Lancers clean up in style

Lancers clean up in style
Londonderry 40, Dover 21
By PETER LEBLANC, Telegraph Correspondent


DOVER – Londonderry coach Tom Sawyer, the old dog of Division I football coaches, had no interest in new tricks Friday at Dunaway Field.

His Lancers showcased his – dare we call it – outdated single-wing offense in what proved to be a 40-21 tournament tune-up against Division II Dover High School.

"I started with the single wing way back in 1980," said Sawyer, who plans on retiring after the season. "And, I'm going out with the single wing. We have the right guys in the backfield."

That backfield includes running back Alex Theodhosi, who has now rushed for 1,669 yards this season.

Theodhosi scored three touchdowns with 168 yards on the ground against a Green Wave defense that was simply overmatched by the bigger Lancers (5-3 in Division I).

Fourth-seeded Londonderry will await the Division I pairings with Nashua South and Pinkerton Academy determining the No. 1 seed with their 2 p.m. game this afternoon.

Both coaches hoped to escape without any injuries or bad habits in a game that meant nothing in the standings.

"We looked at it as a game that we needed to get some work done," Dover coach Ken Osbon said. "I told the kids 'We're going to try to win this game, but we're going to get some work in.'

"Two seconds after this game we were telling the kids to dial it in for Bishop Guertin."

Dover has earned the third seed in Division II and will head to Nashua to play No. 2 Bishop Guertin while No. 1 Exeter awaits Saturday's results for its first-round opponent.

Theodhosi, meanwhile, had a rough week as he was hobbled by a bruised heel that kept him out of practice.

Then, during a game-opening 11-yard run he bit a small piece of his tongue off that kept him out until midway through the first quarter.

As Sawyer said, though, he has personnel beyond his star back to get the job done, illustrated by Kyle Connors (two rushes, 103 yards, two TDs) scampering 24 yards for Londonderry's first touchdown just four plays into the game while Theodhosi tended his injury.

While athletic quarterback Ryan Griffin (just one throw for 10 yards) didn't need to show any passing prowess, he was key in the single wing formation, keeping Dover off balance and rushing for a fourth-quarter touchdown and 91 yards himself.

Griffin also caught a pass from Craig Enos, lining up as a wideout and hauling in a tight 16-yard strike down the left sideline in the second quarter.

"He can do it all," Sawyer said. "I told him when we got him back from New Hampton – he said 'coach, are you going to use me at tight end?' and I told him you're going . . . to go where the action is."

With the Connors, Griffin, Theodhosi trifecta combining for 362 rushing yards Friday, that old single-wing isn't looking so bad.

Coach's Report: Mountain Brook Athletics 5th grade Colts

Coach's Report:

Pat Cope

Mountain Brook Athletics 5th grade Colts

Birmingham, Alabama

..

I coached a group of 5th graders in Birmingham, Alabama this year. After using the Reed based single wing a couple of years ago, this year I got all of Dave Cisar's stuff and put it in.

My team had a 8-2 record and won our league championship. We scored the most points in the league, allowed the least, and dominated time of possession. I don't consider myself a particularly good coach, so I give all the credit for this year's success to the great coaches at the Single Wing Etc. Football Forum who helped me out tremendeously.

What I learned This Year:

1) The single wing absolutely eats up the clock. The biggest reason our defense was good was because they didn't have to be on the field much.

2)16 power, the base play of the single wing, will over the course of a game absolutely wear a defense out. Even when we struggled with it early in games, it ALWAYS worked late. In a couple of tight games we played I was having trouble with my play calling in the second half, so I defaulted to 16 power. We then ran it down their throats and even though the defense knew it was coming, there wasn't a darn thing they could do about it.

3)The single wing offense makes your team tough, both offensively and defensively.

4) The single hardest point to teach the running backs was to run a wide loop on sweeps. They always want to cut it up too soon. I should have repped it more.

5) My best blocking AND tackling drill was a 3 on three sweep drill. Two lead blockers and a ball carrier against a defensive end, linebacker and defensive back. The kids loved it.

6)Dynamic warm ups are great - kids get loose in a lot less time and the kids seem to like it much better than traditional warm ups.

7) I told them at the beginning of the year that I would only make them run if they blew their mental assignments in practice. The threat of wind sprints increased their concentration a thousand fold.

8)When the defense cheats to the strong side you can throw to the backside tight end all day long.

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Single-Wing Sentinel Editor's Note: Congratulations to Coach Pat Cope & his Colts!

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Single-Wing Miners get Breakthrough Win

If you cant't beat them join them: Even the Commodores tried their hand at the Single-Wing.

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Published: November 03, 2007 12:26 am
Linton Miners get breakthrough win over Perry Central for sectional title

By Andy Amey
The Tribune-Star

LINTON — The first few minutes may have won the Class A Sectional 40 high school football championship for host Linton on Friday night.

But if they didn’t, the first few moments of the second half removed all doubt as the Miners cruised to a 35-14 victory over second-ranked Perry Central.

In a battle of unbeaten teams, the home team struck immediately when Levi Baysinger recovered a Perry Central fumble on the opening kickoff and Mickey Tosti scored on a 24-yard run two plays later. With less than a minute gone, the fourth-ranked Miners were ahead 7-0.

Three plays later, after a third-down sack by Jathan Wright stopped the Commodores on their first offensive series, Linton’s Jaron Powell blocked a punt. And on fourth-and-goal from the 3, Ethan Brewer battled his way across the goal line to give the Miners a 14-0 lead with 6:43 left in the first quarter.

“I’ve never seen our kids come out so jacked in my life,” coach Steve Weber of the Miners said later. “I don’t know what we did [to get them so ready], but we’re going to do it again next week.”

If the rest of the first half was scoreless, it was not uneventful. The Commodores, with senior Bo Gibson embellishing his all-state possibilities by running (186 yards eventually) and then moving to tailback in a single-wing attack at times, and with 375-pound Robbie Piper occasionally lining up as a blocking back and leading plays behind his 335-pound brother at tackle, looked ready to put a drive together at any time, and late in the half they did.

A trade of interceptions — Gibson getting the one for the Commodores, Linton’s Cameron Coleman answering on the very next play — had been exciting enough, then the visitors started to march. Going from their 29, they got to the Linton 7-yard line in a first-and-goal situation. Two plays later, it was third and goal at the 4.

But inexplicably, the Commodores didn’t hand the ball to Gibson on either of their next two plays. Quarterback Austin Hauser was sacked on third down by Coleman, Stefan Sparks and J.D. Fish, and on fourth down Hauser was dumped by defensive end Dustin Turpin on an option play.

“We just knew we had to play fast,” Turpin said after the game. “Shut ‘em down, get the momentum on our side and put the game in the bag.”

“[Perry Central] has come back from a deficit like that and put up 40 points on people,” Linton defensive coordinator Mike Hayden said afterward. “But if we stop them, we get a shift in momentum. The kids came up with some big plays down there.”

Just 2:01 remained until halftime when the Miners took over on their 4. But two big runs by Brewer and one by quarterback Keith Cunningham not only got the Miners out of the hole, they almost led to a Linton scoring drive. Gibson got his second interception of the half with four seconds left, however.

And the momentum definitely had shifted back to the home team. Linton took the second-half kickoff and marched 65 yards in seven plays, with Brewer scoring on a 12-yard run; the Linton defense posted another three-and-out; Evan Magni returned the Perry Central punt 26 yards to the Commodore 35-yard line; and six plays later the Miners scored again, this time on a 7-yard run by Tosti, for a 28-0 lead with 5:47 left in the third quarter.

After Perry Central drove into Linton territory only to lose the ball on downs, the Miners drove for another score, putting the game out of reach at 35-0 with 8:36 left in the game.

“Us being in tight games [during the regular season] helped us out,” Weber said later, “and our guys are in pretty good shape.

“With a team like [the Commodores], they’re never out of it. We knew we had to do something right off the bat [in the second half].”

Perry Central showed its mettle by scoring twice late, overcoming a second-and-39 situation on the first drive, but the Miners were giving some younger defenders experience by that point.

