SmashMouth

Lumberton, LC-M, Bridge City, Hamshire Fannett and other teams that don't consistently win will never consistently win. It's not because their coach sucks, or there kids "just aren't as big as kids on the other team" or because select baseball or band or because no one gives them a chance or BLAH BLAH BLAH and the sickening list goes on and on... The kids, the parents, the community, the fans, the school system - they are all complacent. Until that kid wakes up at 5:30 each morning and gets a run or a lifting workout in before school or goes to the gym on the weekends and eats a good diet to pack on some beneficial muscle mass and gets some other leaders from his team to force all the other kids to join him, then it will never work. Those kids need to be salesmen for the team. Talk it up with the band kids or soccer athletes or baseball players that don't play football and try to get them to play. Until the student athlete takes control of every aspect of his athletic ability and knowledge of his position, then it will never work. Until the parents quit bitching about the coaches' crappy decisions about who should start at QB, until they nudge their athlete at an early age to condition and stay active and athletic, until every parent of an athlete joins the booster club and actually does more than pay their once a year dues, until they are ALL IN on their town's football program, then it will never work. Until the community & fans backs the football program like they do at PN-G where season tickets are passed down from generation to generation, until every business owner has the school colors in their windows during football season, until the people who pass an athlete in a letter jacket at the grocery store and tell him "Good Luck" or "Go Bears", until Friday night stands are packed out with folks that don't even have a kid on the team, then it will never work. What does the school district need to provide? A coaching staff. I'm not knocking ANY of the coaches in our area. Quite frankly, I know several of them, and they are pretty good guys that feed their families by coaching high school sports. But if I have the means, and I want to win, I'm getting the best that's available. Not just from an X's and O's standpoint, but someone that can help turn a program around. Someone that can not only draw up plays and prepare for their opponents week to week, but someone that can help with the kids and the parents and the community issues above. How many coaches of what would be considered average schools in this area have had consistent 4 deep playoff runs? How many have been to state more than once (or ever)? ANY? More like none. Forget the pretty turf stadium (Lumberton, for instance) and spend that money on a coach. Until the school and the community are willing to pay, then it will never work. A very good friend of mine who has coached at a lot of schools coaches at WOS. He says the atmosphere there is much more different than you find at the "average" schools. Until the atmosphere changes and people quit being complacent, and until it makes each player AND parent AND fan AND school teacher/administrator AND anyone else in the community physically ill to lose, then it will never work. Winning is not just a goal, but an expectation. Anything less isn't good enough...

Thanks.

What was the total possible?

Who was it?

e Coli tastes good if you just sprinkle some Tony’s on it...

Let’s go Big Ned! Represent SETX as the best football schools in the state.

This bolded part of this post should be printed out, framed and put on every athlete’s and parent’s wall.

Interesting fact, I think Boykin’s Dad was the leading passer for Lumberton in their district in 1985...

HH has zero chance in this. Good luck and a safe game to all.

I know we all have many things to be thankful for. Most of all our Creator, who sacrificed his only son to give us Eternal life. We also have family, friends and loved ones to be thankful for. But I would like to give thanks for ALL of our children who participate in one way or another to the great game of Texas High School Football! Also to ALL the coaches, parents, faculty and others who support these young men and women. Not just players, but trainers, cheerleaders, band members, drill teams, flag, twirlers, and anybody else that becomes a part of the AWESOME thing we love so much. I pray that all the teams do their best and are blessed with good health and a memorable experience. Finally, thanks to all you posters and admins for making this site a fun place to chatter about the game of football. Happy Thanksgiving!

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but: * Were you at the LC-M when the Raiders got pitched a shutout? I would rather face the Wheatley defense than Splendora or LC-M. Wheatley was undisciplined, unmotivated and poorly coached. Good thing for them, so were their Houston area opponents. ** Really? Are you taking into consideration all the injuries? Have you prayed that they don't use their stud WR now QB to throw the ball? Their WR/QB throws more than our QB... Good luck to the Raiders, but y'all march forward realistically. Don't want any kids reading this thinking they will be just fine... Can they beat Henderson? Maybe. Is it a long shot? Hmmmmm...

Rain sucks!

I hate to speak for 'Grad, but I believe he was being facetious, as was I in my original post that he commented on. Many teams were left off the Pick-Ems the previous week, because they played on Thursday (WOS for instance). A few people got bent out of shape about it even after AAW explained that they only picked 25 teams & didn't use the Thursday games to give more time for the participants to get their Pick Ems in (which I jokingly said was "silly"). Hope this makes sense - to all others, I will never post a silly comment that will cause confusion again... Well, probably not.

