I didn’t work as many games as I have in previous years because my wife and I live in Canyon Lake and man, the drive home from all the games took a toll on me physically and mentally. Plus, we moved to a new house in Canyon Lake in late September (yeah, smack dab in the middle of the season).
Luckily, I got 8 months to recover…cause in August it starts again. Is it too early to start the countdown?
Two things I am really looking forward to doing since I have time now is unpacking and helping the wife around the house. I got a lot of Beatles and sports memorabilia to sort thru (I am going to photograph everything and will for sure share it with you on my blog).
Enough about me…now, it is time to write a lot about HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL…particularly the game of the year, the most outstanding individual performance, the most unique press-box, Alamo stadium, the Judson Rockets, and the Steele Knights. Tomorrow, I will publish Part 2 which will be my list of players to watch next season.
ALAMO STADIUM
In March of 2013, I visited Alamo stadium because I wanted to check out the renovations. I never even imagined that I would get inside access to the site and be able to photograph the renovations and share them with you.
Well, to make a long story short, me and my photographs were featured on TV several times in 2013 and 2014. It was such an amazing experience to see the renovations from start to finish and every time I go there for now on, I will know that I had a part in it!! WOW!!!
I only worked 2 games at Alamo stadium last year and I must admit, it was really awesome to finally see fans in the stands watching their respective teams play. Yeah, I got all goose-pimply several times. I was also glad that several playoff teams chose to play at Alamo stadium instead of other venues in the San Antonio area.
MOST UNIQUE PRESS-BOX
Dude, this was a no-brainer for me!!! It was a Week 8 game at Antonian. First, that was my first time at Antonian for a football game and second, I was told by a few people that we would be broadcasting the game from the roof of the press-box. Oh, the opponent for Antonian was Central Catholic…one of their biggest rivals!!
Below is an excerpt from my BLOG:
It was a FULL HOUSE and our color analyst, Tony Franklin, mentioned that the overall atmosphere felt like we were in a small town and the entire community was at the game and I couldn’t agree more!! It was awesome!! Their was no room in the tiny press-box for us (since their was a TV crew broadcasting the game), so we ended up on top of the press-box (you had to climb a submarine ladder) to get on top.
It was actually not as bad I was thinking..we had room to maneuver and I had a blast watching the game and dancing to the band sounds. Just a little bit of twerking for me!!
Along with us, their were several cameras and the Central Catholic coaches.
Even though I had room for my stat board on the chain linked fence that protected us from falling overboard, I made an executive stat decision and decided to only use my little dry erase board to keep track of drive summaries. It was kinda nice that I was able to watch the game more as a fan and didn’t have to worry about stats.
MOST OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE
Daniel Rosenfeld is the junior running back for the Antonian Apaches and in that Week 8 game against Central Catholic, he had 37 carries for 368 yards with 6 touchdowns. I got his 1st half numbers from David Hinojosa from the San Antonio Express News but in the 2nd half, I kept tally of his runs. Just an absolutely incredible performance and it was awesome to see it live!!
Man, also in Week 8, I got to see 2 of the top quarterbacks and one of the top wide receivers in the San Antonio area. Brackenridge Eagle quarterback Antonio Lopez was 16 of 27 for 299 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception and Stevens Falcons quarterback Bobby Chacon was 26 of 36 for 336 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 interceptions. Lee Terrell, the Brackenridge wide receiver, had 6 receptions for 174 yards.
Yeah, huge numbers and that got me really excited!! Hey, I am a numbers man!!!
GAME OF THE YEAR
I couldn’t decided between a Week 10 game between Taft and Warren or the Week 16 state semi-final game between Steele and Katy…so, since this is my blog I will include both!!! Both were very close games!!
Taft and Warren
This is what I wrote on my blog about the game:
At Halftime, Warren (not my Dad) led Taft by a score of 31 to 13. The final Warren scoring drive to put them up 34 to 26 was 14 plays and they chewed 6:55 off the clock. They gained 64 yards and nailed a 24 yard field goal.
Down by 8 points, the Taft Raiders put the ball in Christian Mallard’s hands and he scored a 7 yard touchdown (I wrote on my stat-board above his name CLUTCH). Even though the 2-point conversion failed, Taft recovered their onside kick!!! OMG…this is awesome!!!
