Excitement builds in "Mule Town"!!!!!....

ALAMO HEIGHTS 25 and VICTORIA 22

Yes Mule Fans, our football troopers brought home another "W" against the "Vipers" of Victoria, albeit through a gridiron outing that did not go as smoothly as expected, as reflected in the close score. Garnering the "W" in this game came down to a TITANIC 2nd HALF DEFENSIVE STRUGGLE by our beloved Mules against probably the biggest group of young men our team will face this year... the Vipers benefit year-after-year by heavily dipping into the "size-matters" well of the largest high school student body in the State of Texas with over 4,000 enrolled at Victoria High School.

Sprinting out to a 14 - 0 first quarter lead following two beautiful passes by QB Drew Allen and sweet catches by the "Team Captain Catching Duo" of Messieurs Broadnax (37-yard catch for TD) and Courtney (10-yard catch for TD), our Mules looked like they were going to absolutely throttle Victoria in the first quarter. But the Football Gods sometimes put some funny stink on that oblong orbis pigskin to keep us rabid fans in check when we get to thinking we know exactly what is going to happen, e.g. we thought a runaway win... WRONG-O!! This here game turned into a serious TEST OF MULE-CHARACTER, which our young men passed through with blazing fire on both sides of the ball to capture this win!

The Character Test for the Offense turned out to be "Hey, how do we perform when we are not exactly hitting on all cylinders (e.g. turning the ball over four times via fumble or pic to the Vipers)? Do we get down on one another, or do we lift each other up to meet the challenge?" Proudly this reporter witnessed a pack of Offensive Mules that kept their heads while struggling and treated each other on the field and sidelines as teammates. We all should remember that the best professional and collegiate teams STRUGGLE at times... in such instances CHARACTER helps see winning teams through the fire to victory.

Now our Defense's Character Test turned out to be how brothers-in-battle react when they are on the gridiron-combat-field and a bigger and more physical foe is trying ram its precious football right down your throat to score... hazarding a guess, this reporter estimates that the Victoria Offensive Unit easily averaged 20-lbs heavier and 2-inches in height player-by-player over our Stud Mules Defense... in the end in this instance size did not matter. Mule "D" Character did. YA MUN YA MUN! We have ourselves some young D-studs that just will not quit!

Examples of Mule "D" character:

A) How'z about 1st down and inches to the goal line for the Victoria Offense in the 3rd quarter and making those Vipers fight for 4-downs before just (and I mean just) nipping the ball into the endzone... do you think this effort uncoiled them Vipers somewhat despite the score?... aaaaahu.

B) How'z about staring down a bunch of big-ole dudes dressed in black for an ENTIRE 4th quarter and saying to them, "Hey dude, you are NOT going to cross that goal line".... this is exactly what our Mules "D" accomplished during the 4th, keeping the score at Mules 25 and Vipers 22 throughout this period. YAAAAAAAAAAA MUN!

Now, this is not to say that there were not some fine Offensive efforts. Examples:

Uno) Team Captain Cody Courtney catching two TDs bringing him to Express News area ranking of #11 on Receiving Yards at 314-yards, and, #13 on the Receptions at 17 catches.

Dos) Team Captain Bobby Broadnax catching a pass and then accelerating away from three defenders... awesome display of athletic prowess.

Tres) QB Drew Allen passing having another 200+ yard passing night, moving him to #9 in the Express News area on the Total Individual Offense list at 897 yards and #4 in Passing Yards at 884 yards.

Here is this week's album of photos:

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ViewAlbum.aspx?a=436592

All-in-all, it was not pretty, but our Mules passed this character test. A job well done in terms of gutting out a win. Now that this is out of our system, ON TO TAYLOR!

TAYLOR INTELLIGENCE REPORT

Word on the street is the 3A Taylor "Ducks" are in a rebuilding year, having graduated most of the starters. They come to us at our home in Orem Stadium this Friday, 28 September, with a 1 win and 3 loss record, scoring 55 points to date and allowing their opponents 111 points. "Quiet Confidence" is what Head Coach Don Byrd used about his team entering this game.

