(UPDATED WHENEVER I FEEL LIKE IT - BUT USUALLY ON TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS) 
November
30, 2004 "The staff must truly stick
together during tough times; no offense should be viewed
more seriously than disloyalty." Bill Walsh
2004 CLINIC PHOTOS :ATLANTA CHICAGO TWIN CITIES DURHAM PHILADELPHIA PROVIDENCE DETROIT DENVER NORTHERN CAL Click Here ----------->> 
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A LIST OF SOME TOP DOUBLE-WING HS TEAMS
*********** There is an old Pennsylvania Dutch saying, "I had no shoes, and I complained - until I met a man with no feet." It is more simply translated into "quitcher bitchin'."
Next time your kids start bitching about something, forget the Pennsylvania Dutch sayings and go straight to Kyle Maynard.
When they complain about the heat (or the cold), or how dry it is (or how wet), or about having to practice, or having to play a position they don't want to play - tell them about Kyle Maynard, a freshman member of the University of Georgia's wrestling team.
Kyle Maynard was born without fully-formed arms or legs; he has no hands. Yet he is a college varsity wrestler.
Tell them that when Kyle Maynard first went out for wrestling in high school he lost his first 35 matches in a row. But he never quit. And he went on as a senior to finish 12th in the 103-pound class at the National High School Wrestling Championships.
Ask your kids if they really think they have it all that hard. Remind them that they're pretty fortunate: they're living in the United States of America, they're young and healthy, and they're able to play the great game of football. Remind them of what Kyle Maynard is able to do, and do without complaining or feeling sorry for himself.
Kyle Maynard doesn't even think he's anything special. "I really feel like I'm average," he told USA Today.
*********** Hi Hugh, Hope things are going well. Your team's turnaround in the past couple of years is remarkable, but not surprising. Good coaching, good kids and a system that allows kids to be successful gives all programs an opportunity to win games.
Well, the Atascadero Raiders defended their Super Bowl crown with a 24-15 win over previously undefeated Raging Eagle team. We started in the same fashion as last year, a lost fumble leading to a TD. We pulled our socks up and went to work with a 8 play, 65yrd. drive and closed the gap to 8-6. We didn't have much of an answer for their running game the first half as we use our minimum play players mostly on the "D" line and hope we bend and not break. We scored again on the next possession and take the lead 12-8 only to go into half down 15-12. We got out of our 5-3 and put our best eleven on the field in a 6-2 which really made it difficult foe them to amount a drive the entire second half. We got the
ball back and went 75 yards in 15 plays to take the lead for good. You started feeling the momentum change as our lineman on both sides of the ball were not going to be denied. There wasn't anything pretty on this day, just shoving the ball up their tail in DW fashion. We mounted another long drive in the forth quarter and put it away running what we started the season with at the end, straight Tight-Rip-88 Superpower. They knew it was coming and you could see it their eyes that we were in total control.
All in all, 22-0 over the last two years. It has been a great run. I continue to hear how we are "stacked" even though we had 2 fifth graders,6 sixth graders and nine players who have never played football before playing in a division dominated by 7th and 8th graders.
I have been so fortunate to have good people around me, a great system and kids and families that wanted to work hard, play hard and pray hard.
I couldn't thank you enough for your tutelage, inspiration and friendship. You have made the difference in our success and I am grateful.
This past weekend I had the chance to coach an All-Star game(your favorite), Atascadero vs Paso Robles. Let's just say we don't care for each other. I believe the rivalry between the high schools goes back a hundred games or so. Because of the playoffs we only had three practices, Mon.,Tues. and Wed. with the game this past Sat. Paso had three weeks to prepare and they let us know they had an answer for our DW. Wrong thing to say to a DW coach. I was able to select 14 of the 26 All-Stars. (Do you think it was OK to take my entire offense? Oh Well!)
I'm sure next year they will have another "answer" for us - Atascadero 33, Paso Robles 6. A good old fashioned butt- kickin' in the mud!
My best to you and your family. Michael Norlock, Atascadero Raiders, Atascadero, California
*********** Remember how Marty Schottenheimer was shoved overboard by Redskins' owner Dan Snyder, so that the young genius could replace him with fellow genius Steve Spurrier?
