| 1. Pickens Academy AL 56 -
Heritage 36. One disaster after another was this one in a
nutshell an along with very poor and uninspired play. 3. Curtis Baptist...The skinny on
Curtis is that they are much better than they have been in
years. The run an extremely flexible and multiple offense that
features 2 of the best players we'll face this year. The QB
throws darts and runs like a deer, and they have a RB/Receiver
that is as good and fast as they come. We need to really work
hard to correct things going into this one.
All of the above was very true...WE played
much better on both sides of the ball but still need big
improvement. We started catching on to our defense last night
and made some plays. We actually made some smash hits that have
been missing from previous games. We only fumbled twice I think
and only lost one and that is why we won. We controlled
the ball better but must get better punching it in in the red
zone. I'd love to replay our first two games now but that can't
be. We must learn every week and push ourselves to get better.
We ended up with 341 total yards of offense which we need to get
against the best teams. I'm not sure how good Curtis is but its
the best Curtis team I've played since I came in the league in
2004. We must move on and set our sites higher now and continue
to grow our youth and inexperienced. The only way to do that is
to just get after it every week and ratchet up our practice
tempo. A really fine win!! I'm proud of all the Hawks!
5. Heritage 15 - Fullington . In a hold your breath until you
turn
purple game, the Hawks put together one of the best performances
of the schools young 3 year football program with some
tremendous acts of effort and heart seemingly a cut above the
past. "I feel the team is coming together and is beginning to
play for a reason. It seems we have guys caring about the out
come like real football players and not just participation in an
extra curricular activity. I hope this continues to develop for
we have a very young team starting 3 - 9th graders both ways. I
think we may be the only AA team in the state playing a ninth
grader much less 3. We go into the Region with the toughest
opponent to date in Griffin Christian, who sports size and speed
to burn as a result of some big off season recruiting. I'm looking forward to seeing if we can make one more
giant improvement leap this week to really get us on a
meaningful track! I'm very proud of all the Hawks that showed
such great effort and heart in Fridays 15-14
upset...Upset?.....Or was it??????" Most picked Fullington easily but we thought differently and thus played
that way.
Now for the controversy which is no controversy. A
call is a call and I've never seen one changed, and if they did,
I need about 60 of them changed over my past 33 years.
OK OK
I understand there is a vent out there railing on the
officiating and the call at the games end. I've seen the
film...Whether the kid caught the ball in or out of bounds is
impossible to tell so I went to the vent to see what all the
hoopla was about. My players said right after the play that he
was bobbling the ball on his way out of bounds. The picture they
are holding up as evidence clearly shows the leg just inside the
sideline as they flew out of bounds but it also shows the ball
well above the hands as if he was still fighting for the ball. I
think any objective person would have called it either way but
given what I've seen, ya just can't conclude it was a bad call
unless you are on the loosing side of the call. Fullington's
senior laden team had 2 more shots after that and failed VS the
Heritage young defense. Coach Ken Fowler is a class act and
understands the way football is and was very gracious in his
comments about our game. Understandably he was hurting and lord
knows I know that kind of hurt, and I harken back to 2005 when
back to back horrible calls knocked me out of a trip to the
State Championship game...Hurt?.... I could speak for 20 minutes
after that one. We had whipped that team every way you can whip
them yet 2 terrible spots killed it. Fullington will bounce back
with it's fine group of players and be a force in their region
for sure. I think the bigger story is not the controversial call
which with a perfect snap shot was questionable, but the fact
that 3 ninth graders from Heritage
were largely responsible for 15 fourth quarter points.
Hey, bad calls happen every game but 3 ninth graders playing at
that level against seniors is quite unique!!!Good Luck to the Fullington staff and players with your season. It being a non
region game, I feel both teams will grow as a result of such a
hard fought well played game!
11. Heritage 12 Bulloch 42.
The Bullock
game was not what we had in mind, and we let this one get away
from us as Bullock took advantage of some things we did poorly
and a real shot in the arm from the officials before the half,
giving Bullock a 2 TD lead instead of a 1 TD lead going into the
half. We weren't ready to win this one, it didn't appear by the
way we played, but ya just hate being hosed like that in any
game. 2 football plays taking 2 seconds... Come on now! You
can't spike the ball twice in 2 seconds. Bottom line is that we
played horribly in spots, not so good in other spots and really
nowhere were we playing very good other than some really good
ball carrying efforts on offense. Of course my reasons for this
is "there is no reason to play like that", but some have said it
may be the emotional crash from the huge emotional come-back win
in the last game as well as the travel. But I say, "It's that we
must learn to carry out the assignments and game plans as
prepared, and not get in games and go native. After reviewing
the film, it was evident that for some reason, we weren't
playing our positions at all like we rehearsed and doing some
things in no way like they were taught all year." But I guess
that's what happens in youth and inexperience. I think we took
some big steps this year in learning how to play football and
I'm really excited about picking up where we left off and
accelerating to the next level. I think with the returners and
the 1 more year of maturity of our freshmen class, we can play
at a higher level in 2010. There is no substitute for hard work
and I'll be looking foremost for commitment. If we are to play
with the big dogs, we must commit like the big dogs. No team is
playing for a state championship by chance!
