D W Rutledge stadium, home of the Converse Judson Rockets and the Wagner Thunderbirds, is my home away from home throughout the High School football season.
Where ever Judson plays, I will be their crunching numbers along with the radio broadcasters Bobby Stautzenberger and Tony Franklin. We make a good threesome (of Farmers Insurance High School football, not sex…that was my dirty mind taking over for a second!).
Expectations are always set VERY HIGH for the Rockets and they have won the state championship 5 times; that is pretty awesome. The most recent coming in 2002 and although I didn’t work that particular game, I was in the press-box for that game at the semi-historic Alamodome. Dude, I will never forget (and I know Judson fans won’t either…it is permanently marked in our brains) the play that won it…Dustin Quinney to Andre Williams for a wide open 76 yard touchdown reception with less than 30 seconds left in the game. Wow!!!
I have the Judson Rockets ranked number 6 in Mark’s poll. But to be honest, it doesn’t really matter how you start, it is how you finish. And, I know the Rockets want to be the last team standing in 5A football!
Last season, the Rockets lost to the O’Connor Panthers in the area 2012 5A Division 1 Playoffs. They finished with an overall record of 8 wins and 4 losses and 4 wins and 1 loss in District 25-5A. I would say that was a pretty damn good season under first year Head Coach Mark Smith. Overall, Smith has 101 wins and 37 losses in his 11 year history as a head coach.
Last year, I worked 8 Judson Rocket football games…
Week 0
OK, so I have seen Judson lose games, but man, never a blowout…47 to 13. Besides them being shutout a few years ago by the Churchill Chargers, this one was really tough to witness. Then again, the opponent was the Lake Travis Cavaliers Lake Travis who were the 5-time defending state champions in 4A (they moved to 5A last season and hey, they didn’t win state..WTF). In that 5 year span, the Cavaliers won 77 games and lost 3!!!
Week 1
Judson should’ve won this game and dude, who knows what would’ve happened in the playoffs for both the Rockets and the Steele Knights had that happened. Stats don’t lie…Justin Stockton, the Steele running back, had 28 carries for 240 yards and 2 touchdowns and Jarveon Williams, the Judson running back, also had 28 carries but for 180 yards and also 2 touchdowns. What a show they put on for us.
Week 3
So, 4 games into the season…with a new head coach in Mark Smith (from Kerrville Tivy), this was what I and many other Rocket fans expected…59 plays for 462 yards and 28 points.
Week 6
THE HAMMER BOWL
Dude, this game is always super exciting and always a FULL HOUSE at DW Rutledge stadium and last year, Judson shut out Wagner High School. This game is about bragging rights since Judson and Wagner are the only 2 High School’s in the Judson Independent School District. Only one man stood atop the mountain and that was the Judson back-up quarterback, Johnathan Garcia…11 for 19 passing for 211 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Week 7
This was the only Judson game that I have worked where the ground game of the Rockets had less than 100 yards!!! The Smithson Valley Rangers crushed Judson 45 to 14. Gosh, 7 games into the season and I have already seen two really demoralizing losses from the Rockets.
Week 9
200th BLOG POST and RED TURF ALERT (AND ICE CREAM)
OMG, this game was the most exciting as it came down to the last possession of the game…WOW!!! Combined, the teams scored 76 points, had 923 total yards of offense on 125 plays, and 5 players had over 100 yards of individual offense. Oh, and there were several amazing touchdown receptions from both teams.
Week 10
The Judson quarterback, Rayjohn Austin-Ramsey, had 193 yards running and 188 yards passing. Hmmm, this reminded me of Johnny Manziel when he played at Kerrville Tivy High School. Johnny’s High School football coach is Mark Smith and Smith is now the Judson coach. I think Mark (not me) may have found his quarterback who can thrive in the system. I always joke around that somewhere in the Judson school district, Mark Smith will find the next Johnny Manziel and that particular student may only be in the 2nd grade!!!
Week 11
LET THE PLAYOFFS BEGIN
Rayjohn Austin-Ramsey, the Judson quarterback, had another terrific game and his ability to scramble, pass, and run willed the Rockets to a win…he was 13 of 19 passing for 198 yards and had 16 carries for 70 yards and 4 touchdowns.
I know this is a JUDSON ROCKET BLOG, but I was really impressed with the Churchill Charger quarterback, Nate Pearson, and running back, Nico Smisek. Nate is a Senior this year and Nico is a Junior.
Nico is also the son of St. Anthony Yellow Jacket head basketball coach, Kevin Smisek. After the footballs season ended last season, I attended several Yellow Jacket basketball games and wrote about them (Kevin contacted me on Twitter last July 29th cause he saw one of my comments on a mysa.com High School football article). Hey, when I comment, I always provide my BLOG address!!! I am all about promoted me and my blog.