It didn't take long for Spurrier to decide that he while he liked pro football's money, he didn't like pro football - or, cynics might say, he found out that he wasn't as smart as he thought he was - so he soon took some of Snyder's money (a lot, actually) and bolted. Anybody notice what genius Spurrier did to genius Snyder's Redksins in return for all that money?
Snyder then covered his rear by enticing Super Bowl-winning coach Joe Gibbs out of retirement. (NFL retirement, that is. He was plenty busy on the NASCAR circuit.) Wow, did Snyder ever cover his rear - Washingtonians got excited about the Redskins again.
In the meantime, Marty Schottenheimer found himself another job, coaching a football team in San Diego - where his Chargers are now 8-3, on top of the AFC West.
Back in Washington, Gibbs hasn't done the miraculous and turned the no-talent Redskins into Super Bowl contenders overnight, so the word is out that he's lost it - can't coach any more. Over the hill. The game's passed him by. Rumors are circulating that this year, his first, will also be his last. How much you wanna bet those rumors are being planted by someone in Dan Snyder's entourage?
Hey - anybody remember Chuck Noll? He won four Super Bowls coaching the Steelers. FOUR.
HIs first year at Pittsburgh, the Steelers were 1-13. After three seasons there, his record was only 12-30-0. He didn't have a winning season until his fourth year.
But of course, Chuck Noll was working for the Rooneys. Real owners.
*********** Coach how you doing? This is Greg Gibson from Orange H.S. in CA. Well we had a heart breaking loss in the play-offs 29-22 in overtime. We ended up 8-3 and second place in league. That's 27-8 over the last three years. Not bad for a program that was 1-29 before I took it over and a 10 year play-off drought. How do you deal with people that hate the DW? I mean we have been really successful over the last 3 years and nowI am starting to hear it, if we openedit up more we'd win more or go farther in the play-offs. Let's see some other great comments i've been getting is the offense is fine against lesser teams and lesser coaches but against talent it gets shut down more. I feel like punching someone especially when they say stuff like that after a game. I mean this year we had 3 returning starters and our fastest guy ran a 4.85 forty. Everyone we play is faster and bigger than us. We just lost to a team that had a coach from the University of Texas out at the game recruiting 2 of their players. We scored 22 points, controlled the ball for most of the game (if we didn't, they would have scored a lot of points, they were big and fast) I got people saying open it up, and our offense lost the game. I get so tired of hearing that - we are 70% Hispanic, not very big or fast, the kids have heart but we don't have the athletes most other schools have, but now that we are winning somehow magically it's because they are now as good as any other school we play and we'd win em all if it wasn't for our offense. I really feel there is a hatred out there for the DW. I wonder why? The kids love the offense. Sure the QB would like to pass more, but he's a competitor and I like that in a kid. We win, but because we are not CIF champions it's because of the offense. Coach do you know or can explain to me why there is such a real hatred for this offense? I mean it works if done right. I mean I saw the Lions score 9 points against the Colts today, so I guess the Lions have a crappy scheme and need to change it huh? It frustrates me when people continue to bash the offense when it gets results. Anyways thanks for listening. Greg Gibson, Orange H.S., Orange, California
I think the biggest factor is a natural prejudice against things anything that doesn't look the way we think it's SUPPOSED to look.
I'll confess - I don't like black sox on football players, and I don't care for the bermuda-shorts (pants that don't come below the knees) look, either. I suppose if I really analyze myself, it might just be because I have this picture in my mind of what I think a football player is supposed to look like.
Forty or fifty years ago, no one would have batted an eye at the Double-Wing. In fact, it would have been considered rather forward-thinking.
But nowadays, thanks to their indoctrination by the NFL and video games, people have preconceived ideas of what football is supposed to look like... and we don't look anything like it.
There is no use in fighting it. We're not likely to win any fight against a built-in prejudice. Pepsi and Heinz, two marketing giants, couldn;t do it - Pepsi couldn't sell clear cola and Heinz gave up on green ketchup.
Getting grief - with the success you've been having - is still a lot better than getting grief because you're not winning.
*********** Hey Cincinnati - you've got your sports mixed up. This isn't basketball, where you can intimidate people. This is football, where you can't get away with that crap. Dance on somebody's logo on a football field like you did at Louisville Saturday and you're liable to get your ass beat. 70-7 sounds about right.
*********** There is that special type of enabler who will find an excuse for any conduct.
When Pendleton, Oregon, a city of some 16,000 out in the eastern part of the state that's famous for its annual rodeo, the Pendleton Roundup, found itself encountering many of the same teenage crime problems as larger cities, its police chief decided to take action.
