October 16, 2009
Looks 99.5%
certain that we are in the playoffs.
Waverly beat END, and Deposit beat Hancock. So, if we end in a 3 way tie with
Deposit and Seton, we win in points from what I can tell. But let’s hope it’s
not a question, and the regular season ends with a show of strength.
-jmh
October 10, 2009
Yikes. Wowser,
there is one that you don’t like to see, especially at this point in the
season. What a tough game. The stat sheet actually looks a lot better than the
game did. I felt pretty helpless there. When you can’t pass block, you’re in
trouble. I don’t know what the issue is there, but it must be fixed, or we are
in trouble, maybe even before the playoffs.
We looked so lead footed out there. I hope that drastically changes the
next couple weeks. We need to find another gear in terms of speed and
intensity.
Anyway, we used up our off
week. We must be on from here on out. I’m glad we survived.
-jmh
September 20, 2009
WOOHOO! How good does that feel?
What a superb team effort that the team put in! I’d love to know when the last
time was that Walton was held to 5 first downs over 48 minutes. That is just
awesome! It’s tough to name a star of that show, because everyone came together
so well…..Fletcher’s running, Ennist’s gorgeous catch
for the first TD, Newkerk’s toughness and hitting on
defense, heck Darling’s rushing total didn’t look like much, but I guarantee
you it went a long way to opening things up for Fletcher.
I think the most exciting thing
for me is the way we just seem to mostly have our heads on straight. This was
of course a big game, and there were plenty of opportunities for us to hand it
over. We weren’t flawless, but I thought overall we executed very well. Again,
how often do you play that kind of defense against Walton?
Photos and game stats are up.
I hope soon to have a write up on the game in place. Thanks for reading….
-jmh
September 18, 2009
Here we go folks, battling
those woodchucks once again. Here’s our chance to establish who we are this
week. I really am at a loss to know how this one will go to tell you the truth.
I am just not sure where exactly either Walton or Delhi are.
Certainly our strength appears to be pounding the ball with Fletcher and Ennist, but defending that is usually where Walton is the
strongest. If Darling could have a breakout day, we could be in good shape. I’d
say if he gets 100 yards we win the game. I do like how the passing game looked
last week, but we’ll be up against a superior pass rush this week. If we don’t
get the running game established, and need to pass often, we are in trouble.
Heck, you can say that any year against these guys. Many a QB has taken a
beating.
Bottom line for me, play
consistent defense, and see what offensive opportunities present themselves.
-jmh
September 9, 2009
Today I bring you some
interesting conversation from the great world wide web.
Two different things…..the first is an article about the interaction between
parents and coaches.
http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/story/779880.html
The second is from the
section IX site. I have a lot of respect for the guy who wrote this, but still,
I think it’s just a bit silly – he wasn’t there to even see any of the plays he
is complaining about, but since someone told him once that we apparently don’t
like dem thar city
slickers, that our football officials tend to help us along. I was waiting to
be called a toothless varmint that married my sister, haha.
Anyway, happy reading….oh, you will need to scroll down quite a ways till you
see something about the Delhi game…..
http://www.eteamz.com/SectionNineFB/news/
-jmh
September 8, 2009
Well folks, we’re on our way
into the 2009 season. So far so good on the website……I still have some things I
want to get caught up on, but at least I had the stats up fairly quickly. I do
have more to do though…..I have some very good pictures from this game that I
still need to get up….probably another night or two, so keep checking. Someday
I also want to get career stats again, first with our
current players, then with the past players. I just got heights and weights for
the roster, you may or may not see them up tonight.
So, I hope you all enjoy, and I hope you keep supporting our Bulldogs.
I think the first half was a
bit discouraging, especially with how well we moved the ball at the end of last
year. We did come out very strong in the second half however, which was very
encouraging. I loved how the guys stuck with it for 4 quarters. I was worried
about that with the heat and with some of our big kids. But we won that 4th
quarter by a long shot. So, I think we have something to be encouraged about
and to build off of.
I’ll probably have some
opinion later in the week on our division and such, not sure if it will be here
or in a separate piece. So, hope you all have a good week, thanks for reading,
and GO BULLDOGS!
-jmh
September 3, 2009
Welcome back folks! I can’t believe the new season is here
already! I’ve been working on some formatting changes, but I think they may
have to wait for a while now that the season is here in earnest. So, right now I’m
trying to get things ramped up for this weekend. I’ve got the roster up, but I
still don’t have heights and weights, so that should be coming very soon. I still want to put together a recap of last
season, and I’m not sure how much of a preview for the coming season I will have…..for
one thing I haven’t been too engaged in what was going on till just recently.
So I’ll be learning a lot on Saturday. OK, that’s it for now,
let’s see how things go this season….
-jmh
October 19, 2008
Division Champions, woohoo! It’s the first time since 1995! The announcer at
the game incorrectly said 1997…..but who you gonna
believe, the Athletic Director or the nut that’s been to 153 straight games??
It looks like we have a chance to peak at just the right time…..
For coverage, I’ve updated
some various minor things. Game and cumulative stats should be up during the
day sometime Monday, with pictures up hopefully late Monday night.
Of course, everything is
contingent on not making a trip to the hospital. By the way, thanks to all who have
been asking about that front….but we are still here. Due date is not actually
till November 6, but things usually happen earlier in our family….
Looking forward to the
playoffs…..hosting Seton Saturday at 1:30 is my understanding….
-jmh
October 13, 2008
Playoffs. Nice to be talking
about them, though we are not quite there yet. For anyone confused about the
playoff picture, I’ll try to explain here….
If Delhi wins over Hancock
this Saturday, Delhi wins our division outright, and of course is in the
playoffs. If Delhi were to lose to Hancock, it gets a little trickier, as it
then depends on BG’s game against Unatego. A Delhi loss would mean a 3-way tie
between BG, Delhi, and Hancock. This tie would then be broken by a point system
developed by our own DK as well as Ithaca (and former Lansing) coach Ed
Redmond. My very unofficial count of those points puts everything on the
BG/Unatego game. If BG wins, they beat us for points, and they go as the top
seed. Since Hancock would have beaten Delhi in this scenario, they would get
the second seed based on head to head, and Delhi would be left in the cold. If
BG were to lose to the Spartans, I show Delhi and BG tied for points. In this
case, Delhi would get the top seed based on head to head, BG would take the
second seed, and Hancock would be searching for games the last 2 weeks of the
season.
So, in case I made you
crosseyed, a Delhi win Saturday means we are seeded #1. A Delhi loss and a BG
loss means most likely that we are still seeded #1. A Delhi loss and a BG win
means we are out of the playoffs.
As for who we play, my
understanding is that we would play Seton Catholic at home, who is the #2 seed
in the other D division east of I-81. Walton, being the top seed, would host
our division’s #2 (BG or Hancock). If we were to beat Seton, the sectional
semifinals would likely be against the top seed in the west (unless BG pulled a
miracle over Walton, in which case we’d play the 2nd best team from
the west). Groton looks like the best in
the west right now, but I would not say things are certain over there at all.
I’m still hoping for our
first division title since 1995….
-jmh
October 12, 2008
Well hello folks. It’s been a
while, hasn’t it. I’ve been out of town a whole lot lately, and can’t work much
on the site remotely. So, alas, I’m a bit behind. Tonight I got some things
up…..stats updated, game summaries for the last two games, and a couple minor
items. In a couple days I should have photos from Deposit and BG, as well as
league standings updated. I’m done travelling for a few weeks now, though now
the baby watch thing could take me out of the picture a bit…..it’s been I think
152 games in a row now…..if the wife decides to drop on the wrong day, the
streak could be in danger! Anyway, hope all of you are doing well…..and hope we
finish the job next week for our first division title since 1995….
-jmh
September 24, 2008
Another L, but I thought we
stopped any kind of freefall, at least for a week. I was pleased with the effort,
and definitely the intensity level – we looked like we wanted to win for the
most part. We still just have to figure some stuff out. We need to get more of
a rhythm into the passing game, and I think that should take care of most other
offensive issues. And we need to play better pass defense, as we are starting
to look like Walton with our passing D. Overall, we turned around some though.
Let’s hope that continues this weekend. Win or lose, we need to be in the game,
and assert some strength in a few areas. After that, things get dire as the
league schedule starts.
-jmh
September 14, 2008
Well, you have to take your
lumps sometimes. It wasn’t fun watching us start with our backs to the wall all
day, and then not move anywhere. I always say, this stuff builds character.
It’s going to take a whole lot of work to make this all come together. We need
to play much cleaner, and we need to have some playmaking…..make the tough
catches, make the tough tackles. It’s gut check time. And of course, things
don’t get any easier…..next week’s opponent is undefeated and should be pretty
tough. We need a good showing. Let’s hope for a good week of preparation, and
for a chip on our shoulders that we have something to prove.
-jmh
September 12, 2008
In this week’s opinion
piece “Personality”, I talked about
playmaker teams and execution teams. I thought I’d go through some of Delhi’s
better teams and classify them…..