“We’d love to have a shutout, but the defense played hard,” Turpin said. “We respect [the Commodores] a lot, so it would have been great [to get a shutout].”

“It feels great to win,” said Brewer, a standout both running the ball (114 yards, with Tosti adding 104 of his own] and from an inside linebacker position. “We worked out butts off in practice and we knew Perry was a good team, but this year [after losing to Perry Central the last two sectionals] we showed what we can do.

“It was great on both sides of the ball. We listened to our coaches and this it where it took us.”

Powell, a two-way standout as usual, came back from an injury midway through the second half to finish the game on the field. It was not as heroic as it appeared, he said with a laugh afterward.

“Me and [teammate Jarrett Lannan] got excited and I kept running into him,” Powell said. The inadvertant head butt created a slight inconvenience and a bandage above his left eye afterward.

“I got three stitches,” he said. “I was just sitting there on the bench hearing the crowd go crazy, so I was ready to get back in.”



Linton 35, Perry Central 14

Perry Central 0 0 0 14 — 14

Linton 14 0 14 7 — 35

L — Tosti 24 run (Gentry kick)

L — Brewer 3 run (Gentry kick)

L — Brewer 12 run (Gentry kick)

L — Tosti 7 run (Gentry kick)

L — Tosti 2 run (Gentry kick)

PC — Gibson 45 run (Linette kick)

PC — James 12 pass from Gibson (Linette kick)

PC L

First downs 14 16

Rushes-yards 32-182 48-265

Passing yards 134 13

Com-Att-Int 10-18-1 1-4-2

Return yards 30 42

Punts-avg. 2-15 2-31

Fumbles-lost 2-2 0-0

Penalties-yards 5-39 1-5

Individual statistics

Rushing — Perry Central: Gibson 27-186, James 2-4, Hauser 3-minus 8. Linton: Brewer 19-114, Tosti 19-104, Cunningham 8-41, Powell 2-6.

Passing — Perry Central: Gibson 7-8-0, 79 yards; Hauser 3-10-1, 55. Linton: Cunningham 1-4-2, 13.

Receiving — Perry Central: James 5-31, Linette 4-91, Neukam 1-12. Linton: Tharp 1-13.

Next — Linton (12-0) plays next Friday at Rockville. Perry Central finished 11-1.

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• The Tribune Star, 222 South 7th Street, Terre Haute, Indiana 47807


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Lead

Elk Rapids Try to slowdown Menominee & the Single-Wing

Prep Football weekend preview

Suttons Bay, Frankfort, Central Lake host district games; Elks on road

FROM STAFF REPORTS


DIVISION 5

Elk Rapids (8-2)
at Menominee (10-0)
Saturday 1 p.m.

MENOMINEE: The Maroons are riding a 24-game win streak. They opened defense of their state title last Saturday with a 53-7 rout of Manistee.

A year ago, Menominee beat Elk Rapids 62-0 in a first-round district game. It was the Elks first playoff game in school history.

Menominee is led by linebacker Matt Eisenzoph and running back Ethan Shaver. Eisenzoph was the Upper Peninsula Class ABC Defensive Player of the Year. The Maroons first-team defense held Manistee to 16 yards last Saturday.

"When you don't get their middle linebacker (Eisenzoph) blocked, you're in for a long day," Manistee coach Gus Kapolka said. "He's the U.P. Defensive Player of the Year for a reason."

Eisenzoph is also a load offensively in the Maroons' single-wing attack. He ran for 178 yards and two touchdowns in just six carries against the Chippewas.

And he's not even the main threat.

Shaver is the Upper Peninsula's Class ABC Offensive Player of the Year. He's rushed for 1,183 yards and 17 touchdowns. He's also thrown for nine scores. He had 131 yards and three touchdowns on the ground last week.

ELK RAPIDS: The Elks are coming off their first playoff win in school history -- a 14-2 victory over Grayling.

Elk Rapids came up big defensively in stopping Grayling's potent spread offense, but that unit will face a more difficult task in trying to slow Menominee's single-wing attack.

"You can't simulate that in practice," Kapolka said.

The Elks struck quickly to put Grayling in a hole last Friday. Tyler Smith busted two runs off tackle for first quarter scores. The plays covered 41 and 55 yards. He finished with 173 yards.



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Record-Eagle
Traverse City
120 W. Front Street
Traverse City, MI
49684

Webcast 11/02/2007 7PM (cst)

The Single-Wing Albertville Aggies are featured in tonights Webcast

WQSB will be Webcasting the 93rd meeting between the Albertville Aggies and the Guntersville Wildcats. This rival is the oldest rivalry in the state of Alabama.

This year's game features two outstanding offenses and two defenses that have been up and down during the year.

• Guntersville (6-3, 5-2) are Region runners up in 4A, the Wildcats emploees the Spread offense.


• 
  
  Albertville (6-3,5-2) are Region runners up in 5A and the Aggies use the powerful Single-Wing attak.
  

The game will be broadcasted:

• When: Tonight (November 2, 2007)


• Time: 7:00 PM (Central Time)


• Link: http://www.wqsb.com/Sports/Scoreboard/high_school_football_scoreboard_.htm
  
• Click: the Listen To Albertville Aggie Football link
  

SW still part of the oldest rivalry in the state

Guntersville vs. Albertville
Posted Oct 31, 2007


The 93rd meeting between the Albertville Aggies and the Guntersville Wildcats, marks the oldest rivalry in the state. This year's game features two outstanding offenses and two defenses that have been up and down during the year.



Guntersville (6-3, 5-2) are Region runners up in 4A, Albertville (6-3,5-2) are Region runners up in 5A.

Guntersville has an outstanding QB in Chaz Rogers, last year's MVP in the State Championship game, while Albertville has junior QB Jared Fountaine Fountaine has rushed for 350 yards this season and has 13 TD passes to this point.

The Guntersville rushing attack is led by the school's all-time scoring leader Josh Gunther. Gunther combines outstanding speed and balance. Albertville counters with Cody Haycraft, a very tough, physical runner with great eyes for finding the holes.

Guntersville's passing attack features Trevor Diamond and Tucker Bridges. The combo returns from the 2006 championship run where they put up impressive numbers.

The Aggies feature cat quick Dustin Duckett and Madison Tharpe. Tharpe caught three TDs and Duckett two, in the Aggies upset win over Scottsboro earlier in the year.

Phil Isom (Guntersville) and Tommy Tharpe (Albertville) are veterans of many gridiron wars and produce very well coached teams. Guntersville operates out of the spread offense while Albertville runs the Single Wing attack.

This game should be very close. Although either team could win, Guntersville has the home field advantage


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Source: scout.com
Article: http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=2&c=696549



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SW Back-up Make a Great Debut

Familiar form seen in Drifters' Cundiff
November 1, 2007 12:36 am
BY ROB MOORE

As debuts go, you can hardly top Travis Cundiff's.

With Colonial Beach's leading ground-gainer Brandon Foster serving a one-game suspension for what head coach Jeremy Jack called "personal issues," Cundiff, a sophomore who has been leading the Drifters' junior varsity team in rushing, was promoted to the varsity for last Friday's game with King & Queen.

And while Cundiff carried the ball only five times out of Jack's single-wing attack, he found the end zone three times and totaled 123 yards on the ground in Colonial Beach's 55-6 romp.

"He's been the staple of our J.V. the last two years," Jack said. "We knew he was coming along and were just looking for the right time to use him."

Jack described Cundiff as being similar in style to Foster as a runner.

"Brandon brings speed to the table, but also power," said Jack of Foster, who has rushed for 985 yards and 17 touchdowns this season. "He has a nice burst and cuts back against the grain."

And Cundiff? "Travis will get out and look for the seam," Jack said. "He has a nice extra gear and will take the sideline.

"Those who saw Brandon as a freshman will be reminded of that when they see Travis."

Jack said while he hopes the suspension has given Foster the time needed to be more "clearheaded and focused," don't expect to see Cundiff disappear back to those midweek J.V. contests.

