Best of the Best...

When the time came this year to decide who was going to be on our All-Big Country Super Team, I knew this was going to be tough. Our area was just loaded with talent this year, especially on offense. In the past we've had some really good players, but there was always a couple that just rise to the top and had stand out years making the choices pretty simple. This year, however, there was no way around leaving out some really good players just based on how many great players we had. It made for a really fun year to cover. Having four teams win state titles, however, at this point, it became really hard. In the end the votes were tallied and the group we had were some really great players, then I had to get them into the studio for portraits. That was the fun part. I decided to go with colored backgrounds in the teams' corresponding colors.

Jerry World State Champs, Game 2...

So, for the second and final game of the area teams' state championships Stamford was playing Mart in the Class 1A Div. I championship game. Of all the games involving area teams this was going to be the toughest and probably the best game, and boy did it ever live up to its expectations. Mart opened up the game swinging for the fences, throwing deep and scoring on the first play from scrimmage. After that Stamford marched the ball down the field methodically and scored to tie it up.

Things went back and forth. Then Mart started taking over building a big lead. It looked like Stamford just wasn't going to be able to do it and was going to come up short of a title again for the second year in a row. In the second half though, Stamford's QB, Hagen Hutchinson took the game over on both sides of the ball. It was an incredible effort by someone who just wasn't going to give anything up. Stamford ended up taking the lead for good with just over 30 seconds left in the game, with a great touchdown by Hutchinson just powering his way through defenders for a touchdown. Then on Mart's final drive he sealed the game with an interception as time expired. It was a really great effort by someone who literally left everything on the field. During the scrum after the game you could see him just leaning on his teammates, completely spent. It was one of the best state championship games I've seen. And, close games like these always make for nice photos.

Jerry World State Champs, Game 1...

Now that I'm nearly a month behind... Munday played Teneha in the Class 1A Div. II state championship game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. It was a rematch of last year's state championship. Last year Teneha won the game pretty easily, however, most of their best players had graduated while the majority of Munday's starters were returning. Teneha was loaded with underclassmen and had lost 4 of their first 5 games of the season, but had started playing a lot better since. Munday on the other hand had pretty much been beating every team they played, and beating them convincingly.

This game opened up a lot like every one of Munday's other wins of the year, with the Moguls jumping out to a quick lead and showing the superior speed they had and not letting up. The defense was looking good too and it was obvious the results this year were going to be a lot different than last year. Both the offense and defense were looking great and Munday ended up winning 42-14. After watching most of our local teams lose in the state championship games last year it was nice to see things turns around this year with the third local team to win and one more game left.

Fan of the Year?...

The first game of the six-man football doubleheader I was shooting was Richland Springs playing Follett. Neither one of these teams are area teams. I was really only shooting it because it was a state championship game being played locally. Also I had to shoot a fan feature for a news story we were doing about the two games. It was just going to be easier to get photos shot from the afternoon game than to worry about pushing deadline with the later game.

The nice thing about shooting a game like this is I only really need one shot from the game and can concentrate on all of the other things going on like watching the crowd. Obviously when I walked on the field I could almost immediately tell who I would be shooting for the crowd story. When you see an old lady with a white and blue mohawk on and her face painted blue, you just can't ignore it! And since, I only really needed one action shot from the game I spent most of my time focusing on Ms. Superfan. The shot at the top was easily my favorite and I thought it captured the pure passion and fanaticism of many high school football fans in west Texas. It is not the photo we used for the news story though, I used a different photo of her that showed the crowd better as well.

After spending most of the first quarter shooting fans shots I decided to spend the rest of my time shooting the game. I love games like this since there is no pressure to shoot just one team or the other and I don't have a lot to worry about. I can take more chances and shoot from positions that may not be ideal because if I miss a shot or three it's not as big of a deal. I really only needed one shot for sports, if I had time or enough photos to do a slideshow that's just extra but there are no expectations. I ended up getting few nice photos plus my new favorite fan actually ended up making a nice gallery.

Another State Champ...

After getting in late from Arlington I covered the six-man state championship doubleheader. The night cap was the more important game for us, Throckmorton playing Abbott in a rematch of last year's state semifinal in Throckmorton's run to the state title. This year was a little different from last year, Throckmorton wasn't supposed to make it this far. But, after the beat-down they put on a very good Water Valley team a couple of weeks ago the Greyhounds were certainly playing like the defending state champions.

Having seen this team play three times already this year, I didn't have a lot of doubt that they would win the game. It was just going to be a question of whether they would 45 Abbott or not. The mercy rule win didn't happen but it was close with Throckmorton winning 72-30. Abbott, though, did come out looking tough and it looked for a little while like it may be a dog fight. But, Throckmorton's passing offense just couldn't be stopped. The Greyhounds were just throwing the ball at will and weren't going to be denied their second straight championship.

First of the State Champs...

Stephenville High School had been a football power in Class 4A since before I moved here. They won four state titles while being coached by now Baylor head coach Art Briles. And the last few years they had been knocked out of the playoffs by the eventual state champs always in a close game. So, this year when they dropped down to Class 3A they were quickly thrust into the state championship conversations. After dropping their first game they had been on a tear. And especially through the playoffs the Yellow Jackets' offense was clicking on all cylinders.

The El Campo team they were playing was the typical pound the ball up the gut type of team that could give Stephenville's defense fits if it got rolling. But, the offense came out quick and set the tempo and Stephenville stacked the box to stop the run and jumped out to a quick lead. El Campo did come back and add a couple scores to get the game close again and went into the half with Stephenville up 35-21.

In the second half Stephenville proved without a doubt who the better team was. El Campo held there own for part of the third quarter, but towards the end of the quarter, the Yellow Jackets were pulling away with it and blew things wide open in the fourth quarter to win the game 70-35. The 70 points scored was also a record for most points scored in an 11-man state championship game. It was the school's 5th state title and the first in 13 years.