’84 through ’86 – tough to
remember here, as I was going from a tween to a teen. Since I had more
untrained eyes then, I recall them as more playmaking, with guys like Ben Bray,
Joel Hunter, and Fran Pardee doing big things.
’90 – I’m going with
execution here, but that is questionable. We of course had the big 3 of Sohns,
Haight, and DeMeo, but I feel we were more O-line and team oriented. We did
things a bit more methodically. Haight was definitely a playmaker though.
’91 – After graduating much
of the O-line, I think we crossed the border into playmaker territory. The big
3 returned, and we were so exciting to watch.
’95 – again very tough….I’ll
say execution. We just blocked so well, that the guys didn’t need to make as
many big plays, though they certainly made their share.
’99 – definitely execution – people
scratched their heads at how we could beat Walton and hang with Salamanca.
’01 – copping out and going
with split right down the middle here. Guys on both sides of the ball doing
great things, but it was very disciplined and purposeful. I guess that’s why we
won states, eh?
’05 – execution, narrowly.
Hood had lots of big runs, but we were just a very solid team on both sides of
the ball.
’06 – playmaker I think.
Unfortunately I think that is one reason we didn’t do better in states. We got
stuffed on quite a few runs, but we broke enough big ones off that it hid it.
So where will we go this
year??
-jmh
September 9, 2008
Hello again friends. Anyone
dried out yet from Saturday? Well, that was a very good showing I thought. I
don’t like fumbling so much obviously, though the ball was slightly moist. I
also would like to see more big play TD’s…..look at years like ’95, ’01, ’05,
and ’06…..there were big plays all over the place. Outside of that though, it
was highly encouraging. Delhi controlled the line of scrimmage very very well
on both offense and defense. The backs ran very hard. We did struggle just a
time or two with tackling VanLieu, but overall we did great there. The ball
catching was tremendous, especially the second catch by Haynes. 400+ yards to
less than 50, and we had 4 to 5 times as many first downs (Press had 14 to 2,
but I’m thinking it was more like 20 to 4 or 5).
Guarded optimism. This week
is another big step. Sidney has given us so much trouble…..we haven’t beaten them
since the championship season in ’01. That offense gave us trouble even in
years when we were quite a bit better than the Warriors. A win this weekend
would be a very significant achievement for sure. Then the challenges will just
continue with a good Westmoreland team and a very strong Walton team on their
hayfield.
Things are going well so far,
but it is a very rocky road ahead. We need to be focused if we are going to
tread it successfully…
-jmh
September 7, 2008
Just got the stats up….they
disagree somewhat with the press’s, as I did see some errors on the stat sheet
that I tried to fix. The defensive stats look particularly bad, as I’m sure we
had more than 17 tackles. Oh well, we’ll put up what we have.
My optimism continues, but
Saturday will be a pretty good test I think, as Sidney brings a pretty good
team….
-jmh
September 3, 2008
Welcome back folks! I can’t
believe a new season is here! I was pretty oblivious to football a couple weeks
ago…..then I realized practice was starting. Then I watched a bit of a
practice, and now I’m as excited as ever. It should be an interesting year. We
looked pretty good at the scrimmage, but the first 4 weeks look pretty tough
with Liberty (6-2 last year, and beat us), Sidney (very young last year,
finished very strong, including a big win over BG, who had beaten us),
Westmoreland (perennial class C power in section 3), and the Route 10 pumpkins.
I’m getting some stuff done
here…..have the roster up, the divisional layout, the schedule. Before the
game, I am hoping to post a recap of last season and a preview of the coming
season, as well as probably some kind of opinion piece. We’ll see how well I do
this year at keeping up with things. I won’t make any promises, but I will say
I’m excited to be back at it! Talk to you more soon!
-jmh
September 16, 2007
Not a bad showing today. I
liked how we blocked from the very beginning this time. We’re still a bit
sloppy, and I wish we could break off a few more long TD runs….kind of
surprised that we aren’t to tell you the truth. But we’re doing well. Next week
things get very important. Harpursville will be a definite step up from Hancock
and
Speaking of first downs,
Walton’s performance Friday night was unheard of. Their defense pitched a
no-hitter, not allowing a first down, and giving up something like negative 47
yards, with no rusher in positive territory. They are on a tear, I tell you
what. They will be a handful to say the least.
Good week for the boys, let’s
see if the momentum can carry…..
-jmh
September 11, 2007
My apologies for my slowness
this weekend……had social gatherings at my house both Saturday night and Sunday,
so that greatly held me up. I have photos up now, I’ll post game stats soon (go
to the Daily Star’s website and look at Monday’s edition if you want to see
them sooner). And hopefully before too long I’ll get cumulative stats put up.
-jmh
September 7, 2007
I guess I should get my
sectional picks in before 2 weeks of the season are gone (even though we still
don’t have a preview from the Daily Star yet!). Last year I picked the matchups
exactly correct for AA, A, and B, though Corning East was the only winner of
those I got right. For C I picked Greene and Unatego…..good choices, but
neither made the final. This year I go with (changed a bit from earlier picks
on the forum)…..
AA – UE over Vestal
A – Corning East over Corning
West
B – Forks over
C – Trumansburg over Unatego
(great race in C I think)
D – Walton over Candor
Wish I could see ‘Tego/Greene
tonight, should be great. See you tomorrow, hopefully we’ll be dry….
-jmh
September 5, 2007
I said it was development
time, and so it is. There are some good things to be sure, but we’ve got to get
ready to knock some heads at the varsity level. We got pushed around for better
than half of Saturday, and that needs to change. I do love the fact that we
never gave up however. 26-0 going into the 4th quarter…..it would
have been easy to just put our minds to Monday’s practice to fix things.
Instead, the offense finally came alive. Bedient started getting a bit of room
to work with, and he started running with good authority. Davionne’s run
following our stop of Liberty at the 5 was great to get us out of the hole. And
I can’t say enough about Kathmann’s and Burns’s hookups. Kathmann did extremely
well in my opinion. I thought he had a couple nice throws under pressure,
especially the one TD where he threw the ball close to 40 yards while on the
run to his left. He has got a very nice gun.
I think we have some very
good top kids who can play with anyone. Bring the rest of the team along, and
we’ll be one to watch out for on the schedule. Saturday is a league game, so let’s
hope we can start division play with a W.
-jmh
August 28, 2007
It's amazing the talent we've
had sitting on the bench over the last couple years. Note that at different
times the last 2 seasons we've had the following guys riding the bench on one
side of the ball or the other......James Card, Brenton Hood, Ryan Weale, Mike
Rama, Devin Bedient, Dennis Aikens, Jeff Daye, Derek Plance, Kevin Rossley,
Ryan Sullivan, Josh Wake, and Jason Wake. That's amazing to me. Give me any
single one of those guys this season, and I can pretty much guarantee they
would be 2-way starters.
We have no such luxuries this
year. While I certainly hope for the development of our new kids, they are
right now completely unproven. I think we can fill 1/3 to 1/2 of the field with
proven kids, after that, we are a development project. This is a huge
opportunity for these guys to step it up and show what they can do. The top
kids are very good in my opinion, but they can't do it alone......we need to
fill in the gaps, especially on defense. On offense, we can work to our
strengths, but on defense, our weaknesses will be exposed, so we had better get
strong there. The good news is, while I never want to take anyone too lightly,
I think the first several weeks of our schedule is a good development time. We
have a chance to win those games, and we can work on developing.
Let's hope we can tackle on
Saturday, because I have a feeling that all 3
Looks like great weather for
the opener.....
-jmh
August
26, 2007
Saw
some encouraging things at the scrimmage yesterday, and some things to work on
as well. We seem like we’ll be ok on offense. Davionne looked great running
tailback, and had some long runs on Vestal (unfortunately I didn’t see him go
up against Forks). He seems to be a real weapon. I thought Devin did a pretty
good job running fullback as well.
The
defense had some decent moments, but struggled some others, and I thought the
tackling especially needed some work. We had a few plays with some guys in
decent position but they didn’t make the play.
There
are so many new faces…..I probably only know 1/3 of them at this point, but I’m
looking forward to knowing more of them…..
-jmh
August
22, 2007
Hello
folks. Visit the section 9 site for a look at our week 1 opponent
I’m
waiting on a roster and last year’s younger teams’ scores, and I’ll post them
as soon as I have them. I also need to finish career stats for most players.
I’m
looking forward to seeing how we look in the scrum Saturday…..
-jmh
August
7, 2007
I
have last season’s stats updated with the last game (though I had no defensive
stats for that one). Some career stats are updated as well…..this will be
ongoing. Just 6 days till practice!!!
-jmh
November
11, 2006
All
I can say is that I’m prouder than ever of the boys and prouder than ever to be
a Bulldog. I’ll have more in a couple days.
-jmh
November
7, 2006
Well,
I said last week that the pressure couldn’t get any higher. Well, does the
feeling get any better than beating those sweet potatoes by 34 in a shutout?!?