Fed up with an increase in shoplifting, marijuana and alcohol use by teens and signs of gang activity, he discovered that on an average day nearly 175 of the high school's 900 kids were off school grounds, and armed with that statistic, he approached the city council with a proposal for a daytime curfew ordinance.
His proposal, which passed the council by a vote of 6-1, bars minors from being out in public during school hours unless they're travelling to or from classes or accompanied by a parent or guardian. Other Oregon cities, such as McMinnville, Ontario and Salem, have passed similar ordinances.
Naturally, the new city ordinance is unpopular with a lot of teenagers. "This is so dumb," complained a high school girl. A doofus 16-year old whined, "They don't understand. We are rebellious teenagers."
(Dude - like, we know that.)
Connie Wright, the lone member of the city council who voted against the ordinance says there is a better approach to keeping the kids in school. She said - I am not making this up - that if kids are skipping class, the real reason could be boring classes and poor teaching.
That's democracy for you - even somebody like that can get elected to something.
*********** Did you see the muddy mess that the Patriots and Ravens had to play in? So much for the bright idea of insisting on real turf - despite all the care and grooming, even the best grass field, given enough rain, can be churned into brown soup by 22 very large men wearing cleated shoes, especially when they're all concentrated in one relatively small area - in this case, the narrow track between the hash marks, from goal line to goal line.
Call it another example of the law of unintended consequences - when the NFL tinkerers brought the hash marks closer to each other as part of their plan to juice up offenses, I'm sure it never occured to them that having every snap take place within one little strip would create a quagmire.
*********** Longtime sportscaster Don Criqui, doing Sunday's Seahawks-Bill game, mentioned that CBS would be televising the Army-Navy game this week and said, "I've never seen a better coach than Bobby Ross."
*********** After watching the first quarter of the New Hampshire-Georgia Southern game, the UNH win came as a total shock. The way Georgia Southern started out stuffing the option down their throat, I thought it was going to be a blowout. But then New Hampshire ramped it up - on both sides of the ball - and shut down the vaunted Georgia Southern flex bone. And Georgia Southern made a few contributions to their own downfall, with wayward pitches and careless ball handling. (In fairness, many of the Georgia Southern problems were caused by an incredibly aggressive New Hampshire defense - I mean, they didn't just take away the fullback - they drilled those guys.)
The lesson for all those guys who want to run that tricky option stuff at the high school level - not even Georgia Southern, with kids hand-picked to run it - can do so without making some big mistakes occasionally, and the option phase of the offense is so practice-intensive that it simply doesn't allow enough time for much of a passing attack.
*********** The announcers at the New Hampshire-Georgia Southern game referred a couple of times to the UNH quarterback's occasional miscues as "freshman miscues." Come on, guys - it's the kid's 12th college game. He's scarcely a freshman any more.
*********** It was the 30th anniversary of A.D.'s big game - the day that Anthony Davis led USC back from a 24-0 deficit against Notre Dame to shellack the #1-ranked Irish, 55-24 - and they interviewed him down on the sideline of Saturday's USC-Notre Dame game. Now, A.D. has put on a little weight since 1974. Okay - a lot of weight. I was recording the UNH-Georgia Southern game so I couldn't go back and catch what was said, but I swear I heard one of the guys in the booth say something about A.D. needing a treadmill. Ouch.
*********** No, you Easterners, it is not "Ne-VAH-da." If you want to know how we pronounce "Nevada" out here, maybe it will help if I tell you that one of Nevada coach Chris Ault's goals this year has been establishing what he calls "Nevada-tude."
*********** The hero of Syracuse's stunning defeat of Boston College - sending the wayward Eagles off to the ACC (and out of the BCS) with a good spanking - was a Boston kid, a former Double-Winger at that. His name is Diamond Ferri, from Everett, Massachusetts. A defensive back forced into two-way duty as a running back when Syracuse's top two tailbacks got hurt, Ferri rushed for 140 yards and two touchdowns, and on the other side of the ball, at strong safety, made six tackles and returned an interception for a touchdown.
He played at Everett High School, a Boston-area powerhouse. It seems like just yesterday that I was talking with Everett's coach, John DiBiaso, and he was telling me that he had a Division-I running back on his team. When he told me the kid's name, it stuck. Believe me, you don't forget a name like Diamond Ferri.