There should be a comma between “defense” and “and”... It’s a compound sentence. ...thought you might appreciate that.

You should give that same advice to everyone else on this thread. That’s my exact point. Why are we going off of rumors and innuendo?

You’re silly.

Look, I was pointing out the stupidity of this entire thread... No one that I know of said that. If they had, it would've been hearsay, rumor, what ever you want to call it. Just like about 99% of the silly comments on the last 4 pages (and growing). Btw, did you actually say "electronic mail"? Lol! Should I use my "cellular device" to call the school? Lighten up everyone... Here's an actual excerpt of another silly post when I said all this crap was heresay: This is not hear say. The guy was yelling that the o-line sucked and shouldn't be allowed on the field. Then started singleing out certain kids and berating them and that's when Faircloth went off on him. "This comes from a person in the know and heard everything." (In other words, someone told you this and you are reporting it - rumor/heresay...) So funny... People are silly.

Why? What harm is being done?

Tigers by 10

How can we find out for sure... That would be pretty interesting.

I know you have. And that's good. I just know that on this board, on TV, on other boards, publications, etc., we refer to "them" as Dims, Idiots, and other names. It just doesn't have to be so divisive. Do I think very lowly of some Liberals - Damn right. This new Occasional-Cortez girl that just hit the scene needs to be done away with. But the polarization is honestly just giving her more fire. We cannot afford people like her to hold office.

I heard the guy in the stands was starting crap with the coach about the ipad scam from a couple weeks back. I heard that the coach finally went off on him because of what the fan was saying about him cheating the kids out of a win. Anyone hear that?

I agree with right and wrong on certain things - just not everything. I'm not so self-involved to think that me or my side is ALWAYS right and someone else that disagrees with me or my side is ALWAYS wrong.

I never said you had to compromise EVERYTHING. I never said you had to sell your soul... I said this: "Can we do that as a country ever again? Can anyone on this site even begin a discussion with someone who has differing opinions? I would love to hear a discussion every once in a while without name calling or total rejection of differing ideas." Neither "side" can even agree on the smallest of things. It's ludicrous! I guarantee if you and I, LumRaiderFan, sit down to a discussion (even though we are both conservatives), we will not agree 100% on every issue. And that's ok. We may not change each other's mind either. And that's ok. But, I bet we don't resort to name-calling and bashing one another...simply because we are on the "same side". Answer me this: Do you think Ted Cruz, Donald Trump or any other high level Republican really give two turds about me or you? Hell No! Nor does Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi (both of whom I despise) give a rat's rear end about any John Doe Democrat walking down the street. They are all in it for themselves either monetarily or because of some power trip. I still voted for a straight Republican ticket. But don't think for a minute that ANYONE in Washington has our back. This is just my opinion, of course. We are on our own, and we have got to learn some civility. Being civil doesn't mean compromising everything. There is not just Left or Right, Right or Wrong, Red or Blue...

Where do we start... I rarely watch the news anymore. Although I have fairly conservative views, I like to hear a balanced news report. Used to, the news meant some middle-aged white guy dressed in a suit & tie got on TV and told us about what airplane got hi-jacked, some political crap, some military altercation, a feature story about a dog that sky-dives and then a brief summary of the nation's weather. End of story. Were there left and right tendencies in the report? Some. But not like today... Used to when you went to vote, you might actually think that either side might have a few good ideas. Now, it's so Left vs. Right, it's ridiculous. Is Trump perfect? No. Was Either Bush perfect? No. Was Reagan Perfect? No. Was Obama perfect? No. Was Bill Clinton perfect? No. Was Carter Perfect? No. You see where I'm going with this? Nobody from EITHER side is perfect. Let's take the converse - Did ANY of the above do something good EVER in their political careers? Of course they did. Everyone of them. But here we are. As polarized as a country can be. No middle ground. No Give and Take. It's all either Red or Blue. Compromise is all but an afterthought. What will it take for us to come together? I have a VERY Liberal nephew. Smart kid (26), but his political and social ideology is at the far end of the spectrum compared to mine. We actually discuss issues civilly with each other. We rarely see totally eye to eye, but at least we concede that the other has good points and arguments. Can we do that as a country ever again? Can anyone on this site even begin a discussion with someone who has differing opinions? I would love to hear a discussion every once in a while without name calling or total rejection of differing ideas. I bet it's not possible...