with no obstructions).
I moved to a seat next to the scorer’s table and was literally within arm’s reach of Coach Smisek for the second half. I only had to get out of the way whenever a player for either team was substituted. It was so unbelievably awesome to not only be that close to the Coach and the team, but also to see the emotions and hear the sounds of a DOUBLE OT thriller!!! I couldn’t have asked for anything better (well, a St. Anthony victory would’ve been the perfect ending).
Was it the ideal place for me to be hanging out? To be honest, I really don’t know. I do know that Coach Smisek knew I was there but he never said a word to me and I was very glad cause I got some great insight to the coaching staff words of wisdom and a bunch of great close-up photos of the Yellow Jackets.
The final score of this DOUBLE OT classic was 79 to 75 St. Mary’s Hall over the Yellow Jackets. Every single play of both overtimes was nail biting and the entire gym was cheering for St. Anthony and booing any bad calls that didn’t go the Yellow Jackets way.
When the game was tied (I don’t remember if it was the last play of the 4th quarter or the last play of the first overtime), I saw Brandon Armstrong look at Coach Smisek and Brandon put his hand to his chest (silently saying, “Coach, give me the ball, I got this one!”) WOW!!!
The leading scorer for both teams was Karthik Reddy from St. Mary’s Hall with 33 points. He is a 6’6 sophomore and was a layup machine.
The Yellow Jackets were led by Brandon Armstrong with 20 points. Jax Chavez had 15 points (he had some HUGE 3 pointers), Isiah Saenz had 12 points, Johnatan Reyes had 11 points, Stephen Wallace had 7 points, and Darren Meeks and Ricardo Valadez each had 5 points.
Isiah, Johnatan, Darren, and Ricardo are all freshmen, Brandon is a sophomore, and Jax is a junior. Yep, young and extremely talented and I am so glad I have a front row seat to the action. I am spoiled!!!
I really like Isiah and Johnatan’s confidence in there basketball skills and there basketball IQ is is very mature for there age. Brandon always impresses me as he can shoot the ball from the outside or take it inside for a layup.
The Yellow Jacket teams play tenacious defense and when they put pressure on the ball handler, they will likely end up with a steal or a jump ball. Please come out and watch the Yellow Jackets play basketball…they hustle on every play, play team ball (not about I, it is about we), and they never give up. And, you know something, it all starts with Coach Smisek and his talented coaching staff.
Here is the list of St. Anthony games that I am going to attend:
Wednesday, January 8th @Judson
Tuesday, January 14th @ St. Anthony
Wednesday, January 22nd @ UIW (vs. Antonian)
Saturday, January 25th @ St. Anthony
Wednesday, January 29th @ Central Catholic
Saturday, February 8th @ UIW (vs. Central Catholic)
Tomorrow, I will have a Week 15 High School football BLOG.
