Monthly Archives: February 2013

Well we haven’t started drivers ed but Mady has been driving for us at different times. She does a good job. She even drove me all the way to Academy the other day. Makes me feel old that she is about to drive but, I guess I am old.

Here is just a little taste of what we are in for in the coming years. That post was started in 2013, I have not posted since then so bare with me and on the next couple post I want to catch up to 2019. Well Mady got her license and drove all of her junior and senior year. We bought her a 2015 Jeep Patriot. Well the story is like this, her and Tres went down to car max, they wanted to do it all their selves. They met with a salesman and found a white Jeep Patriot and thought they got a good deal. They buy the car and drive it home. It is an ok car but I start looking online and I find new cars that are the same price with better wheels. We have the weekend to return the car. Mady goes to golf practice on a Friday the day of graduation and her car wont start when she tries to leave. She calls me so I can try and start it and get back to graduation. It’s hot and I’m on the phone with Brock my mechanic. We get it started and she drives home. So I have to get back to school and barely make it to graduation. The next day I say we are going to get a brand new car. We drive to the dealer and I tell the guy the story and say I want this car new at same price or I’ll just keep the used one. He says ok , lets do it. The car comes up we talk numbers and he says its 5k more. I say ” ok, bye and walk out”. He comes to get us and we go back in and I get the exact car with better tires at same price. Woohoo dad knows best!!! So she has been driving now, for about 4-5 years now. She has the same car and will hopefully drive it until she gets out of college. Not much else on her driving. Like I said I Adm trying to catch up on my blog. But you can see the difference in the two cars LOL!!

Ya’ll stay safe out there!!

I mentioned earlier that Mady was playing Basketball and Golf. She did a great job balancing them that first semester. When basketball seson started in October she quit going to golf except on the weekend. They had basketball tryouts and I knew she had a good shot but was worried about her being slow. She went through off season so I figured that would benefit her. She must have done a good job because she made the “A” team. She wasn’t a starter but came off the bench and did a good job with some good minutes. I was very proud of her all season. She made some good friends and had such a good time. I could see it all over her face when I picked her up from practice or saw her on the sidelines and even on game day after her games. They had to stay for the varsity game and she was always excited about that. Not one time did she complain about having to stay. I think she enjoyed the comaradore with the other girls in the stands.

She has such a nice shot that alot of times she would be the player who is put on the foul line when there is a technical. It is a good arching shot with great form and always has a chance to go in the basket. I think she had one game with a told of 6 or 8 points. She didn’t score alot but she loved being part of a team and hanging out with the other girls. She made some great new friends and I think that is what she missed by not playing volleyball.

She was also one of the top 5 in golf this first semester and that continues into the spring semster. She didn’t play as much golf but she was able to play in 2 tournaments early and did really well. She shot a 100 in the first one and a 96,99 in the second which was a two day one. Then basketball started and she wasn’t able to come back until afterward. But we are so proud of her for what she is doing and how she has started. Being one of the top 5 as a freshman and also playing basketball is very impressive to me. The 100 was in laporte and she competed very hard to break 100 but came up a little short. Then we had a tournament here at Deer Park and she played so well and made a 96,99 in the two day tournament.

I had a great time watching her play basketball. It was the first time I could really sit back and just enjoy what she was doing with no pressure. I don’t know why I was so amped up in junior high but I enjoyed watching her this year the most. I think maybe it was because she was relaxed and enjoyed it so much.

I get more nervous watching golf right now because she is one of the leaders. But that is ok too.

Me and Tres are so very proud of everything she has accomplished so far. It brings me great happiness to see her run up and down the court hustling and dirving the lane and shooting that pretty jumper and to see her tee off and walk with a girl to find the other girls ball and watch the other girl hit twice before they even get to Mady’s ball.  Looking forward to watching her golf the rest of the year and to see what she will accomplish. I am also looking forward to seeing what will happen next year in basketball once she has had a year to improve and grow bigger and stronger.

She is the best Golfer/basketball player I know

Go Mady Go!!

Ya’ll be safe out there!!

After the Super Bowl I think the boys rebounded quicker than us parents and coaches. after playing in the super bowl and after all the tears were dried up we took the boys to Joe’s Crabshack to eat and have a little after the season party. It had been planned during the week win or lose so there was a cake and reservations already set up. So when the smoke cleared after the game we all loaded up and headed to Joe’s. It was a big relief to see the boys enjoying their selves. I was worried they would be down and thinking about the game. But as kids do they had put it behind them and were having a party at the restaurant. They were even holding up two fingers saying “we are number two”. haha!!