"You'll probably see both," he promised.

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Rob Moore: 540/374-5440
Email: sports@freelancestar.com

----------------------------------------------------------------
The Free Lance-Star

605 William Street

Fredericksburg, VA

22401

All that’s missing are the leather helmets

All that’s missing are the leather helmets

Published on Thursday, November 01, 2007
Commentary by Matt Hickman
Herald/Review

So the other day I’m shopping for aftershave and the entire aisle is causing me confusion and stress.

I’m being bombarded on one side by all of these effeminate lotions and oils, what with their paba and aloe and keratin, and on the other by all these Godless body sprays that supposedly make women lose control and attack you with condiments.

Tossed about in this angry sea of marketing to metrosexuals and little boys who want never to grow up, one product stands out like a beacon in the night.

Old Spice.

I don’t mean the new line of Old Spice products that mock their namesake with ironical jokes about chest hair and grey-haired professors taking advantage of TAs. I’m talking about the original aftershave in the white bottle with the clipper ship on it. The kind made only from sea water, rubbing alcohol and the finest spices pillaged during a recent voyage around the Cape of Good Hope.

True, it doesn’t do much to soothe the burn of a rough, bloody shave. But smell is the sense with the quickest link to memory. And if my smell is going to be the background music to a day in my life, I want to walk around with the memory of a sentiment worth remembering.

I want to smell exactly like my grandfather did from D-Day to the day he could no longer remember his grandchildren’s names. The fragrance from a thought like that will keep you brave, humble and oh so refreshed all day long. For this reason, Old Spice is the men’s fragrance that refuses to die.

In football, there’s an offense that similarly refuses to die (pardon the stretchy segue).

NFL offenses today are so fraught with strategy and complicated mathematics, 40 year-olds have to be called out of retirement when the starter goes down because the 20 year-old the team just drafted isn’t smart enough to handle them.

This is progress?

Don’t look now, but throughout high school football and every once in a while in the college game, you see the return of the single wing, the offense invented by Glen ‘Pop’ Warner in 1912 and made famous by Jim Thorpe, Red Grange and Neil Kinnick to name a few.

To see it in 2007 is a bit of a shock. Players bunch together in the backfield like a team skydiving troupe and play a sort of shell game with the ball after the snap. He who receives the snap may run straight ahead, hand to a criss-crossing back, or spin around like a top, faking handoffs to other backs till the defense is as dizzy as he is.

If you let your eyes blur you can see such a team in sepia tones, sporting leather helmets and celebrating touchdowns by doing the Charleston in the end zone before splashing on some Old Spice for a night at the speakeasy.

At 7 p.m. on Friday night in Scottsdale, the Bisbee Pumas will open the state playoffs against one of the teams bringing back the Old Spicey ways of matriculating the ball down the field.

The Scottsdale Christian Academy Eagles are a team essentially without a quarterback, without a tailback or any other label a modern analyst might require. Somebody, anybody may snatch the shotgun snap and take off running behind an unbalanced line.

It’s maddening to defend, but Bisbee head coach Truman Williamson, who in four decades of coaching has never employed the single wing, feels confident his defense can handle it.

“They’re running the old single-wing stuff, and it’s some old, old stuff,” Williamson said after seeing the Eagles on film. “The advantage is, you get a five-yard run at the line of scrimmage.”

Williamson said the main reason for employing the single-wing is to hide a lack of skill position players, and to make for easier passing.

Fifth-year Scottsdale Christian head coach Jeff Fox, whose team ran out of the traditional I formation, said the transition was largely a lesson learned from the year before when top tailback Ryan Tulley went down with a knee injury early in the year and did not return. Without a starting tailback, the Eagles were hung out to dry with the I-formation.

For Tulley’s senior year, Fox wasn’t going to put his team in a position again where one injury could have such a drastic impact.

“Our kids are pretty open-minded minded about it,” Fox said of his kids’ reactions to their great-grandfathers’ offense. “We like the fact that we can get a number of different kids a lot of carries... We wanted to be in a situation where if we lost a player we could still fight our way into the playoffs.”

Off the map at Baboquivari High School on the Tohono o’odham reservation, Warriors coach Jeff Pichotta is a voice in the deep desert wilderness for the single wing. He has his own Web site devoted to it and travels around to conferences with fellow travelers. In 20 years of head coaching he’s never used another offense.

“I run it because I grew up with it and I have yet to find an offense that matches the simplicity yet is very complicated. To me it is an art form. When you see a spinning series worked to perfection, it is like poetry in motion,” Pichotta said.

His bulleted list of other advantages include the following:

• Teams never adjust to the unbalanced formation.

• Most teams give us numbers advantages before the play even starts.

• The snap is much safer, if we fumble the snap we have more room to recover.

• The ability to snap to 3 different backs is incredibly deceptive.

• The spin series is the most deceptive and least seen series in football.

• The defenses are not used to seeing this offense.

• Scout teams have a hard time emulating this offense.

• It’s easy to pass out of the formation with the offset fullback and tailback.

• Fewer handoffs that often cause fumbles.

• No pitch sweeps required to get outside, hence no pitches put on the ground.

• Ball control means less time for your defense on the field.

• Excellent “cult” support system.

• Overwhelm your opponent at the point of attack.

• No requirement to have a stud quarterback or big feature back.

• All the kids get involved in the offense, it’s team football at its finest.

• It’s fun for the kids and the coaches.

• It doesn’t require lots of big linemen.

• It’s flexible.

• It maximizes the talent you do have.

• It has unmatched power.

• No quarterback under the center for our pulling linemen to run into.

The “cult” support system is no joke. There are numerous Web sites, conferences and even a hall of fame promoting the vitality of the old offense.

“Across the U.S. we have coaches clinics — we call them symposiums,” Pichotta said. “We get together in different parts of the country, we bring in speakers — I’m a guest speaker often.”

So why is it called the single wing?

“Because there’s no quarterback, just a single wing on outer end, flanker or slot back out on its own,” Pichotta said. “If you’re unbalanced, which means you have an extra lineman on one side — an overload. A defense either has to match that, and if they don’t, you have more at the point of attack.”

This is the element that makes the single wing so effective in high school, where 80 percent of quarterbacks are basically glorified hand-off-and-watch specialists in run-oriented offenses.

As John Reed, an author of books on the single wing said, the first obstacle in implementing the single wing is, “You just have to tell the quarterback, ‘Son, we’re going to make you the waterboy.’ ”

“If you don’t have that quarterback, that quarterback can become a blocker,” Pichotta said. “If the quarterback has to hand the ball, you’re actually playing the game with 10. In single wing, the quarterback the quarterback can be blocker or a runner or part of what you’re running.”

Pichotta said the secret society of coaches promoting the single-wing, doesn’t want to keep it a secret to a select few.

“It’s more spreading the gospel of the single wing,” Pichotta said. “We don’t want to just keep it to ourselves. SCA, it took them a while to finally “get smart as we call it,” but they went to the single-wing and they’re surprinsg teams.”

But as the No. 2 seed, Scottsdale Christian may have gotten a tough draw against No. 15 Bisbee, Pichotta said.

“(Tombstone head coach Mike) Hayhurst and Williamson have been toughest defending against the wing,” Pichotta said. “Williamson is going to have it all figured out... It’s going to come down to who plays the best.”



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The Sierra Vista Herald
102 Fab Avenue
Sierra Vista AZ
85635.

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SW Back Key to Success

November 01, 2007
Roberts key to Scott’s success Friday vs. Bluefield


By Rick Ryan
Assistant Sports Editor

Needless to say, if Scott wants to do a little better against Bluefield this year, it needs a little more out of Jordan Roberts.

Last year, the Beavers blanked the Skyhawks 22-0 in their regular-season-ending showcase at Laidley Field, holding the combustible Roberts to 96 yards on 24 carries.

Scott (7-2) needs more production out of its best player if it’s going to give the unbeaten and top-ranked Beavers (8-0) a game Friday night. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at Laidley.

