Sobriquet

Truth In Advertising Statement: Anyone who doesn’t care for “think pieces†should hit the back button now.

Is an athletic scholarship worth having? I doubt that a generic answer of “yes†or “no†to that question is meaningful. The true answer varies from individual to individual depending on how it turns out for that person.

There are many examples of people who received athletic scholarships and then went on to great success in life. And the athletic scholarship was clearly instrumental in attaining that success. For them the scholarship was undeniably worth having.

There are also many examples of people who ultimately received no real benefit from the athletic scholarships they were given. For them it simply wasn’t worth it.

I’m sure high school athletes strive for that scholarship, but it still seems to me a mistake to blithely assume that once the scholarship is obtained, a bright future is guaranteed. It would be more sensible for each athlete to consider the realities and to formulate his own personal “game plan.†To ask, “If I accept an athletic scholarship now, how will that make my life better ten years from now? Or thirty or forty years from now?â€

One might answer, “I get a college education for free.†Oh, really! That’s probably the first reality the athlete needs to confront. “It’s not impossible but the odds are definitely against your getting a college education.â€

Think of it in terms of a football player, but the same analysis is valid for the other sports. When the football player is offered an athletic scholarship, the college does not guarantee him an education. They probably aren’t interested in educating him. More often than not, the player will never really be a student at the school. He will simply be an athlete maintained on campus for the purpose of playing football.

And as part of the “system†everyone will pretend that he is working on a Batchelor of Arts degree. As part of the pretense he will have to be on the enrollment sheets for classes in such things as history, English and business. He will have to go through the motions of sitting in those classes and taking tests and maybe even occasionally turning in papers, not necessarily written by him. Usually the player has no interest and no aptitude for any of those subjects, and no useful purpose is served by his taking them. And no one cares if the player learns nothing from the experience.

The actual commitment the college makes to the player is to train him athletically and develop his talent to the maximum extent possible. To make him the best football player he can be. And he can count on the college to fulfill that commitment. Schools that provide athletic scholarships, especially the “big boys,†have superb facilities. Large staffs to provide all the specialized training and individual attention needed. State of the art equipment. The finest material. Beautiful stadiums. Enthusiastic fan support. Exposure on national TV and in bowl games. Highly trained and skilled teammates to support him. Highly trained and skilled opponents to challenge him. Oh yes, the player who gets an athletic scholarship will have his talent trained and developed to the max. Count on it.

And that’s the key. That’s what it’s all about. The player is not there to learn history, English or business. He is there to be trained for a specific profession. The profession of professional football. And that is certainly a very desirable profession. For those who make it, the rewards, the prestige, the money is enormous. Lifetime success is well within reach and the athletic scholarship which made it possible was definitely worth it. For those who make it.

Unfortunately most won’t make it. The colleges turn out thousands of people each year who are trained for a profession that only has openings for a few dozen newcomers. For all the rest there are no job openings.

So for the player who doesn’t make it, how then does the athletic scholarship make his life better ten or thirty or forty years later? Yes, there is an opportunity to really be a student and really get an education, and the college and its athletic department will certainly not try to prevent the player from getting that education. And if he does, and if he leaves with a diploma, he can parlay that into a respectable career with comfortable salary and benefits. For such a player the scholarship was clearly worth it, even if it didn’t lead to the NFL.

But this is not the common outcome, which is why the high school athlete needs to have someone point out the realities to him, and help him work out a “game plan†that fits him as to exactly how he is going to make the athletic scholarship work to benefit him. And it would be well to note that the athletes who use a scholarship to master the challenges of college work and really get a college education, tend to be the people who had little or no trouble making good grades in the less challenging world of high school classes. The high school player who has to sit out several weeks due to a “no pass, no play†situation, and who complains that this might cost him an athletic scholarship, probably doesn’t have any kind of “game plan†at all.

Those years immediately after high school are so very important to all the future life of an individual. It's a time for making choices about what kind of career to pursue, about where to live and how to live. At the time the horizons can seem unlimited, but later on this will no longer be the case. Later on the person may well be stuck in a kind of life dictated by the choices made way back when.

Those years are not something to be squandered. Once gone they never come back. Not something to thrown away on a dead end street.