They all sat and ate and talked and jumped from table to table together. I loved seeing them relaxing. You could tell there was a big weight off their shoulders from preparing and practicing for so many months. They knew they had done good this year and now it was time to PARTY!!!!

Darryl Sharp even got up and gave a toast to the coaches which I am posting below. It speaks for itself. The boys also danced which I am posting below also. All in all it was a good end to a great year and a tough game.

Good Luck to all the young men on that team in the future.

Tigers forever!!!

Ya’ll be safe out there!!

Every year we celebrate Chinese new year at China garden. We have been going there since we have been married. In fact we had our rehearsal dinner there. The reason is that my father in law found this place 30 plus years ago for lunch. He kept going and before long became friends with the owners. So every year we go down in January on Chinese New Year and eat and watch the Dragon dancers. It is an invitation only dinner and it is served family style. After you eat then you go out in the street and watch the dragon dancers. It is a great time and my kids grew up loving it.

It started with Mady when she was the only grandchild. When the dragon dancers started she got real scared and we had to walk her down the street a bit until she was away from them. Then as she got older she grew out of that. Brad never really seemed to get scared though. As the years went by and more grand kids came along they would all go out in the street and feed the dragon dancers dollar bills.

We always enjoy going down there to eat whether it is for Chinese New Year or just to go into town and eat dinner. It is always great times

Ya’ll be safe out there!!!!!

Brad was in choir all 3 years in junior and then his freshmen year. He seemed to enjoy it and all his buddies were in it in junior high. He didn’t have a lot of solos or anything but they said he had a good voice and Ms. Flenniken was the choir teacher and he loved her. So he enjoyed it. I also found it funny that the way he grew so fast cracked me up. In 6th grade he got a picture taken with Paige Potts and Darcie Culp with Brad standing in the middle. In the picture in 6th grade he was shorter than the two girls. They took the same picture each year and you could tell how tall he became so fast. Now he towers over them both. He enjoyed the time with friends in junior high choir and he even danced in the funny songs and gave good effort.

As much as he enjoyed choir in junior high he hated it in 9th grade. He felt like people just horsed around and when they did the teacher just yelled and screamed at them and didn’t keep it fun. Mr. Dove the head of choir tried to keep him involved but it was too late he had too much of a bad taste in his mouth so he checked it in and quit choir.

Ya’ll be safe out there!!!

I have always been intrigued with living out in the woods and living like that. So I decided to build me two different wood racks. One for my BBQ wood that I would use in my smoker and one for my wood that Tressa would use in the fire pit outside.

I cut some up at the lease and loaded it up in my truck. I then came home and split it so it would be readying to use. I would get some wood from other hunting spots like East land and Centerville as well. It would just lay in the back yard so I built these racks to be able to stack it up. Not a big post just wanted to share my outdoorsmen skills.

Ya’ll be safe out there!!!!!

The holt brothers had an inspector who still owed them a hunt. So Rick and Jesse asked me and Stephen to go on the trip. It turned out to be a great duck and goose trip. We left in the morning and it was a 10 hour drive. It seemed like we drove forever. We finally go there , checked into the lodge, which was a small cabin on the side of the freeway. We put our gear up and headed to a spot to hunt ducks. I had these old waders that were too small and it took me forever to get them pulled on so I was semi miserable laying on the ground. It did not help that we didn’t see many ducks. It was a start and we were meeting the outfitter guy the next day. We got back to camp and had a great dinner and went to bed. The next day we headed out to a goose field. We walked down a long row of high grass where there was a birm. We put the rags and decoys out and then slid back and laid back in the weeds of the high grass. It was still dark and we talked with each other and it was very peaceful to be out in the open country with your best friends talking about life right before the sun came up. We watched the sun come up as our excitement got higher as we could see more. Soon we heard the ducks and geese honking and quacking and flying up above. They soon came up and we could see a bunch of Canadian geese . We shot a bunch of those mainly. We finished that day with a big group of geese. We then went to eat and the guide who went with us looked like a native Indian and Jesse had to sit next to him. We went to a small breakfast restaurant out in the middle of nowhere. We enjoyed a great breakfast and it was really cool spending that time in the morning at a place like that. Later we went back to the cabin and had another great dinner. The next day we went to a pond and sat on the side in the weeds. Laid back and waited for the sun to come up. We had a good hunt and shot some good ducks. Later we drove around into Oklahoma, oh we had to get a weekend Oklahoma hunting license because we were right on the border in the pan handle. So we drove into Oklahoma and went to a few ponds that the guide told us we could hunt at and jumped a few ducks here and there. It was really just a good time to spend time together in the truck having some beers and talking and laughing. The funny thing was I was still wearing my new waders that Jesse gave me after that first hunt. They were comfortable and I loved them. Jesse found it funny that I was driving with waders on and we got a good laugh. The trip was great. We ate good spent a great time in the field talking and laughing. I look back and am glad we had that trip because we have lost Jesse since then and that is a great memory I have with him. But the drive home was llloooooonnnnngggghhhhh!!!

