Last Tuesday as Niko, my 3 and a half year old son, was vomiting for the 2nd and 3rd time that day; this was also his 1st real vomit experience, I got a text message from Mark Thomas asking if I would come out of statistician retirement for one game. That game being a Class 3A Division 1 3rd round playoff game between the George West Longhorns and the Halletsville Brahmas at Farris stadium on Friday evening.
I have known Mark Thomas for a very long time and have worked a lot of games with him. I am very appreciative that he thought of me. And, since I took a vacation day on Friday from work, I was planning on coming out of retirement to work it. But, I first had to get the OK from my wife.
We actually had to wait till the following day before I gave Mark an answer because Nina and I needed to make sure Niko was feeling better, and he was. I just had to make sure Nina would enough time on Friday to complete her work as she works from home as a stylists for Stitchfix. And, she said OK.
So, I told Mark I could do it, but I also told him I have no stat supplies. He told me he would take care of it! I did manage to grab some of Niko’s dry erase markers and an eraser. I also found my media pass from TSRN! I couldn’t find my media pass for The Statman Speaks; oh well.
I was excited to get back to high school football as I retired from being a statistician just before the 2016 season began and retired from being a freelance writer and photographer in 2017. Yeah, it’s been a while and I have absolutely no clue of anything going on in the high school football world. I didn’t miss it because I enjoyed being with my wife and son. But, now that he is older, I may try to get back next season if I can get paid.
I think that is enough of me blabbing on about nonsense!
When I arrived at the stadium which was less than 15 minutes from where we live, Mark Thomas did indeed have brand new stat supplies for me all ready to go; even rosters!
It was actually very easy for me to get back in the stat zone after being away for a few years.
So, now let’s get to the game.
The George West Longhorns (12-0, 7-0) are from District 16-3A. They are led by senior quarterback, Colton Orr and senior running back, Brandon Henicke.
The Halletsville Brahmas (9-2, 4-1) are from District 14-3A. They are lead by senior quarterback, Lane Linhart and junior running back, Jon Brooks.
Since I am a statistician, I have to thrown in numbers, so here they are…
George West had a drive in the 2nd quarter that was 14 plays for 72 yards and took nearly 9 minutes off the clock; unfortunately, they didn’t score as they turned ball over on downs. When Halletsville got the ball on the very next possession, it only took 1 play to score on a 75 yard touchdown run by Jon Brooks. Had George West ended up scoring on that long drive, the final score could’ve been different. On the final play of the game, the George West quarterback threw an incomplete pass in the end zone; if it was caught and the extra point was good, the game would’ve gone into overtime.
George West
70 plays for 378 yards
29:35 time of possession
Colton Orr – 27 carries for 144 yards
Brandon Henicke -12 carries for 83 yards
Halletsville
39 plays for 262 yards
18:25 time of possession
Jon Brooks – 17 carries for 176 yards with 2 touchdowns (I was really impressed with Brooks as several of his runs, it took several George West defenders to take him down)
Just by looking at the final numbers, one would think that the team with more plays, more yards, and more time of possession would win, but that wasn’t the case.
Halletsville defeated George West by a score of 28 to 21. Halletsville will play Columbus in the state quarterfinals at Katy Legacy stadium on Friday at 7:00 pm. It will be a rematch from an earlier season game in which Halletsville won by a score of 28 to 26.
I can’t even imagine how the seniors on George West feel about losing the game and it’s quite possible that for the majority of them, it will be the last time the play in a football game. They never gave up and had the chance to possibly send the game into overtime.
If anybody reading this knows any of the George West seniors, I would be delighted to publish their thoughts on this game.
I am very glad that this game was a really good one and not a blowout. Well, we are in the playoffs!
You know something, I enjoyed doing stats, but I enjoyed this part of putting words on paper (or WordPress) much more. Writing just comes easy for me.
Now that this football article is completed, I need to turn my attention to my final part of my first paper as I complete my MBA at WGU. I actually am planning to submit it on Tuesday. And, I need to get something written on www.thedadspeaks.com because I publish new articles every Sunday.
I am glad multitasking is a strength for me, because I did a little bit of writing in each of them yesterday.
That’s all I have. I am done. See you later and thanks for reading.