*********** I am offended to learn that sixth-year senior Jason White is considered to be the leading candidate for this year's Heisman Trophy. I questioned his worthiness last year, after the Sooners were badly outplayed by Kansas State and LSU in the season's most important games, but I wonder how many people would have voted for him last year if they knew he was planning to petition for a sixth year - something he didn't announce until after he'd won the Heisman.
*********** One of the beauties of living on the West Coast is that the Hawaii games don't come on too late to watch. The broadcast crew of Saturday's Hawaii-Northwestern game was a hoot - they were local guys, as "hang-loose" as you could possibly get, and they spoke in the sing-song Islands accent.
*********** Kentucky's Lonnell Dewalt blocked two Tennessee place kicks (one a PAT, one a FG) - by jumping straight up! Does Tubby Smith know about this guy?
*********** Imagine - Nebraska having its first losing season since 1961! Nebraska, for God's sake. I wouldn't have thought it possible to screw up Nebraska football, if I hadn't witnessed first-hand the way the Portland Trail Blazers frittered away more than 30 years of community good will.
Nebraska people have got to be pissed, and they have every right to be. They were sold a bridge by their slick, fast-talking AD, who said the reason why Frank Solich was let go was that it was necessary if Nebraska was going to be competitive with the Oklahomas and Texases.
So the AD brought in Bill Callahan, who did one of the worst jobs of coaching anywhere. Competitive with the Oklahomas and Texases? What's wrong with starting with the Southern Mississippis, Texas Techs (70-10!), Kansas States, Iowa States and Colorados? They all beat the Cornhuskers this year.
Nebraska was a classic case of a new coach coming in and trying to push square pegs into round holes. (But that is the pro way, isn't it ? - "we're going to play our offense, and if it doesn't work, we can always blame it on the talent we inherited from the previous staff.")
Forget making best use of the talent you find on hand when you arrive, running something - even something different from what you'd planned - that gives your kids a chance to win until you can get your own players on board. Nope, that makes too much sense. Also requires more effort.
It makes you realize what a genius Bear Bryant was, when he decided - after spring practice - to junk his pro passing game and get over to Texas and learn how to run the Wishbone. HE knew enough to say "screw our system - we're going to do what we have to do to win football games, and if that means junking our entire system, that's what we're going to do."
*********** Terry Bowden observed that the problem with Nebraska the last few years was not the much-discredited offense itself, but the Huskers' failure to recruit I-backs: "If they'd had NFL-calibre tailbacks, they'd still be in the same offense."
*********** Arizona-Arizona State was great. Texas didn't play well enough to vault over Utah. Hell, Utah beat A & M worse than Texas did. Yes, it was at the start of the season, but those games are supposed to count, too. Yes, Texas A & M improved after that loss to Utah, but who's to say that Utah didn't get better as the season went on, too?
(Okay, okay. To be fair - is there anybody in America that really believes that Utah or Boise State could have made it through Texas' schedule and lost only to Oklahoma?)
*********** I can't believe the BCS made no adjustment for the conference-shifting that went on, still leaving the Big East with a spot. Still sucking up to Eastern sportswriters, I assume.
The real shame of the whole deal is that Utah is finally going to get a shot at a BCS bowl, and they'll likely wind up playing Pitt or Syracuse.
*********** The real winners this bowl season - besides the Mountain West and possibly the WAC because of BCS participation - are going to be Navy and all the sub-major conferences with bowl-eligible teams. The Pac-10 is an example - thanks to its dominance this year by a mere handful of decent teams, it is left without enough bowl-eligible teams to fill the slots being held for it. Ditto the Big Ten.
And then came the Clemson-South Carolina brawl, and the decisions by administrators at both schools not to trust their players to go out of town and behave themselves.
As a result, one-time-only bowl bids will go out to teams from conferences such as the MAC, which have plenty of bowl eligible teams but none of them, unfortunately, with the followings of, say, a Michigan State or an Oregon, both bowl-ineligible. And businesses in bowl cities - not mention the bowls themselves - stand to lose big: from a purely business standpoint, a 5-6 Oregon or Michgan State are far preferable to an 8-3 Bowling Green, not to mention a 6-5 Akron.