Well, folks, the Taft Raiders had a chance to win the game with a field goal (I gotta be honest, I wanted them to nail it) but, it was short and Warren escaped with a 34 to 32 win!!! WOW!!!
Steele and Katy
This is what I wrote on my blog about the game:
The Steele Knights trailed Katy by a score of 17 to 13 in the 4th quarter with less than 3 minutes remaining in the game. Steele had the ball and had 82 yards in front of them. All throughout the game and even this drive, I was quietly cheering for Steele and for this drive, I mouthed game winning drive!! Three plays later, the Knights scored a touchdown and omg, the touchdown catch by Antoine Wesley was absolutely unbelievable.
Steele now led 20 to 17 with under 2 minutes left…gosh, I could smell Arlington and I know I wasn’t alone!!! Katy had less than 2 minutes to either tie with a field goal or win with a touchdown. This is gonna be a great finish!!! Katy nailed a 35 yard field goal as time expired to send the game into OVERTIME!!! WOW!!!
In overtime, Katy kicked a field goal but it was negated because a Steele player ran into the kicker and Katy capitalized by scoring a touchdown (yeah, crap). Katy led 27 to 20. It came down to a 4th down play for the Steele Knights and the pass into the end-zone was incomplete…game over!!! So close for Steele.
JUDSON ROCKETS
I only worked the first 4 Judson games (even though I was scheduled for all of them) and dude, in those games, they had 1 win and 3 losses. Yeah, I was kinda disappointed that I didn’t get to work all the Judson games. I won’t go into specific details as to what happened…all I will say is be careful what you write on social media (it wasn’t me who did that). Hopefully, Judson football will be back for me next season.
Below is an excerpt from my blog about the Judson schedule:
I sure am looking forward to every single Judson game. Man, from Week 1 to Week 10, the Judson Rockets have a tough schedule…probably one of the toughest in the state of Texas. All but Wagner made the playoffs last year.
There 4 non-district games opponents combined record last year was 47 wins and 7 losses!!! Pflugerville Hendrickson and Brennan had undefeated regular seasons. Brennan’s only loss came in the state championship game.
Is 25-6A the best district in the state of Texas? I say yes!!! You got Judson, Steele (they won the state championship in 2010, lost the state championship in 2011, lost in the semifinals in 2012, and last year they lost a heart-breaker to Johnson in the quarterfinals), and Smithson Valley (they have yet to win a state championship but have come close a few times and I wouldn’t be surprised if they get one sooner rather than later). I just have a feeling that every week in district play will be an absolute battle and quite possibly a game of the week candidate.
OK, I will be honest folks, but I didn’t expect the Rockets to finish the season with 6 wins and 4 losses and advance to the state semi-finals!! Something sparked the Rockets and I think I know what it was…it was the freshman quarterback Julon Williams!!! In the 4 games, I did see Julon play but it was primarily as a running back.
Julon finished with 1,147 passing yards with 8 touchdowns and 3 interceptions and 855 rushing yards with 11 touchdowns. Did I mention he was a freshman and the 3rd string quarterback? OMG, he and the Rockets are only going to get better. WOW!!!
STEELE KNIGHTS
Not working the Judson games after Week 4 was actually a blessing in disguise because I got to work the best games and most those were with the Steele Knights.
Since 2010, the Knights have won 68 games and lost 8..they won the state championship in 2010, lost in the state championship in 2011, lost in the state semi-finals in 2012, lost in the quarterfinals in 2013, and last year they lost to Katy in the state semi-finals. Pretty impressive resume!!! Not many teams can say they have done what Steele has done.
I love working games at Steele’s home field of Lehnoff stadium…you can open the windows in the press-box and hear the fans roar and the vantage point is much closer than any other press-box in the area. The press-box staff are always hospitable as they have food and drinks for us media folks. And, dude, they have extremely passionate fans!!
I got to see the Knights play the Smithson Valley Rangers in Spring Branch…yeah, finally we got to see these teams play each other.