Obviously, I am psyched up for all the Judson games this year, but three of them I am ready for them to be played right now…
Week 0…Judson at Lake Travis…I smell redemption!!
Week 1…Steele at Judson…Man, when these teams collide, it is always a barn burner!!!
Week 6…The Hammer Bowl!!! Arrive early at D W Rutledge stadium if you plan to attend.
JUDSON ROCKET FOOTBALL SCHEDULE 2013
Fri 8/16 – Austin Bowie (Scrimmage) – Rutledge TBA
Fri 8/23 – Brandeis (scrimmage) – Rutledge TBA
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Fri 8/30 – Lake Travis – Lake Travis 7:30
Fri 9/6 – Steele – Rutledge Stadium 7:30
Fri 9/13 – Churchill – Heroes Stadium 7:30
Fri 9/20 – East Central – East Central 7:30
Fri 9/27 – CC Carroll (HC) – Rutledge Stadium 7:30
Fri 10/4 – OPEN
Fri 10/11 – Wagner – Rutledge Stadium 7:30
Fri 10/18 – Smithson Valley – Smithson Valley 7:30
Fri 10/25 – San Marcos – Rutledge Stadium 7:30
Fri 11/1 – NB Canyon – Rutledge Stadium 7:30
Fri 11/8 – New Braunfels – New Braunfels 7:30
Looking at the rest of the Judson games, this will be the first year where I am going to be able to work all 10 games and I will share my thoughts on each throughout the season along with pictures. In addition to my photos, please check out Judson Football Highlights on Facebook. He gets some great looking shots.
I do have a full-time job but got several Friday’s off for vacation so I can make the road trip to Austin (never been to Lake Travis stadium), Corpus Christi (maybe, I will get some seafood), San Marcos, and New Braunfels. The Smithson Valley game in Spring Branch is close to where I work at 281 and Stone Oak so it will be an easy drive up after work; no vacation day needed!
As you can see from the schedule above, all the Judson games are on Friday nights and no matter what stadium we are at, at 10:30 pm on KLUP, our flagship radio station for Texas Sports Radio Network High School football games, Bobby does a LIVE SCOREBOARD SHOW and I help him get the scores. Before the internet, I had to use my flip cell phone to call his mother (she would call the stadiums and news stations). After the internet, I started using a Netbook and at most stadiums (Judson included), I was able to use the old fashioned cat-5 Ethernet cable and plug it directly it. So, at the stadiums that didn’t work, I used my wife’s old Android smartphone. Last year, I used her Galaxy Tab and my laptop. This year, I will continue to bring my laptop but I now have my own smartphone. The only little issue I am gonna have is I gotta make sure my phone is fully charged when I leave work. Luckily, I got a USB charger at work and in my car so that should be fairly easy.
I have been extremely fortunate that I have seen several GREAT running backs strut there stuff for the Rockets…Kyle Fox, Chauncey Campbell, Quaylon Jones, and most recently Jarveon Williams (you may see Jarveon in orange and blue as a member of the UTSA Football team).
I never saw Jerrod Douglas or Chris Pryor lace em up and run all over the field and anybody who got in their way. Just so you know, Jerrod and Chris paved the road for all the other running backs.
The running back this year is likely gonna be Brandon Sanders who had 88 rushes for 578 yards and 6 touchdowns last season. We will also see quarterback, Rayjohn Austin-Ramsey, carry the ball. Last season, Rayjohn had 92 carries for 566 yards and 12 touchdowns. I am expecting both players to have over 1,000 yards rushing.
I am really hoping Rayjohn worked on his passing game during the off-season. Last season, he had some GREAT games and some NOT SO GREAT games passing the ball. When you look at his overall passing stats, 106 completions in 195 attempts for 1,517 yards with 6 touchdowns and 9 interceptions, one would probably say, dang, that is really good for a Judson quarterback. I would agree if the head coach was Jim Rackley or D W Rutledge, but the head coach is Mark Smith (he coached Johnny Manziel at Kerrville Tivy High School) so those numbers are not quite up to par. I am expecting Rayjohn to make better decisions (this would mean less interceptions and more touchdowns).
On the Judson defense, I am really looking forward to seeing Malik Pryor (he is related to former running back Chris Pryor) and Kevion Ramsey. Kevion used to hang out with us in the press-box and now I am writing about him…pretty cool.
I know the running game is effective and extremely efficient and the defense is always solid and dude, if Rayjohn can be an effective passer, Judson could be a dark-horse in the 2013 Playoffs!
I am not going to predict how many wins Judson will have this year, but I am very confident that when the regular season ends, Judson will have 37 consecutive years of winning seasons and that will also put them on top of that list (they are currently tied with Plano High School 1960-1995)!!
GO ROCKETS GO. SEE YA IN WEEK 0 AT LAKE TRAVIS.