So is an athletic scholarship worth having? It can be. But it’s not a sure thing. Depends on the individual, and how well he plans.

I recently read that back in the 1950’s there were times when a team, as a matter of game strategy, would have a player fake an injury. The player would fall down and wince, maybe even let out a few screams, and generally act like he was really hurting. The purpose of course was to have the officials stop the clock in situations where the team had no other way to do it.

I don’t know how widespread the practice was, but apparently it wasn’t all that uncommon. In fact Notre Dame employed the technique often enough that some pundits dubbed them “The Fainting Irish.â€

Interestingly it seems that back then this was not a violation of the rules and the officials routinely granted the time out even when it was quite obvious that the whole thing was a sham. And even when this ruse had the potential, often successful, to change the outcome of the game.

So I’m curious. What is the modern day situation? Does this kind of thing happen today, albeit in a less blatantly obvious way?

One of the Gilmer fans at 3adownlow said he was "encouraged that Silsbee played you guys to a 14-7 overtime game."  If that gives comfort to them, I say let it. 

Reminds me of what happened way back in ’87.

During regular season it was WOS 3, Jasper 0. Very tough game. Played at Jasper and as always Jasper was ready to play WOS.

First round of the playoffs it was West Columbia 28, Jasper 6. Easy enough win for West Columbia.

But two weeks later it was WOS 30, West Columbia 7. It wasn’t some kind of fluke. WOS was clearly the superior team and when it was over West Columbia knew it.

Here are three that come to mind.

(3) Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Jefferson demolishes the entire other team, methodically putting practically every one of their players in the hospital—one or two or three being carried off on stretchers after each play. The opposing players cowering in terror as they eyeball the berserk and violently enraged Jefferson.

Jefferson thinks they trashed out his prize car. Actually it was Jefferson’s kid brother and Sean Pean who wrecked it on a joy ride. And they painted graffiti on it afterward to frame the other school.

(2) Jim Thorpe All American

Carlisle Indian School vs. University of Pennsylvania. Each team led by an All American. A good presentation of why Thorpe—later honored as the greatest American athlete of the first half of the 20th century—was so great.

And most memorable of all:

(1) The Long Grey Line

Recreation of probably the most historically significant football game ever played. Notre Dame at West Point in 1913. Notre Dame takes a stunning 35-13 victory by unleashing—the Passing Attack.

Before that football was a running, grind it out on the ground kind of game. Yes, the forward pass was recognized in the rule book, but it was nothing more than a novelty—a trick play. On those rare occasions where it was used, you did it one time, everyone got a good laugh, and then you went back to playing real football.

The difference in this game was that it wasn’t a novelty. Notre Dame built their whole offense around the pass, and Army—the highly ranked powerhouse heavily favored to win—was finished. No way were they going to figure out pass defense in a couple of hours.

And the game of football was forever changed.

And you need to be in English class learning the difference between your and you're.

I’m sympathetic to your position, but I also think that the preservation of the vocabulary and grammatical forms of the English language, as we learned them, is a lost cause.

“Your†and “You’re,†“To†and “Too and “Twoâ€,†“Their†and “They’re†and “There,†etc.—there are fewer and fewer people who know the difference, and probably even fewer who care.

And I don’t know how many times I’ve heard supposedly educated commentators make statements like, “Your facts are wrong.†I was once up for jury duty and listened in dismay as a lawyer, of all people, told us certain facts would be presented during the trial. And if selected for the jury our job would be to decide whether or not those facts were true.

Gee! Where I grew up having to decide if a fact is true was kind of like having to decide if the color blue is blue. I wish I had raised my hand and asked the lawyer to give me an example of a fact that isn’t true.

Maybe I’ll do that next time, even though I still think it’s a lost cause.

the stangs still have 3hard games in front of them to play :D . if these kids win all there games ,who might be there first game be with TEXAS ARE LSU  just kidding you tell me

Mrs. Oglesbee would have taken a whip to you if you had ever turned something like that in.

Just kidding!

Here are a couple of pages from the Houston Chronicle website that I've found to be helpful during hurricane season.