One nice thing about this all is that Navy, an independent normally boxed out of bowl games, will have a shot at a bowl. Navy is attractive to bowl games because Navy will draw fans and Navy, with a national following, will be good for TV ratings, too.
*********** The Mountain West's BCS money could go a ways towards making them into a top-tier conference. Too bad it will just pay for a bunch of field hockey and women's soccer. And "Academic Resource Centers." Christopher Anderson, Palo Alto, California (Good points, although I do think that some of them will pour the money into the arms race. They had better put the money into capital improvements, because it is the money is going to be a one-shot thing, and when it's gone, it's gone. Urban Meyer has already started lobbying for more money for assistants, but after the BCS mney is gone, Utah would be left with having to make the payments itself, on the order of Clinton's stunt of putting "100,000 more cops on the street" (for one year only, and then sticking municipalities with the bill if they want to keep them). And from a marketing standpoint, they're still stuck with their two biggest marketing problems - distance from both coasts, and population. HW)
*********** Dad, I was reading a story in the London Times about Arsenal (soccer) star Dennis Bergkamp. He was brought up in the famous Ajax (pronounced "EYE-ax" by the way) Amsterdam youth system which had two principles which I thought were quite similar to some of your Double Wing philosophies...
1 &endash; Young players should learn the game from A to Z and maximize their potential by trying every outfield (non-goalie) position before settling in the one that suits them best. (You tell kids not to settle on one position and be ready to jump in and play a couple of different spots)
2 &endash; Every age group at the club, from the Under-9's upwards should play in the same style and formation as the first team, so that individuals can slot in seamlessly as they move up the pyramid. (Youth teams, freshman and JV teams should play same system as varsity)
Two very different sports, two very similar thought patterns...
Love, Ed - Melbourne, Australia
This sort of approach makes a lot of sense, but in most sports, most American kids, independent and individialistic (ESPN-oriented) as they are, would not buy in.
American kids all want to start out playing the piano before they learn the scales.
The pervasiveness of bureaucracy in every aspect of their lives makes Eurpeans more receptive to what many Americans would object to as "excessive regimentation" in their sports teaching.
We have plenty of evidence of how this works in basketball and hockey. The Europeans' more systematic approach to teaching the fundamentals is undoubtedly why we are seeing (and will continue to see) more and more Europeans in the NBA. (The NHL, too, once they get back to playing.)
There have been successful American organizations have followed the same approach - remember "The Dodger Way", the guidebook that covered everything the Dodgers' organization wanted players to know, and made it standardized, top to bottom, throughout the system?
In the military, it is the Marines' approach - they all train the same way, and although they may wind up in vastly different jobs, at the base, "Every man is a rifleman."
In business, a much-derided (but highly-successful) uniformity helped build IBM into one of the world's great companies.
*********** Coach, Happy Thanksgiving. If you had not heard, Bill Mignault's Ledyard Colonels beat the Fitch Falcons on Thanksgiving morning by 21-7, securing a Class M playoff spot. Fitch finished the season 7-3. I was able to get to one game in between the 7 UConn home games we had this season. And speaking of UConn (or Upon as your Nov. 26 "News You Can Use" page calls them), the east coast Huskies are headed to a post-season bowl game in just their third year of Division 1-A football. Thursday's win over Rutgers (or Reuters) gave them a 7-4 record, 3-3 in the Big (L)East. Projections seem to indicate they will be playing in the Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte on December 30. Against North Carolina. Against my wife's alma mater. Now, she and I have had UConn season tickets (not inexpensive seats, I might add, in the good chairbacks on the 45-yard line) for the past two years. She has been a good sport and has cheered for the Huskies almost as heartily as I have (except when we play Army). We went to Chapel Hill this year for the UNC-NC State game and I cheered my lungs out for the Heels. But now, it looks like we will be a…House Divided. Since we always spend Christmas in NC anyhow, we will attend the game, but will now be on opposite sides (figuratively if not literally).
I really enjoyed reading about your trip to West Point and seeing the photos. It really is a special place, and I'm glad UConn and Army will continue to meet in football for at least another year. Alan Goodwin, Warwick, Rhode Island
************ Cal is good, and they deserve to be ranked #4, but I don't hear anybody mentioning that they still have to play Southern Miss - in Hattiesburg. It's not a walkover.
*********** I realize that the yellow "yards to gain" line (the first-down line) costs money, but I wish that ABC hadn't tried to pinch pennies by doing without it during the Texas-Texas A & M game.
