WEEK FIVE ROLLING RIGHT A LONG

WEEK FIVE WE ARE MOVING RIGHT A LONG

Quickly, looking back to WEEK FOUR, two things immediately jump out at me.

First is the accomplishment of Lance Morris of Ira. To the best of my knowledge, Lance on Friday night became just the second player from the Six-Man ranks to rush for more than 10000 yards in their career. More later in this blog.

Second thing that jumped out at me from WEEK FOUR was the private school Dallas The Covenant taking down yet another highly ranked public school.

RESULTS OF WEEK FOUR GAMES OF INTEREST

Valley at Dallas The Covenant

An extremely talented Valley team that I had ranked #3 in D1 made their way to Dallas on Saturday to take on DALLAS THE COVENANT. If you remember, the Knights of Covenant knocked off then ranked #1 Throckmorton on the Greyhounds home turf a couple of weeks ago raising eyebrows across the state in both the ranks of private schools and public schools. Weather conditions did not do this game justice as it was played in the rain. Thankfully Covenant as a great artificial turf field or it could have been worse. In the end, Covenant’s #2, Colby Boozer proved to be the difference maker as he returned the opening kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown. With just 2 seconds left in the first half, Colby intercepted a pass returning it 77 yards for a touchdown. The final score was a 12 point victory for Covenant 36 to 24.

Crowell at Petersburg

Petersburg remained undefeated beating Crowell in a hard fought game by the score of 33-26. Crowell slips to 3-2. I was anxious to see how Crowell would respond from their lop-sided loss to Valley the week before. There is still some fight in the Wildcats.

Throckmorton at Motley County

This game featured D1 Throckmorton who I had ranked #4 going into the game against #3 D2 Motley County. The game was pretty tightearly. Being tied 6 to 6 then 12 to 12.  Throckmorton eventually won 58-12.

Strawn at Gordon

This yearly matchup is generally regarded as the best rivalry game in Six-Man. It really doesn’t matter what the team’s record are going into this game because they are going to get after each other like it is the state championship. Gordon managed to win this game 36 to 34 though the wild final play could have easily changed the outcome. Leading by 2 facing 4^th down, the snap went over the head of the Gordon played into the end zone. A Gordon player picked up the ball and got outside to the 5 yard line and time expired. It could have been a safety most certainly forcing OT or Strawn could have recovered for the winning touchdown. What it was was a victory for Gordon in yet another classic game between these two fine programs.

Grandfalls at Loop

This game intrigued me because Grandfalls was undefeated and Loop has played some good ball but I just was not sure how good they really might me. Grandfalls knows how to take out the intrigue of this game as they won 50-0.

STATS

Mostly going back to Friday night’s performance of Ira’s Lance Morris against Klondike, I begin dwelling once again about stats. Lance had 338 yards rushing, scored 7 touchdowns and for good measure threw three passes completing all three for an additional 100 yards.

Stat keeping is a must in my opinion. I know not everyone feels that way. To those that put little or no emphasis on stat keeping, we simply will agree to disagree on this subject. Those who are stat keepers let me say thanks because I am sure you don’t hear that often enough. It is not easy. I often times try to keep stats and I will be perfectly honest with you, I stink at stat keeping. For years, stats were kept with paper and pen or pencil. Lots of folks still do it that way. I am good with that. As in everything we do technology has brought new ways of keeping stats.

I can and do make good notes. That is a good thing because my memory is about as long as my hair and I shave my head every day. During the 2011 season I found my way to Gail to watch the Borden County Coyotes take on the Meadow Broncos. So I was sitting in the press box, thanks to the super nice administration at Borden County. The final score was Borden County 76 Meadow 50. It was a good but typical Six-Man contest. I have a pencil and about a ream of paper scattered in front of me and I am furiously working up a sweat on a cool night trying my best to keep up with the action. I am trying to listen to the PA to see if I can hear him tell me what I think I just saw. I am counting on my fingers and toes and scribbling notes and trying to determine who just scored the touchdown. Then all of the sudden, I hear this sweet lady’s voice saying to the public address announcer “that was a 6 play 65 yard drive 42 rushing 23 passing”.  I look up in disbelieve from my mess of paper work and she is just sitting there with this rectangular object in front of her. What are you doing I asked. Who me she says. I am keeping stats. How did you come up with that instantaneous info you just gave the announcer? I just enter the info into this iPad and it does the rest. I was finished stat taking for the night. There was a little more to it. She says you need an app.  I went back home to Abilene that night. I got in bed but I could not go to sleep.

All I could do was lay awake and think about how effortlessly it appeared that Sue Jane Mayes was keeping stats and how insane I was trying to do the same thing with paper and pencil. BTW, She has since retired from keeping stats. She managed to do that job for ONLY 35 YEARS!!! There will be an extra star in her crown!!!

I knew what I had to do. I got up the next morning and was standing at the door when Best Buy opened for business. I bought me an iPad. I took it home and I downloaded the Digital Scout app. I tried to load up a practice game. I soon found out I did not know sic’em from come here about electronic stat keeping apps. I paid lots of money for that app and never once used it that season. I spoke with Josh Applebaum at Digital Scout and others all to no avail. YOU CAN NOT TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS. Paper or electronically, it is hard work. PERIOD.

