The last High School football game I worked was San Antonio O’Connor and Houston Lamar in the state semifinals last December. So, yeah, I knew I would be a little bit rusty but I am OK with that…it was a nice warm-up for me in preparation for Week O on August 28th.
Looking back at my stats, I only saw one screw-up!!! I had a running backs name listed twice on my dry erase stat board. Oh no!!!
Talk about my stats, if you happen to watch the game on Time Warner on Demand, my stats were used for the television broadcast. Jason Minnix was one of the TV broadcasters for the game and I do know who he is and he is always extremely friendly to me. He has an afternoon sports show on ESPN Radio San Antonio.
Man, I wish I had my business cards designed so I could’ve given a handful to the TV folks so they could give me credit. Yes, I am gonna have business cards for this season.
It is kinda funny cause after that last game I worked, I threw all of my football supplies in a small plastic box and placed it in my office closet. On Saturday morning, my wife and I rented a truck so we could move boxes, furniture that was in the garage, and anything else we wanted out of the house to our newly rented storage unit. Man, I kept a very close eye on my football supply box and football backpack to make sure they didn’t get placed in the truck and ultimately placed in the storage unit.
OK, so this was my first time driving a truck (I drove very slow) and it was raining very hard outside. My brother was gonna help us but he couldn’t make it out of his neighborhood, so the furniture will be moved some other time. Our truck had a loading ramp and as I was hauling 4 heavy book boxes on a dolly up it, I slipped on the ramp and fell on my ass and back and got a scratch on my knee. My wife was so sweet and was really worried about me that she made me stop for a few minutes. Oh, my ass and back are fine but I will likely have a bruise on my knee. We rented a storage unit so we can list our house for sale in July.
A stat man needs his MARKERS, erasers (aka red shop cloths), duct tape (that is how I hang the stat-board and sometimes the banners), wire ties (I use em for the banners), stat-board (that is the most important thing I need), small dry erase board (I use this to keep track of drive summary and also to alert the broadcasters of how long a particular play was), pens (the boss always forgets something to write with so I got it covered), and an old fashioned am/fm radio (we need this so we can confirm we on the air).
All of this stuff is always neatly placed in there appropriate compartments in my black Jansport backpack with Beatles patches from when I was in High School (1991-1995) for when I do stats! I left my backpack once at Comalander stadium cause we were gonna be there the next night and when I arrived the next night, my backpack was missing. Well, I shouldn’t say missing…it was moved by the cleaning crew to the athletic office and let me just say it was very to describe it has Beatles patches on it!!! I am unique!!
Gosh, there is nothing better than seeing the stadium lights, pulling into the parking lot, glancing and schmoozing with the fans, flashing my TSRN media pass at the media gate, hearing the football sounds, walking into the press-box, and looking at the field and just marveling at the fact that I got a great gig!!! Wow!!!
Thank god this game wasn’t played at Southside stadium…cause if the wind was blowing in the direction of the stadium and you breathed in (which we all do to survive), you would inhale the smells of a pig farm!! I could think of a million other smells that I like much better at a football stadium!
And, guess who walked out of the elevator as I was walking in? It was Bobby Stautzenberger (my TSRN boss) and we exchanged quick greetings (he was heading to the field for pre-game interviews) and I asked him if the banners were in the booth. As soon as I arrived in the press-box, I grabbed the TRSNsports.com banners and hung them outside the ticket gate so everyone can see em.
For those of you who don’t know, my Dad has a passion for photography. He has a beard photo page, a San Antonio Public Art photo page, a military photo page, and his very own BLOG. I wanted him to come to the game and be my personal photographer…no you idiot; not to take pictures of me (so I can be an actor) but to capture the images of the game.
I met him in the parking lot after I hung the TSRN banners and showed him around the press-box and how to get on the field. I introduced him to Bobby Stuatzenberger, Tony Franklin, and Ed Suarez…the three broadcasters for the game. Bobby, Tony, and I are the prime time crew for the Judson Rockets football games and Ed does play-by-play for the Alamo Heights Mules football games. You gotta have experienced people working an All-Star game and that is exactly what we all have!!
