Dawg#

I posted in a thread earlier which got locked shortly thereafter, but it dealt with this same discussion:
"Lumberton, LC-M, Bridge City, Hamshire Fannett (Include Huffman, if you wish) 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..."
 

So I am curious who supports or do not support High School football during Thanksgiving break? I am 100% a football guy and there is something special about playing football during the Thanksgiving break. Heck memories of doing walk through practices on Thanksgiving day will never be forgotten. I attended the Huffman vs Carthage game and was embarrassed for Huffman and the community. Huffman had maybe 15 band members, a handful of their dance team, no cheer leaders, and missing some players who i guess had prior engagements. . I don't get it!!!!!! Yet across the way, Carthage had the stands full, band was in full effect, cheerleaders, drill team, blow horns, YOU NAME IT, Carthage had it all. Obviously Huffman band, drill team, hell even the football team were not aware there was a 2nd round playoff game happening. Yes I get it, the odds were against you going against the 2018 STATE CHAMPIONS. (Yes they win it all this year) but how in the heck does Huffman allow players, drill team members, band team, cheer leaders, all just not participate in this game? The season is not over people. If I hear, this is just HS football again, I am going to blow! LOL

I know 2 or 3 coaches over there. I know some are really good coaches. Not saying that a change isn’t good sometimes. But guys, high school football is like poker in a lot of ways. You may win with a crappy hand. But at some point the bluff runs out. You can also lose with a winning hand too. Happens all the time. But, by and large, if you’re a good poker player, after all the hands are dealt, you should come out a winner over a period of time. The one variable is the cards. Crappy cards, usually means a crappy hand. If an amateur gets 4 aces, and a seasoned pro gets a pair of 3’s, the pro is gonna lose. LC-M is in the middle - more like a straight. Decent players (cards), but playing against a full house. You’re not gonna talk that other player into folding a full house. So you lose. Here’s the key. Get better cards. How do you do that? Stack the deck! Make better players. You can only play the cards you’re dealt. But you gotta start building that deck even before those kids get into Jr. High. Winning is an attitude. WOS, Newton, Carthage and many many more schools around the state Win year in and year out. Even with different coaches. It’s the attitude that winning is the only acceptable answer. If you hear someone say, “maybe next year”, “hopefully we move down “, “we need new coaches” every 2 or 3 years, and the like, that program is destined to fail. Winning is an attitude, a tradition, a way of life. Maybe a coaching change would be good. But if you don’t have an entire community - especially the student athletes - devoted to winning, then quit simply you won’t. Start stacking that deck right now and believe. 

Lumberton players and coaches prepared the best they could and fought hard but the better team won. Henderson was bigger, faster and stronger than Lumberton.  Could we have won? Absolutely, and that's why we play the game. We fought hard, took some chances but came up short. It's very similar to this thing called LIFE.  Our soph QB did a great job all season after being thrust into being the starter early in the season. A receiver became our starting RB(and a damn good one), coaches changed the offense mid-year and everyone learned to fight their asses off to overcome challenges. Isn't that what high school athletics is supposed to be about? Teaching kids life lessons so they can grow into hard working, respectable young men & women capable of making a positive contribution to this world.  We do these young men a disservice and prevent them from becoming what they could be, when we blame coaches, the offensive scheme, the refs, the announcer and anything else we disagree with. If we want to win more games, try encouraging these boys to spend more time in the weight room, on the track/field/hills, at the meal table and spending less time playing video games, on social media, drinking soda and vaping. Let's quit looking for someone else to blame for our own shortcomings. The worst thing we can do as parents and leaders is to teach these kids to become Victims. We have enough victim mentality in this world already.  
Good win Henderson. Good season Raiders. Keep working hard and getting better. 

Actually at a pep rally before the year started Coach Babin told everybody that we WILL stand for the national anthem and honor our country (and he was talking to the community not just the team)... that’s where it all begins.

I dont know the full story and I just hope justice (whatever it is) is served. To the best of my knowledge Surratt has ran a clean program and deserves the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. 

I’m not going to speak much on this, but you guys are crazy if you think Surratt would risk his rep over a QB. They grow on trees in Carthage. When all this happened he was the JV QB, with zero garunatees he would be the starter on varsity. Look at the dates. And I promise Carthage did not need him to win a championship this year. There was 2-3 other kids that we would’ve won with. When you have 3 pretty much D1 receivers and the number 1 back in the state, a lot of kids would be “star quarterbacks”. 

