The Mule Fan

Let’s Hear It For Our Seniors!

Friday night was the first home game of the 2011 football season and it was senior parent night at Harry B. Orem Stadium. The Mule Fan would like to recognize our seniors who will wear the Blue and Gold for their last season as Mighty Mules!

No.				No.
4	Zander Komet	K		53	Greyson Kale	DL
5	Wes Yancy	QB		57	Jack Berger	LB
7	Luke Donnelly	K		61	Warren Monnich	DL
9	John Geibel	TE		62	Zach Harris	OL
11	Dub Yarborough	QB		63	Nick Vargas	OL
12	Garrett Voss	DB		64	Jesus Almanza	OL
15	Jesus Cerda	DB		66	Chase Stockton	DL
20	Robert Low	RB		68	Sam Noe	OL
22	Coby Bailey	RB/DB		71	Alex Johnston	DL
24	Andy Brooks	RB		74	Frankie Alvarez	DL
32	Alex Cisneros	DB		75	David Birkey	DL
33	Lucciano Vizza	LB		76	Jake Molak	OL
34	John Durbin	TE		77	Derrick Vasaldua	DL
35	Bond Foster	WR		79	Carl Stephens	OL/DL
37	John Rascoe	DL		80	George Mixon	WR
42	Garrett Iverson	WR		81	Patrick Galvan	TE
46	Keith Ochoa	DB		82	Truman Biggs	WR
48	Tha Yu Htoo	DB		83	Crockett Speer	WR
51	Jimmy Russell	LB		88	Alex Bathie	WR
52	Sam Peacock	C		90	Skylar Nelson	LB

Looking Back:

Mules Outpace Cougars to Pick Up First Season Win

It was a great opening night at Harry B. Orem Stadium, as once again the classic pre-district match-up against the Clark Cougars proved to be another closely fought battle. This year, the Mules led or stayed even the whole way and edged out the Cougars 24-17. It was a game that looked closer on the scoreboard than on the stat sheet and the night’s standouts proved to be unlikely heroes. Covering for an injured Andy Brooks, senior Coby Bailey stepped up with a tough performance rushing the ball for 112 yards on 19 carries. The Mules also got a glimpse of its younger talent, especially lone sophomore Robert Schuler, who had 3 catches for 78 yards and the winning TD, along with a big kickoff return to midfield. When the Mules needed a big play, Bailey and Schuler were there to make it happen.

The Cougars won the toss and decided they wanted the ball. It looked like the Mules might be in for a long night as Clark returned the opening kickoff to midfield and then preceded to pick-up two quick first downs behind strong running from #17 QB Josh Kern and #30 RB Kweku Larbie. But the Mules defense settled in and Danny Garza made a key stop on a QB draw up the middle on 3^rd and 13 that forced the Cougars to punt.

The Mules offense took the field with Wes Yancy starting at quarterback. Yancy had a solid night, passing for 74 yards on 5 of 6 attempts and rushing for another 36 yards. On 2^nd down Yancy was forced to scramble to his left and just gets the ball off downfield to #19 Robert Schuler for a 30 yard gain to give Mules a 1^st down at mid-field. On 3^rd down, Yancy fooled everyone with a fake to Coby Bailey and then picked up 15 yards on a bootleg, but the refs mark him just short, bringing up a big 4^th and 1. But that was no problem for Coby Bailey, who easily picked up the 1^st down and then another 8 yards. Coby would follow that with other big runs that would take the ball down to the 3 yard line before the Mules ran out of downs and were forced to kick a field goal. Matt Kelly’s line drive field goal capped off a time consuming drive that gave the Mules a 3-0 lead with less than a minute left in the 1^st quarter.

After the Mules kickoff by #4 Zander Komet, the Cougar’s offense wouldn’t be on the field for long. As Mules linebacker Blake Klumpp level’s QB Josh Kern, his pass is deflected by fellow linebacker Skylar Nelson and is intercepted by Alex Cisneros who returns the ball to the Clark 47-yard line. Dub Yarborough would take the helm for the Mules, but it was short series as well, as Yarborough’s pass across the middle on 1^st down is tipped, tipped, and finally intercepted by Clark, bringing the Mules defense back onto the field after a one play rest. That would end the 1^st quarter with the Mules maintaining a 3-0 lead.

But the Mules defense decided that the best way to battle a turnover is to get a turnover. A big hit by Skylar Neson jarred the ball loose from running back Larbie’s hands where it was picked up by cornerback Garrett Voss who sprinted 50 yards to the endzone for a Mules touchdown and a 10-0 lead. After a Clark kickoff return was saved by kicker Zander Komet, Clark began their next drive with a short field at the Mules 47 yard line. The Mules defense would hang tough, swarming the Clark running attack, and eventually forced a Clark field goal from 41 yards out to put the Cougars on the board 10-3 with 7:48 left in the first half. Hats off to the defensive line of Warren Monnich, Danny Garza, Alex Johnston and linebacker Nick Uretsky, who kept the Cougars contained most of the evening.