Ya’ll be safe out there!!!!!!!

Brad made the TIFI all-star team his senior year as well. It was a lot of fun. Since we played in the Super Bowl us and the sharks coaches got to coach both teams. They were divided up into a blue team and a red team. We both had 25 players I think and you had to designate who got to play defense and who played offense. We practiced for one week with these kids and then played a game the following saturday. It was a great experience. Since we were a top team we got to have more kids on the team. I think we had 5 or 6. Malcolm, Devin, Brad, Garrett, Dylan, and Jake. The other teams had between 2-4 from each team. It was a great time for Brad he got to meet and practice with good athletes. It was fun for me also. I had never done anything like that so getting to work with all those good athletic kids was fun. We split them up and we put brad on defense. I could see even though he is tall he needs to fill out more and get stronger. There were some big mature boys on that team but I know some of them have matured out and will get no bigger. But they were athletic and listened to coaching and that made it fun for me. I enlisted my buddy Wayne Shultz he has coached TIFI for about 20 years. he does a great job and has coached all-star games before. So I got him to help. He really loved it and thanked me afterward so it was great he got to help.

The day of the game we all warmed up and I could tell the boys were a little nervous. Everything started smooth and the game was a defensive struggle. I had a great time calling defense. I hadn’t called a game since I got out of high school coaching. The kids responded well and I fell right back into my JV thursday night adjustments. It was cool to see kids this age responding and being able to check out of a few things. We shut the other team down and scored a couple. We fumbled and they ended up scoring to tie the game. We went into overtime and had to stop them on the goalline to keep them from scoring. The kids were so excited. Then we went out and were stuck on the goalline as well. I called time out and we overloaded one side and gave the ball to the big kid from Dickinson. he scored and the sidelines went crazy. You would have thought we won the Super Bowl. Brad had made some good friends and all the kids celebrated. It was a great feeling and a great end to his TIFI career. He got a sack during the game. We took pictures and the paper even wrote an article about the game.

I cannot express how proud I am of Brad after the last four years of football. That all-star game really was icing on the cake I hope he takes these memories and builds on them with new relationships with kids from other schools and remembers the time we spent together. He is the best football player I know, and especially the best tight end. Even though I may be biased!!!!!!!!

Ya’ll Be Safe Out There!!

check out the newspaper articles by clicking these links below

TIFI PLayers

TIFI RED WINS

Brad had a tremendous senior year of Tigers. We had put high expectations on the boys from the beginning. I met with the kids at the first of the year and the theme was to make this year special. I wanted the boys to own that and take ownership and to grow together and play for each other. The boys responded awesomely!! We started out very hard on them the first 3 weeks. We knew the kind of talent we had and some of our players came back going into 6th grade with big growth spurts. I also wanted to run practice as close to a high school practice as I could. They were old enough now and I knew they would respond well. Devin Linton was one who came back very physically mature. He had grown about 3 inches and had filled out. We also lost Steve and Nick Mueller. They moved to Clear Lake. We had a player stay down from the past senior team named Nestor Duenez and he would add a great deal to our success. We lost Mueller as a play caller so I got Marc Pinnault to call plays for us. I watered down some of our plays. I wanted to make things more simple and execute better. I also wanted to ride the Lintons and Garrett as much as I could. I also wanted to throw the ball a little more and get it to Brad if I could. We put Malcolm at WR, Devin and RB and ran downhill. We started out strong and we even beat the laporte texans. We had lost to them 3 years in a row. They had even won the Super Bowl once and went deep in the playoffs. Well we played them this year and remember we started playing people both ways so Devin was playing linebacker. He intercepted a pass and ran it back for a touchdown which gave us a 12-8 win. I had to sit in the stands because we had missed another mark on our player sheet. This happened a couple of years before and it is just kinda a dumb joke that if a player isn’t marked as playing then the coach is suspended the next game. Anyhow the kids played great and it really set the tone for the rest of the year. I had Brad playing outside linebacker and I could tell all year he was loving being on the field so much. He ended up rotating with Dylan Heim, he is built like Brad and they are good friends. It gave them both a break every other series. Our defense is what really set us apart this year from other years. We played with a safety which was Malcolm and two linebackers. Things were made simple and we rotated guys on the offensive line more so that helped out best athletes staying on defense. Barbers hill and Alvin both had good strong teams and good athletes. Alvin especially, they had a RB like Devin but even bigger. When they played us we had pounded him so much that he basically quit running hard. Barbers Hill was the same as us, real tough on defense. We just did enough to score against them and held them scoreless as well. The falcons had great talent also and we were able to wear them down for another win.

