2005 Awards and Stuff
Well, after doing a piece on
the highlights of last season, I thought I’d write another with some opinions
and such, so, here goes….
First, some
awards.
MVP – Brenton Hood – I know
it’s cheap and too easy to give MVP to the leading rusher. I also know our
defense was the highlight of the year. There were so many absolutely outstanding
efforts. I have to give Hood credit though for providing the individual effort
that made the most impact. You don’t agree? Well, his 2 second half long TD’s
busted the TriValley game open. His long 3rd quarter TD was the
difference against Unatego. He had a 54 yarder in the 4th against
Walton that won the game for us. And his big one to open the second half against
Greene was huge. In all, 9 of his 18 TD’s were of 30 yards or more. Great
blocking, yes, but he pulled away. And the 5 I mentioned above were instrumental
in winning those games.
Most
improved –
Nate Rockefeller – it started in the last game in ’04 actually. After playing 8
games with no scores, he put in 2 TD’s in the finale, as well as coming up with
¼ of his season total rushing yards and 1/3 of his season total receiving yards
in just that one game. He picked it up right there in ‘05, scoring 3 TD’s in the
opener at Sullivan West. His biggest impact came in his ability to score inside
the 5 yard line or so. You don’t score many 4 yard TD’s against Walton – usually
you either have to score from further out or be right near the line. Rocky
fought admirably in drawing that first blood against the
pumpkins.
Senior we’ll miss the
most – this
one is extremely tough, as all the graduating starters were instrumental. I’ll
have to go with Jeremiah Warren however. He was a strong and fast physical
presence in the middle of the field on both sides of the
ball.
Darkhorse for next
year – Pat
O’Connell – I just see him having a big year both running and
throwing.
Most underachieving
game – has
to be Unatego. It wasn’t that Unatego wasn’t good, it was that we never really
took hold of the reigns to make the game go where we wanted it to. We moved the
ball some, but fumbled it away several times. We put ourselves in the position
where we could put the game away, but we didn’t do it – Unatego had
4th and 11, but scored their final TD. Then they had a fairly
significantly long field with less than a minute, but they only didn’t complete
the comeback because a 4th down pass at the 10 was ruled out of
bounds. Delhi won the game, but it wasn’t based on power or
dominance.
Most overachieving
game –
certainly it was Edison. Edison was probably similar in overall ability as
Unatego or maybe even Greene. Delhi did bend a bit in allowing some passing in
the first half, but the overall effort was amazing. The offensive muscle was
just incredible, as 5 different players scored TD’s. It was an impressive
beating for a second seed to give a first seed.
This season was great fun
for me. I’ve seen 7-2 seasons that were very frustrating, mostly because one of
the losses was a game we could have won and which kept us from the playoffs. I’m
not saying we had no chance at beating Sidney, but I don’t think you can feel
too bad about losing to a team that ran up 501 yards of offense IN THE STATE
FINAL for pity’s sake. Oh, and we never beat Walton in any of the 7-2 seasons
that I’m thinking of (’91, ’94, ’96).
I
was very impressed with our ability to look sharp and win games when we’ve come
off of several losing seasons. Sometimes when you lose that many games you start
to get good at losing. We were behind at the half in the 2nd and
3rd games, but came back to win. We won a close one against the
orangies. We looked like we expected to win. That’s one thing that Walton is so
good at and is why they win so many close ones.
Hopefully I’m not giving
away the farm here, but I was actually impressed with how the passing game came
along, and think it could be a huge weapon this coming year. We didn’t score
much, and we threw some picks, but some of those first downs we got in pressure
situations were huge. I don’t think we would have beaten Walton without some of
them.
But
my favorite part of this season was seeing the whole team get so involved. Yes
there were a few stars that did some big things, but there were so many efforts
by so many kids that made this a great season. From Rosa’s picks, to the Wake
twins’ running and tackling, to the tackling in the middle of our defense, to
Sohns’s catches and picks, to Daye’s kickoffs, to many other things…..it
happened on so many fronts. That is beautiful to see.
Thanks to the seniors for
all your efforts. You have been so fun to watch. And to the others, well, the
clock is ticking down….