The Skyhawks rely even more on Roberts than they did a year ago. He’s run for more yards (2,596 compared to 1,860) and scored more touchdowns (34 to 33) than last season, and Scott averages more points (37.1 to 36). Roberts leads the state in both rushing yards and scoring (212 points).

Scott coach Shane Griffith thinks his team’s offensive approach may give Roberts a better chance to succeed this time.

“It’s a different style of offense,’’ Griffith said. “Last year when we faced Bluefield, he was the tailback in the ‘I’ package.’’

Roberts now operates out of a shotgun/single-wing formation, getting a direct snap, which allows him to pick his spots.

“They spread it out and he can see a little better,’’ said Bluefield coach Fred Simon. “They snap it to him, and he sees the holes and runs. He’s a heck of a ballplayer. He’s a good, strong, quick runner, and he’s tough.’’

Griffith also likes the fact that Roberts has developed into a dangerous passer, which gives defenses something else to think about when they bring extra defenders to the line of scrimmage.

“Obviously, teams are attempting to key on Jordan,’’ Griffith said, “but he’s able to manipulate that with the passing game. He’s not setting any records with it, but he’s keeping defenses honest. When the ball’s in his hands, it’s a new feature Bluefield has to deal with.’’

Roberts has completed 17-of-50 passes for 448 yards and four TDs, and averages 26.4 yards per completion.

“It is difficult at times to crowd the box and key on him, especially with your secondary,’’ Griffith said, “because he has developed the ability to throw the ball quite well, and we’ve got some threats — Shayne Butcher, Tyler Thompson, Randy Bishop — that can exploit that weakness if they do try to crowd.’’

Bluefield’s defense will be the best Scott has seen all year. The Beavers allow just 7.6 points per game. Last week, they held No. 3 James Monroe nearly 39 points under its scoring average in earning a 14-7 win.

“The thing I noticed about Bluefield’s defense is that it’s very good at containment,’’ Griffith said. “They have so much team speed that it’s difficult to get those long runs. But Jordan has gained 22 pounds since last year and I think it’s going to pay off for him getting those tough, positive yards.’’

Bluefield has survived a difficult schedule unscathed thus far, beating playoff-caliber teams in both Virginia and West Virginia. The Beavers have won three games by a TD or less.

“We’ve gotten good leadership from our seniors,’’ Simon said. “They really care, and they’re a fun group to be around. We really have nothing outstanding, but we’re definitely doing a good job of several different things — defensively we’re very quick, we can throw the ball, we can run the ball effectively. All the phases are good.

“The kids deserve [the success]. They’ve done everything we’ve asked them, and they deserve all the attention and all the fan support.’’

Shaun Brooks leads the Beavers’ ground game with 832 yards and 10 TDs, followed by Jake Lilly (415 yards, two TDs). Junior transfer Will Cole is the team’s new quarterback. He’s hit on 65-of-131 passes for 814 yards and 10 TDs. Ansel Ponder (32 catches, 392 yards, five TDs) is a game-breaking wideout.



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The Charleston Gazette
Charleston,West Virginia



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You Can Pass Out of The Single-Wing

Failed conversion lifts BHS over Eudora 20-19
By Jimmy Gillispie, Theworldco.info
Thursday, November 1, 2007

Rivalry games often provide exciting finishes.

Thursday's game here was no exception as Baldwin and Eudora battled it out for a shot at a home game Tuesday.

After the dust cleared, Baldwin held on to win 20-19 over Eudora.

"It feels awesome right now," Baldwin's Kyle Smith said. "You've got to love games like this. It's just a great rivalry game."

For the second time in three years, BHS handed Eudora its first loss of the season.

"We just played one of the best teams in 4A," BHS coach Mike Berg said. "They've got every weapon imaginable. It's just unbelievable how we were able to maintain our lead."

The rivalry game to end the regular season came down to the final offensive play. After scoring its final touchdown, the Cardinals opted to try a two-point conversion.

Baldwin stuffed the Cardinals' play at the one-yard line, all but sealing the victory. BHS recovered the onside kick with three seconds left and took one knee before celebrating the district title.

"That was our goal," Berg said. "We wanted to play at home and we wanted to be 3-0."

Eudora coach Gregg Webb said his players wanted to win the game instead of finishing it in overtime.

"There were two ways of thinking about it," Webb said. "We had all of the momentum in the world, so lets end it right here while they were on their back or we kick it and hope we carry that momentum into overtime, which now looks pretty good. But our kids wanted to take a chance and thought we could end it right there," Webb said.

In hindsight, he said that may not have been the best decision, but he believed his team had the ability to score on the conversion.

"We were in the fourth quarter and down two scores," Webb said. "If you would have told me at that minute, would you take 20-19 with a chance to win with no time on the clock and the ball at the two-and-a-half yard line, I would have taken it in a heart beat right then. But in hindsight, we should have run a different play or kicked it."

The Cardinals' final touchdown came with 0:04 left in the contest when Travis Clarke scored his second touchdown of the game. Baldwin called a timeout, giving Eudora time to consider a two-point conversion.

The Cardinals missed their first extra point attempt of the night. They scored twice in the fourth quarter after trailing 20-6.

Baldwin jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead after scoring on two of its first three possessions.

The first was a 20-yard pass from Drew Berg to Jesse Green. It came on a fourth-down-and-eight at the Eudora 20-yard line.

Two possessions later, the Bulldogs threw a screen pass that went for 65 yards. Berg connected with the Bulldogs' fastest player, Smith, on the score.

Baldwin's final touchdown came on a one-yard pass from Drew Berg to Green. It was a fourth down attempt during the third quarter. BHS didn't score a rushing touchdown for the first time all season.

"They shut our single wing down and you have to give them credit for that," coach Berg said. "They shut our running game down, so we had to go to some different things."

"At home when you get that lead and that crowd involved, it's really important to keep that lead," Berg said. "That's what we wanted to do. We need to learn to play better with the lead. We were kind of cautious at the end."

After the whistle blew on the final play of the game, BHS players rushed the field with excitement. BHS senior Gabe Mason enjoyed beating Eudora one last time during his time at BHS.

"I've been with these guys ever since fourth grade and that's a bond you can't break," Mason said. "It's pretty emotional to come out and win this. It's just going to give us a little push into the next game."

Eudora -- 0 6 0 13 - 19

Baldwin -- 14 0 6 0 - 20

B -- Jesse Green 20 reception from Drew Berg (Logan Schiller kick)

B -- Kyle Smith 65 reception from Berg (Schiller kick)

E -- Travis Clarke 3 run (Dylan Rust kick wide left)

B -- Green 3 reception from Berg (Schiller kick wide left)

E -- Brynnen Webb 1 run (Rust kick)

E -- Clarke 2 run (Clarke conversion failed)



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Baldwin City Signal

703 High Street

P.O. Box 970

Baldwin City, KS

66006.

End Of Season Recap

How did your season go? Give us a recap. Tell us what type or series of the Single-Wing you ran. I will post as many as I can. Include any links to pictures, video or articles.

End Of Season Recap

First Name Last Name E-Mail Address Name Of Organization City State / Providence CountryUSAOther Name of Country (If not USA) What level ?YouthMiddle SchoolHigh SchoolCollegeOther Record End Of Season Recap

If you have a link to pictures, video or an article please include it.

Note: Your email will not be shared with anyone.

Single-Wing Coach Linked to KU's last 8-0 squad

His father’s Jayhawks

Lawrence resident linked to KU’s last 8-0 squad

Photo by Mike Yoder.

A quarterback on the 1896 KU football team, Bert Kennedy, front row, third from left, is pictured with other members of that year’s team. Bert Kennedy was the KU football coach whose 1909 team was the last to start a season 8-0 until the Jayhawks matched that record last Saturday.

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By Tom Keegan
November 1, 2007

Ted Kennedy, 95, answered the door of his Lawrence home, greeted his three visitors with a smile and welcomed them into his living room.

“Oh, I hate that expression: ‘Still driving!’” Kennedy echoed one of his visitor’s patronizing statements.