*********** I can't remember when I've seen two more exciting, athletic quarterbacks in the same game than Texas' Vince Young and Texas A & M's Reggie McNeal.
*********** What was that "one-point safety" following Texas' botched PAT all about?
*********** Has Texas A & M beaten Texas since they did away with the bonfire?
*********** Arizona-Arizona State may be the least-appreciated nationally of all great football rivalries. And by the way his Wildcats went after ASU, Arizona's Mike Stoops served motice on the rest of the Pac-10 that they're not going to be able to count on any more automatic wins.
*********** Finally, I saw it backfire - that stupid stunt that QB's pull down on the goal-line, when they reach across the pile, hoping to "break the plane" and score a touchdown. Down on the Texas A & M two-yard-line with mere seconds left in the half, Texas' Vince Young did just that - and the ball was knocked loose. And the Aggies returned it 98 yards the other way for a touchdown.
A couple of thoughts...
(1) They need to change the rules - requiring the ball to be touched down (or at least requiring that some part of the scorer's body must touch down inside the end zone) would do away with an awful lot of the bogus "fly-through" touchdowns we're seeing more and more of;
(2) There was Cedric Benson, who I'd probably rather give the ball to from two yards out than anybody in college football, and Teaxas was trying to sneak it in.
*********** Granted, a running team that falls way behind and can't catch up is no fun to watch. (Or coach.) But how painful is it to watch a passing team that can't pass and can't run? Nebraska, a team that spreads it out but can't run or pass, either, is a great example to show to all those fools who wonder why you run the ball. (Also a great example of what happens when you try putting square pegs into round holes - when you insist on running an offense that you don't have the personnel to run.) What a waste of all those big, strong offensive linemen. Oh, for the good old days of Frank Solich.
*********** Midwest Junior Football tournament of champions Classic in St. Louis Missouri.
The Bloomingdale Bears took their spotless 13-0 record and their Illinois State BGYFL championship traveling football team on the road for the 3 straight game Thanksgiving holiday tournament in St. Louis.
After winning our first State Championship in the BGYFL 2 weeks ago we wanted to see how we fared against other youth football teams in the country. There were teams from California, Arkansas, Indiana, Colorado, Oklahoma just to name a few.
We started the quest for another championship by playing the Missouri State champion The City Rec Rams from St. Louis.
The Rams haven't lost more than 4 games the last 3 years and have won this championship the last 3 years. Well, the Rams were a very tough inner city team and most of our kids haven't been exposed to a lot of inner city kids.
As coaches we were a little concerned about how our kids would respond to playing these boys since we haven't faced any kids from the inner city before and wondered if they would be intimidated.
Well we would find out right from the start
Needless to say we were ready to play and I think since the Rams had won this tournament before and they figured that we had all these rich suburban kids who would be scared to death with all the rap music playing and chanting from the Rams team and fans before the game and also playing in what my 2 boys called the "Hood" man - were they wrong.
I overheard one of the fans in the stands say "These little white boys have never seen this type of football and they're getting ready to take a serious ass whipping"
Now needless to say we do have some brothers on the team so we are not all white but you could see what we were dealing with in St. Louis.
We came out from the opening kickoff and smashed them 28-0! They didn't even get a first down the whole game! We smashed them with 88 SP all day long with A back Nick Campanella and when they stacked the box QB Erick King threw 3 td's on Red Red/Blue Blue.
Their coach came up to us after the game and told us he had never been shut out before and that in all his years of coaching this team he had never been beat by so many white suburban kids.
We had to laugh at that one coach!
So I guess we dispelled that notion that the white kids from the suburbs can't play huh?
Kind of like that notion that White guys can't jump?
Never judge a team by the way they look or where they're from..
Bloomingdale Bears can play, baby!!!!
The next game put us up against another inner city team called the Windy City Dolphins from Southside Chicago which also used the DW but to no success at all. The Dolphins got out of the DW by the end of the 1st quarter.
Since they knew the DW they thought they had a chance against us.
Boy were they wrong.
We crushed them 28-0 also with a steady dose of Power Plays/Counters and precision passing. When we would come to the line of scrimmage they would call out our cadence which caused our linemen to jump offside a few times.
