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Hello and welcome to another Wednesday of deep thoughts. This is the week of Thanksgiving, which for me means family time, great food and football. As each year passes, I find that food and football move further toward the bottom of this short list. Each of us has our daily grind that is life. Summer becomes fall, which leaps into winter only to be interrupted by spring training…and the cycle begins again. If you are like me, it takes an event to jolt us out of the monotony of our schedules. Family time at holidays is one such interlude that does this for me. This week, I got two other reminders of the blessing that is each day. Most of you know how much I enjoy high school football. The past four seasons have truly been a blast. The beautiful aspect of sports and football in particular is becoming a teammate. The finished process is a powerful bond that provides a lifetime friendship. As a parent, there is a somewhat symbiotic relationship to the team and the player’s parents. There is something about the time spent pulling for the same cause that also creates strong friendships.
I got terrible news this week from our friends the parents of Ben, who was the former Warrior QB and OF that is currently playing baseball at Texas. His dad’s father came to visit a few weeks ago to watch Ben play a game and stopped by to watch a Warrior game. On his trip home, he fell in the airport and dislocated his elbow. We were shocked to learn that he passed away as result of complications of this injury. I got a call Tuesday morning that my nephew was in a terrible car wreck coming home for Thanksgiving break. For those of you that have been to Texas this time of year, the rut is in full swing and deer are everywhere. One of these deer appeared in the road and caused my nephew to swerve and lose control of his truck. Apparently the truck went through a fence, flipped over several times and landed in a tree. Thankfully Justin is a football player at Angelo State, and he was able to crawl out of the wreckage before the truck began to burn. A rancher driving home to Odessa happened to see the burning truck and my nephew lying by the side of the road. He was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Austin. He has a badly cut leg that will require surgery today. Justin’s football days may be over, but we are just happy he is still here. This Thanksgiving we will give thanks to life, because it is so damn precious.
Did you see that Maryland and Rutgers are headed to the Big 10? Did you happen to wonder why the Big 10 would want these two teams? I know that Maryland won a NCAA basketball championship in 2002, but they failed to make the playoffs last year. Both schools have cut sports in an attempt to save money, but have not been successful. This move is again about money and specifically TV money. The allure of Maryland and Rutgers is the TV markets that they bring to the table. New York and the DC area include many television sets. Does this move make the Big 10 a stronger conference? No…not in terms of football anyway. Rutgers has been a decent team in the past few years, but remember that the architect for their football program is now pissing coaches off in the NFL. This is another domino that continues to mess up the geography that is college football. In 10 years, I am afraid that we won’t recognize the game that so many of us grew up loving…too bad. I have said before that the long term viability of the ACC and Big East is shaky at best. Football television money is driving college football and unless you have a decent vehicle...
This was a cool picture that my daughter took after the Bi District award ceremony...
Here is a cool sequence of photos of Blake making a tackle on a screen pass...
Westwood Sr's walk the home field one last time...
The Bash Brothers celebrate the Bi District victory...
The Westwood Warriors took their first step toward a 5A state championship last Thursday night with a 31 to 10 victory over Del Valle. After falling behind early, Westwood dominated the final three quarters. The Warriors were again led by a stout defense. The stud Del Valle running back ( Josh Cleveland) brought an impressive 1400 plus rushing yards to the game. After 26 carries on the night, he managed only 63 yards and his two fumbles really crippled Del Valle’s chance for a victory. Possessing 4.28 speed did not help as Josh left the game bruised and battered. The key to the game was an onside kick after Westwood tied the game...the Warriors were able to possess the ball for 11:00 minutes and resulted in two scores. Blake’s job was to make sure that the lineman was not able to recover the ball…he didn’t. One second he was there waiting to catch the bouncing ball…then he was gone. Since I was videoing, I missed the play with my eyes, but my ears distinctly heard the crowd reaction to the big hit. The Warriors travel to Waco to play The Woodlands in Baylor’s home stadium. Hopefully we can hold onto the mojo that Baylor had going on last weekend against Kansas State.
Happy Birthday to You Gab!! Six years and going strong...
That’s all I have for today, but I wish everyone a terrific and safe Thanksgiving. Here is a bit of Jack Handey for your holiday
The old pool shooter had won many a game in his life. But now it was time to hang up the cue. When he did, all the other cues came crashing go the floor.
"Sorry," he said with a smile.
I wish a robot would get elected president. That way, when he came to town, we could all take a shot at him and not feel too bad.
Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a few deep thoughts of your own..
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