Ed Suarez was the sideline reporter for the All-Star game and he did a great job. We basically had all access to the players, the coaches, and even the huddles!!! That was really cool and an added benefit for all of the listeners. Ed is also responsible for getting me my UTSA football gig…Ed, I still owe you a meal for that!!
I eventually left my Dad alone to roam free and come and go as he pleases since I had to work!! It was really nice having him come to work with me!!! Hey, I even got a free dinner after the game at 11:30 at Taco Cabana (I haven’t hard TC since January and it was really excellent; I am trying to stay away from fast food cause I want to be healthy)!!! Very nice father and son bonding time. I know my Dad enjoys it very much as he wrote a Blog post titled, Soccer Parent last year after he came to a St. Anthony High School basketball game with me.
The Kids Sports Network deserve a bunch of kudos…they run this game from start to finish and always do a marvelous job. Proceeds from the game benefit the nonprofit programs of the Kids Sports Network. As many as 15 participants annually receive scholarship offers from college and university recruiters as a result of playing in the game. Over the past 33 years nearly 200 scholarships offers have been made to players and over $750,000 has been raised for various San Antonio youth charities. That is really awesome and sometimes this is the last opportunity for a player to showcase his skills to a scout.
I also gotta say thanks to the coaching staffs, the players, and the players families. It must’ve been very challenging to gather everyone for practice…I mean, they are from different teams both near and far. And, gosh, how the heck do you get em back in football shape?
I know I am not going to mention every player and team, so I will include a link to the roster.
I was really looking forward to seeing the players below play there final High School football game:
Jacob Jandt and Luke Walters from the Pleasanton Eagles
Jacob will be attending Oklahoma Panhandle State
Luke will be attending Texas A&M Commerce
Carl Whitley from the Roosevelt Roughriders
Carl will be attending Cisco Junior College
Kyle Poeske from the Boerne Champion Chargers
College TBD
Dillon Gatian from the Brennan Bears
Dillon will be attending Doane College
Gilbert Garcia from the Holmes Huskies
College TBD
Kyron Davis from the Holy Cross Knights
Kyron will be attending Central Methodist University
Josh Reynolds from the Jay Mustangs
College TBD
Isaac Cervantes from the Lanier Voks
Isaac will be attending Victor Valley College
Tre Johnson from the O’Connor Panthers
College TBD
Jazz Butler from the Taft Raiders
College TBD
I don’t get the opportunity to see every school last season and I as very glad the smaller schools were represented like:
St. Anthony Yellow Jackets (I did attend some High School basketball games for St. Anthony)
Lytle
D’hanis
Somerset
Sabinal
Poteet
St. Gerard
SA Christian
Man, I love my job and working a High School Football All-Star game with the best players from San Antonio is the icing on the cake. We were provided a starting line-up for both squads and that my job easy since I didn’t have to fumble (nice football reference Mark) and glance at the roster for the names.
Don’t ask me how the boundaries are drawn for the West team and the East team, cause I have absolutely no clue!! On my stat board, I had to indicate West was in white and East was in red!!!
Last year, the East defeated the West by a score of 16 to 7 and the offense for both teams was facilitated from the smaller schools of Somerset, Devine, and St. Antony.
Well, on Saturday night, the West defeated the East again by a final score of 21 to 14 (5 touchdowns…3 of them coming from O’Connor, Johnson, and Holmes).
The Pleasanton combination of Luke Walters, the quarterback, and Jacob Jandt, the wide receiver, for the East almost scored a touchdown with :11 seconds remaining in the game which would’ve made the score 21 to 20 West. I love it when games come down to to final play…it was a nail biter and when I saw Luke throw the ball toward Jacob in the end-zone, I was like OMG!! But, unfortunately for me, the broadcasters, the fans, the coach’s, and the folks at Kids Sport Network, Jacob didn’t catch it…from where I was in the press-box, it looked it was just out of the reach of his fingertips.