The first is to the Sciguy blog. For the past three years or so that I've been following his tropical storm system analysis, I've found him to be highly reliable. He definitely knows his stuff, and does an impressively detailed analysis, and explanation, of all the relevant data. There are lots of other weather reports (and rumors) available, but this guy usually hits the nail right on the head.

The second is to the tropical weather page. This sort of brings all the information together. You can go from there to details on any current tropical storm, including the latest computer models and official forecasts.

Anyway, based on the latest information, I'm feeling increasingly confident that the SE Texas area, from the state line westward to Houston is going to be OK. The lastest Sciguy blog gives the details.

I don’t know if this counts because it didn’t happen in a regular football game or on a regular football field. It did happen in a regulation college intramural football game, played on a regulation intramural football field, though.

My roommate, Chuck, was playing on one of the teams, and they didn’t exactly set the league on fire, as they lost every game. But on one occasion Chuck was a participant in a play that can probably be considered funny, and was certainly one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever seen on a football field.

It was the final game, and the other team was having an easy time dispatching Chuck and his teammates. They had already scored two touchdowns and were cruising to their third. And when the opportunity presented itself they threw a pass. The intended receiver was wide open in the end zone. Chuck should have been covering him but he wasn’t anywhere near. He did try to correct the situation when he realized where the pass was going. He came charging up as fast as he could, but with no hope of getting there in time to break up the pass.

However it had rained recently, the grass was slick, and suddenly Chuck’s feet shot right out from under him. He went into an uncontrollable skid, with his body almost parallel with the ground and his arms flailing wildly. And since he was approaching on the back side of the intended receiver, that fellow had no idea what was happening to Chuck. He was just standing there, apparently all alone in the end zone, watching the easy pass glide toward his hands.

I was watching too, as a spectator standing on the other side of the lines marking the playing field, and I had a close up view of what happened. The ball arrived, right on target, right in the intended receiver’s hands. A half second later, it couldn’t have been as long as one full second, it must have been less, Chuck’s slide came to an end as he skidded flat on his back into the intended receiver’s ankles. The intended receiver, who didn’t see this coming and was completely unprepared for a chop to his ankles, was so startled that he dropped the ball. Which landed squarely on Chuck’s chest. And Chuck instinctively clutched the ball with his arms. I was watching and I’m not sure Chuck was even aware of what he was doing.

The official was standing there watching too, and three things were evident. (1) The ball made contact with the intended receiver’s hands before Chuck hit his ankles. (2) The intended receiver never had possession. (3) The ball never touched the ground. And so the official immediately ruled the play an interception.

Chuck didn’t have a chance to celebrate, though. He came out of it with a badly sprained ankle, and was on crutches for the next few weeks. Which wiped out his plans to play intramural basketball that season.

Football—it’s a great game.

I believe it was 1981 when TJ played OP in Dallas for the the State title.  I still think we should have gone for the tie and gone in to overtime.  Thompson went for the win.

I remember that game. There was no chance of overtime in that game if I remember correctly. TJ would have won the game on first down stats. I remember in the paper that Thompson said that a tie was like kissing your sister. TJ tried a Rizal dazzle play and fumbled. OP came back and made one more penetration to win the game if my memory serves me correctly.

Once again I have to disagree. There was no possibility of overtime, since overtime did not exist in college or high school football back then. If the score was tied at the end of regulation play, then the game ended as a tie.

At the same time there was considerable misunderstanding of the use of “penetrations†during playoff games. Often when a playoff game ended in a tie the statement would be made that Team A had “won the game on penetrations.†Incorrect because regardless of whether the game is played in regular season or in the playoffs, a tie is a tie and neither team “won.â€

The difference is that in all playoff games, except for the finals, one team must advance to the next round and the other team must be eliminated. In most playoff games it’s easy to determine which because one team has more points on the scoreboard when time expires and therefore “wins†the game. However if the game ends in a tie, neither team wins, but one of them must still advance to the next round. Therefore some other means of making that determination must be used, which is where penetrations, and then first downs (if necessary), and then total yards (if necessary) comes in.

Yes, when one team advances and the other is eliminated it does give an appearance that the one team “won†and the other “lost.†But regardless of that the only way to win a game is to outscore your opponent. Therefore it is incorrect to say that "Team A won on penetrations." The correct statement is that "Team A advanced on penetrations." Advanced, not won.

