Senior Year of Tiger Football!!

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21 Feb

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.