I think not. What an effort. I loved the level of excitement. I REALLY loved
the way we ran the ball. That is almost unheard of to run the ball like that
against Walton.
What
a tall order we have this week though, wow. These guys look tough. The leading
rusher is 6’4” and 200 lbs., and rushes for better than 10 per carry. They
haven’t really had a close game since the first week of the season. That week,
they were behind in the 3rd quarter, but came back to win by 20.
That was against the same team that they just slammed 52-14 this week. So we’ll
have our hands full.
Question
is, will the boys be satisfied with a big win over pumpkintown, or are we now
squarely focused on a bigger goal?
-jmh
October
31, 2006
Faster
than a speeding pumpkin….Walton has bigtime momentum coming in to Saturday’s
game. Walton has beaten their last 3 opponents by a combined 120-0! The lone TD
they’ve allowed in the last 4 games was by our own Nate Rockefeller. They have
come together brilliantly, and they are overachieving right now. Next year will
REALLY be their year, but they could very easily be Section 4 D champs this
year if we don’t play the game of our lives. I thought in the last game we
looked better overall – we outgained them and out-first-downed them. But they
have just gotten better. We had better hope our O-line blocks like they’ve
never blocked before. We can win, and if we do, it will be with a superb team
effort. I have got butterflies this whole week, I tell you what!
-jmh
October
30, 2006
I
think if we could play 4 clean quarters we’d be scary. I do like the response
though. I like that we took control of the game. I like it that, even though we
gave up some ground between the end of the 3rd and beginning of the
4th quarters, we stopped them and took it right down the field, and
that with our 2 backup RB’s in the game. That is 4th quarter strength
right there. Again, I don’t mind the fact that they moved the ball too much,
since Quick was simply amazing, and you just don’t shut a kid like that down
completely. I certainly liked that we were in position basically the whole game
(had we not been Quick would have taken it the distance). If we’re in position
like that vs. Walton for the whole game, we’ll be good defensively. Can we move
the ball this time? Ah, the eternal question.
The
Hay Wagon Series continues…..
-jmh
October
26, 2006
Last
year I talked about some of
There
is another factor that I think plays in here. On the
So,
all I’m saying is that there are a whole lot of intangibles. Let’s just hope
that on the football side of things we can make our statement on Saturday.
-jmh
October
25, 2006
12
days more and here I am again. I’m going to make an attempt to get back here a
bit more often now that the playoffs are here. Each week will provide many new
challenges. Let’s hope for several weeks.
Looks
like duck weather on Saturday. I don’t know if it will make all that much
difference unless it is a hard driving rain, in which case I think it favors
us. Looks like a Candor team with one bazooka and a few sidearms to make it
interesting. They’ll score. Let’s just see how well we can move the ball. More
tomorrow….
-jmh
October
13, 2006
Wowser,
has it really been since September 23 since I did a Dogblog? Usually I
apologize and give you some excuse and say I’ll do better when I am this bad in
my coverage. OK, here goes. Sorry. The Dogs ate my homework. No, actually, this
time I feel a bit bad but not too bad. It’s actually this cute female keeping
me from you. Blond hair, blue eyes. About 12 pounds. My new daughter has
decided that her favorite time to be a fuss budget is right about the time I
used to do a lot of work in updating my site. So, I get home at 6:30, eat
dinner, play with my 3 older kids till 8:30 or 9, put them to bed, then rock
and sing to the little one till I can finally manage to get her to sleep. Then
of course comes the wife. So, sorry there isn’t more comprehensive coverage,
but my family is just really keeping me busy. I’ve been trying to keep up with
cumulative stats and game stats and such. I’ve just been shorter on some
writeups and on getting individual stats updated. My creativity and humor seems
to be suffering as well. And I’ll make no promises about the future this time.
I will make as much attempt as I can, but my blondie is just too cute. Also, if
we do go to the playoffs, I hope to spruce things up a bit for that as well,
since playoffs will bring more hits.
Anyway,
I guess I’ll see you all tonight. Dress warm. At least we’re not getting 2 feet
of snow like in
-jmh
September
23, 2006
Pretty
good showing of dominance last night for much of the game, but some very sloppy
times as well. I don’t like how the tackling faded in the third and early
fourth quarters, but granted, some of those were pretty tough kids. We moved
the ball well, and didn’t get stuffed nearly as many times as the last 3 weeks.
I don’t like throwing so many picks, but we certainly needed the practice. We
had times when we did some nice things (even on some incompletions) and times
when the ball never should have been thrown. We just need to keep working it,
that’s all I can say. I think DK knows it, which is a good thing. With
Rockefeller being our strongest runner right now, imagine what our offense will
be like if we can hit the end of the season with Hood in full stride and the
passing game reliable at getting first downs. Wowser. But we’re not there yet.
How
come whenever I talk a team up they fade like a pair of cheap blue jeans? Poor
Unatego. After watching them against Walton, I never would have guessed they’d
lose 2 in a row to Oneonta and Greene. Granted, Greene is very good I think,
but it doesn’t look like Unatego put up a huge fight. That division is going to
be a horserace, I tell you what.
I
wish I could head down to Walton today, but I don’t think it will happen. That
game is very intriguing. I’ve picked Walton, which means that
-jmh
September
22, 2006
I
talk a lot about analysis and what we do right and wrong and how the area teams
look and stuff, but, I’ll tell you, nothing compares to seeing those faces on
the sideline. I probably sound corny, but those kids are just awesome. And
football is awesome for those kids. As I stood over there after the game, my
thoughts were far less on my own hurt, and just thinking about how much that
hurt those guys. It’s an experience, that, being so painful, is simply
priceless. Things won’t change unless they are unhappy with where they are.
They NEED to not like how things went. That doesn’t mean they can’t see that
they did some things well, but there needs to be some dissatisfaction if they
are to get better, and, more importantly, grow as a person. When they are
working in the office in 15 years and have a failure (and perhaps a failure
where much of what they did was right), they will have the experience already
with looking at the failure, and being driven by the failure to analyze it and
fix it.
I
hate to see the kids feel like that, and it tears my heart out. But those
failures are what drive the successes that make
-jmh
September
18, 2006
Well,
had Unatego had a field goal kicker, week 3 last year may have ended just like
it did this year. Lots of things to be disturbed about, and a few things to be
optimistic about I think. I’ll probably give a more detailed analysis of my thoughts
in an opinion piece later this week, but I’ll say right now that we need to
block better and have better effectiveness passing if we expect to be a top
team in the state. I know people are high on us, but I’m pessimistic until I
see more diverse involvement in the offensive stats.
It
was heartbreaking seeing the faces of those boys as they walked off the field
Saturday. They worked so hard, and came up so very short. You hate to see that
pain, but there is so much growth in these situations. Perfection is not
realistic. Getting better is. I hope they don’t like how this feels. I hope
they go out and change the situation. Last year we hit a low in week 3 and then
improved, let’s hope we do the same this year.
Seems
like whenever we lose I get slow about doing stuff. Please know that I don’t
mean for that to happen. I have a month old baby at home that doesn’t like to
let me do anything in the evening. Mom gets to deal with her all day, so I get
to deal with her in the evening. She’s had some stomach problems lately, so
she’s screaming half the time, which doesn’t help the website out. Anyway, I
hope to get to stuff soon. I’ll get at least some kind of writeup added to the
game stats, and I’ll get cumulative stats added in the next day or 2. I still
need to get career stats updated for 2006. Maybe this week, maybe not.
The
most important dance starts on Friday…..
-jmh
September
15, 2006
Seems
like familiar territory. Last year we were #4 in class C, and Walton came to
town as #1 in D for a non-leaguer. This year it’s us at #2 in D with
I
can’t wait to see the Oxford/Walton score tomorrow. Outside of
I
hope we don’t lose anything mentally this week. I don’t think we will, but I
think week 3 was a low point last year. We dominated the scrimmage and week 1,
then TriValley gave us a Dogfight in the first half of week 2 before Delhi ran
away, then we hit a bottom when we played a somewhat poor game against Unatego,
turning the ball over 4 times in the first half and failing to close the book on
them in the end. Don’t know if it was because of any significance to week 3,
but I hope not, as I really want to win tomorrow. One way or another, next week
is when the most important business starts….we play league games from week 4
until playoff time.
-jmh
September
12, 2006
They
were a snotty group to be sure (and I mean that in the nicest way). They fought
like crazy, and hit hard. They didn’t have enough to really make a game of it,
but certainly on the individual play level, we had to work for it. You wouldn’t
think we’d have 12 rushes of a yard or less when we win 34-0. It’s nice to see
it didn’t faze us though, and we still worked through it and got the job done.
I’ll be curious to see how that Section IX Class C race goes with TriValley and
Sullivan West.
We
got a little bit more done with the passing game…..122 yards and 2 TD’s
certainly looks good. Pat looked a little over-anxious on the early throws, but
settled in to do fine on the last bunch. I think we should throw it a bit
further downfield if we can get the time. I think the strength is there, we
could use the extra space, and our guys can open down there.