With those words, he taught his visitors a valuable lesson: Age is just a number. Kennedy is a modern man in every respect. He even takes daily learning journeys on his home computer.

“The fount of all knowledge, Google,” Kennedy said with a smile from his living-room couch. “It will tell you everything.”

It will tell Kennedy more about his father’s football coaching career than his father himself told him. Kennedy’s father, A.R. “Bert” Kennedy, has worked his way back into the news because of the stunning success of this season’s Kansas football team.

Bert Kennedy coached the Kansas University football team from 1904-1910 and had a career record of 52-9-4. He also played quarterback for Kansas (1895-97), after playing for Lawrence High. Kennedy’s 1909 team was the last one to go 8-0 before Mark Mangino’s team matched the feat Saturday in College Station, Texas.

If Kansas can defeat Nebraska on Saturday in Memorial Stadium, the football team will have a 9-0 record for the first time since Kennedy’s 1908 team finished the season 9-0. After playing three years for Kansas, Bert Kennedy played his final year for the University of Pennsylvania and put himself through the final year of school by working as a sports stringer for the Philadelphia Bulletin, Ted said. In 1902, Bert formed one of the first professional teams.

“He played in the first professional game played in Madison Square Garden, two Gardens back,” Ted said of his father. “Played on sawdust, of all the weird things, under lights.”

After that, he was credited with developing the single-wing formation while coaching at Washburn University, according to several reports his son has read via Google. He also coached at Haskell Indian Nations University. He practiced dentistry, and so did Ted. One of Ted’s three sons also is a dentist.

“He truly had a lifelong interest in football,” Ted said. “He was a true football nut. He didn’t like basketball at all, thought it was kind of a new sport, though he and Dr. (James) Naismith were good friends.”

Ted called himself “a lukewarm fan. I’m not a good fan of any sport.”

Ted’s late brother, J.K. “Bud” Kennedy, inherited his father’s passion for sports, though their tastes differed. Bud Kennedy was the second men’s basketball coach at Florida State and held the position from the 1948-49 season through the 1965-66 season.

Bud Kennedy was credited as an innovative thinker, employing a figure-eight weave offense.

The family’s athletic ties don’t end there. Ted will be rooting for more than just the Kansas football team to score a victory this weekend. He also has a rooting interest in the Free State football team, which plays Olathe South on Friday night at Haskell Stadium. Jason Sneegas, a defensive back/receiver for the Firebirds, is the great-great grandson of Bert Kennedy.

Ted Kennedy didn’t have enough passion for sports to consider coaching the way his brother and father did. His passions were dentistry and politics.

A dentist in World War II, Kennedy was in Japan and saw the surrender “through binoculars,” and then started a three-week journey home, coming to shore in California.

“When I came back to the United States, I knew a child (of his) had been born, but I didn’t know if it was a boy or girl,” Kennedy said. “I called up a friend in Los Angeles. I said: ‘Charles, Ted Kennedy, just got in town.’ He said: ‘Yeah, I read in the Journal-World you just had a child.’ I said: ‘Yes, you’re the guy I want to talk to. What sex is it boy or girl?’ He said: ‘Oh I’m not going to tell you.’ And he wouldn’t tell me. He said to get a line and call home and ask. I couldn’t get a line. I’m still annoyed with him. It was really annoying. You talk about being annoyed. I was really annoyed.”

Time heals all wounds. He’ll get over it eventually.

Aside from practicing dentistry in Lawrence, Kennedy served two stints as mayor.

“The only trip I ever made while mayor, I went back to Washington, D.C. (in 1962) to help lobby for Clinton Lake,” he said. “Several of us made the trip, went in to see the representatives and senators and I remember being told: ‘Don’t mention the word recreation. This is strictly for flood control.’ We talked about flood control and were well received. Ultimately, (15 years) later, we had the big lake.”

During the life of Clinton Lake, KU never has had a football coach with a winning record, though Mangino (33-35 in five-plus seasons) can move one game closer to .500 with a victory Saturday.

During all but the most recent week of Ted Kennedy’s life — “I was born Oct. 12, 1912 at 117 S. Park in Lawrence, KS., Dr. H.L. Chambers was the attending physician,” — KU never had a football team match the 8-0 start of his father’s 1909 team.

“I’m happy to see them doing so well,” Kennedy said. “And I’m always happy to see the basketball team do well, too.”

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Coach's son talks about 9-0 season opening

Ted Kennedy, 95, is the son of Coach A.R. “Bert” Kennedy, who led the Jayhawks in 1908, when the team opened the season with a 9-0 record.

Watch

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Ted Kennedy, son of former KU coach Bert Kennedy, talks Tuesday about his father, whose 1909 KU football squad was the last to start a season 8-0. The Jayhawks matched that record Saturday in Texas and will go for 9-0 Saturday vs. Nebraska. Ted Kennedy is a former Lawrence dentist and mayor.

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The Lawrence Journal-World - P.O Box 888 - Lawrence, Kansas 66044

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work hard

After disappointing 2006 season, S-K returns to playoffs

10/31/2007
After disappointing 2006 season, S-K returns to playoffs
By Travis Brown


After finishing a disappointing 4-5 last season, the Sigourney-Keota football team is right back where it expects to be - in the playoffs. The 10th-ranked Savage Cobras went 7-2 in the regular season and were runners-up to Collins-Maxwell-Baxter in Class 2A District 7.



"It means a lot [to make the playoffs]," said first-year head coach Clint Howard, who replaced his father, longtime head coach Bob Howard, in the off-season. "Not just from missing it last year, but with the coaching change and everything else. Our upperclassmen have worked very hard. This is not a fluke at all. Since the Albia game [last year], it has been our goal to get back where we want to be. I'm very proud of them."



In fact, Sigourney-Keota will begin the postseason at a place very familiar to one of the state's most successful football programs - the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. The Savage Cobras won the Class 2A state championship in 2005.



"We're not happy to just be there," Howard said. "We've played there before, two years ago when we won the state title. There's a lot of adversity and distractions to playing in the Dome, but I think our kids will handle that well."



Not only are the Savage Cobras familiar with playing in the UNI-Dome, but they're also familiar with their first round opponent - No. 3 North Fayette (9-0). Sigourney-Keota defeated the Hawks 34-20 in the state semifinals in 2005 at the UNI-Dome.



North Fayette, like Sigourney-Keota, is a traditional Class 2A power. The Hawks pound the ball with the Wing-T offense, and the Savage Cobras employ the deceptive single wing. Both teams also have a four-pronged rushing attack.



Junior Kory Schwenke leads Sigourney Keota with 1,004 yards and 10 touchdowns this season. Sophomore Dillon Horning has rushed for 791 yards and has a nose for the end zone, scoring 16 touchdowns. Senior Brandon Lyle has added 733 yards and eight scores, and senior Keaton Greiner has 698 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns.



The Hawks have a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in senior tailback Eric Begalske and senior fullback Jordan Franzen. Sophomore wingback Tom Nesvik has added over 700 yards rushing, and senior quarterback Tyler Hemry has run for over 500 yards in addition to passing for over 700 yards. North Fayette coach Ron Wymer said his team would have to move the football in order to beat Sigourney-Keota.



"We've got to move the chains," he said. "We've got to be able to do the things that we've done all year, and that's rush the football. And we've got to make sure they don't rush it as well as they want to."



But Wymer said it would be tough to defend Sigourney-Keota's single wing offense, and added that the Hawks haven't faced the single wing since losing to the Savage Cobras in the 2005 state semifinal.



"We haven't seen the single wing, and we don't know how our kids are going to react to it," Wymer said. "But we can't get caught looking in the backfield all the time. We've got to read our keys. We're sort of a read defense anyway."


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©Golden Triangle Media.com 2007


The Journal


P.O. Box 110


Fairfield, IA 52556

L'ville to name field for Dr. Keuffel

L'ville to name field for Keuffel
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

LAWRENCE -- Lawrenceville School will dedicate its newly renovated football field to the late Ken Keuffel at halftime of its 2 p.m. game against the Hill School on Nov. 10.

