Team of the Week

Now I don't know about you but I have watched hundreds of high school football games in my life and many a time most teams down by two touchdowns, with 5 minutes left in the game, are ready to head to the locker room and go get something to eat and or go chase girls up on main street. St James must of decided that they could eat later and the girlfriends could just wait on them this week! Below is a replay by one of the Thunder fans.

We were down 14-0 with about 8:00 left in the 4^th quarter and not moving the ball on offense. Our coach decided to go into hurry-up/2:00 offense mode with 5:50 left and it seemed to work well for us. The last second, 34 yard field goal was amazing! Our field goal team ran onto the field with 0:18 left and the last time I saw the clock it was at 8.6 sec., then I looked to the field and our team snapped the ball and it was a picture perfect kick. We didn’t have a kicking tee – our kicker (#3 - Alex King) kicked the ball off the turf!  The players said it was NOT nerve-racking because they practice “last-second” field goals every practice – just what practice is for – being prepared for all situations.

What a comeback and what a finish! Coach Tom Radke called it the biggest win in the history of St James and I agree. So for that the St James Thunder is the team of the week in the state of Kansas!

Coach Randy Dreiling of Hutchinson was quoted in the Salina Journal and the Hutchinson News, "they certainly out coached us and out played us!" When I read that quote in the paper I knew immediately we had to have the Salina South Cougars be the Kansas Team of the Week because if Coach Dreiling felt his team was beaten by a superior team then that team deserved to be honored.

Salina South had not beat Hutchinson since 2004 in 11 tries. To win a game like this your team must first of all believe they can win. So for going to the Salthawks home turf and believing in themselves the Cougars are some kind of special team in my mind. So congratulations to you Salina South Cougars and don't let me catch you resting on these accolades, keep moving up the hill!

My other team of the week award goes to the K-State Wildcats with roughly 55 former Kansas high school football players on the roster. The Wildcats went into Norman, Oklahoma of all places and defeated the 5th ranked team in the county. The thing that stuck in my mind was the way Coach Snyder played the clock all through out the game. Have you ever read the book 'Football Clock Management?' Well it was obvious that Coach Snyder has read the book. The Wildcats were using up the clock on every possession starting from the first time they touched the ball in the first quarter. They did not wait until the 4th quarter to start stalling away time. That was the signal for me in the first quarter that Coach Snyder thought for sure the Cats would and could win this game!

On the other hand did any of you happen to watch the Colorado at Washington State game? The Washington State Cougars were ahead 31-14 with about 8 minutes to go in the game. The Cougars were still throwing the ball with incomplete passes stopping the clock instead of running down the clock and with each stopping of the clock giving Colorado hope that they could still win the game which the Buffaloes did 35-34. That told me that Mike Leach may not have read the 'Football Clock Management' book.

So congratulations to the K-State Wildcats and all those former Kansas high school football players and to their master teacher Coach Bill Snyder.

The Panthers are the defending State Champions in Class 2-1A but they were not ranked at all in my preseason personal poll. The Topeka Capital Journal preseason poll had Centralia at 4th in class 2-1A rankings. Now folks we are talking about the defending state champions! All us pollsters looked at who Centralia had coming back this year which was a couple of returning starters on offense and three or four on defense and said to ourselves no way Centralia wins state this year. The Panthers lost their entire offensive line and quarterback Michael Glatczak. Do you suppose the slap-in-the-face rankings have made the locker room bulletin board of the defending state champions? Well check out who Centralia has defeated in the first three games of the year and my guess is yes the Panthers are playing inspired football.

So you Panthers don't let me down, keep up the good work each Friday night and we will see you in the playoffs where I think you will be making some noise again this year!

This week I had two emails encouraging me to give the 'Team of the Week' award to the Chapman Irish. I also was thinking of the Irish as my team of the week award so that just sealed the deal for me when some others were thinking like I was. I have been intrigued by the Fighting Irish for most of my life. Back in college one of my good friends was a running back for Chapman in high school and he would tell us stories about when Abilene and Chapman would play football and the games they would have.

You drive down I-70 and you see the sign that says Chapman and it sits south of I-70 behind the trees and hills and you can't see the town. Several years ago I told my wife lets go to Chapman and just look around. It just so happened to be the year before the tornado hit Chapman. We drove around town and then went to the high school. It was summertime but a janitor saw us at the door and let us in and then gave us a tour of the school and gym and told us to go look at the football field. What a great looking school and then in June of 2008 the tornado hit. Well the Irish have struggled in football since. Last Friday night the Irish beat a pretty good SE of Saline team 14-2 and the Irish broke their 25 game losing streak. The Irish always have a tough schedule but it was good to see them break that losing streak. So for this week we want to honor those Fighting Irish of Chapman High School keep fighting and things will get better!

The Fighting Irish taking the field photo by Tina Williams.

This was my personal all time favorite picture sent to Kansasprepfootball.com. Larned Indians taking the field. Photo by a student at Larned High School.

Who should be the team of the week?

     Each week somewhere in the state of Kansas some team decides to break the mold from the past and forgetting the past they step out to make their own history. Most of the time this making of their own history begins well before the season begins. It starts in the mind of one or several individuals from the team. They decide they will work at this game of football in the off season and get better one day at a time. Their enthusiasm is contagious and begins to affect the team in a positive way.