This
weekend should definitely be interesting. All comes down to offense I think. I
think the defense will do a pretty good job, bending a bit, and giving up any
where from 1 to 4 TD’s, depending on how the offense does. If we get lots of
first downs and 350 yards, I think we’re golden. If we struggle like last
season, we could find ourselves on the losing end. I think we are going to need
that throwing game to tell you the truth.
I
think our game and the Oxford/Walton game should go miles toward clearing up
what the C and D races are going to look like this season….
-jmh
September
7, 2006
Here
are my picks, a week late, for the sectional finals. Last year I got 6 of 10
finalists correct.
AA
– Horseheads over Union-Endicott
A –
Corning East over Maine-Endwell
B –
C –
Unatego over Greene (unless Mister comes back I think
I
won’t pick D, other than to say I think we’ll see 2 east teams once again.
Statewide,
I picked 4 of 10 finalists correctly, and 7 of the 10 were in the
semis…..pretty good for me I think.
AA
– Monroe Woodbury over CBA (could very well be Thomas again)
A –
Corning East over
B –
C –
LeRoy over Dobbs (think Unatego has a chance?)
Let’s
see how I do….
-jmh
September
5, 2006
A
couple of thoughts on performances –
Nate
Rockefeller has gotten to be a tremendous fighter in traffic. He doesn’t move a
pile like some FB’s and like I saw Card do in the scrum, but he just works in
that crowd and finds a way through. He gets better at it all the time. He has
also added a new move to his repertoire…..he’s working on a spin. It looked
nasty, though it only picked him up an extra yard or two the few times he tried
it. Not often you see a FB doing a spin move.
Chad
Rockefeller made some sick blocks on the perimeter. He was manhandling his guy
on several of Hood’s outside runs. No holding, just clean dominant blocking,
and taking the guy downfield with him. I think we’re going to see some major
yards on the outside with blocking like that.
I
got to see Ryan Weale run for the first time. He definitely did some nice
things – some good speed through the hole and some good cuts. The one thing I
was disappointed in was that he didn’t follow his blocks on a couple of
occasions. Our wideout had some good inside leverage on his defender, but Weale
took it outside instead of cutting it inside his block. The guy ended up
getting him. With any luck he’ll get a good number of carries this year to make
it right, and he should develop into a very good back.
-jmh
September
3, 2006
Well,
step one is completed well. What a dominating effort by the defense until near
the end of the game. Before those 2 long passes that led to the score, Sully
West had a goose egg for first downs, and a measly 1 yard of total offense. Not
bad for 32 minutes of scoreboard clock time. If that isn’t dominant, I don’t
know what is. The offense looked great as well….Sully put up a fight early on,
but Rocky and Hood and the O-line were just too much eventually.
We
obviously didn’t pass nearly as much as I had wanted to. At first I felt bad
about that, but, with more thought, I feel much better. With the wind Saturday,
it probably wasn’t a great time for a developmental passing game. Had we passed
15 times or more and had just a couple completions, I think the discouragement
would have done more harm than good. It could also have hurt our timing for a
better day. I’d still like to show what the passing game can do this Saturday,
but we’ll have to see. We certainly got guys open, but the wind and the fact
that it was a first game can make it hard to get it done. I’m still confident
that we’ll soon be a real passing threat.
I’m
doing some different things in terms of how I record and keep stats, and it has
actually hurt the effort this week. Just lots of problems with Excel that I
can’t seem to explain. Hopefully I’ll have them worked out soon. Shouldn’t
matter much this week, since the cumulative stats are the same as the game
stats. Soon I’ll have the player stats updated as well. Thanks for reading…..
-jmh
September
1, 2006 (revisited)
Unatego
is totally impressive! Too bad we don’t play them…..that would be a wicked game
I think. Their backfield is so impressive with Henchey’s speed, Knowlton’s power,
and Hendrickson’s moves. We’ll have to see next week how good Walton is when
they play Sully West. They are definitely susceptible to a team with speed.
Their QB has a rocket arm, but he couldn’t really get the ball to the right
spot. If he got hot though he could be really dangerous, especially with the
speed of Fisher and Wood. If we’re in a 1 TD game late with Walton, that
passing game could be real trouble.
Let’s
hope the rain isn’t too bad tomorrow. In some ways it seems like it would be to
our advantage – Sully will probably have to pass to move the ball. Then again,
when you get a driving rain even the best offenses sometimes are turned off.
1995’s awesome team (that was predominantly run-oriented) only scored 12
against a decent Unatego team because of the rain. I don’t want a low scoring
game tomorrow, because all it takes is one busted play in a game like that to
disappoint you. I expect Sully to be very ready to prove that last year they
played well below their level.
-jmh
September
1, 2006
Well,
let’s get started on IVPICKS for the season…..I’ll make my goal at .800 again
this year….
I’ll
go with Solvay, Fowler, RFA, Corning East, Sidney (like others I’m picking a
20-some to 20-less score in this one), Chenango Valley, Unatego (great game in
my opinion…..hope to be there), Newfield, Lansing, Eldred, Tioga, UVE, Corning
West, Proctor, Southside, JC, Forks, END, T-Burg, Whitney Point, Harpursville,
Candor, Moravia, Livingston Manor, EFA,
Dryden, Oxford, and UE.
Wonder
if there’s any chance of postponement with the deluge that’s coming….
-jmh
August 31, 2006
Looking down through the
roster, my thoughts are that numbers are a bit down, some weights are a bit down,
and a few seniors who played last year didn’t show.
The roster shows 24 kids,
while we’ve been having somewhere in the high 20’s the last several years (28
last year). We are in D this year, but still, you never like to see numbers
start to drop. Then again when I played we often didn’t have enough for a full
offense and defense during practice, so things do go up and down to some
extent. One cause in the drop in numbers is that 5 last year-juniors aren’t
listed this year. Micci Mason could have really helped out on the defensive
perimeter, and he really will be missed. Word that I have is that he has a very
bad shoulder injury, and he’ll be doing very well to make it back for wrestling
season (he was our first ever
As for the weights of
players, some are up, and others are slightly down from a year ago. I don’t
feel too bad about the ones that dropped, as I think it could help the speed
situation. We are plenty big enough to move guys at this level, so there is
definitely not a concern with being too small.
We look good on paper……let’s
see how we look on a flooded Dave Kelly field.
-jmh
August 30, 2006
3 days and counting. Looks
like a wet day Saturday. That could ruin my plans for airing it out I guess,
not that I expect DK to follow it much anyways.
Just going a bit further
with my passing mentality, I’d like to see us go deep to Davionne a few times
in each of the first couple games. I look at Jon Smith’s impact on a game to
come to this conclusion. Smith made the DB’s take several steps backward, and
made them always think about the deep ball. Don’t know about you, but I’d love
to have a couple more yards of space on that perimeter. What did Hood do last
year when he had a bit of breathing room? He took it to the house a bunch of
times. I think Davionne is fast enough that he might be able to have a similar
impact. We just need to get him onto the scouting tapes. Build some fear. Not
to mention that Davionne looked pretty good in the short passing game as well,
and that extra space will only make it better. I can’t wait to see this passing
game go, I tell you.
-jmh
August 26, 2006
Well, because I couldn’t get
my lazy behind out of bed early enough, I missed 25 minutes of the scrum today.
Doesn’t sound that bad, but it basically meant I missed all of our first team’s
action against Forks.
I have to say, that showing
was completely impressive. The defense went out first, and I bet Vestal only
made it past the line on about half of their plays. They had 1 or 2 plays at
most that went for beyond 2-3 yards. Their longest play (maybe 6 yards?) ended
in a fumble.
As for thoughts on the
performance, a lot of people did things well, but there were a couple that
stuck out to me more than others. James Card did very well at ILB (moved from
DE), but where he really impressed me was running FB. He ran with the 2nd
group, but he was really impressive. He’s not huge, but he really showed his
strength with some incredible pushing after contact, against both Forks and
Vestal. He had a brutal 9 yard TD run vs. Forks, and he had another maybe 15
yard run against Vestal where it looked like he was carrying half the team.
Nice to see a 2nd FB near the level of the #1 guy, or at least at a
level that will push kids in our schedule around. Davionne Price was the other
individual that stuck out. He is just so quick. He had a few nice catches in
traffic, though later on he missed some that, while definitely not easy, were
catchable. He still a diamond in the rough, but after seeing him today, I
believe all the more that the diamond is there. And we didn’t even try going
deep with him that I saw. I said before that I was impressed with the D…..the
main thing that stuck out here was the speed. Our boys were just flying to the
ball, and the tackling looked very strong. Even the big boys got there quick.
It was awesome to watch.
Can’t wait to turn the
scoreboard on this weekend….
-jmh
August 25, 2006
Here we are on the eve of
the scrimmage. Time flies when you’re birthin babies and stuff like that
(almost as much fun as makin’em, though the bummer is that there’s none of that
for a while). OK, I’m really digressing.