OTHER NEWS

Two Class of 2006 State Champion Mules that this reporter has yet to note as making a college-level team are Abel Garcia-Rogers and Cameron Foote, who are playing football at Defensive Tackle and Offensive Lineman, respectively, for the presently undefeated 4-0 Division III Mary Hardin-Baylor "Crusaders" located in Belton, Texas. These guys have spent some serious time bulking up to play college ball as you can see by scroll down to the bottom of the roster at:

http://umhb.edu/athletics/football/roster.html

Also, there is an Italian Stallion-named former Mule QB with a State Championship to his credit having the initials "G" "V" who is going to be given some additional opportunity to succeed in Denton, Texas.... see:

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/sports/stories/DRC_Dodge_to_give_0626.10e14d7f7.html

GO MULES BEAT TAYLOR!!!!!!!

A "Significant Win" for our Mules!....

ALAMO HEIGHTS 47 and EAST CENTRAL 13

On Friday, September 14th, which was "Senior Recognition" night, our Mules had themselves "one fine ole' night-a-football" against the 5A East Central "Hornets." Our beloved Mules continued to click on nearly all cylinders defensively as they had in the past game. But, perhaps more significantly, our Mules' Offense began to shift into high gear having 400+ yards of total offense during the game!!! WE LOOKED MIGHTY GOOoooooooOOOOOOD ON THIS NIGHT!!!

The win was made even sweeter from the fact that East Central entered the game at 2-0 having trounced their last two opponents with their running game. Our local news paper, the Express News, had picked the Hornets to win their District, and had the Mules as 5-point underdogs entering this game... la-di-da-di-da, what do they know?

Our Coaches have done a FANTASTIC JOB of bringing our boys along. On the Defensive-side, our Coaches shaped them D-Mules into a well oiled "Hornet-killing" machine that SWATTED three exceedingly fine opponent tailbacks (that had been averaging a combined 300+ yards rushing coming into this game) into a pile of "Hornet-mush" that was only able to achieve 158-yards rushing on this night.

On the Offensive-side, well, let me tell ya Mule Fans, we "Uncorked the Offensive Genie" during this game... YA MUN YA MUN YA MUN!!!! Quarterback Drew Allen had completions to five different receivers! RB Sergio Acosta, TE Victor Givens, A-Back Nick Amick, A-Back Bobby Broadnax, WR Cody Courtney and TE Austin Amaro, with both "Nick-the-Quick" Amick and "Tower-of-Power-'O'" Amaro having their first snags of this season. In addition, Messieurs Amick and Courtney had receiving "one-two punches" of one TD for Nick and two TD's for Team Captain Cody.

By powering into the 4th quarter with a 40-7 lead, into this warm night travelled Sophomore QB #11 Cullen Mills to take the reigns of the Offense. Looking "cool as a Veggie Tale" sprinting and passing "cucumber" in taking his first Varsity snaps, Mr. Mills drove those Mules right down the field using the rushing tandem of Senior RB #20 Richard Donnegan and Junior RB #40 A.J. Lewis in a succession of up-the-middle-dives, and capped it off with a "fake hand-off" and QB bootleg around the end for a sweet 25-yard pick-up to the 13-yard line. THEN THEN THEN, Mr. Mills tossed a lovely touch-pass over the arms of two Hornet defenders and into the hands of Senior WR #18 Rust Oliver!!!!! It was a beautiful thing...

Quick laurels go once again to our O-Line... ANOTHER GREAT JOB MEN. Also, to our D-Line that was first to the mark on most downs to stop the Hornets' rushing game up the middle. Also kudos to Mule QBs Drew Allen and Cullen Mills. And finally, a tip-o-the-hat to Team Captain "Circus Catch" Cody Courtney who now has 5-TD catches this season... AWESOME.