This is an excerpt from my blog about the game:
The Smithson Valley Rangers scored first on a 50 yard fumble return by Randy Rios. Dude, that score came just twenty-four seconds from the start of the first quarter…WOW!!! I guess you can blame it on the rain (yes, a Milli Vanilli reference and yes, I had that infamous album)!!! Three minutes later, the Rangers scored again and they lead Steele by a score of 13 to 0 and that was also the score after the first quarter. Man, the Steele Knights had 3 turnovers and 2 penalties for 25 yards in that quarter. They weren’t playing like the Steele Knights I am used to seeing.
Smithson Valley took a 20 to 0 lead early in the second quarter. I don’t think Steele has ever been down this much in a game. I, for one, didn’t expect this!!! Steele is an extremely well coached team, they are experienced (they won a state championship in 2010 and I was there), and they never give up.
Steele finally scored a touchdown with 4:41 left in the second quarter. No shut-out anymore. Two and a half minutes later, Steele scored again on a 52 yard touchdown pass from LG Williams to CJ Williams. The score now was Smithson Valley 20 and Steele 14…OMG we got a game!!
The Steele Knights, Chris Boring (who I am gonna campaign to change his last name to Awesome), recovered a Smithson Valley fumble and scored a 1 yard touchdown!!! At halftime, Steele led 21 to 20!! The Rangers ran 26 plays for 63 yards, Steele ran 35 plays for 204 yards, and both teams had a defensive score.
In the third quarter, Steele added three more points to their lead and going into the fourth quarter, they led 24 to 20. This is going to be a great finish!!!
With ninety-nine seconds left in the game, the Steele quarterback, LG Williams, scored a touchdown and that sealed the win for the Steele Knights. That drive took 7:23 off the clock with 13 plays for 64 yards. That is what I like to call a “championship drive.”
The final score was Steele 31 and Smithson Valley 20. Not all teams can have 4 turnovers and 8 penalties for 72 yards and expect to win a game..especially a game against the Smithson Valley Rangers at Smithson Valley.
The next game for Steele was against the Clemens Buffaloes, the only other High School in the district. This game is called, “THE BATTLE OF 3009.”
This is an excerpt from that blog:
During the game, I got to meet one of my Twitter follows @knightro_cibolo. It was pretty cool to put a face and name together.
I was expecting Steele to win pretty easily over Clemens. I ain’t got nothing against the Buffs, but Steele is a much better team. Well, the Steele Knights did indeed beat the Clemens Buffaloes by a score of 31 to 0.
The Clemens Buffaloes ran 44 plays for 101 yards!! Tony Franklin, our color analyst, mentioned in the pre-game show that if Clemens wants to win, they have to make first downs (they had 5 first downs and were 3 of 14 on third down conversions with 10 punts). The Steele Knights ran 57 plays for 435 yards,
I have to give KUDOS and NAME DROPS to the Steele starting defense…they were magnificent!! Mark Jackson, Zach Edwards, Tristan Watson, Gage Magargee, Marquee Allison, Chris Boring, Marcos Gutierrez, Malik Perez, Anthony Johnson, Mark Frankhouse, and Jubias Cloud. Both Mark’s are juniors and Mark Jackson is already being recruited by many of the top college football programs.
The Steele Knights played the New Braunfels Canyon Cougars at Lehnoff stadium in the last regular season game and that was also the last time we will see the press-box as it will be renovated. I am very much going to miss the ambiance of the old, but will embrace the new!!! If I was choosing a blow-out of the year, that particular game would take the honors!!!
This is an excerpt from that blog:
Steele led 28 to 0 after the first quarter. Obviously, Canyon helped them by having 4 turnovers (2 of them returned for touchdowns by Jubias Cloud). Man, the first play of the 2nd quarter was a punt return for a touchdown by Jaylen Harris. At halftime, Steele led 42 to 0!!! They had 199 yards to only 56 for the Cougars (with 4 turnovers).
The 3rd quarter started at 8:58 and ended at 9:11!!! Yeah, it took 13 minutes to play 12 minutes (thanks to a running clock). I kept wondering if their was a mercy rule? The game ended at 9:28 and the final score was Steele 49 and New Braunfels Canyon Cougars 0.
In Week 13, the Steele Knights played the Brennan Bears. Number 1 and Number 2 all season long.
Brennan went winless in 2010 (which was their year of varsity football and that was the same year that the Steele Knights won state). In 2011, they went 7 and 4 (they lost in the the first round of the playoffs). In 2012, they had 13 wins and 1 loss (that loss came in the state quarterfinals). Last year, they went 15 and 1 (that loss came in the state championship game).