Here’s my one armchair (or I
guess deskchair) coach suggestion for early this season – lean on’em. Lean on
the stuff that we are trying to get good at. We’ve got our starting backfield
returning with several linemen, and we have much of our run-stopping defense in
place from last year. We need to get good at passing, and we need our defensive
perimeter to get ready in a hurry.
I think I’ve said it before,
but I truly think we should pass on half of our downs for the first half of the
first 2 games. Pat and the receivers should be the primary show for a little
while. Make it so that if we go into the half with a lead, it is because the
passing game was effective. The way to make this part of our game reliable s to
put all the pressure on it. Sometime when we have a 3rd or 4th
and 3 when we REALLY want the 1st down, don’t give the ball to Hood.
Throw a hook. If we want our passing game to come through for us in October and
November, it needs to be worked in pressure situations in September. We can win
lots of games with Hood and Rockefeller running, but I don’t think we can win
the division on their shoulders alone, especially ths year without kids the
caliber of the Wake’s backing them up.
On defense it’s not quite so
straightforward. It’s really up to the opposing offense whether our perimeter
gets worked. I think it will. Sully West returns their QB, and TriValley will
probably not get too far running, so I’m guessing we’ll see lots of air under
the ball in the coming weeks. Hopefully they will also get the chance to come
up and make some good tackles against the run as well. Let’s hope for spurts of
growth.
I’ve gotten to watch a total
of maybe 40 minutes of practice so far. I don’t have a whole lot of comments,
but I do have to give some credit to Chad Rockefeller. I saw him on one play
make just a beautiful tackle on Hood…..just took him right down with authority.
With a linebacker that can tackle a back as great as Hood with that kind of
strength, I am very encouraged indeed.
Can’t wait till tomorrow to
see the Blackhawks defeathered, the Bears’ porridge eaten, and the Forks bent
like in elementary school….
-jmh
August 20, 2006
Well, we’re nearly there. Scrimmage
on Saturday, then the dance begins in earnest a week later. I suppose if I were
more professional about all this I’d have been at the first practice getting
any information I could. I’d be interviewing the coaches and getting the inside
scoop wherever possible. Unfortunately, I’m just a nut for Delhi football who
has a whole bunch of other things going on – new baby to add to 3 previous
young kids, an engineering job with a 75 minute one-way commute, church
activities, lots of extended family, and who knows what all else. So I’m sorry
that I don’t have the polish and perhaps the depth that a “real” website might
have. I’m also cursed in this endeavor by my personality……I much prefer sitting
back somewhat anonymously to going out and probing people for information. So
unfortunately, I have other priorities and ways to expend my energy. That said,
I will say that this has been a blast. Obviously, it helps that we were an
outstanding team a year ago. But I’ve always had fun talking football even through
3 straight 4-5 seasons. I’ve never been accused of being a fair-weather fan.
Anyway, my point to all this is to expect more of the same this
year…….unpolished commentary, with perhaps some good insight and little inside
scoop, and perhaps with some inconsistency on how deep I cover things.
Hopefully I have enough interesting things to say and display and enough good
humor that I can keep some of you engaged. I know that basically all feedback
I’ve gotten has been extremely positive (with the exception of a Walton female
shotputter who didn’t exactly care for Pumpkinfest and let me know with an
expletive-laden email).
So, I’ll give you what I’ve
got, and if you want more, email me, and I’ll gladly sign you up to do
interviews with DK after the games or cover practices or something.
I love
-jmh
August 17, 2006
OK, I’m sorry for the
cornyness. I’m sure some idiot from Walton will say it’s bulletin board
material or something.
Anyway, I had some more I
wanted to write, but I’m off to the hospital once again. Please welcome into
the world Meghan Elizabeth Hadley, born August 16, 2006. Mother and baby are
doing awesome.
We’ll be talking soon!
-jmh
August 14, 2006
OK, who’s the wise guy?
Someone did it, and we need to know who! All order is gone. Anarchy will reign.
We will return to the wild. Who is responsible for this?!?
Lumberjacks will be chased from
town. Blackhawks will fly away in fright. Bobcats and Wildcats may hiss, but
they know they’ll be torn limb from limb. But, of course, the most damage will
be done to the pumpkin patch. It will be invaded, and all that will be left
will be a tangled mess of orange.
Is there any hope? Can
anyone survive?
It happened this morning.
Someone let the ‘Dogs out.
-jmh
July 6, 2006
Hello folks. The more astute
among you may have noticed some updates trickling in at about the rate of my
two year old peeing. I’ve been trying to hit more on the history section
lately. Funny thing is that I talked to DK for probably a half hour a couple
weeks back and didn’t even think to ask about seeing what he had for historical
information. I’d love to see if I could get at least rosters and results for
most of the last 20 years, and even stats if they existed.
I have the 2006 schedules up
for all levels, 7th through varsity. I have a couple opinion type
pieces I’ve been thinking about, so we may see them up soon. The computer
needed a $500 repair job, and then the flooding stuff took away internet
service (as well as the homes of many poor souls, especially our friends 15
miles down route 10 and in Sidney), but things seem to be working well now.
I’ve been working on a new format for stats that should greatly decrease the
time it takes me to update everything, especially stuff like cumulative stats
for the season and for players’ careers. The highlight for me should be when I
finally get my Microsoft Frontpage software. I’m guessing it will be a huge
improvement in its design capabilities over what I’m doing now (Microsoft
Word). If I can just get my artistic wife involved a bit, we might be able to
have a much better looking and better formatted site.
Welcome to 2006 everyone.
Just a little over a month till first practice, and 8 weeks till game 1!!!!
-jmh
January 21, 2006
Individual stats are now
updated. Take a look at career totals for some of our longtermers……Bullpuppy
scores are next….
-jmh
January 19, 2006
2005 final statistics are up
as of tonight……looks a whole lot better than the last few years…..
-jmh
January 12, 2006
Stats for the final
Work is crazy folks. Sorry
I’m so poor lately at getting things done. I had fun tonight, so…..
-jmh
December 28, 2005
Hello folks. I’m back. Sorry
for the absence……hopefully an explanation and many updates to the site will be
coming in the next few days. Talk to you then…..
-jmh
November 4, 2005
Well, it all comes down to
tomorrow. I don’t think we can count on
I don’t have much else to
say about the game other than to say it’s all about great individual and team
efforts. Get it done as powerfully as we can, and don’t make mistakes. Gosh
I’ve got some real insight lately. Let’s hope for a week 11……
-jmh
November 3, 2005
Here is one link…...
-jmh
November 2, 2005
Greetings from Houston.
Sorry that I am again very lethargic about getting things out. Hopefully when
you see this the stats will be up, and possibly even this week’s opinion piece.
Look here at DogBlog for the link until I get back to NY and get the chance to
put the link on the main page (it is a pain in the neck to do unless I’m at our
home computer).
I thought some more about
the passing game. Sometimes I’ve been frustrated that we still don’t have any
TD passes (though it seems like we never throw down there because we’re so good
at getting in the endzone with running this year). I got thinking though that I
actually don’t mind it all that much. I usually look to the ’95 season as my
reference. We flat dominated everyone that year with the running game,
including a 40-0 win over Walton when we attempted just one pass (which was
inches over our receiver’s reach and would have been another TD added to the
score). When we did pass, it was usually hitting the tight end over the middle
when they were crowding the line, and they often went for TD’s. This year, we
aren’t passing for TD’s, but we’re doing something I think is even more
important……we’re getting first downs. Even more importantly, we’re doing it
when we need to and the pressure is on, not just when we feel like it and think
we can catch them off. Look at some of our catches from the Walton game and at
least one from the Greene game. So, I’m kind of happy where we are.
My stomach is turning for
Saturday…..
-jmh
October 31, 2005
Well, folks, I’m facing
another week away from home base, but hopefully this time I’ll have internet
access. I still hope to get team stats up, and I’ll have to see what else I can
get done. I do most work on our home laptop, and I can’t possibly steal that
from the wife if I want to stay married. Now that the weather is finally nicer,
I’m headed south – go figure.
Fun game to watch on
Saturday…..we can only hope this week will be as fun. Covering, tackling,
blocking, and breaking tackles, that’s all it takes…..sounds easy enough!
-jmh
October 28, 2005
As promised, here are my
picks for the final regular season games…….Spencer, Waverly, Groton, Sus Valley
(good game here), Dryden, Greene, Unadilla Valley, Southern Springs, Bainbridge,
Walton, and Lansing. I haven’t done the math to see if even 100% would bring me
up to 80% on the season, but at least I did better than the first couple weeks.
My guess is that Edison
comes out aggressive tomorrow. The FB won’t get the ball on the first play. It
will be a pass or some kind of gadget play almost for certain. They won’t want
to get into a predictable game with us, they will want to go with their speed
from the outset, and use the FB when we are more on our heels. Hopefully we won’t
ever get on our heels, but who knows…..we’ve given up some passing yards
already this year. Biggest thing that worries me I think is the QB running –
that could give us some problems. Hopefully Card and Fletcher will be ready for
it……
-jmh
October 26, 2005
Edison was 4-5 last year,
and hasn’t had a league title in a good while. When a team like that suddenly
is looking at a 7-1 record and a potential sectional final berth, that should
be enough to scare you. For one thing, the kids know a whole lot about what
doesn’t work (from last season, as well as watching their predecessors) and
what does work (suddenly they find themselves winning – what caused that?).
