Week 10: WC v. CJ

When I looked at the game-day weather forecast on Wednesday evening I quickly realized we would need 2 pieces of extra equipment as fans on Thursday night as WC closed their regular season at home against Carl: Helmets and Flippers. Why? Because the Weather Channel was calling for a lot of rain and storms including large hail.

The hail never materialized, but I did get to sit through one fairly intense cell under a tarp outside the gates on Thursday afternoon with just a few others brave (or crazy) enough to show up early on a nasty day. There were a couple of lightning strikes close enough to make you wonder whether sitting right next to a chain-link fence holding an umbrella was a great idea.

Most of the rain quit by the time the gates opened with only periodic showers thereafter. It took a major effort from several people to get the lake that had formed on the WC sideline moved before game time, but with that out of the way the weather had little impact on the game itself. The difference between playing in the mud down at Branson and just a wet field at home was striking.

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The game was never close. WC turned it over on it's first possession then proceeded to man-handle CJ posting 47 first half points. The starters were mostly done before halftime and only one touchdown was scored after the break.

Patrick Drake threw 4 touchdown passes in the first half and ran for another. It was a good Senior night for him.

CJ turned it over 7 times (4 picks in the first half, 3 fumbles in the second), you just can't do that and think you're not going to get destroyed when you're over-matched anyway.

The only thing that was surprising was the difficulty WC had blocking on PATs. I think they had 3 blocked. I don't know if there was an assignment issue or what. I suspect the Cards will have that fixed by the time they hit the field Wednesday night to open the playoffs.

Branson scored late to finish off Republic 25-20. That win will bring Branson to Cardinal Stadium on Wednesday evening creating a rematch of the mud-bowl game a few weeks ago. My take on it is that Branson is better than they showed the first time WC played them, but probably not a real threat to knock off the Cards at home. I honestly expect WC to come out pretty focused after 2 weeks of weak opponents in games that were snoozers.

If the Cards beat Branson they'll face the winner of Wednesday's Carthage - Neosho matchup. This game should be interesting as Carthage managed to knock off Neosho in Neosho earlier in the season and will have to do it again to get another shot at WC. If Carthage wins, they would visit Cardinal Stadium for the second time this season. If Neosho wins, Webb will travel to Neosho on Monday, November 9th.

It's playoff time and we're about to find out what this WC team is made of.

Kryptonite

Finally, after nearly 7 years of living here I have discovered the source of Webb City's football success.

For years my wife has been telling me that all (or nearly all) kids in the WC district take swimming lessons before starting Kindergarten. I have always kind of laughed at this because she acts like that's normal and everyone does that. It almost comes across as though any kid who doesn't attend is booted out of the district. "Little Johnny, let me see your Red Cross beginner swimmer certification card. Oh, you didn't take lessons? Sorry, you'll have to find a different district to attend. You'll never be a Cardinal!"

As I said, I'd always jokingly ridiculed this swimming lessons thing - mostly because it bugs my wife, certainly not because I oppose it. Then this evening she revealed to me what else goes on at swimming lessons.

According to my wife, pre-K summer swimming lessons are scheduled around summer football workouts. Why, you ask? That's because Coach Roderique must attend certain swimming lesson sessions to conduct the agility drills. Seem strange?

Think about it, you win championships by starting early. By the time they start Kindergarten Coach Rod already knows what his starting backfield looks like 13 years later will be. Everyone knows about the fact that from 3rd grade on WC football teams are being taught the fundamentals that will eventually make them champions, but it really starts much earlier than that.





What kind of agility drills are we talking about? They're the kind that college kids love to try, but are mostly terrible at if they weren't taught at a young age. Catching a football as you go into the water is a challenge, but you know you've got an All-Stater on your hands when you find a kid that can pull it off.



If you for a moment thought this was the least bit serious I'm sorry you were confused. This has been a joke. Most incoming Kindergarten students in the WC district do take swimming lessons, but to my knowledge Coach Roderique has nothing to do with it. They win games and titles because the players work hard and care about winning and they have coaches from 3rd grade on up that teach them how to play the game and win as a team.

T-Minus 2 Months and Counting

I woke up this morning to discover that the date is 10/25/09...exactly 2 months before Drake's due date. Each time we cross some sort of threshold like that the reality of what is about to happen gets much stronger.

We spent yesterday at a pre-natal class at Freeman. I am glad we went, I feel comfortable now with what will go on the day he arrives. That's not to suggest I feel totally prepared to be a dad, just that I know where to find my wife and baby should we get separated at some point in the process (as well as where the cafeteria is and where to find the grandparents when it's time for them to come in).

I was expecting to spend 2 hours on the floor doing breathing exercises. Turned out to be about 20 minutes. They taught us 2 things:
1. Slow deep breaths - bookended by deep cleansing breaths.
2. 3 He's and a Who - The sequence goes like this, deep cleansing breath, then three short, shallow breaths that sound like you're saying "he" as you exhale, then one that sounds like "who", then repeat the he's and who sequence until the contraction is over and finish with a deep cleansing breath.