Keuffel had a 151-89-8 record at Lawrenceville, where he served for 41 years as an English teacher and football coach. The beloved coach, who died at age 82 in 2006, ran the single wing offense.


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Editors Note:

Dr. Keuffel was inducted into the Wabash College Athletics Hall of Fame in 1999. Here's the text from the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

Native of New Jersey and lifelong learner, Ken Keuffel attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts where he was captain of the football team at the same time that President George Bush captained the soccer team. After high school, he served in World War II in the Navy, then took his tremendous and multi talented athletic ability to Princeton University, where he played fullback. It was for Princeton that, in 1946, he kicked the game-winning field goal to help his team defeat the University of Pennsylvania, then ranked third in the nation, in front of 72,000 fans at Franklin Field.

He graduated from Princeton in 1948, played a short stint with the Philadelpha Eagles, and later received his Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania. After serving as freshman football coach at Penn for two years, he began what would become a lifelong affiliation with Lawrenceville School in 1956. Five seasons later, he came to Wabash College, where he was known as the "Father of the Single Wing." Indeed, he exhibited for his Wabash players a love for academics and athletics as teacher of 18th century literature and author of Simplified Single Wing Football, the authoritative book on the offense he utilized so effectively at Wabash. For six years he mentored and coached the Little Giants, from 1961 through 1966, compiling a record of 28 wins, 20 losses, and five ties against top-tier competition.

He respected his players’ intellect, too, for it took a bright student to understand the complexities of the Single Wing formations, while at the same time opponents with lesser intellect struggled to contain the twisting, spinning, pulling offensive attack. The Single Wing has all but vanished in football today—except at the Lawrenceville School, where he coached 26 seasons since 1967. However, during his time at Wabash, the Single Wing was exceptionally effective, and hundreds of coaches at all levels benefited from his concise and complete book on the game. In 1965, he coached Wabash to a 7-2 record and a Monon Bell victory, and his team ranked 12th in the nation in rushing offense. In his second season, 1962, he engineered one of the most amazing comeback victories in Wabash football history when the Little Giants scored 10 points in 90 seconds to nip Wheaton 20-17. Known affectionately by his players as "Doc K," he inspired generations of young men with the true values of football, which he referred to as the development of morale, spirit, and determination.

His love of literature and football, especially the Single Wing, never waned. He won 151 games in his career at Lawrenceville. For teaching thousands of men the values of the game, including hundreds of Wabash men, the National Association of Wabash Men is proud to induct Kenneth W. Keuffel into the Wabash College Athletics Hall of Fame.

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To purchase or learn more about Dr Keuffel's book "Simplified Single Wing Football", please visit -- http://www.singlewingfootball.com/ .

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PERSISTENCE

Motivation

Single-Wing Offense is Alive

Single wing offense is alive at some schools
Old school formation became mostly extinct after World War II

By Sarah Larimer
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Article Launched: 10/27/2007 03:00:20 AM PDT

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- The cult meets Friday nights. In red and black, its members take a soggy grass stage under bright white lights. These are the Port St. Lucie High School Jaguars -- true believers all.

Their Bible: Pop Warner's playbook. Their religion: The single wing.

Heard of it? The single wing is an offense that came on the scene about a century ago but faded after World War II. It is found on black-and-white highlight reels and was used when players could fold their helmets.

No team in the NFL runs it, nor does any major college. But like some ancient sect, it's still alive, its priests a small, determined cadre of 50 to 100 high school coaches throughout the country who fight to keep it on the field.

Some find great success -- Giles High School in Virginia has won state championships. Others, like the Jaguars (2-4), are just trying to be competitive.

"You can make a normal team into a single-wing team," said John Reed, an author who has written about the formation. The first obstacle is telling the players that passing will be all but passe. "You just have to tell the quarterback, 'Son, we're going to make you the waterboy.'"

The Jaguars, like other single-wing teams, use a wonky, lopsided line -- the center isn't always in the middle, but sometimes where one of the guards would normally be. The four backs are stacked in places that backs simply do not go -- two, for example, might be staggered directly behind a tackle. There are usually no wide receivers. The snap darts 3 to 5 yards to one of two backs behind the center, and the cunning misdirection begins.

The backs crisscross and converge. Like a rabbit bow on a shoelace, one back sprints one way while the other slinks in the opposite direction.

Not only is the defense often confused, but fans sometimes can't follow the action. Port St. Lucie coach Doug Kerr can recall a touchdown greeted with silence from band members because they didn't realize the team had scored.

The direct-snap offense is oriented toward running, not passing -- created for teams with speed, not necessarily size or power. It is the offense of illusionists, built on deceptive plays and do-it-all backs. It is a dying art, existing only because of the few who trust its befuddling scheme.

Glenn S. "Pop" Warner developed the single wing, which dominated football in the early 1900s after the legalization of the forward pass. Before the single wing, former Baylor coach Grant Teaff said, teams ran a wedge offense, which led to too many injuries.

"Single wing was the origin of the modern-day running game, because it was primary based on the ability to run. ... Every detail of the game, it was able to do," Teaff said. "Pretty well everything sprang from the single wing."

From the early 1900s to around the mid-century mark, it was in fashion.

The string of players and coaches who used the attack weaves through decades. Princeton's Dick Kazmaier. Reds Bagnell of the University of Pennsylvania. Tony Hall of Denison University found fame with the single wing before he found it in the U.S. House of Representatives. Nile Kinnick of Iowa. Pittsburgh Steelers coach Jock Sutherland.

Then came the T-formation and its variations, with its snap from the center directly to the quarterback. By the end of the 1960s, the single wing all but disappeared.

"It sounds like you're running something that's old-fashioned," East Lee County High coach Jim Ahern said. "But I think like everything, the cycle goes around, and a lot of the things we're running now are things that were successful in the '40s and '50s."

Coaches estimated the single wing is used by 50 to 100 high school teams around the nation. Only a handful of high school teams in Florida run it -- and that has its advantages.

Coaches say because of the single wing's uniqueness, opponents enter games unprepared. They cannot possibly learn the formation's feints and twists in a few practices and often have trouble keeping up.

"We'll be better as a running team and a passing team, because most people in the state of Florida really don't run this offense," said Travelle Davis, a fullback at Apopka High, which runs the wing. "It'll open up a lot. It'll make us a better team."

The flip side is that it takes an offense time to master the deceptive plays and maneuvers. And the complexities also make it a bit of a hard sell for players accustomed to throwing the ball.

"I was confused. I was like, no quarterback? What kind of offense is this?" Apopka running back Jeremy Gallon. "But then as the days went on and we started to play ... I started to like it."

Giles High coach Stephen Ragsdale started running the single-wing 30 years ago because he knew it best, learning it from a rival coach -- his father.

"It's what I knew and it's all I knew so that's what we did," Ragsdale said. "My third year, we won a state championship and the best record that this school had ever had prior to that was like 7 wins and 3 losses. We had success with it right away, so we just stuck with it."

Coaches who share the common bond of this decidedly uncommon offense travel from across the country each year for a single-wing clinic.

"Everybody speaks the same language," Kerr said. "If you go to a regular football clinic, people don't know what you're talking about."

Denison started to use the single wing in the 1970s because former coach Keith Piper had a triple-threat player who could pass, run and punt -- single wing teams sometimes quick kick. Its obscurity gave the team an advantage of unprepared opponents.

"It was different. People didn't get to see it week in, week out." former offensive coordinator Jack Hire said. "They hadn't played against it. They hadn't practiced against it."

But Hire said Denison also limited its recruiting to players who were up to an offensive challenge. The school abandoned the formation in the 1990s.

The Port St. Lucie Jaguars still cling to the faith, however, even if times are troubled.

"The only way it works," fullback Danny Byrne said, "is if you think it's going to work."

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Trinity (TX) laterals their way to division III

Mississippi Miracle!

Oct. 27, 2007

Tiger Football Wins on Final Play at MillsapsIn a game that was about as evenly matched as it could be, Trinity's football team scored a game-winning touchdown on the final play to steal a 28-24 victory over Millsaps. Riley Curry took the ball into the end zone after 15 laterals on the 61-yard passing play that began with two seconds left in the game.