Secondly, they are MOTIVATED to put that knowledge into practice. This school
doesn’t know when it will see this kind of success again. This is their big
chance. They won’t let it slip away. They’ve never won a Bowl or a section IV
title, and this is their chance to taste it. They will come at us with
everything that has made them successful, and they will do it with ENERGY.
I hope that this Delhi group
is not like this, but I could see a Delhi team coming into a game like this
with an entitlement attitude. We are Delhi. We have 8 sectional titles and a
state title. We paid our dues with 3 consecutive losing seasons, so we are now
due. We are from the stronger eastern half of the section. We are better and
thus we will win. I wouldn’t call it a new money attitude, since Delhi has been
around. It’s perhaps like someone who made millions in the ‘90’s in the dot-com
stock market, and now thinks he’s coming back to do the same thing – he’s in
for a rude awakening.
So it will be for the ‘Dogs
if we come out flat and entitled. This must be EARNED, just as we earned
Unatego, Walton, Greene, and the rest. If we win, it will be by taking charge
of the situation and earning it. It won’t come because the east is stronger
than the west.
-jmh
October 25, 2005
Elmira Heights Edison.
Anyone remember the last time we played them? I do. 1990, Bowl IV (what we
would now call the Section IV Class D championship). Funny, because I don’t
even remember the final score, but I remember the winning TD. A seam pattern.
No safety in the middle. I took off down the middle and caught the ball at
about 10 yards, and took it the last 5 into the endzone. My only varsity TD,
though I did manage 30 other points kicking that season. Edison fought like
crazy after that and we nearly lost, but managed to hold on. We went on to lose
to Roscoe in a regional game down in Kingston. Ah, the days.
15 years ago is probably too
long to have any kind of revenge factor. It’s really hard to say how good
anyone from the west is, as there was very little cross-playing this year. Edison
did lose 22-6 to Deposit, but that was very early in the season, and it seems
like they’ve gotten better. Deposit is no slouch either, as they beat Walton by
an even bigger score than that. Edison looks to be another run/pass balanced
team, with a great, smart athlete at QB. From the Bingo Press preview, they
look fairly small on the O-line, but it seems like they have some speed.
Looking at their scores this year, they seem to have had up weeks and down
weeks. Down as in the loss to Deposit and a narrow win over Candor, up as in
the defeat of Trumansburg and a 31-0 win over a decent Newfield team. Last
week’s 29-8 win over Watkins Glen was probably somewhere in the middle.
I hope we can come into it
with a business like approach – we have a job to do and we’re going to do
it……we’re leaving the hoopla till after the season is done.
-jmh
October 24, 2005
A wild 4th to be
sure, but we made it! For a while I was feeling guilty over wishing that we had
moved the ball better in the second half. I thought I should just be happy with
the W. I felt a little better this morning when I read that DK said the same
thing.
I do feel pretty good about
the win though. We did get a lot of breaks, but Greene got a fair amount too,
like the blocked punt, the fumble that fell on our 23 and they scored on the
next play, and the long TD pass when everyone pretty much thought the game was
over. I’m pretty confident that we did more to them than they did to us. Just
wish there could have been some better ball movement late. I did like the fact
that Nate Rockefeller got that last first down at the end of the game. That to
me is closing the game out with strength, rather than just barely surviving
(kind of like I thought we did vs. Unatego).
The defense was the real
story in my mind, even if Greene did score 4 times. We never could have won
that game had we not held the FB to under 20 yards and held their 4th
year QB to 10 of 24. So if we can patch up a few of the mistakes, block for 4
quarters, and keep plugging that middle, we are in as good shape as we possibly
can be.
Greene would have loved to
have spoiled our premature party. 5 years ago we played them in a sectional
quarterfinal down there. They had beaten us by 9 earlier in the season. They
went up on us by 6, and they were driving deep late in the 4th
quarter to extend their lead. Delhi held them inside the 15 on downs. Delhi
went right down the field on some passing and some Brian Neale runs and tied
the game. Then Neale scored the gamewinner in OT. So they went from almost
certain victory with another score to being bounced in the playoffs. They were
VERY good that year…..they gave Walton a tough game to the end, and Walton was
state finalists. That was also the year we lost 2 last second games to the pumpkins.
-jmh
October 21, 2005
Looks like a washout again
tomorrow. Brings back some bad memories of a couple weeks ago. Maybe we’ll end
up liking the rain, who knows?
If we want to have any hopes
of competing with Sidney or at the state level, we have to win games like this.
If we get to where we are, and then don’t execute, we certainly don’t deserve
to be a playoff team. Kind of like playing Walton in’00 – we went up on them by
5 points with 2 or so minutes to go. I told myself that if Walton is still able
to drive the ball downfield and score in that amount of time, then they deserve
to win and we don’t. Let’s hope for a different result tomorrow.
Hopefully I’ll get some
decent pictures with the rain. I still hope to get a couple up from Sidney and
Seton, but the pickings are thin, though it was more due to it being at night
than due to the moisture.
I can’t believe we’re at our
last regularly scheduled game!
-jmh
October 20, 2005
Well, all in fun, let’s do
the thing that so many say is meaningless – let’s look at common opponents.
Greene and Delhi have both played Sidney, Unatego, and Seton.
Greene’s Sidney final looked
better than ours at 34-19, but halftime was almost identical – 22-0 for Greene
and 21-0 for us. Greene’s QB Kurt Spear did not play, which could have made a
significant difference. Greene turned the ball over only once, compared to 5
times for Delhi, and Greene was able to get a Sidney fumble, while Delhi got no
turnovers from Sidney. Greene was outgained by about a hundred yards, while
Delhi had slightly more yardage than Sidney.
For Unatego, Greene tied
them at 21-21 after 4 quarters, while Delhi ended up 14-13. Greene went on to
win in OT. Delhi held a sizeable lead in total yardage, while Greene was
slightly outgained by the Spartans. Greene held a 13-7 lead at the half, while
Delhi was down 7-0 after several turnovers.
For Seton, Greene came out
on top 45-0, while Delhi won 58-7. Certainly hard to tell much in a blowout, as
level of substitution and other factors certainly mess with all the stats.
Greene gave up 100 yards and 6 first downs compared to Delhi giving up 112
yards and 5 first downs, 46 of the yards coming on the one TD play. Greene was
24-0 at the half after 12 point first and second quarters, while Delhi was up
30-0, with all the points coming in the first quarter.
There it is. Probably not
much usable there, but it’s fun stuff to look at anyways…..
By the way, until I can get
a link on the main page, click here to see this week’s commentary
piece….
-jmh
October 19, 2005
Listen to DK when he talks. I
found out this year he knows a thing or two (not that I doubted him before). In
June I talked to him at my nephew’s graduation party. We were talking about our
division and Walton and lots of other football stuff. There were a couple
things he said which stuck out the most, mostly because I thought he was crazy.
One, he said that Greene had some great kids back and were going to be very
strong. Secondly, he said that Walton’s losses were significant, and that
Oxford and Deposit had some great talent returning that would definitely
challenge Walton. Wow, did he have a crystal ball or what?
Two events may happen this
weekend that are milestones of sort. One, Chenango Forks takes their 33 game
winning streak to Elmira Notre Dame, and a win would tie them with Delhi’s
section IV record streak of ’84-’87. That and a win next week and we are in 2nd
place. The other event is that it looks like I will pass an idiotic milestone
in my spectation (now there’s a cool word) career – Saturday will be game #125
in a row for me, dating back to 1993. To be honest, if you just saw me on the
street, would you guess that I was that big of a loser??? J
-jmh
October 18, 2005
Call me way too cautious or
pessimistic or whatever, but I think Saturday is just about as big a deal as a
rematch with Sidney. Obviously it is from the point of view that if we lose we
play no further than week 9. But beyond that, these guys look GOOD. Even in
their 2 losses, they picked Sidney’s Morenus twice, and they held high powered
Oxford to 14 points, well below their 31 point average. And when they’ve won,
they’ve won mostly big. All but one of their wins were 40-something shutouts.
The other win was a 2-OT win over Unatego last Friday, where they shut down
Unatego’s running game, but gave up over 200 yards passing.
Look at the sizes of the
kids – their two receivers are 6’2” and 6’3”. One of their primary running
threats weighs in at 245. They are first rate at throwing the ball, and are
very good at running as well. I tell you, this is a tough team. We can win with
our best effort, but if we give it much less than our best, we’ll be playing a
crossover the following week.