For this week's album of photos we have two (2) Albums to look at, as this reporter's cup runneth over with incredible Mary Candee photos (CALL MARY FOR ANY PICS YOU LIKE AT 821-5229).... please see:

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ViewAlbum.aspx?a=432097

and,

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ViewAlbum.aspx?a=432130

VICTORIA MEMORIAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT

Next week we travel to Victoria to play 1-2 Victoria Memorial, the largest 5A school in the State of Texas with over 3800 enrolled at the high school. Victoria's lone win to date came in their first game of the season with a 25-7 win over McAllen Memorial H.S. Note, Victoria's football team DOES know how to win a football game. During the second week of the season Victoria lost to Roosevelt H.S. from San Antonio, and this past week Victoria lost 39-3 to El Campo High School. El Campo is a town just to the east of Houston that is traditionally a fine football school, and appears to have another good team this year. Because El Campo is a good team, the message to me as we go to Victoria is a cautionary tale... we must have another good effort to ENSURE a win. So in my opinion, our Mules should not be "over-confident" going to Victoria, but should rather be "quietly confident" entering this week's game that if they continue to perform well and improve this should another nice multi-touchdown win.

OTHER NEWS

Congratulations to former Mule, Patrick Bailey, who is a starting Defensive End for Duke University (as well as one of the best college DE's in the Nation), as his Blue Devil's won for the first time since September 2005 against Northwestern University, in an away game at Evanston, IL. See:

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=1843&DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=1241161

See ya in Victoria Mule Fans!.... GO MULES!!!!

Hey Hey Mule Fans, how about them Mules!!!!! They "done do'd it" and brought home a WIN!!!

WEEK 1 - ALAMO HEIGHTS 17 and CLARK 3

Our beloved Mules Football team played in the Texas Football Classic in the Alamo Dome on Thursday, September 6th, against the Clark "Cougars" of San Antonio. This game was part of a special series of "high interest" football games played within the Alamo Dome over the course of Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The players of Alamo Heights looked right at home in the Alamo "Heights" Dome (a.k.a. the Alamo Dome) as our gang played three games there last season in the State Play-Offs. The Team looked comfortable, confident and easily tamed the larger school 5A Cougars through a dominating win in most every aspect of the game.

Strong game performances from this reporter's perspective go to:

AGAIN, THE OFFENSIVE LINE, which had a great game last week against Georgetown, turned in another terrific performance, empowering their QB Drew Allen with ample time to pass.

QB DREW ALLEN was selected as Most Valuable Player of the game by the Texas Football Classic Staff. Drew looked solid at QB and continues to improve his timing with the offense. Drew was 9 for 30 passing on the night (most were longer passes for over 20-yards) and had 213-yards passing. This brings Drew to 487-yards passing over two games... a nice start.

BOBBY BROADNAX and CODY COURTNEY are CATCHING MACHINES!!! Bobby had his first TD catch of this season, having 2 catches for 61-yards on the night, and "Circus Catch" Cody caught two 20+ yard passes in succession leading up to a short TD-plunge by Running Back Sergio Acosta right before half time that set the dominating tone for the second half. Cody had 3 catches for 64-yards against Clark.

ANDREW BAILEY KICKED A 42-YARD FIELD GOAL with just a couple of weeks practice under his belt. That is correct sports fans! This is almost a "Rudy" story... Andrew, a Junior this year, chose last year as a Sophomore to exclusively play soccer after being a Kicker in Junior High and during his Freshman year. He was planning to once again exclusively play soccer this year. But, when our All-District Kicker, Ben Pilgrim, a Senior, hurt his back taking him out for a number of weeks just before the season, the call went out to Andrew, and on very short notice he came out of retirement and began kicking again for the Mules Football Team. The beautiful mental picture for this reporter is witnessing Senior Ben Pilgrim so graciously working with his budding prodigy, Andrew, to help him promptly succeed for the benefit of our school. I am SO PROUD OF BOTH BEN AND ANDREW!

SERGIO ACOSTA CARRIED THE BALL 29 TIMES!!!! Not to mention that he had 130-yards rushing... carrying for nearly 30 times is a significant accomplishment that takes incredible heart and conditioning to undertake. Way to go Sergio!