This link has a diagram of the whole play:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/20071029sports.pdf


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Maroons win prep playoff

Maroons, Calumet win prep playoff games

ESCANABA — Even though coach Ken Hofer was restricted to the press box Saturday, the Menominee Maroons had no problem opening defense of their Division 5 state championship.

The Maroons overwhelmed Manistee 53-7 in the pre-district game. Menominee (10-0) will host Elk Rapids (8-2) Saturday for the district title.

Hofer sustained a broken leg Tuesday at practice and had surgery Sunday to repair the injury. Hofer has been coaching 41 years and is 289-114-2.

The Maroons collected 393 yards, with 337 coming on the ground. Fullback Matt Eisenzoph ran for 178 yards and two touchdowns in just six carries and tailback Ethan Shaver ran for 131 yards and three scores in nine carries. Shaver also passed for a touchdown.

Reid Voorheis had a 31-yard TD run in the fourth quarter and finished with 95 yards for the Chippewas (6-4).

In Division 6 Saturday, Calumet belted Boyne City 34-7. The Copper Kings (7-3) will visit Iron Mountain (9-1) for the district title game.

Quarterback Emmett Bjorne ran for 166 yards and three touchdowns and Emmett Heine added two TDs. Host Boyne City was held to 90 yards rushing.

Seven U.P. teams won opening games Friday to reach district title contests this weekend.

Sault Ste. Marie (9-1) will host Mt. Pleasant (7-3) in Division 3, Kingsford (7-3) will visit Ogemaw Heights (8-2) in Division 4, Ishpeming (7-3) visits Stephenson (7-3) in Division 7 and in Division 8, Crystal Falls Forest Park (9-1) hosts L’Anse (9-1) and Cedarville (10-0) hosts Central Lake (9-1).



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Daily Press - 600 Ludington St. -- Escanaba, MI 49829

Apopka Completes Flapjack Pass!

Single-Wing Sentinel
Dan Spain


Friday night the Blue Darters clinched the 6A-4 district title with a 48-16 win over Clermont East Ridge. Both teams were 3-0 in the district coming in.

If Clermount thought Apopka's Single-Wing was confusing, imagine what they thought when the Blue Darters completed a Single-Wing Flapjack Pass for a 2 point conversion. See the Video below. I can tell what the crowd thought -- they went nuts!


A few milestones:

The Darter's QB, Jeremy Gallon (#5) crossed the 1,000 rushing mark. He also threw 5 TD Passes.

Wingback, Jeremy Rouse (#4) scored four touchdowns and 170 yards to pace the Blue Darters.

And Derrick Clark contributed multiple touchdowns, one on each side of the ball.

Apopka (8-1, 4-0) clinched the district for the second consecutive year.

Congratulations to Coach Rick Darlington and his Blue Darters.



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Single-Wing Sentinel


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Single-Wing Coach To Be "Jailed" to Help the MDA Team

Single-Wing Coach To Be "Jailed" to Help the MDA Team

Dan Spain
Single-Wing Sentinel
10/29/07



Colo-NESCO (Iowa) High School Head Football Coach, Tim Pezzetti will be “jailed” on Thursday. He is seeking “bail” from friend, family and fellow coaches.

Pezzetti said, “I have been selected to participate in an area MDA lock-up event this week and I thought that I would see if anyone would be interested in helping post my bail. I will be in "jail" on Thursday and would like to raise as much bail as is possible by then.”

He encourages all, or should I say begs all, to visit the following web-site:

https://www.mdaevent.org/ParticipantInfo.aspx?j=46b9e343-0a4e-495e-bc4a-180a318ae37e and help him reach his goal.

His "Bail" goal is $1950.

He is being supported by fellow Coaches. One fellow coach jokingly said "Can we donate to keep Tim in jail?"

All coaches and fans are challenged to donate what they can to this great cause.









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Copyright © 2007 Single-Wing Sentinel. All Rights Reserved.
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Single-Wing Giles Invades Monday Night

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Prep Football Invades Monday

By TOM BONE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BASTIAN, Va. — Monday night football is not exclusive property of the pros anymore. Just ask prep football fans in Bland County and the Pearisburg area, who are eagerly anticipating district games tonight.

Rain-soaked turf on Friday caused the Bland County Bears and Giles Spartans to postpone their football games to tonight. In the area of Virginia west of Roanoke, at least 17 games were delayed.

Both the Spartans and tonight’s opponents from Floyd County are 6-1 and are tied for first place in the Three Rivers District with 2-0 league records. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. in Pearisburg.

Giles sits atop the ratings of the Virginia High School League (VHSL) in their division, 0.8 points ahead of George Wythe (7-1), as of last Thursday’s computer report.

The Bears (6-1) will greet the Maroon Wave of Galax (2-5) tonight in a Mountain Empire District (MED) matchup in Bastian at 7 p.m. Bland County is second in their division of the VHSL, just 0.2 rating points behind Rural Retreat (6-2).

Bears running back Korey Kennedy won the Pocahontas Coal Association / Bluefield Daily Telegraph Player of the Week award last week for his 136-yard rushing performance in Bland County’s Oct. 19 win at Narrows.

The Bastian-based team, combining students from Rocky Gap and Bland high schools, is the co-leader of the MED with Grayson County (6-2 overall, 3-0 in the district). The Blue Devils host Fort Chiswell tonight.

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The Bluefield Daily Telegraph928 Bluefield Ave, Bluefield, West Virginia

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Man Middle Tops Tigers for Black Diamond Title

Man Middle Tops Tigers for Black Diamond Title

By PAUL ADKINS, Sports Editor


CHAPMANVILLE n Tootie Carter knew the 2007 season would be a challenging one for his Man Middle School football team.

Only two players were back from last year’s 8-0-1 squad which won the Logan County championship and the Black Diamond Conference title.

Then in the season opener, the Pioneers were upset 19-6 by Van.

It looked like it could be a long season.

Man, though, put it together, steadily improved all year and saw the reward on Saturday afternoon n a 27-22 victory over previously unbeaten Chapmanville at Chapmanville’s Tiger Stadium in the Black Diamond Conference championship game.

The win over the Tigers avenged an earlier 28-21 loss at home to Chapmanville n the only other defeat suffered by the Pioneers all season.

Man trailed Chapmanville by nine points twice but rallied late.

The Pioneers (7-2) were down 22-19 and had the ball first-and-10 on its own 21-yard line with just 2:37 left in the ballgame.



Man had two go 79 yards to win the game or at least get into field goal position to possibly tie the game up.

There would be no field goals.

The Pioneers drove all the way down for the win in dramatic fashion.

Man had a third-and-goal at the Chapmanville 4-yard line with 9.5 ticks to go after quarterback Shane Browning spiked the ball to stop the clock.

Browning then cashed in, rolling left and hitting a diving Tommy Belcher in the corner of the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown with 4.3 seconds left. Jimmy Duba then ran in the two-point conversion to put the Pioneers on top 27-22.

Man’s game-winning touchdown was set up three plays earlier when Mike Vitrals fired a 30-yard, halfback pass to a leaping Belcher at the Chapmanville 7.

After a 3-yard run by Browning, the Man quarterback was forced to spike the ball on the next play as the Pioneers were out of timeouts.

The drive began with a 24-yard completion from Browning to Belcher.

Belcher ended up with three catches for 58 yards on the game-winning drive alone.

After Belcher’s touchdown, Man elected to go for an on-side kick on the ensuing kickoff to avoid a possible long return.

Chapmanville recovered the ball at the Man 49 and only had time enough for one more play.

The Tigers’ Tyler Cox tossed a bomb which was caught by Dustin Smith for a 29-yard gainer to the Pioneer 20. He was tackled, however, and the clock expired, icing the win for Man.

Coach Carter said it was a sweet win for his Pioneers. In the last two years, Carter has led Man Middle to a 15-2-1 mark and two Black Diamond Conference championships.