One thing I think we have
going for us is that Greene has played mostly subpar teams. Sidney and Oxford
were obviously good, and Unatego was respectable, but the other teams (BG,
Harpursville, Seton, and Whitney Point) are not very competitive. Granted, we
had Seton and Newark Valley, but we also had decent teams in Sullivan West and
TriValley. I think even more important is that Greene has not BEATEN a good
team, and has only beaten one decent team, and that came with great difficulty.
We have some experience in overcoming better teams, not just lining up against
good teams.
This game will be just as
difficult as Unatego and Walton were, and the difference is that this time if
we lose our playoff hopes are done.
-jmh
October 15, 2005
Well folks, I’m back. My
sincerest apologies for my lack of coverage this past week. The elitists in
I hope we don’t take tonight
for granted. Seton only lost by 13 to Unatego last week, so they are definitely
getting better. They will be dying for an upset, I can assure you. We are
definitely better all around, but they are trying to prove that they are better
than their record.
A week ago yesterday was
certainly frustrating. 5 or so turnovers. Other muffs, like the punt snap and
Zurn’s fake punt. We actually had slightly more yards than
Well, I’d love to type more,
but I need to be a progressive husband and help the wife with some housework
before trekking to Bingo….
-jmh
October 10, 2005
With much lament and not
nearly the wit of my better half, I’ve been summoned to explain why nothing has
been updated as yet. No, my husband is
not a sore loser, he’s “stuck” in
-wlh
October 7, 2005
Looks like more than just a
few drips – I think we’re going to get washed out.
My favorite part of tonight
will be dealing with the complaints of my 3 kids in the pouring rain…..
-jmh
October 6, 2005
Like I’ve said before, keep it
close for a half. Although after last weekend’s score this theory may go the
way of the toilet water. Before Friday’s
Who knows, this could all
end up being bunk and not have the first thing to do with the outcome. But I do
know that I’ll be fairly happy if we’re behind by 7 or less at 8 pm Friday.
Bring your umbrellas…..
-jmh
October 5, 2005
The weather forecast calls
for a chance of rain Friday night. That would probably go
Just a quick comparison of
this year to last year after 5 games……last year at this time we were 2-3, had
been outscored 62-76 (9 TD’s scored), had put up 1604 yards of offense, and
Hood had 78 carries for 618 yards (7.9 ypc) and 5 TD’s. This year we are 5-0,
we’ve outscored the opposition 176-38 (24 TD’s scored), we have 1694 yards of
offense, and Hood has 682 yards on 75 carries (9.1 ypc) with 10 TD’s. Isn’t it
amazing how crossing the goalline and playing a bit better defense will win you
more games? Also helping more than a little is Nate Rockefeller’s 452 yards,
nearly 100 more than all season last year. Amazing though how such similar
yardage results could bring about such different seasons.
Defense defense defense.
Right now
-jmh
October 3, 2005
First, just to brag, here
are some quotes: “I fully expect this thing to be bitterly fought on the line
of scrimmage, with not a lot of scoring. Play a game like that, then have B
take one for 60 yards, and see how that changes the face of the game”, and “Look
for a bitter defensive struggle, with one of the teams breaking off a couple
runs in the late 3rd quarter or early 4th quarter”. Once
in a while a prediction comes true!
Man it is nice to beat
Walton! It is rare enough that it feels great when it happens. I’m from a bad
time period where I never got to beat Walton in all the years I played, from 8th
grade on up to varsity. Closest we came was a 30-21 loss in my senior year.
I hate to stop the
celebration, but there is A LOT more work to do! With all we’ve accomplished,
and with our perfect record, we still have only ONE division victory. These are
3 big weeks coming up here. We’ll enjoy beating Walton for a while, but without
the same kind of effort over the next 3 weeks, that is the only accomplishment
we’ll be celebrating through the winter. It starts Friday against a team that
has looked nothing short of incredible over the last 2 weeks.
-jmh
October 1, 2005
Shhhhhh. Just watch.
-jmh
September 30, 2005
Well, here we are on the eve
of Delhi/Walton once again. And once again my stomach is in knots. Some of you
may know that I have a reputation of being a bit of a kook. I’ve been to 121 games
in a row, and I’ve done some really crazy things to accomplish that, like
coming home in the middle of a trip to Europe, and driving 665 miles every
weekend last season when I lived in
I don’t know completely myself,
but I have a couple thoughts. Playing Walton on Saturday may not be as big of a
deal as any of the NFL games on Sunday, but it is REAL. It is a huge deal to
the 28 kids on the
Tomorrow is the reality for
a bunch of
I don’t know if any of this
made sense. I just love football, and I love what it means to the lives of
teenagers. In a crazy world, it is just something that makes sense to me.
Heaven forbid my website puts too much superficiality into to it and ruins it.
Someone please stop me if we ever start to get there.
Walton folks, I hope you can enjoy my
attempts at humor lately, even if they are at your expense. I’ll restate once
again that this is a website done by an individual and does not necessarily
reflect the opinions of the players, the coaching staff, the athletic director,
Delaware Academy, or other fans. That said, I for one wish you the best of luck
tomorrow, and I hope this one can be as exciting as most of the recent games.
Of course I’d like a different result. J
Lastly,
please take a look at some things I’m worried about for tomorrow…..
-jmh
September 28, 2005
As we approach 1000 hits on
the website (should cross it today or tomorrow, looking like today), I want to
say thanks to those who have given me your comments on the site. Without
hearing from people, it’s really hard to know if anything that I’m doing is
useful or not. All I have is a bunch of numbers from the hits counter, and that
is very limited information. So I would encourage you to keep giving me your
thoughts…..and be specific, tell me what you like and don’t like. Don’t worry
about hurting my feelings….I need the feedback. Also don’t automatically expect
change – there are lots of changes I’d like to make that I can’t do right now
because of constraints like time and the software that I’m using to build the
pages. I probably won’t change much stylistically until the offseason. I more
want to know what you think of content. What do you look at most? Do you enjoy
both the statistical side and the commentary side, or just one or the other?
Also, anyone that can get me
scores to 7th, 8th, or JV games, that would be great. I
get to a couple, and I’ll get the scores to all eventually, but if you can get me
stuff faster, that is great. You can email me using the link of the main page.
By the way, if you use a web email like hotmail, and clicking on the link
doesn’t open an email, try holding the cursor over the link, and my email
address should show up on the bottom of your browser.
-jmh
September 27, 2005
Here are my initial thoughts
on the matchup with the woodchucks on Saturday. Delhi has done a strong job the
past few years with making Walton’s running game go slow, though it’s gone just
enough to beat us. This year, Walton looks somewhat similar to the past – a
strong power running game. They haven’t yet demonstrated any real speed to the
outside. Given this, I think
On the other side of the
ball it is probably similar. Any success
I’m pretty excited to see
how it plays out…..
-jmh
September 26, 2005
I think the ‘Dogs did
probably the best that they possibly could under the circumstances. We pretty
much scored whenever we had the ball, and the defense did an amazing job
holding
As for my catching up, my
goal is by Tuesday night to have completed the recap with stats, team stats,
standings, and a special section for the Walton game. The individual stats
pages will get done by the end of the week hopefully. Be warned that a serious
illness in my extended family could pull me away for a bit, so if nothing
changes for a few days, this could be why.
Happy work week everyone…..
-jmh
September 25, 2005
Sorry folks for the lethargy
in getting stuff up this weekend…..been a busy weekend, and I’m still getting
over being sick. I’ll try to get caught up as soon as I can, and I’m also
planning something special for this weekend’s matchup……look for it Wednesday or
so.
I’ve got pictures up, but
they are not that great this weekend. My wife was away, and she is my normal photographer,
and she’s much better than me. Along with my wife went our really good camera,
so I had to use another camera that I wasn’t as familiar with. So there are my
excuses.
Hope to be caught up soon!
-jmh
September 23, 2005
Probably too early to talk
about it now, but Greene may be the team we need to be worrying about. If we
and ‘Tego lose to
Now that I’m getting over
the Bubonic Plague that I had yesterday, I hope to head down to Unatego tonight
to catch the action.
-jmh
September 22, 2005
For all the complaining I
did on Rantin n Ravin, I wish to reiterate the biggest positive – we beat a
good team. We have done almost none of that the last 3 seasons. We’ve beaten
mediocre and poor teams, and we’ve lost lots of close games to good teams, but we’ve
really only beaten 1 or 2 good teams (Moravia in ’03, and you could make the
case for Cornwall in ’02, since they were class A). Beating a good one is a
huge step in the right direction.
I know I keep saying that
Unatego might win Friday night, but it is actually in Delhi’s best interests if
they lose, other than for the psychological benefit of knowing that Sidney is
more beatable. A Unatego loss almost certainly puts them out of playoff
contention (and that is good for our playoff hopes). With a loss, Unatego would
have to hope that Delhi would lose to Sidney AND Seton AND Greene. That would
be the only possible scenario for Unatego to go with 2 division losses.