MULES DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEFENSE CONTINUES TO IMPRESS. If there is a better all-around defensive unit in the San Antonio area this reporter has yet to see it! A Smart and Fast Defense. Clark was in the Red Zone five times (e.g. inside their own 20-yard line trying to score) and our Mules limited them to only one 3-point field goal. AWESOME!

Here is a link to this week's Album of photos by Mary Candee:

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ViewAlbum.aspx?a=428215

Relative to clicking on the link above, to work the system most smoothly, what I recommend is to FIRST look at the reduced size photos with their captions, AND THEN click on "slide show" in the upper left corner of the page and let the automated system scroll through all the photos in an much larger viewing format (the captions do not translate through when in slide show mode).

EAST CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT

Next week's home game on Friday, September 14th, against the 5A East Central "Hornets" should be a stiffer challenge than this week's game. The Hornets smacked down Holmes this past Saturday beating them 36-14 with 311 yards rushing and 94 passing. This is a RUNNING TEAM with three fine tail backs. The best of these might be Sophomore, #5 Chris Johnson.

If our defense shuts down the Hornets' running game, then I predict a win by two touchdowns or more (last week's prediction by this reporter was accurate in predicting a 14+ point spread).

OTHER NEWS

AHHS 2006 Graduates Charlie Thaddeus and Adam Duncan are solidly competing for playing time at Sewanee "The University of the South." Sewanee won its first game this season against Westminster 30-21.

To see #35 Charlie at Linebacker/Strong Safety go to:

http://athletics.sewanee.edu/athletics/football/roster?id=16705

To see #35 Charlie on the Tiger's Kick Off Team watch at the 13 second point for a 3-second shot of him in the lower left corner by clicking on "Westminster 3rd Touchdown" of the following video list:

http://atwsportscast.com//Colleges/Sewanee%20vs%20Westminster%20Football%202007%20video%20index.htm

To see #88 Adam at Defensive End go to:

http://athletics.sewanee.edu/athletics/football/roster?id=16716

GO MULES!!!!

Salutations Mule Fans!

Our football season began last Friday, August 31st, against the 5A Georgetown "Eagles." My report follows:

WEEK 0 - GEORGETOWN 24 and ALAMO HEIGHTS 21

From a top-level perspective this football season began just as it did last year, with a loss to the Eagles. Now, last year's State Champion Team went on to win 14-games in a row. From what this reporter saw during this year's game with the Eagles in terms of our Mule's potential, there is no reason that this Mules Football Team cannot win a whole heck-of-a-lot-of-games this year!

I mean, our Mules entered this game with a lot more unanswered questions than last year's team, and WE ARGUABLY GAVE THE EAGLES A BETTER GAME THAN LAST YEAR, WHERE THE EAGLES ARGUABLY HAVE A BETTER FOOTBALL TEAM! My point being that since the Eagles were 7-on-7 State Champs (which requires very good pass defense) and have a highly experienced Senior Quarterback these are elements that they did not have last year. Our Mules have a LOT to be proud of in terms of their performance.

Lets talk about some of those Mule positives:

- OUR OFFENSIVE LINE WAS AWESOME IN THEIR BEAUTY! My hat goes off to these guys! The Mule's O-Line gave QB Drew Allen ample time to do his passing thing! Drew looked calm and unrushed throughout his first start at QB, and a big part of the credit for this element has to go to the Offensive Line. NICE NICE WORK FELLAS!

- OUR WIDE RECEIVERS CONTINUE TO IMPRESS! Team Captain Cody Courtney caught two "circus catch" touch down passes with 6 catches for 140 yards on the night. Bobby Broadnax got off to a great start, with 5 catches for 80 yards. Finally, Stephen West caught two bee-lines passes from Drew Allen, but made one difficult snag to have 3 catches for 24 yards against the Eagles. Oh yes my friends, our gang can catch that oblong orbus!