The difference in the finals is that neither team will advance to the next round as there is no next round to advance to. The team with the most points wins the game and the state championship. If the score is tied neither team wins and the two teams are co-championships. And all your penetrations and first downs and total yards combined with a big chunk of your paycheck will buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

who was the mustangs playing in the dome for state when this kid made a stop on the one yard line and wo-s wins state. now that game keep every one on the edge of there seats

McKinney

I’m going to have to offer a different answer.

In 1986 WOS played McKinney in the Astrodome in the final game. At the end of the third quarter WOS was ahead 21-3, but McKinney scored in the opening seconds of the fourth. The two point conversion attempt failed and the score remained 21-9. Which meant McKinney would need two touchdowns to win. Field goals wouldn’t do it, and they had an excellent kicker.

After the McKinney score WOS couldn’t move and had to punt. And then astonishingly McKinney burned off practically the entire fourth quarter on their next drive. Would have been sound strategy if they only needed one score, but as they slowly moved down the field and the time evaporated they left themselves with no choice but the onside kick option. If they could get the first touchdown.

As it turned out they didn’t. They got close, but I don’t think they made it to the 1 yard line. On fourth down they were still far enough out to not try the run. They threw a pass, the defense was there and it was incomplete. WOS retained the 21-9 lead and easily ran out the few seconds that remained on the clock.

One year later, in 1987, WOS played Kerrville Tivy in the semi-final game, in the Astrodome. The score was tied at 7-7 and Tivy had the ball on the one yard line, on fourth down. WOS had called their defense, but as Tivy came out of their huddle, Quentin Tezeno (hope that’s spelled correctly) intensely studied their formation and shifting. And he recognized something he had seen them do one time before. Tezeno concluded that Tivy would run the same play which was the quarterback rolling to his left and then handing the ball on a reverse to a guy coming back to the right.

And having drawn that conclusion, Tezeno ignored the called for defensive assignment and charged through the middle of the Tivy line the instant the ball was snapped. And when the Tivy man came back on the reverse Tezeno was right there to put the hit on him on the four yard line, which was as close as he ever got to the goal line.

That fired WOS up and they took control of the game. Tivy never again threatened. And the following week WOS won the final game and claimed their second state championship.

let me go back  more in years.stark hight school and PN-G   4 sec on the clock pngs ball no time outs on on the tigers 5 yard line 4th down ,PNG sent in a play with 4 players no one came off PN-G wins the game and  dist champs   OH I WAS SICK but thats the brakes of the game ,i forgot what year sorry

That would be 1961. It’s hard to remember now in light of all these years of WOS glory, how frustratingly unsuccessful the Stark HS football program was. There were a few bright spots, but they were exceedingly rare.

As for 1961, Stark had pulled off an astonishing victory over TJ. I believe it was about the fourth or fifth time the Tigers had beaten the Yellow Jackets in the approximately 70 year history of the rivalry. But that win preserved a possibility that Stark could tie for first place in district and qualify as the (one and only back in those days) team to advance to the playoffs. But they had to win the final game at PNG. And they had the lead until the final play.

Later on during that pre-Beatles year there was a briefly popular sentimental song titled “We Will Have These Moments To Remember.†The Stark kids modified one of the lines to say, “The quiet walks, the noisy fun, The ball game that we almost won.†It’s hard to remember now in light of all these years of WOS glory, how desperately the Stark kids longed for some kind of athletic success.

And when talking about Stark there are so many other games that might be mentioned, where things almost went their way. The memories remain, but not the emotions. Nearly half a century has passed and it’s long since time to let it go.

We played Sulphur and Lake Charles La Grange when I went to Stark.They were always a  good ball club and made for some good games.It was fun playing teams out of state.

My memories from the same time and place, are that yes, those games were usually close, but there was one downside to it. The visiting team and fans, who were playing in a different state, always felt they were victimized by unfair and unreasonable calls by the officials.

Those little things, little variations on the normal rules, that might affect the outcome of the game. Such as getting a flag for violating the rule that says the offensive linemen are not allowed to block if the line of scrimmage is inside the five yard line.

Little things like that.

1. True incident. A defensive lineman being interviewed after the game.

"They rushed for three yards in the first half, so we made some adjustments at halftime and held them to two yards in the second half."