“It feels great for me and the kids,” said Carter, a legendary area football coach who led Man High School to three Class AA state championship games and 200 wins in his tenure which spanned 1969-98. “We lost just about our whole team from last year and these kids have improved so much. You saw today that they are a pretty good football team.”

After the season-opening defeat to Van, Man bounced back in Week 2 with a 38-14 rout over Gilbert.

The Pioneers then began to come into their own.

“They’ve come a long way,” Carter said. “I’m so proud of them because some of them don’t have that much experience. We’ve only got two kids back from last year’s team n an offensive guard and a defensive back. We lost that first game but we’ve come a long way. I’m tickled to death for them.”

Man had advanced to the title game with last week’s 13-0 semifinal victory over Madison.

Chapmanville moved on with a 46-6 victory over Sherman.

The Tigers, coached by P.D. Clemens, were hoping to close out the season unbeaten with the conference title.

Chapmanville had already wrapped up the Logan County title after beating Logan Middle School, 44-12, then knocking off Man on Sept. 13.

The Pioneers had to contend with top Tiger running back Dylan Wiley, who rolled up 275 yards rushing on 15 carries and scored five touchdowns in the last meeting between the two teams.

This time, the Pioneers were able to hold down Wiley somewhat as he had 22 carries for 132 yards and three TDs.

“I was hoping that we could keep Wiley down. We did a little bit but they kept the ball away from us in the second quarter,” Carter said.

Man got on the scoreboard first as Jimmy Duba scored on a 5-yard touchdown run with 3:02 left in the first quarter. Josh Booth, a 6-foot-4 starting lineman, kicked the PAT to make it 7-0 Man Middle.

Chapmanville bounced back with 9.9 ticks to go as Wiley ran in from 2 yards out. He tacked on the two-point conversion run from the single wing formation to put CMS ahead 8-7.

Then with 31.2 seconds left until halftime, Wiley struck again with a 5-yard TD run. Wiley then again ran in the two-point conversion from the single wing to put the Tigers ahead 16-7 at the half.

The Pioneers pulled to within 16-13 with 3:10 remaining in the third quarter after Duba ran in from 3 yards out. Booth’s PAT was blocked by John Toler.

Then with 58.9 seconds in the third quarter, Wiley scored on a 4-yard touchdown run n his third of the game n to put the Tigers ahead 22-13. Tyler Cox attempted to run in the conversion from the single wing but was drilled by Thomas Blair a yard short of the goal line.

Man then scored on the last play of the third quarter as Browning dumped off a screen pass to Josh Cline, who then raced 69 yards for a touchdown. The two-point conversion pass play failed, leaving the score at 22-19 in favor of Chapmanville.

Man Middle School was then able to score the game winner in the last ticks of the ballgame.

Cox added 101 yards rushing on 14 carries for CMS, which closed out the season 8-1.

Austin Watts led the Chapmanville defense with six tackles.

Dougie Mullins had five tackles and three assists, while Mark Lawson had five stops and two assists.

Dustin Smith had four solos, one assist and one interception. Toler and Thomas Belcher had four tackles and one assist each.




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Downtown Logan, WV 25601

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Biller powers NorthWood

Article published Oct 27, 2007
Biller powers NorthWood

JAKE BROWN
Tribune Staff Writer

NAPPANEE -- NorthWood High School's football team had an answer every time Glenn scored a touchdown to take the lead -- Kent Biller.

Biller, who packs a black-and-blue running style into his black-and-red Panther uniform, ran for 184 yards and three touchdowns on 26 carries to lead NorthWood to a 22-19 victory over visiting Glenn on a rain-soaked Friday night at Andrews Field.

Glenn closes its season at 6-5. NorthWood advances to the Class 3-A sectional championship game on the road against St. Joseph's with a 7-4 record.

Glenn scored three touchdowns to take the lead three times. Each time, Biller's punishing attack powered the Panthers to pay dirt in response.

"He did an outstanding job," NorthWood head coach Rich Dodson said. "He's obviously a big part of our [Single-Wing] offense. He runs hard. It's not just speed. He's able to break a tackle. He's able to get that extra yard or two when he gets tackled."Glenn jumped out to a 7-0 lead after blocking a NorthWood punt early in the first quarter, but Biller led NorthWood right down the field with an answer.

Biller capped a nine-play drive with a 27-yard touchdown to tie the score.

Then mother nature took over.

After Glenn returned the ensuing kickoff a downpour came through and lightning in the area forced a 52-minute delay.

When play resumed, both teams' offenses seemed mired in the mud.But Glenn running back Conrad Schubert barreled into the end zone from seven yards out in the second quarter to give the Falcons a 13-7 lead heading into half time.

The Falcons forced NorthWood to punt on its first two possessions of the third quarter, but were unable to add onto their lead thanks to a fumble and a punt of their own.

Then on the third possession of the second half NorthWood scored on one 12-second play. Biller broke off his longest run of the game, a 65-yarder down the sideline that gave the Panthers a 14-13 lead after Brandon Williams completed the extra point.

"He wasn't running inside, he got his big runs outside," Glenn head coach Justin Bogunia said. "I thought our front seven did a great job tonight. I don't think they got pounded down, it was him making an athletic move and bouncing outside."

Glenn recaptured the lead in the fourth quarter on a 3-yard touchdown run by Chris Lawler.After the two-point conversion failed for Glenn, there was too much time left on the clock and NorthWood marched right down the field on a seven-play, 58-yard drive capped by Biller's third touchdown for the final 22-19 lead.

"Even if we would've converted, it still would've been tight at the end," Bogunia said. "We made plays and they made plays, that's pretty much what the game came down to."

Glenn had one final shot, but quarterback Chris Patton was unable to complete a tough pass on 4-and-6 to extend its final drive. NorthWood took over on downs and ran out the clock.

At Nappanee

Glenn 7 6 0 6 -- 19NorthWood 7 0 7 8 -- 22

G -- Chris Patton 9 pass to Michael Fansler (Fansler kick)

NW -- Kent Biller 27 run (Brandon Williams kick)

G -- Conrad Schubert 7 run (kick failed)

NW -- Biller 65 run (Williams kick)G -- Chris Lawler 3 run (two-point attempt failed)

NW -- Biller 11 run (Nathaniel Yoder pass from Skyler Titus)

Glenn N'Wood

First downs 12 12

Yards rushing 248 205Yards passing 27 95

Passing 3-4-0 7-15-0

Punting 3-42 4-39

Fumbles lost 2 0

Yards penalized 1-5 4-30

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South Bend Tribune225 W. Colfax Ave.South Bend, IN 46626


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Football Helps Nappanee Community

Single-Wing Team

NorthWood Football Helps Nappanee Community

In the aftermath of the EF-3 tornado and at a time when most of the Nappanee community was without power, the thought of Friday Night Lights could be trivial.

But getting the Panthers back on the field has been therapeutic for NorthWood.

Nappanee is rebuilding and it is healing, the NorthWood football team is healing as well.

"Every kid on this football team was affected by the tornado in one way or another," NorthWood coach Rich Dodson said.

The EF-3 tornado that ripped the small town of Nappanee apart has also in a way brought it together.

"All the guys came over to my house and helped us clean up after the tornado," said NorthWood Sophomore Cam Spitaels.

Cam was in the basement with his family when the tornado ravaged his home.

Grant McClung was staying at a friend's when his home was struck by the tornado.

"I just couldn't believe it," McClung said.

"I was just so thankful that my parents were OK."

The day after the tornado hit Nappanee, the NorthWood Panthers were supposed to play in the opening round of the playoffs. But the game was postponed as the community dealt with the devastation.

Instead, the game was moved to Bremen high school Saturday. While it was tough to focus at first the Panthers came out on top.

"We went into the locker room and said we need to win for the Nappanee community," Spitaels said.

They beat Marian and finally gave their fans something to smile about.

"For 48 minutes we were able to make football be the most important thing," Coach Dodson said.

Now the Panthers will host the second round of Sectionals Friday night on their home field.

Updated: October 23, 2007, 8:35 pm

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