This is an excerpt from both my preview blog and game blog:
Yeah, these teams are the cream of the crop in San Antonio, they have had a lot of success, and they are both fairly new schools (Brennan 2010 and Steele 2006). Steele got a state championship and Brennan can smell it!!
It is such a shame that one of these teams will lose and lose in the 2nd round!!
Even though I didn’t write it anywhere on my BLOG (trust me on that), I was verbally telling anybody who would listen to me rant about High School Football, that I think the Brennan Bears will win the game. I just thought that Brennan was more athletic and better at the running back position.
When the game kicked off at 8:20, you could see the excitement in the fans and dude, I must admit, I was psyched. This could end up being one of those games that is talked about in the future!!!
The 2nd play of the game for the Steele Knights was a 61 yard touchdown by Jaylen Harris…man, he showed me and everybody else that he is the fastest player on the football field!!! At the end of the 1st quarter, Steele led Brennan by a score of 14 to 6. Harris had 3 carries for 103 yards and both touchdowns (yeah, damn good fantasy numbers).
The Steele Knights added a field goal in the 2nd quarter and led 17 to 6. Da’Shawn Key, the Brennan quarterback, answered with a 5 yard touchdown run. Steele lead 17 to 12. Key, at that point, had 9 carries for 69 yards and both touchdowns. With less than :30 left in the 2nd quarter, the Steele quarterback, LG Williams, scored on a 2 yard rushing touchdown.
At Halftime, Steele led Brennan by a score of 24 to 12.
During Halftime, I finally got to meet Michael Deleon from TexasHSfootball.com and it was an absolute pleasure. They have been wonderful to me and have really helped promote my BLOG by publishing my High School Football BLOG articles. As I was talking to Michael, I noticed the score-boards went out. When I got back to our press-box, we had no power and Bobby Stautzenberger was switching to some equipment that had a battery (yeah, we always come prepared).
In the first game, the radio station lost their signal and in this game, The Alamodome lost power (let me rephrase that…parts of The Alamodome lost power like the score-boards, video-boards, and play clock, and some of the boxes in the press-box). When play resumed for the 2nd half, the officials kept time and in our booth, Mark Kusenberger also kept time. For me, I had to kill my time of possession stat…I was still able to keep track of everything else.
Steele and Brennan didn’t score in the 3rd quarter or the 4th quarter!!! I really thought I had the best Tweet when the game ended…Game is over or is it? Steele 24 Brennan 12 #txhsfb FINAL.
The last Steele game I worked was the state semi-final against the Katy Tigers in Houston and that was one of my games of the year that I wrote about earlier in this blog.
The last two teams standing (before losing in the state semi-finals) were the Judson Rockets and the Steele Knights. My first Judson game last season was a road-trip to Pflugerville Hendrickson and I ended the season on another road-trip with the Steele Knights in Houston.
I want to thank Bobby Stautzenberger and the entire Texas Sports Radio Network crew. I also want to thank Jeff Watts, Brian Watts, Don Harris, Chuck Miketanic, and the entire Thursday Nights Light crew.
Year 18 with TSRN and year 6 with TNL are in the history book of statistics!! Dude, I want to write a book of my stat experiences and I already have a great title…THE STAT MAN SPEAKS!!! Yes, I have already starting writing it!!!
I definitely need to thank the folks at www.texashsfootball.com especially Ronald Oswalt and Michael Deleon. They published a lot of my HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL blogs that I wrote and I really appreciated that. Michael even interviewed me and wrote a super awesome article.
I have to thank all of my Twitter followers for all the retweets, favorites, and comments. Same thing with Facebook…thanks for the shares, likes, and comments. I loved interacting with you.
Lastly, I want to thank YOU!!
Oh, I forget to thank someone extremely important in my life and that is my sweet wife, Nina. On Thursday’s and Friday’s she was home alone as I was doing something that I love to do…and, on the weekends, I write (but not all day)!!! But, now that the season is over, it will be very nice to see her more. I love you so much darling. Thanks for putting up with High School Football MARK.
On Friday, I will publish Part 2 of my HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL WRAP-UP blog which will be my list of players to watch next season.