I think the reason this was such a short part of the day is that 72% of women opt for an epidural thus rendering the breathing mostly unnecessary (so she said) - don't attack me here, I'm just repeating information.

I fully expected to be in a room full of very young parents to be. As it turned out, I'm not 100% sure I was the oldest guy in room. Most of the moms appeared to be in their early to mid-20s (was honestly expecting a couple of high school juniors). One couple struck me as being around my age. The dad of this couple seemed to be about as unsure of what's coming as I am - that was comforting.

At this point we can actually identify which body part Drake is pushing against Britt's stomach with (usually feet). She likes to push back against him - it's like she went to the Jayson-French-school-of-pre-birth-child-rearing (Motto: Always push back and play all the angles). I find myself regularly exhorting her to be careful with him because he's little. That's easy for me to say, he's not banging around against my rib cage.

Week 9: WC at Nevada

Short and sweet here. This one was a snoozer. My wife and I didn't go. Webb put up lots of points early and then cruised to a 48-15 win. I really don't have much else to say.

Next up: Carl Junction comes to Cardinal Stadium on Senior night - Thursday.

Carl got worked over by Carthage on Friday night, so I'm not expecting a huge fight in this one either. I won't discuss what comes next in this post, but assure you it'll get more interesting thereafter.

Homecoming - Cowboy Style

Thanks to my wife who bought us tickets to the OSU-Mizzou game for my birthday we made a trip to Stillwater on Saturday for homecoming. I tend to think of homecoming in reference to the football team (or name your sport of choice) returning from a road trip. But at the collegiate level it's really about inviting the alumni back to town (okay, really, it's probably about that in high school too, I'm just an idiot and didn't realize it).



So me - the alumnus - and the preggo wife decided to make a day of it. Lucky for us they scheduled the parade for 2pm since the game didn't start until 8:15pm, which made getting there for the parade much easier. Honestly, I was on campus 6 fall semesters, but had never gone to the homecoming parade. This one, however had the added attraction of 3 famous alumni (are you technically an alumni if you never graduated?) - Garth Brooks, Barry Sanders, and Robin Ventura. If you don't know who these three are, do your own research. Fine, here you go:

- Garth Brooks - number 1 selling US solo artist of all time.



- Barry Sanders - set 34 NCAA records in 11 games, won a Heisman Trophy, and then dominated the NFL for 10 seasons before retiring.



- Robin Ventura - holds longest hitting streak in college baseball history (58 games), named starting 3rd baseman on all-time NCAA baseball team, played 16 seasons in the MLB.

Bio on these guys.



Post-parade we toured frat row to see what was left of the house decs - most were still in good shape, but most of the mechanical stuff wasn't running. After a stop by the campus house we hiked it up to Mexico Joes just in time to beat the crowd. The Three Amigos (Stan Clark's trio of restaurants - Eskimo Joe's, Mexico Joe's, and Joeseppi's) aren't necessarily known for their food. It's more about atmosphere. But I'll have to say, the food was better than I remembered from the last time I'd been there.

With a couple of hours to kill before kickoff we stopped in at the campus house and hung out with the Moss'. They were a lot of fun.

The game was fun. OSU managed to do enough to cruise to an easy win in spite of not having Kendal Hunter or Dez Bryant. The MVP probably should have been Dan Bailey - the kicker - who hit 4 field goals including a career long 51 yard effort (ironically, his first attempt on that drive - from 46 - missed, but he had to do it again because of a penalty on OSU and he nailed the second). OSU's defense played fairly well in the second half.

After the game we hiked it home pulling into the garage at 2:20am (for the record it was a 2:40 trip with a stop for gas and coffee at QT in Tulsa). It was a long day, but a lot of fun.

Week 8: Carthage at WC

I've been busy, so this is way late. Sorry, Ben, my bad.

Friday was a fun day. The atmosphere outside the stadium was lively, the air was crisp, and the promise of a big crowd and a district and conference showdown loomed just on the other side of the gates.

The game wasn't really ever in question. That's not to say Carthage was never in it, there just wasn't ever a moment where it felt like they were a threat.

WC scored quickly on its first drive, but gave Carthage 7 on a pick-6 on the next drive. After that Braxton Baker took over in the 2nd quarter running for 3 touchdowns (all in that quarter - he had 4 in all to go with another 200+ yard performance).

Carthage really never got much going on offense. They had one long run where the back broke about 6 tackles - it was impressive for sure - that scored their only offensive touchdown. Aside from that, the WC defense controlled the game throughout.

If only the WC offense had finished a few more drives. They really should have scored 49 or 56, but turning it over 4 times makes that tough. Coming just 2 weeks after a 5 turnover performance I'm a little concerned about that to be honest.

I commented to my wife this evening that if the WC offense can consistently control the ball - the way we saw last season from a less explosive group - I believe the sky is the limit for them. One thing I can see posing a great threat come playoff time is turnovers.