- DEFENSE HELD THE EAGLES TO JUST SEVEN FIRST DOWNS -- THAT IS 7 AGAINST A VERY GIFTED PASSING AND RUNNING UNIT!!!!!!!!!!! Our Defense looked stout, keeping the Eagles offense off-the-field, while also making a number of key stops. Example, with our Mules trailing by 3 points with time running out in the 4th Quarter, our Defense stopped the Eagles on its first series, following a Mules punt, and got the ball back into our Offense's hands with about 3-minutes remaining. The Eagles had only one sustained drive into the end-zone the whole night, as the other TDs were scored on a perfect bomb pass and a ~70-yard run from a broken play. Minus those two plays, our "D" would have made the Eagles look silly in their ineptitude against our power Defensive Unit.

In summary, this was a very close game where I truly believe our team "out-played" the Eagles, but just happened to come up short when given a few opportunities to bring home the win. As our beloved Mules gain more experience working together and our WONDERFUL Coaches fill-in the gaps through their instruction to our team, we are talking about bringing some powerful Offense and Defense into District play.... hold onto your hats for the fireworks!

Relative to photos, the wonderful Mary Candee took SO MANY WONDERFUL SHOTS that I could not bring it down to a reasonable number (I picked 50+ photos out of nearly 1000 shots!) to place into the Mule Fan. Hence, I structured a photo album at Mary's home website that can be entered by clicking on this link below. Once you get to the display, you can read all the captions underneath of each photo and double-click on those shots you wish to blow up. Once you double-click on a photo to enlarge it, you can also click on the advance keys to cycle through all the photos... it is a cool system!

So, here is the link:

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/ViewAlbum.aspx?a=425937

At the top of this blog installment are some sample shots within the Album. Feel free to call Mary Candee to purchase hard copies of any photo(s) that strike your fancy! Here number is 821-5229.

CLARK INTELLIGENCE REPORT

This week's game is against the Clark "Cougars" of San Antonio, a 5A school in District 28-5A. District 28-5A includes #1 ranked Warren, #2 ranked O'Connor, #3 ranked Clark, #4 ranked Marshall, #5 ranked Jay, #6 ranked Taft, #7 ranked Stevens, #8 ranked Holmes, and #9 ranked Del Rio, as polled by the Express News Sports Staff during pre-season.

This reporter watched the "GUCCI Bowl" of Clark vs Churchill game last week on Thursday, August 30th. Churchill won the game 16 to 14, meaning that a "hungry" Clark team will similarly be entering its game against our Mules at 0 wins and 1 loss.

Prediction... Our Mules will win by two TDs or more. Clark did NOT look sharp against Churchill. They rotate the QB position between Senior Chucko Bernal and a more athletic Sophomore (don't remember his name) that did not appear to work to their advantage. Clark could never catch its rhythm against Churchill. This team is also MUCH SMALLER than Georgetown, appearing to about the size of our Mules team. Clark runs 50% and passes 50%. Our Mules have the Defensive and Offensive fire power to absolutely blow Clark off the field if we play out game.

This week's game is on Thursday at the Alamo Dome (darn near a home field for our Mules looking at how much we played there last season). This should also play into our Mules' hands as we are used to playing at the Dome.

FILM NIGHT

Don't forget film night on every Tuesday night at 7 PM in the Visitor's Locker room. This is a fine way to hear directly from Coach Byrd as to his view of the week's previous game.

OTHER NEWS

Former Mules QB Giovanni Vizza had himself a fine game against the Oklahoma Sooners. He came in during the 3rd Quarter against the Sooners and ran the offense until the conclusion of the game. He helped University of North Texas (UNT) avoid a shut-out against the Sooners (OU's stated defensive goal on National TV was to "shut-out UNT"). Until Gio came into the game the Mean Green looked ineffective on Offense. Upon entering the game, Gio promptly led his unit down the field for a field goal and then on his third offensive series, through a laser-guided-bomb-pass to his receiver for a TD!!!! See:

http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=9058&SPID=562&DB_OEM_ID_=1800&ATCLID=1206288

All for now Mule Fans!!!!