Just How Bad Could it be or How Good could it be for GC ??

J

justobserving

11-man fan
Just to jump in here and ask a question I have been asking myself. Not trying to insult or demean Garden City but the question is:

Just how much do you miss a Josh Colunga and a Brett Chudej ??

GC graduated other very good players but these two are foremost in my mind.

Chudej's defense and blocking standout as things that will be hard pressed to replace along with his ability to make big plays catching the ball. Then there is Colunga - 'nuff said - you DO NOT replace a Colunga - heck you don't even poorly imitate a Colunga who has to rate as one of the most prolific running backs in six man.

The Garden City scoring machine just lost it's main wheels - what is gonna be the repair for this ??

So with the loss of the two key and cornerstone players along with the other seniors where does that leave GC ?? In a rebuilding job that wouldn't be taken on by Brown and Root or Halliburton. This could be a really long season for the Bearkats. If things don't fall into place and some young players really don't step up it could be a loooooooooooooooong season. This will have to be one of Coach Jones' best efforts of his career to maintain GC's championship ways .....

Here is their schedule and what IMHO could happen ...

Motley County - L
Sterling City - L
Paducah - L
O'Donnell - W
Dallas Covenant - W
Ropes - L
Borden Country - L
Fort Davis - W
Rankin - L
Sierra Blanca - W

Giving them L's in games that on paper COULD repeat COULD go that way they would have a 4 - 6 record - may be far fetched in some minds but it might be possible.

OK - let the slings and arrows begin - it was just a thought ...
 
Only time I saw Garden City play was the State Final Game against Throckmorton. Kinda hard to judge but imho the two players you mention certainly made a huge difference in the game. It would be very difficult to plug other players in the holes they left. Your scenario seems plausible.
 
Somebody once told me that you sometimes forget all those kids who spent Monday through Thursday playing against those stars. And sometimes, those kids learn a lesson or two and ain't all that bad in their own right. Plus, after a couple of years of winning, they're used to it.

Maybe not a 10-0 season. But I seriously doubt 4-6.
 
GC will be just fine.....great tradition, great kids, great work ethic, great staff....

Looking at that schedule I see them being no worse than 8-2 going into the playoffs.....and not a team you want to see in November
 
Garden City will return Blayne Batla and Reggie Hoffman who are both talented young athletes. They won't be on a championship run but The only game i see them with a lot of trouble in is the BC game. Motley is very overated. I don't think Vance Jones will have any trouble gameplanning to beat Motley. Sterling could give them some trouble. Paducah will be decent but will be very down this year. O'donnel and Covenant easy wins. Ropes could be a decent game. Win against the Fort followed by a good game with Rankin and a win over SB. All in all I see the bearcats going somwhere in the 7-3 or 8-2 area.
 
Speaking of Garden City, reminds me ... yesterday, I took my son to the pool over at Lake McQueeney (we're part of the hoity-toity social set here in Seguin and have an exclusive membership to the Lake Breeze Ski Lodge, nananananana....)

Anyway, I'm wearing my sixmanfootball.com tee-shirt (hadn't worn it for awhile; it kinda worked its way to the bottom of the drawer) ... and a nice old lady who is in the pool says, hey, they play sixman in my home town. I ask her what her home town is and she says Sanderson ... I say I have a friend who used to be the football coach in Sanderson, Vance Jones ... Oh, yes, Coach Jones, he's a good man. She was wondering where he was; I told her his squad won the last two state titles in Garden City.

Small world.
 
lifegatesports wrote:
> Speaking of Garden City, reminds me ... yesterday, I took my son to the
> pool over at Lake McQueeney (we're part of the hoity-toity social set here
> in Seguin and have an exclusive membership to the Lake Breeze Ski Lodge,
> nananananana....)
Bet that is not as exclusive as Holland Hill Racquet & Washer Pitching Club. We even have a cement pond that stays full depending on the number of cattle in attendance.
 
JO,
You've got to be kidding, right? Shed no tears for the machine known as Garden City. As a fan of the WV I can't stand to see them on the schedule but I've come to understand and respect the fact that there is a lot of talent out there and they just keep on with the plug and play thing. Those two (Colunga and Chudej) will be hard to replace but Jones will do it. They may not be as good as the last two years (I hope not) but I'm glad they're not on the WV schedule this year.
 
smokeyjoe53 wrote:

> Bet that is not as exclusive as Holland Hill Racquet & Washer Pitching Club. We
> even have a cement pond that stays full depending on the number of cattle in
> attendance.

I could only dream of having such affluence and wealth ...
 
Quote from WV Backer:
You've got to be kidding, right? Shed no tears for the machine known as Garden City. As a fan of the WV I can't stand to see them on the schedule but I've come to understand and respect the fact that there is a lot of talent out there and they just keep on with the plug and play thing. Those two (Colunga and Chudej) will be hard to replace but Jones will do it. They may not be as good as the last two years (I hope not) but I'm glad they're not on the WV schedule this year.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Ah, the mystique of a winner. This kind of attitude is good for at least two wins in a season for a school such as GC that has their opponents thinking "GC is just better than us". This attitude makes a real difference in a game that could have gone the other way just talent on talent. So many people feel they have no chance before they even start. This starts with the opposing towns people and filters right down through their kids that have to play the game.

Have seen it so many times in my years. In different eras some of these Denver City, Brownwood, Odessa Permian, Phillips ( back in the day ), Littlefield and many others. They've won lots of games down through the years just because of "WHO" people thought they were...

But like I said at the start, just a thought, and on paper things could go bad... not to say they will. I do think it is going to be a really different type season for GC, JMHO. It is always interesting to watch and see how a coach does when he has to make do with lesser talent.
 
Funny, I wondered how long it would be before this kind of post showed up on the board. Justobserving it is true that we could go 4 and 6, heck we could go 0 and 10. But more than likely that is not the case. You seem to forget that we run a whole JV schedule as well and are there are some very talented young men who will have to step up and fill the spots of those great players who have graduated. True Brett and Josh will be hard to replace. Just as difficult will be replacing Schaefer and Long at guard and center. Those guys held those positions down for three years and created the gaps Colunga ran through. But don't spend your time worrying about the Bearkats, we are pretty sure things are going to be just fine. We may not make it to the State Championship again this year, time will tell about that, but I remember when Colunga had to come up from JV in the middle of the season to replace our injured all-star back. Things worked out pretty well I think. Winning is contagious and Vance Jones knows how to do it as good as anyone out there. I guarantee no matter how the season goes those kids will play their hearts out week after week and if they get beat it will be because the other team flat out played them. JMHO!
 
A new season, a new challenge(s). Garden City could fall and fall hard. I bet Coach Vance Jones and gang will take the bull by the horns and give it their best shot. I don't expect they will win state this season BUT I didn't expect they would the last two seasons either.

Don Hardin
Abilene
 
I keep hearing GC is not going to be as good without Brett, Ian, Josh, and Aaron and I'm in total agreement - they may not be as strong. But the truth of the matter is, all teams lose quality players each year. Good coaches develop players like these four and there's no doubt in my mind about Coach Jones developing players to step up and do the job. I do not see Vance being outcoached by many people and certainly not in their district. I do not live in that district - in fact, I live a long way from it. I just watch teams in that area and am amazed how GC keeps coming back when so many people write them off.
 
Like I say about successful teams (and I mean it with a bit of sarcasm tossed in), sometimes you got kids that are too stupid to know they aren't supposed to win.
 

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