Friday night WC visits Nevada in what should be a blowout. Not much to say about it.

Week 7: WC at Branoson (Mud Bowl 2009)

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Operation Pigskin Highlights

In a world where a lot of high school teams play on field turf, even the concept of playing a game in mud is kind of foreign. Branson is one of only 3 opponents WC will face this season on natural grass (playoffs TBD). So to have several inches of rain in the days leading up to the matchup set the stage for something very rare - a muddy mess.

When we walked in, I could immediately tell that something was weird because the end of the field where WC was warming up was destroyed. The end where Branson was almost looked like no one had been on it. I was told later that Branson didn't do much in the way of drills.

Sideline reports (from the team chaplain) said it was every bit as sloppy as it looked like from the stands.

The game itself was fun to watch, but probably didn't tell us a ton about where WC is at headed into a big matchup with Carthage next week.

WC definitely looked sharper than a week ago against Neosho, but they also weren't tested in the trenches.

Braxton Baker had a good night. I haven't found the official number, but I think he had right at 200 yards (163 in the first half) and 4 touchdowns. A muddy field works for Braxton, he seemed to like it and it fits his style (which is mostly to run over anyone in his path). I played with a guy in high school who got nicknamed "Muddy" because of a game like last night. Watching Braxton drill people while covered in mud reminded me a little of that high school teammate.

Bart Starkey nearly scored a touchdown on an interception. He returned it like 60 (may have been more) yards to the 4 yard line. I really wanted him to get in the end zone, but it didn't quite happen.

Andrew Kolb - an offensive lineman - got a touchdown when the Cards showed a new look, lining up in the I-formation with Baker at tailback and Kolb at fullback. One fan that's been around much longer than I have couldn't remember the last time he saw WC show the I-formation. The point was well taken (though I think they showed that look once last week in short yardage).

Something else we saw last night was a single back set with Patrick under center. I'm not sure if it's considered part of their Posse package - which usually has Pat in the shotgun - or not. In this one, the Cards had Baker as the lone back in the backfield, one tight end and 3 receivers. It was an interesting look. Not sure if we should expect to see more of that or if they were just trying it out.

In the end, WC rolled 49-7 and now stands at 7-0 headed into District play and a big matchup at Cardinal Stadium with Carthage who handled Republic 20-0 last night.

I've been trying to watch Carthage highlights to get a feel for how good they are. Honestly, I'm not sure. They seem to have some firepower in the offense - even with Derryberry gone. What I'm not sure about is how good they are in the trenches. They lost to Nixa, but got by Neosho. I expect it to be a big night and huge crowd on homecoming and opening night of district play.

Week 6: WC v. Neosho

With Neosho riding a 2 game losing streak and the Cardinals playing well this matchup didn't have quite the hype that preseason picks might have given it - the COC coaches picked Neosho to win the conference. For the first 15 minutes or so the game looked to be a bit of a snoozer.

WC came out and scored on the third play from scrimmage when Patrick Drake found Boo Rodgers deep. The Cardinal defense held and then WC scored again - Drake to Rodgers a second time. Early in the 2nd quarter WC made it 21-0 when Braxton Baker punched it in from 3 yards out.

Neosho scored next. That didn't look so bad, but when Neosho managed to score again before halftime you started to get that uneasy feeling that the tide was turning against WC who led 21-14 at the half.

The second half was ugly for WC. Lots of miscues and mistakes. Braxton Baker - who never fumbles - had one stripped and also dropped an option pitch. Patrick had a pass picked off when it was tipped. An interception by a WC corner got stripped at the 1-yard line and Neosho ended up with it. WC didn't tackle particularly well at times and on a number of occasions let a receiver get wide open.

I've got no interest in knocking the Cards, I'm just pointing out this was not a stellar performance. Had the Cards held onto the ball and finished drives the game never would have been close. One thing I have come to expect from WC teams is correcting mistakes from one week to the next. Part B of that is not beating themselves - with things like penalties and turnovers. I fully expect to see a much sharper WC squad next Friday at Branson.

All of that aside, give Neosho credit. They're big and tough. The Neosho QB - Alex Wise - slashed all over the field and forced WC to change to a 4-man front. The O-line for Neosho was big enough that in most cases they could run the ball effectively. While Webb could have iced it by taking care of the ball, Neosho is a good team that clearly has not performed as well as everyone expected them to.

I have often said that good teams always have a turning point game. Either they get behind and have to fight their way back or find themselves on the wrong side of the momentum and have to find a way to turn the tide. It's a long way to St. Louis from here, but if this Cards squad goes on to accomplish big things I think having to perform under the pressure of a tie game with 5 minutes to go and an opponent driving down the field with momentum will have been a big part of that.

The next two weeks will be key for WC. Branson is tough. They beat Nixa and had Carthage on the ropes (at Carthage) last night before the Tigers made their escape. Waiting for the Cardinals just behind Branson is Carthage.