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 4th 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, 1st half Eleven-Man, 2nd 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 61st birthday on Friday October 5th. 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