Since they knew "Go- Readddddy-Hut" they kept on yelling it and the referees let them. Needless to say they sealed their own fate and got the crap beat out of them on both sides of the ball even with the poor sportsmanship.
Our super backfield of A back Nick Campanella, C back Clay Cooper, B back Chris Jasenski and QB Erick King showed why they were so dominant this year in the BGYFL with all 4 scoring td's on the ground and King throwing for 2 td's in the air.
The championship put us against the Hessville Vipers from Indiana who finished 3rd in the National Pop Warner championships in Las Vegas last season. The Vipers were a very big and fast team and of all the teams at our age and weight bracket we thought they would give us the most trouble.
We are also big and fast and from the opening kickoff we knew we would destroy this team.
The previous games the Vipers had a chance to watch us play and figured they could beat us because of our so called predictable offense but once again another team had to see this powerhouse team execute this offense like a Ferrari on the Autobahn baby!
We scored 35 by halftime and the game was called because of darkness with us winning 35-0. Had the game been allowed to continue we would have scored 70 easily.
Every coach that we played told us how impressive our team was and that the flawless execution of our offense was a joy to watch. Not only are we Illinois champions we are now champions of the Midwest.
We capped off our remarkable season by playing 3 straight days to clinch the Midwest Junior football classic at the 120lb weight class and finishing a spotless 16-0 for the season!
Next year is our last year playing together on this special team before we are off to our respective High Schools. This is a special group of kids who sweat, bleed, and fight together for 4 months out of the year and come together for one cause and that is to be the very best team we can be and we accomplished our goals.
I'm so proud of these kids and their families and all the coaches that make this machine go. Next year we are looking into getting in some national tournaments in Texas, Las Vegas, Tennessee or Florida.
If you have any ideas or any of our DW coaches know of any good tournaments to get into please let me know and we will be there. Well, coach it's off to basketball season now and I can't wait till next season.
The DW is strong and alive down here in Bloomingdale Illinois. Talk to you soon. Stacey King Bloomingdale Bears, Bloomingdale, Illinois
*********** If the Coach of the Year award were based on accomplishment in the face of adversity, you could make a strong case for Colorado's Gary Barnett (even if some of the adversity turns out to be self-inflicted.)
***********
Yale got its ass kicked by Harvard down on the field, but
some Yale students managed to have a few good laughs at the
expense of their stuffed-shirt rivals: they milled around
outside Harvard Stadium before the game and, passing
themselves off as members of the "Harvard Pep Squad,"
crimson tee-shirts and all, and distributed sheets of paper
to fans entering the home stands.
Harvard fans were informed that the sheets of paper, when held up at the appropriate time, would spell "GO HARVARD." How could they have known that when the time came, they would spell, for all Yalies on the opposite side to see, "WE SUCK?"
Not quite as elaborate as the time USC sneaked into the UCLA card section and rigged things so their cards would spell out "WESTWOOD (local term for UCLA) SUCKS" - but pretty good all the same. (Thanks for the tip to John Rothwell, Fort Worth, Texas)
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I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about. |
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HONOR BRAVE MEN - RECOGNIZE OUTSTANDING KIDS SIGN UP YOUR TEAM OR ORGANIZATION FOR 2003 "NO MISSION TOO DIFFICULT - NO SACRIFICE TOO GREAT - DUTY FIRST" inscribed on the wall of the 1st Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois |
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BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD |
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I
have already written quite a bit about Andy. He's a heck of
a football player and just as good a wrestler. He's also our
school's Black Lion. That's Andy, on the left, with Dad
Tracy and Mom Christie (a great coach's wife, I might
add.) after receiving his award.
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Hi Coach, I just wanted to drop you a line on how our season
went . Well as I told you last year my 7th & 8th grades
won the city championship in Chicago public schools and my
5th & 6th went 4 and 2. Well, after running this system
for 3 years both my teams won the city championship this
year, 2004. My 5th & 6th graders went undefeated and my
7th & 8th graders lost their first game of the season
and then never lost again. Thanks to the help of you and
your system we have done something that people in chicago
said me and my coaching staff could not do, that is go back
to back for the championship for the 7th & 8th and also
take my 5th & 6th graders with us. This system really
works. There were teams in this league just practicing
against the double wing just to try to stop us and it did
not happen. So I will see in the next clinic you have down
here because I am still hungry to learn more. THANKS VERY
MUCH, COACH MIKE GLENN, Chicago, Illinois