 

BACK TO LANCE MORRIS.

What a great kid who happens to be a great athlete. When the season opened in 2009, I was in Hico for the Super Six-Man Saturday extravaganza as usual. I have only missed one out of nine, I was down on the field shaking hands with coaches and players before the game between Ira and Gordon. I was talking with Ira’s long time coach Toby Goodwin and his then assistant coach Bubba Edwards. Bubba was nodding his head and pointing to a kid and Toby says “Don, keep your eye on that young man. He is going to be a special player”. That player was then freshman Lance Morris. Ira destroyed Gordon that day 61 to 0. Lance scored a touchdown the first time he touched the ball. Something he has done an additional 150 times including the seven touchdowns he had last Friday night against Klondike. He knows he could not put up the incredible numbers he has by himself and is quick to give thanks to all his teammates.

Some have argued for a while now that he might be the best of all time. I don’t know. There have sure been some great ones during the years. Andy Rivera from Ira was a great one. Valley has had some great backs through the years. Two that come to mind are Jacob Hancock and Alex Espinoza. Trey Richey of Jayton, Dewayne Miles of Amherst, Manuel Beltran of Cherokee, Damien Jackson of Trinidad are other greats from years gone by. There are others.

From the stand point of pure numbers, Petey Saliaz who played at Mullin from 1992 -95 is generally regarded as the Career Rushing Leader with a total of 10468 yards. Lance Morris’s official numbers stand at 10224 career rushing yards. By my math Lance Morris is 244 yards away from tying the Petey Saliaz mark that has stood for the last 17 years.

The break down on the career of Lance is as follows:

Freshman 159 carries 2551 yards 26 TDs
Sophomore 240 carries 3267 yards 56 TDs
Junior 225 carries 3263 yards 53 TDs
Current 88 carries 1143 yards 16 TDs

Totals 712 carries 10224 yards 151 TDs.

Most of the football world says you can’t compare stats between Eleven-Man football and Six-Man football and I agree with that. Just as a point of reference, the great Sugarland Express, Ken Hall who played Eleven-Man Class B Football 1950-53 gained 11232 yards for the Texas Career Rushing Record.  Lance would still need 1008 yards to tie what has long been thought to be an unbreakable record set by Kenneth Hall.

 

GO LANCE GO

The Ira Bulldogs travel to Paducah to take on the Dragons on Friday night October 5th at 7:30 PM.
Thank you to Leman Saunders and Coach Toby Goodwin for working to establish these official numbers on Petey and Lance.

 

 

WEEK FIVE GAMES OF INTEREST

Throckmorton at Windhorst? -----Yep, 1^st  half Eleven-Man, 2^nd half Six-Man Starts at 7:00 PM

Ira at Paducah -----Will Lance set the Six-Man Career mark?

Borden County at Water Valley -----Great match up.

Groom at Miami ------Undefeated Groom against once defeated Miami

Robert Lee at Garden City ------ Still trying to figure out both teams

 

WEEK FIVE RANKINGS

D1

1.    IRA BULLDOGS

2.    Water Valley

3.    Throckmorton

4.    Valley

5.    Petersburg

6.    Rankin

7.    Abbott

8.    Oakwood

9.    Borden County

10.  Crowell

D2

1.    RICHLAND SPRINGS COYOTES

2.    Milford

3.    Motley County

4.    Grandfalls

5.    Follett

6.    Robert Lee

7.    Aspermont

8.    Strawn

9.    Jonesboro

10.  Groom

 

 

POOR ME

This season is moving right along. Time flys when you are having fun. WEEK FIVE is a special week for me as I will be celebrating my 61^st birthday on Friday October 5^th. As I look all around me I begin to realize that while I am not in totally bad health, I certainly am not in good health. The biggest problem I have is a result of being diabetic. I have precious little feeling in my feet. I also have a thing going on with my left leg (drop foot). I fall often. So far I have not broken anything. I guess that is the good news.

People all over the Six-Man community have always been very nice to me and often times they allow me to sit in their press box which is my preference.  Money is tight everywhere now days. Where I go to watch Six-Man games, they should charge an extra dollar or two to everyone that watches me try to negotiate the steps in the stands whether I am going up or down. I add lots of excitement to the Six-Man atmosphere. A few people have helped steady me at times and I appreciate it.

I have been a lifelong football fan. I have no idea how many games I have watched over the years. Ten years ago I dedicated myself to watching Six-Man. By that I mean if I am going to a game, it will be a Six-Man game. Since making that decision including the 14 games I have seen this season, I have been to 209 games. My endurance is fading though.  I am not sure how much longer I will be a road warrior like I have been for years. I have many memories. Speaking of memories, my memory has begun to fade on me as well and more and more I catch myself writing things I have written before or telling stories I have told before. That is life I guess. Forgiveness is accepted if granted. Thank you.

Sorry about the length, this has been more of a novel than a blog. I promise to try to do better.

Don Hardin
Abilene