The boys ended up beating the Rams every year. They are the other home town team so they have bragging rights on them for the rest of their school years. The Ravens were another Deer Park team and we beat them as well. South Houston was a lot tougher this year than they have been in the past. I think we were going through the motions and they played hard. We did end up beating them though and Brad scored the only touchdown of his career. It was the same play we used for him to catch extra points. It was AWESOME!! We ran it and he just flipped the ball to the official and jogged back to the huddle like he had been there before. Very proud moment because I had never done that before.

We finished the regular season undefeated with a 9-0 record. No other Tiger senior team had done that in many years. So we were very proud of all the guys. To start the playoffs we would play Dickinson. They didn’t have a good record but had a great RB. I was also nervous because we had never been past the first round and that would be our main focus. We practiced at the north campus fields. We as coaches wanted to make sure we were not satisfied with just getting there. We kept the same routine all the way down to our conditioning. It was a great experience for the guys to be the leaders of the Tigers and practice at night under the lights at the stadium. Well we ended up beating Dickinson by 40 and shut down their big RB. We would eventually play with him on the All star game but that is another blog for later. We had accomplished our first goal. 10-0 and headed to a showdown with the falcons. they were one of the top teams. We had beat them in the season and knew they were athletic. One of their players was hurt and we were playing at the top of our game so we came out and shut them down. We finished the game and it was the first time I really felt a sense of accomplishment for my son. Until then it was little league football. Now it was something I was so happy for him because he had worked so so hard the last three years. He never treated it as just a fun time he worked hard and wanted every win, so to see him celebrate with his teammates was just complete joy to see.

We were set up to play the Bay Area sharks for the Super Bowl. They had lost 1 or 2 games the last 3 years and had a great defense so we knew it would be a challenge.The week leading up to the game was exciting for the boys. we were the only team practicing and it was getting colder so it was a totally different atmosphere for the boys. The game was played in Dickinson at their big stadium. All four superbowls would be played from freshman to senior just like on a regular saturday. We were set to play at 2.

We get down there and start to warm up. It was a real cool atmosphere because there were a lot of people there. They were gonna announce the all star teams before the game. I didn’t like it cause some of our players would be called out and go to field while we were warming up so we just kept them there. Well the game started and I could tell we were in for a fight. They were very good on defense. No one scored until the fourth quarter. They got the ball and kept it and drove 80 yards and scored. It took up the entire 3rd quarter. we didn’t get the ball back until about 5 minutes left in the game. It was tough, one problem was we had 25 players and they had 19. We had to get all our plays in so we didn’t have all our starters in during that series. That score took the wind out of our kids sails.We never really recovered and ended up losing the game 8-0. It was heart breaking to see the kids that upset. Brad had worked so hard and they all bought into winning and what we wanted to do from the beginning of the year. I was also so very very proud of how much it meant to Brad. Even though he was hurting and I hurt for him I was so proud that he had prepared himself, worked hard and did something that meant so much to him. He really did put his entire heart into that season. We met with the kids and talked to them about how even being here was such an accomplishment and there would be many setbacks in life and we had to overcome them. I hugged Brad and held him as if he was a little boy still until he was ok. Then they had a trophy ceremony and all the kids got their named called and got a medal. It really was a neat deal I just hated that we had to be on the losing end of it. But me and Brad shared that together and hopefully he can remember this time happily. I know I will think happily of all four years and how he has grown into such a fine young man. I can’t wait to see him play football or whatever it is he will do in the next couple of years.

Brad I am your biggest fan and always will be!!!!!

Thanks for sharing the last four years of football with me!!

I love you

Click on the links below to see newspaper articles on the season:

Super Bowl

Tiger Seniors 9-0

Ya’ll be safe out there!!

Brad played his last year of Tiger football this year. He has played for the last 4 years. I wanna back up and say a little bit about my experience as a kid with little league football. I played for the dolphins and the cowboys. My coaches were other guys dads and they treated me pretty good and included me with their kids. But, there was always something missing. Being without a dad I never had that father there to see after the games or to coach me when I was on the team. My mother did a great job trying to be both mom and dad for me but there was still something missing. She would work two jobs and I would have to get a ride home from someone else’s dad. Or I would be waiting for my mom to pick me up and someone’s dad would be waiting with me. Well growing up and having kids I didn’t want that ever to happen to them. So I vowed that any sports or activities my kids are involved in I would be a part of and coach. Now I coached high school football for about 15 years. So when the opportunity came to coach Brad’s TIFI Tigers team I jumped at it. The year before he was old enough I helped coach the age group above him. he was playing soccer at the time and I would drop him off and go coach football then go get him. But I had to do that to guarantee me coaching his team the next year.