It’s a really gray area... if the school was to punish the player based on an allegation that tuned out to be untrue or unproven, we’d be reading about the player’s family suing the school instead. 
I strongly suspect that the school WOULD have acted if the player was actually charged with a crime. That’s where Silsbee got into a jam a few years back... they were still having a “hands off” approach even after a grand jury felt there was adequate evidence to charge several players. 
 
Im not interested in rehashing the Silsbee incident, just using the event as an illustration. 

Let me play devil's advocate......What do we do with the fact that there were no criminal charges brought up and this is all stemming from a civil lawsuit? Surratt doesn't strike me as a guy would cover up this type of crime on account of a player, one who wasn't even considered to the a star when it happened, and a coach on his staff. Do you all think we are rushing to judgement here?

Exactly. All the haters jump on Carthage for losing games every year. This is the same way we schedule. Same as this year. Carthage has a legit chance to start 2-3. But I would rather be 13-3, than 10-1. Winning the last game of the year is the only one that matters.

Well that video is no good. It showed Hendo scoring a TD and last time I checked they had a goose egg. 

I believe it. Can’t wait to watch y’all again in Dallas this year. 

I don't know why y'all brought Gilmer into this, but I'll give my 2 cents.
Gilmer's offense is built to score points.  Despite what a lot of people "think", they never tried to intentionally run the score up on anybody.  They will come at you full throttle with the passing game, then start running.  It's tough on defenses because they get gassed with the pace of Gilmer's offense, hence the scores keep coming even when the second team is playing.  Their offense doesn't use clock for their possessions until late 3rd or 4th quarter, and can usually score on any given play.  When Gilmer does get a big lead, it's still hard to stop it, especially when they have the talent they've had in the past.
Carthage has a very different philosophy.  They will score plenty of points, then rely on their defense to continue to make stops.  Gilmer, and I absolutely hate to say this, doesn't play the kind of defense that can shut the other team down.  Carthage can.
I'm also pretty sure that if Carthage wanted to they could score 60 points a game, especially this season.  I also think there are a couple of teams left that can give Carthage a very good game because they play good defense.  One of those teams is La Vega.
Yes, I think Carthage can be beat, but it'll take one heckuva team to do it.  I'm not sure there's one out there at this point, but you never really know.  The X Factor that Carthage has is Coach Scott Surratt and his excellent staff.  They know how to game plan.  They can make in game adjustments on the fly, as well as halftime adjustments like no other staff I've seen.  They know how to win.  Period.

No they aren’t especially when Carthage is in the mix along with the rest of their district 

No! If Silsbee wants to have a payback, then that's the sport to do it in. It might even be more lopsided than the football game, just the other way around.

Scott Suratt at Carthage is possibly a top 5 coach in the state regardless of classification.  One of the best defensive coaches in the state, IMO to go along with Gary Joseph and Cornell Thompson.
Suratt outcoaches just about everyone, not just the Silsbee staff.

I wouldn't get too worked up if I was a Silsbee fan. I don't think people believe Carthage fans when they say this is the best team we have ever seen at Carthage. Carthage could be scoring 80 a game if they wanted. Nobody will stay within 14 points of Carthage this year. You saw last night what we love about Surratt and the reason sometimes Carthage is not given their due. It could've easily been 100-21 last night. Silsbee was not doing any more scoring coming out of the half. Surratt called it off and let y'all leave with a 64-36 loss. Even your area fans can say "I knew Silsbee would score" and "y'all put up 36 points on the #1 team". But the people at the game know better. Silsbee had a respectable season, and what looks like a good future. Congrats on a 3rd round appearance. Hope to see you guys again next year.

Was that Adrian Peterson wearing #28 for Carthage?? Lol

Congrats Carthage on a well played game, good luck the rest of the way. TigerNation!!!

You talking about the (11-4) Carthage team, that was heavy underdogs against Navasota, and lost their sophomore stud RB (Ingram) the week before to an ankle injury? I mean, they did lose 4 games. Weren't even a first seed. That team, wouldn't make a pimple on this team's... You know. Carthage literally just put up 64 points in the first half against a good Silsbee team in the qtr final round of the playoffs. This team is something very special.
 

Good job Dawgs.

A complete stud

As good as advertised, if not better imo

No questions as to Carthage being #1

You can join us after tonight! Carthage is just a treat to watch. In a way, I hope for Silsbee's sake it's a good, close game. But, at the same time, I hope you get to see why they're ranked #1 in the state.
 
Good luck to you guys! I just pray for a clean game, and the players can leave it all out on the field! What a great sport this is to be able to watch and play!