Later when we were leaving, Brandon Parrott, the Executive Director of the Kids Sports Network, told us the ball hit his helmet just out of the reach of his hands. He had a better view since he was on the field. WOW!!! Bobby asked Brandon about the overtime rules and Brandon was like had that been a touchdown, we would have told the East squad to go for 2 and the win!!! I think on Monday morning, they will be looking at the overtime rules for this game.
A total of 27 players touched the ball as there names were MARKED on my dry erase stat board.
Luke Walters, the quarterback for the East, was 11 for 30 passing for 95 yards with 5 interceptions and 2 touchdowns. He also had 9 carries for 43 yards. He was the only QB for the East. It was really tough to see him struggle.
I worked a Pleasanton game in Week 2 and Luke was marvelous…15 for 21 passing for 240 yards and 5 touchdowns. That was only in one half of game action as the game was called with 9:37 left in the game for lightening! Jacob Jandt, the wide receiver for the East and also from Pleasanton, didn’t have any receptions. But, in that Week 2 game, Jacob shined with 6 catches for 129 yards and 1 touchdown.
The running back for the East, Xavier McElhannon from Johnson, had 9 carries for 34 yards and also an 11 yard touchdown reception.
I was impressed with another running back for the East, Zachary Miles from San Marcos. Miles had 6 carries for 41 yards.
The defensive player of the came was from the East squad and that was PJ Hall from Seguin. He will be attending Sam Houston State.
The West squad had 3 quarterbacks…Kyle Poeske from Boerne Champion, Gilbert Garcia from Holmes, and Chance Barlow from D’Hanis. Combined, they were 12 for 20 passing for 203 yards with 1 interception and one touchdown. Gilbert Garcia was the offensive player of the game…93 yards passing and 16 yards rushing with 1 touchdown. Where Gilbert will play at the next level is up in the air.
I worked a Holmes game in Week 3 and Garcia torched the Marshall Rams for 341 yards, 2 touchdowns, and an astonishing 85% completion rate!!
Last year against Marble Falls, Kyle Poeske threw for 585 yards!! WOW!!! According to the state records for Texas High School football, that huge MARK tied him for 3rd place!!! Oh, the quarterback for Marble Falls, Mike Williams, had a slightly better game passing with 724 yards!!! That made Mike number 1 on the state record list!! WOW!!! You know something, we had a TSRN crew broadcasting that game…I think it was our very own Mark Kusenberger.
Tre Johnson from O’Connor, was the running back for the West. Tre had 6 carries for 110 yards and 1 touchdown…but that touchdown was for 76 yards and it was just what Tre had done all season long to opponents.
I worked several O’Connor games last season and here are Tre’s numbers for each game:
Week 2…30 carries for 323 yards and 4 touchdowns
Week 4…26 carries for 142 yards and 1 touchdown
Week 5…15 carries for 164 yards
Week 9…13 carries for 175 yards and 3 touchdowns
Week 11…19 carries for 157 yards and 3 touchdowns
Week 14…24 carries for 154 yards and 1 touchdown
Week 15…15 carries for 52 yards
If we total everything up, in those 7 games, Tre had 142 carries for 1,167 yards and 12 touchdowns. Yeah, he is that good and whatever school scoops him up will be very glad!!! I have had the pleasure of watching Tre do this for 3 seasons at O’Connor.
Another running back for the West was from Holy Cross, but he also played 1 year at Southside and that was Kyron Davis. Kyron had 9 carries for 26 yards.
I was very impressed with the West quarterback, Chance Barlow from D’hanis. Barlow was 3 for 5 passing for 55 yards and he also had 8 carries for 31 yards.
Overall, I had a blast working this game and I wish all the players best of luck at the next level and thanks for being a part of my job. I really hope that the players who haven’t selected a college get the chance to play at the next level either on a scholarship or even as a walk-on.
I will be writing several San Antonio high school football articles throughout the summer in preparation for the 2013 HIGH School football season as well as articles for every single game I work.
Dude, it will be my 17th year with TSRN and my 5th year with CW35!!! WOW!!!
Nina my sweet wife, I must tell you that I am slowly morphing into my high school football zone!!! I am definitely gonna get her to write a guest blog for during the season for what life is like as a football widow!!