So we signed him up and I got a group of guys to help me coach that had kids on the team. There was Steve Mueller, JD Heim, Jimmy Reynolds, Josh Ramirez and Beau Vaughn. I wanted to set a good foundation of fundamentals for Brad and the other boys. I mainly didn’t want a win at all cost attitude but wanted to be successful. That freshman year Brad would make friendships with guys that he is still very good friends with today and I assume will be forever and that makes me very happy. I played him at tight end and outside linebacker. Some people said he was tall so play him quarterback. But there can only be one quarterback and if he plays tight end then he has the ability to block and catch. So depending on what happens when he gets older there are more options for him to play. I played him at outside linebacker because he was so tall and lanky that he couldn’t move as good in space for inside and was too skinny right now to be a defensive lineman. We played that year and were pretty successful and made the playoffs. We had two brothers on our team who Brad is still friends with who are great athletes. They played for us and were very good at whatever position they played. Brad was very smart in his knowledge of football. He got better and better as the year went on. Steve Mueller called the plays and we ran a defense that frustrated me but was successful in TIFI. I ran a 4-3 in high school, but TIFI we needed more guys on the line of scrimmage so we basically ran a 6-3 and would back up the MLB when we needed a safety. Brad really loved playing and was really good. I tried to be as fare as I could when playing players. I would rather have played Brad more on both sides of the ball and looking back maybe I should have but I made up for that his senior year.

Freshman was fun but the season was so long. You have 3 weeks of 6 days a week before you start. It was hard to come up with enough stuff to do in that time period. Plus it was 100 degrees outside.  We made it through that then it went to 3 days a week and a game on saturday. It basically consumed our time with him. But he loved it so it was fun. Like I said we made the playoffs but lost in the first round. The season was over and looking back I enjoy it so much more now than I did then because I was rushing around trying to get practice going and couldn’t just sit back and enjoy watching my son play. I can say now that I can sit back and look at the videos and picture and enjoy those great memories. The sophomore year was much like the freshman. We had basically the same players and coaches. We also had the same type of season. The captains would be picked by number so I didn’t try to play favorites there. I didn’t really coach a specific position. I had coached in high school so I let the other guys coach for me and I managed our time during practice. We got to play our home games in Clyde Abshier stadium here in Deer Park. That sophomore season we played the Falcons in the playoffs. I remember a bunch of bad calls and I even got thrown out because I told the ref “that’s why you don’t referee high school games and are working on saturday morning”. haha!! It was no big deal but I did take a lot of ribbing from the guys at work and other friends. Brad seemed to still love playing. He had begun to watch football on TV and notice who all the players were. It is awesome now because he knows the players on the NFL teams better than I do. At a high school game last year I had our police officer Jack Bounds ask him players names and Brad would repeat where they played. Jack couldnt stump him. Back on subject, sophomore year Brad played same positions and our records for fresh and soph year was like 14-6. We were doing great and the kids were learning. The junior year we lost a few players. Mason Vaughn decided not to play and I hated that. Beau was and is one of my best friends and I enjoyed him and Mason playing and coaching with us, to see him go killed me. But we are still close so that’s ok. Beau quit coaching so I needed to add another. I got Mark Pinnault to help. He was our QB’s dad. Garrett Pinnault was put at QB because he was a mature kid and seemed to have good leadership skills. It worked out great and he played all 4 years there. Junior year was a little different. We started out real strong and won a bunch of games. I think the guys got a little burned out and the epectations on them were very high. The season was very fun and Brad was really coming into his own as a player and a mature young man. We even threw the ball to him more so that made him a big part of the offense. The season ended with another playoff loss. We lost to the Texans who would eventually win the superbowl. It was heartbreaking and I vowed then to play the best players on both sides of the ball. That meant letting Brad play both ways most of the time. I wanted to let him have a great senior experience and also win as much as we could. Those three years were exciting and fun. I want to end this post with these three years. I know it is getting long and I just want you to get the just of his TIFI experience and set the stage for a tremendous memorable senior year.

Here is a pic from freshman year to senior year of Brad and some buddies

Below are Brad’s first three Tiger yearbook pages. You can see how he has grown.

Ya’ll be safe out there!!