The Year in Review

[pup]

Well, fellas, it's almost here. One day away from the big showdown in Zephyr. #1 vs #2, as it should be. The explosive, fling it around, spread-style of Trinity versus the disciplined, pound on you style of Freddy.

Since we are at the penultimate day of the season, I'd like to take a look back at where we came from and how we got here. Way back in the summer I think I picked WFND, Lubbock Kingdom Prep and Heath to be the strongest teams out of the North. From the South I picked Freddy and Seguin. My North choices, as it turns out, weren't even close. Who knew that Kingdom Prep would lose their stud and not even make the playoffs- sadly it happens too often at our small schools. Notre Dame had a respectable season but couldn't make up for the loss of their All-Star seniors from 2013. This, and a "surprising" loss in the second round of the playoffs, not the season Notre Dame was looking forward to. Heath fizzled in arguably the toughest district in TAPPS DIII this year. But springing from the middle of the pack to take a commanding throat hold on #1 is Trinity. I suppose y'all from District 2 had a suspicion they would be good, but who knew they would be undefeated and playing for all the marbles in December?

Biggest Surprise in the North- Longview Trinity
Biggest Disappointment in the North- Lubbock
Best Game of the Year in the North- Longview 57 - NCTA 52

The South was dominated by District 3. Seguin, Freddy and San Marcos proceeded to pound on each other until one was molded sharp, battle tested and again playing in December. District 4 is disappointingly weak, sorry. What happened to the Brenham teams of '07-'09?

Biggest Surprise of the South- San Marcos playing close with Freddy and shocking Seguin
Biggest Disappointment of the South- District 4
Best Game of the Year in the South- Seguin vs. Freddy parts I & II

The playoff brackets lacked that "something" this year. I feel it was split to three divisions. I don't care what you say, three divisions has watered down something that didn't need anymore watering. 12 team brackets are hardly a reward for playing the season. Three and four team districts just aren't cutting it. Let's go back to two divisions, have proper 6-9 team districts, and have a 16 team bracket where teams are fighting and clawing to get in.

So, there you go. Through all of this we are left with two teams standing. I'm picking the team that plays the best defense, the team who does not have turnovers, the team that is able to ride the up and downs of a football game........ Here's to a great game.

 

[Dixon_Pattillo10]

Pup, I thoroughly enjoyed that. A few comments...

Best Game of the Year in the North: FWCC 48 - WFND 46
IMO a better game, on a bigger stage. And I'm a HUGE fan of this 2-Point trend against WFND. #thecurse
Never again by Two? haha.

As far as the 3 Division breakdown, I'm personally not a huge fan of it. To be honest, I didn't think there'd be any competition in these smaller districts, and it would just make it less meaningful when the same powerhouses won. I will say that District 2 proved otherwise. What a dogfight. That being said, I would love to see TAPPS move back to 2 Divisions. I believe more competition makes for better games, and more meaningful championships. Not to detract from whoever wins it this year. Being the best out of 18-ish teams is great, but being the best of 30-ish teams is even better.

In regards to the championship this Saturday, I think it's going to be a game. I have no clue why people think an undefeated team is just going to roll over and die in the title game. That prediction makes no sense to me whatsoever. I don't see Trinity going easily. I believe it's going to be a dogfight. Explosive, fast, and ferocious. In the end I see Freddy winning for all the reasons we've mentioned in other threads, but they've got to earn it.

Go Freddy! Hupomone!

 

[CoachSep]

Pup, I thought your points were spot on and I appreciate you including our injury when speaking on the Kingdom Prep season. As a team we don’t make excuses, (which I expect most coaches like to say), this is why as the season went on I never felt the need to explain to everyone questioning what was going on with Kingdom Prep and our “disappointing” season. This reply isn’t to take anything away from the teams that beat us or an excuse for finishing last in our district. I want to answer the question of what happened with our season for anyone genuinely wondering, and also want to defend any of my boys who may read this and see that they were a “disappointment”.

You made mention of us losing a stud and not making playoffs. In reality, from last year’s team we lost 4 starters: Our spreadback (Almost 2,000 yards passing, 33 TD’s and only 3 picks), Wide Receiver (641 yards and 8 TD’s after missing the regular season due to injury), Cornerback (54 Tackles), and Defensive End (168 Tackles, 848 yards of offense with 19 TD’s).

As each team does, we prepared to build on our successful year despite what we lost and filling those losses with just 2 additional players with no High School football experience. We started the season with 8 players, finishing games with 5 players on 3 occasions due to injury, and of course losing the stud RB and MLB for the season didn’t help either. We were cancelled on by 5 different teams (WE did not cancel except for our Happy JV game at the end of the season when we ran out of players) leaving us to scramble for games at the last minute with minimal preparation for those teams. Despite this we were very much competitive in every game aside from 2 big losses, (Notre Dame and Grady) even coming within 3 yards of making it to the playoffs after losing our starting SB to a dislocated elbow at WFC, leaving us with 5 players to finish what would have been a game winning drive.

I say all of this knowing that to the reader it probably sounds like excuses (maybe that’s all this is and I’m just biased). I would hope that coaches out there who care about their team beyond the wins and losses will know that I truly am just trying to give a fair representation of this team because nobody is more “disappointed” about this season than we are. With the odds stacked against us every week these boys proved to me over and over again that they have what it takes to be “winners” in all aspects, and I think any opponent we played would tell you the same. Again, your comments were spot on regarding the Divison 3 season. Just wanted to give my two cents on the Lubbock Kingdom Prep season and how proud I am of these Warriors for continuously fighting. Looking forward to a bounce back season next year, hopefully a return to winning football at KPA, and best of luck to the remaining teams representing 6 man!

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness…” James 1:2-4

Coach Brian Sepkowitz

 

[Game Traveler]

Its good that two teams new to each other will play for the title. Dixon yes Freddy will win but by a blown out. The South is too strong for the North....Granbury found that out last week. Trinity beat them by 5 Freddy beat them by 45....Freddy wins big against the undefeated team. Longview hasn't played anybody and the North was weak this year. GO FREDDY!!!!!!!

 

[pup]

I'm picking the team that plays the best defense, the team who does not have turnovers, the team that is able to ride the up and downs of a football game........ Here's to a great game.

After a couple days of digesting and pondering, it seems my thoughts were correct in the end.

Best defense- clearly Freddy. Longview had been averaging 61 points per game, to be held to 16 is quite a feat. I don't have any season stats on Longview's spreadback but I'm pretty sure he averaged more than the 135 yards passing he had last Saturday. Longview had all of its' points in the first quarter. That had to be frustrating.

Turnovers- Freddy won the battle there, although it was close. Longview had one interception and two fumbles. Freddy had one interception and one fumble. At least one of Longview's fumbles led to points for Freddy (the TD pass right before half).

Ups & downs of a football game- Longview came out inspired and played strong defense for the first half. It was 16-16 until 5-seconds left in the first half when Freddy scored off the Longview fumble. Halftime adjustments were the key for Freddy. They came out of the locker room took the next two drives down for scores, played suffocating defense, and scored 22 unanswered points to put Longview away. This is where having played a more challenging season prepared Freddy for a four quarter game. The "injuries" suffered by Longview were a result of the constant pounding from Freddy.

It was an entertaining game, though. Congrats to the players and coaches from Freddy and Longview.