Now if Unatego wins, things
get interesting. Assuming no losses to Greene or Seton by Unatego, Delhi, and
Sidney (again, a bit presumptuous), if Delhi beats Sidney, then Delhi and
Unatego go as 1-2. If Delhi loses to Sidney, it goes to a 3-way tiebreaker. I
haven’t yet gotten full confirmation, but it looks like the tiebreaker is a
point system very slightly similar to Harbin Points. If the 3 teams win the
rest of the games other than what was mentioned, Delhi looks to be the top
here, with Sidney and Unatego close. Given that Delhi still has to play Walton,
Sidney still has to play Norwich, and Unatego still has to play Oxford, this
scenario is really up for grabs. I guess Friday night will tell us if it is a
moot point….
-jmh
September 21, 2005
Kind of a bummer that we have
to play a team that lost to Harpursville right before we play Walton. Not to be
a pessimist, but it’s hard to imagine much good coming from this weekend. We
should win big. If we win small, or God forbid if we lose, down goes our
confidence. A big win may not lift us all that much. I guess we’ll get to pad
our stats if nothing else. You can probably tell I’m just not in a good mood
today!
I know DK would never do
this, but if it were me I think I’d use the game as an exercise to develop the
passing game. Call me crazy, but what if we came out throwing just about every
down for the first quarter and a half. Get that passing game going. Get them
used to throwing and catching in a game situation. A moot point, and a crazy
idea, I know.
Anyone else have this weird
gut feeling that Unatego might beat Sidney Friday night?
-jmh
September 19, 2005
Well we took a big step
Saturday in our progress in the division. Four turnovers made it not very
pretty, but we still manage to be 3-0. I thought we moved the ball fairly
consistently. We did punt once and turn it over on downs a time or two, but we
also had 14 first downs and some nice drives. We played mostly good defense,
giving up little rushing yards, but more passing yards than I would have liked.
One thing I didn’t understand is why we gave the WR’s so much room. It looked
like we were playing a good 8 yards off most of the time, and I would think
that the Wake’s could have run with anyone on that team, so I don’t understand
why we weren’t challenging them closer to the line.
All in all, looking
outwardly we are now in a good position in the division, and looking inwardly
we continue to find some ways that we need to improve ourselves. We MUST
continue to improve – if we coast we will fall hard.
Football is a crazy game.
Who would have thought that Sully West would give Walton a game like they did?
Don’t get too excited…..those pumpkins also did a better job against Unatego
than we did, and they had 4 turnovers as well. Pumpkinfest 2005 should be interesting…..we
usually play pretty good D against them, and that is now our strength. On the
other hand our offensive strength against Walton is usually the pass, and we
haven’t shown much there yet.
As for the pass, I still
think it is going to come. Pat throws some pretty nice balls, and Taylor, Chad,
and Kevin W. are tall receivers who can go get it. Mark my words, the passing
game will blossom soon, perhaps against Walton. Let’s hope we can manage to get
a few throws in this weekend vs. Newark Valley.
-jmh
September 17, 2005
Today should be one further
measure in where we are……I’m not going to pick this one.
-jmh
September 15, 2005
Picks…..I forgot to go over
them in the opinion piece, so I’ll hit them here.
Last week I did slightly
better at 17-7 (forgot to pick EFA and Dryden/T-Burg – probably would have gone
1-1 on these). So for this week I was 0.708, and for the season I’m 35-17 and
0.660.
For this week, I’m picking
Maine-Endwell, Waverly, Elmira Notre Dame, Sidney, Deposit, Watkins Glen,
Trumansburg, Candor, Moravia, Corcoran, Vestal, Owego, Corning East, Johnson
City, Chenango Forks, Dryden (tough one here), Sus Valley, Lansing, Walton,
South Seneca, Newfield, Bainbridge-Guilford, Oxford, and Union-Endicott. Go to http://www.section4football.com/2005/
to see the matchups if you wish.
Might be wet Saturday
according to the latest weather…..
-jmh
September 14, 2005 (part 2)
State rankings are out. We
came in at #4. Go to http://www.section4football.com/2005/#news to
see’em. I’m not sure I like being this high this early in the season, but maybe
we can win some intimidation points. Sidney doesn’t even show up in honorable
mention, which is very wrong in my opinion, as Walton is ranked #3 in D. I’m
guessing this is an oversight on Neil Kerr’s (the poor schlub who has the
thankless job of putting these rankings together) part.
-jmh
September 14, 2005
Stupid trivia, part 2.
Well, this one is slightly
useful. Through 2 games we’ve already made more 2 point conversions then we did
the entire season last year. To the best of my memory, we attempted a 2 pointer
after every TD last season. So in 9 games, were were 9 for 19 on 2’s. This year
we are 11 for 13. It’s not always the case, but sometimes I think the 2’s can
show dominance. How does your team do when it is all or nothing for 3 yards
near the endzone? If you are making it most every time, your offense, and your
line in particular, are overwhelming the opposition. Now whether we can keep
that up vs. division V opponents is another story. The opposition is 0 for 1
against us, so there really isn’t any good data there.
Too bad for Walton their
game is home this weekend. With that trip through the woods down into Sullivan
County, with all the critters on the road, that could have been one awesome
tailgate party before the game.
Getting’ nervous for
Saturday…..
-jmh
September 13, 2005
Shrinkage.
OK, call today’s blog the
stupid trivia day. Not important, but just curious.
A look down our rosters from
the last 2 years shows a curious trend, especially in our linemen. We’re getting
smaller. Jeff Daye is down 10 lbs. Derek Plance is down 5 lbs. Nate Whitaker is
down 10 lbs. Clinton Wood is down 15 lbs. And the weirdest one to me – Brenton
Hood supposedly went from being a 6’1” 185 lb sophomore to being a 5’11” 180 lb
junior. Did he spend much of the summer in a REALLY cold swimming pool or what?
“I was in the pool!!!!”
I hope everyone likes the
site so far. I’ve gotten quite a few compliments. As I always say, it is a work
in progress. In the future, my aim is to get Delhi stats up within hours after
the game, then opponents’ stats following that, then pictures, then writeups.
Individual stats (on the players’ individual pages) get updated through the
week as I get to them. My goal is to write one main opinion piece each week,
hopefully up by Wednesday or so. And then of course the Dogblog (Dogblog
Dogblog Dogblog, man I love that name) most days, although I will be the first
to admit it’s been pretty lame lately. I’ll try to do better……just need some
greasier KFC I guess.
Eventually I want to get
some kind of forum on here for reader feedback, but I’m not yet enough of a web
expert to know how to do that. My guess is that it won’t happen this season, as
I don’t think the software I’m using will allow that, and I plan on redesigning
the site in the offseason with a better web design software package. One thing
I’ve thought of is just taking “Letter to the Editor” type emails. I can’t
promise what I’ll do with them, but if you have some insightful commentary
you’d like to have made known, email it to me, and perhaps I’ll put together a page
for this kind of thing. If I get swamped, I don’t know how effective it will
be, so please be patient with me in that this is experimental.
Guess that’s it for
today…..talk to you tomorrow….
-jmh
September 12, 2005
Scary showing the other day.
That was one scrappy team, and that was one quality back (#8 Danny Knox). I
think TriValley will fare quite well in section IX.
I just can’t get the camera
going at the right time. I missed a great highlight shot of
My guess is that this was a
humbling experience, and that this will be a pretty tough week of practice in
preparation for a vital game with Unatego Saturday. Winning or losing this
weekend has huge implications.
-jmh
September 9, 2005 (part 2)
Well, my prediction
partially came true…..30 or so pass attempts and
-jmh
September 9, 2005
Well, the new weekend is
upon us. I’m headed to
While we should probably win
tomorrow without too much trouble, a 1300 yard rusher should always concern
you, especially when it’s complemented with a strong passing game. Our line
superiority and speed on the perimeter should prevail, but hopefully we’re not
ahead of ourselves looking to next week’s Unatego matchup. I do think Hood and
Rockefeller will together surpass at least 250 again. Coach Kelly, if you’re
reading, don’t forget to exercise that passing game, even when we don’t need
it. I have horrible memories of 1995. I’ve been saying 44-12 for tomorrow.
Hopefully I won’t eat those words…..
Lastly, if anyone knows the
single game rushing record at
-jmh
September 8, 2005
Welcome to DogBlog. I have
to admit, I’m highly proud of that name. You never know when inspiration will
hit. You know that feeling when you eat like ¾ of a bucket of KFC (and perhaps
the skin of the remaining pieces), and suddenly, out of nowhere, your stomach
sends you a red alert (soon to become a different color alert if action isn’t
taken immediately)…..you know the suddenness with which it comes, and the
intensity? Well, that is how my humor usually works, as well as my writing
inspiration. So, every week I’ll eat my KFC by going to games and reading the
papers and reading the Syracuse Forum, and whenever that
feeling starts to come, I will obey it by opening my word processor for a Blog.
So check here often for my
latest and greatest inspiration (gosh I hope I can live up to the hype I’m
giving myself). And don’t even think about stealing the name DogBlog or I’ll
sue your pants off!! I can’t even stop saying it it sounds so cool. DogBlog.
-jmh