2. After losing the coin toss in every game that season, the coach told the reporters, "Next year I'm going to recruit a gambler."

3. "We had a very distinguished defensive line. They came in second in the voting for the Nobel Peace Prize."

It seems to me a lot of people have the wrong idea about this game. So to set the record straight:

West Orange-Stark doesn't have to play Waco La Vega.

Waco La Vega has to play West Orange-Stark!!!!!

What's all this for? Isn't this a day for SE Texas to come together and celebrate?

I put a different subject line on this reply. Hope it fits.

Here's hoping he can play and both teams will be at full strength this Friday night.

For a game of this magnitude that's the way it should be.

There were a lot of great ones for sure. I just never personally saw them when they were playing on the HS level.

But out of the ones I did see:

Steve Worster, Bridge City 1964-66

Here's another name.

Wynn Pearce--Television actor

Anything can happen on any Friday night.

Maybe so.

But Coldspring will (ahem) entertain West Orange-Stark on Saturday afternoon.

I'm not sure but I know yall got a dang good superintendant. And a good coaching staff, And I know the 8th grade bunch you have coming up is really good. So maybe it wont be long.

The best 8th grade team I ever saw was the 1961 group from the Jr. High (Carr) that led to Orange Stark. I think they played an eight game schedule. What I do remember is the result. This is fact. They won all their games, and every one was a shutout. No opponent ever scored on them.

As I said, they were the best 8th grade team I ever saw.

Incidentally, in 1965 when the same group of players were Seniors at Stark, their season record was 2-8.

What did Mother Goose say? Don't count your chickens before they hatch?

I’d never say, “Never,†but there’s a lot of history and emotion working against it.

Long ago, before most of you were born—and aren’t those words enough to turn you off—so why don’t we take a break so all disinterested parties can tune out.

***

OK, if anyone is still here: Back in the mid-1960’s Orange Stark was the big 4A school, 4A being what 5A is now. And this was back in the days of segregation. Bridge City was 3A (today’s 4A), West Orange was 2A (3A), Little Cypress and Mauriceville were separate schools, and Orangefield was Orangefield.

Stark had the size, but West Orange had the money. The Orange people wanted to tap into the money, and so they tried to push the idea of a big merger. Stark and West Orange for sure, plus Bridge City and Little Cypress. And maybe Orangefield.

When it was put to a vote, the people in Orange always approved it. The people in the other communities always voted it down by a huge margin. So Orange went to Plan B. They dissolved the Orange ISD, and forced the West Orange ISD to take them over. I think the court battles over that went on for years.

At the same time the integration process resulted in a lot of “White Flight†to the West Orange schools. And with West Orange ISD in control, the West Orange schools got the best of everything, and the Orange schools got the meager leftovers. There was a lot of bad blood between the two high schools.

In the late 1970’s economics finally forced a merger between West Orange and Stark, but there was still a lot of mutual animosity to overcome.

So don’t expect Bridge City, Orangefield and LC-M to go along with any merger with Orange. They’ve been fighting to maintain their independence for decades and are not going to just give it up.

WO-S should be pretty good next year. To give them a good tune up for district and a run for state let me suggest the following non-district schedule:

1. Rice

2. Notre Dame

3. Houston Texans

Let’s face it. If any other school had the same record West Orange-Stark has, their fans would be trumpeting that record as proof of their greatness.

The only reason someone makes light of that record is because it doesn’t belong to him and his.

My local newspaper likes to "spin" things.

Jasper takes 2nd place. WOS finishes next to last.

Mergers happen. Whether they should or not is a good philosophical question. And sometimes it can be a very emotionally charged transition. Like when two historically rival schools are put together.

But the kids deserve a break. Somebody is going to have to be a Senior or Junior, etc. in that first year or two of consolidation. And no one gets to rearrange the calendar of life. You get your teenage years/your high school years when they come, and when that phase of life is over, it never comes around again.

So if we were loyal to our schools and proud of their history and traditions, then the next group of kids needs to have that too. Even if they have to be there when the merger happens. We who went before can keep our pride and loyalty to the schools we had, but should also promote, starting with day one, the idea that this new school is something good too.