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2. Strong Rock 42 - Youth and
inexperience 21. When 1/3 of your starting lineup is 9th
graders, and a couple other ninth graders playing a whole lot
and a couple of others not having played football before
and the rest with only a few years of football under their belt,
Friday the 28th happens. It just happens. Only stick time and
hard work over a good period of time can build solid and
experienced football players. What we have to do is never dwell
on where we are, but push very hard to get better each week.
though we gave up the football nearly every time we touched it,
we did improve a lot from week one in many areas. We have
massive chunks to go and our coaching staff and I are working
hard to get that weekly improvement. I'm grateful for our
assistant coaches for their tireless efforts daily. They know
what we have to do, and we all get a little frustrated when
Fridays aren't the payday we are looking for, but as I tell our
players, It's not where we are that matters but where we end up.
We must come out every Monday to practice with the big finish in
mind not the chaos of our learning curve. Though I can't sit
here a praise some really boneheaded and rookie things that
happened this week, I can give credit where credit is due and we
had some really positive things going on in between the gunk.
The things we works so hard on this week we improved on greatly.
We must take another big step this week.
4. Heritage 34 - Yung Americans 12. A good win for the Hawks taking care
of business VS a talented and quick Young Americans team out of
Conyers GA. We have improved on both sides and must continue to
be competitive. Our inexperience shows still at times glaring
but so does the improvement weekly. We'll keep on plugging at
it. 6. Game 6 put us up against
on of the strongest and most athletic team we've faced so far.
this team had the potential to really do a number on us but we
hung in there, kept our poise, and did the necessary things we
had to do to win. they helped us a bit as well let me say too. A
couple of goal-line stands and some really good defense, mixed
with a few really big offensive plays at just the right time was
the story. A tremendous game to learn from and a teaching tool
for next week as we play play a very strong Arlington team with
maybe ONE day of preparation due to a school interim week.
Geeezzzzz!!! 7. Arlington
27 - Heritage 14. You can't expect ninth
graders to be perfect (though I do) in a Varsity game but... we
had just beaten 2 teams better than the team we just lost to.
OUCH!
Though I can't accept excuses, I
could come up with several reasons why, including the frolic week,
that we have to spot the league every year which was this
week. We had one late night practice to prepare for the best
athlete we've seen to date. I just think we were flat and
the week off seemed to leave us tired, mentally disjointed, and
it messed up our rhythm and momentum we had established. I realize
that this week's scheduling Arlington, a critical region game,
was no fault of anyone presently at the school, but that doesn't
mean I have to like it! I couldn't happily accept taking a
vacation in the middle of football season whether we had a game
or not. It's like the phone ringing in the middle of........you
know, a good dinner, or movie. But that is done and we'll move
on to our final 3 games. Hopefully things will be back to normal
next week and we can get serious about winning football games.
We have Colonial Hills, Flint River, and Harvester coming up.
Turn it up Hawks! 8. Hawks 58
Colonial Hills 0... We subbed early and often and had a very
nice, but wet, Homecoming win. Now its off for a night of
fun at Undefeated Flint River. Ya'll come!
9. Flint River 42 Heritage 12.
Given the way we played most of the night, this one could have
been a nail biter if not for our charitable gifts that any team
would be very happy to have. We had 261 yards of offense which
can win you many games but huge mistakes at crucial times killed
us. The score was in no way reflective
of the game as Flint was putting up scores all the way to the
buzzer even when we had some clean shirts in on defense. The
growing pains of a new program continues but we are starting to
play some real football. The Flint coaches had nothing but very
flattering things to say about our team and how far our program
has come. I think the players, coaches and all parents can take
lots of credit for the hard work is paying off. Now we need this
next game badly.
10. Heritage 39 Harvester 35.
Trailing at the half 35-13 we put on an offensive clinic in the
second half along with tremendous efforts by everyone to pull
this one out. A playoff birth was on the line and our Hawks
fought like crazy for it. Congratulations to our seniors for
this one you can take with you. We put up 448 total yards in
this one and had a call changed by a ref on an apparent TD pass
late that would have given us the lead earlier. So with that bad
call we turned around and smacked them with a safety and then
had to drive 65 yards with only about 3+ minutes left in the
game. We did it! One tremendous team effort. We now have to face
#1 Bullock on their field on Friday for the First round of the
playoffs. |
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