After the Mules and Cougars next two series resulted in punts, the Mules defense again kept Kern and the Cougars from making headway. On 4^th down and 9, the Cougar’s punt is blocked by Alex Cisneros, who seemed to be wherever the ball was all night, setting up a 36 yard Mules field goal attempt from the Cougar 19-yard line. But unfortunately the kicked lacked height, distance and direction….no good. So the Mules weren’t able to convert and the first half comes to an end with the Mules leading 10-3.

The Mules started the 2^nd half on offense at the 15 yard line. The drive progressed behind big rushing gains by Coby Bailey, but unfortunately, holding penalties brought back two of those big gains. But wide receiver Robert Schuler would make up the lost ground as he takes middle screen from Yancy and runs it 30 yards out to mid-field for a big first down. But penalties would continue to plague the drive and the Mules were forced to punt. After a great punt pinned Clark on the 3-yard line, the Cougars get some breathing room when RB Larbie runs inside and breaks tackles all the way out to the 34 yard line. On the next play, the Mules defense would make one of its very few mistakes of the evening as they got caught on a play-action pass from Kern to a wide open tight end who would take the pass 50 yards down to the Mules 4-yard line before being horse-collared by safety Blake Rosenthal. The Cougars would go on to score and tie the game 10-10 with 2:28 left in the 3^rd quarter.

But the score wouldn’t stay tied for long as Robert Schuler showed the way by returning the ensuing kickoff all the way out to the 50 yard line. On the 1st play of the drive, Dub Yarborough went off-tackle, keeping the ball for 26 yards as he chugged down to the Cougar 24. Yarborough would finish the drive with a short pass to Coby Bailey from 3 yards out, pushing the Mules back on top 17-10 with 20 seconds left in the 3^rd.

With time running in the 4^th quarter, the Cougars would capitalized on another Mules penalty that gave them a key first down at the Mules 43. On the next play, #30 Larbie would take short pass all the way down to the Mules 5 yard line, refusing to be tackled. At that point the Mules tried to defend their goal by using the old throw-up trick, trying to distract the Cougars with some strategically placed puke puddles. But the Cougars side-stepped the vomit and scored on a power run from QB Josh Kern to tie the score again at 17-17 with 6:33 left in the game.

Now it was test time for the Mules. After Garrett Iverson returned the kickoff out to the 30-yard line, Dub Yarborough would lead the Mules downfield. After two runs by Coby Bailey picked up 32 yards, the Mules found themselves with a 3^rd down and 4 at the Clark 18-yard line. Yarborough coolly stepped back and found Christian Biedenharn, who made a nice catch for 5 yards to pick up the 1^st down at the 12-yard line. Two plays later Yarborough connected with Robert Schuler on a middle screen, and behind textbook blocking, threaded his way into the endzone for the game winning touchdown with 1:42 left. Mules win 24-17! Yarborough would have a nice second half passing for two TDs on 5 of 6 attempts.

This was a game that showed that our Mules refuse to quit and they should feel proud of beating a well respected 5-A program. Next step is another 5-A Test – Southwest at their home field. It will be fun!

Big Hit of the Week!

In case you missed it, Blake Rosenthal’s crushing blow on the Clark punt returner was highlighted on KENS TV Friday sports segment as “The Big Hit of the Week”! Way to go Rosie! Here’s the video. Run your cursor over the lower portion of the video.

Chirps From The Byrd. Head Coach Byrd, That Is:

Mule Fan: What are some of your thoughts as you look back on Friday’s game against Clark?

Coach Byrd: When you play a tough team like Clark, you just learn so much about yourself. If you just play a lesser school that you just blow-out then you get this false sense of security because you really haven't accomplished anything when you beat somebody that’s not a very good team. But when you go against O'Connor you learn that you have to hold onto the ball better and then you go against Clark you learn that you can't make penalties. We had some communication problems in the game. You know, early in the season you can forget and take things for granted. I asked our play signalers before the game, "hey do you guys have signaling tape on your hands so they can see the plays? And they said "oh yeah". And then I noticed early in the game that the kids couldn’t see their signals and I looked over and saw the signalers had black tape on their fingers....black tape, black sky....didn’t work and that hurt us on a couple of occasions until we got that straightened out.

Mule Fan: What was your assessment of the offense this week?

Coach Byrd: This team plays very hard. They play very physical football. I’m excited about those aspects. I was excited to see how we had two guys on offense step up and fill in for guys that were out hurt and we didn't really lose a beat in a lot of ways. Coby Bailey really stepped it up and we moved Iverson over and he did a nice job filling in for Truman. So I thought we did a nice job on offense. As hard as we play, we need to play smart and mistake free so we get as much outcome as we should get and have that represented on the scoreboard. Turnovers were better for us this week and we got some from the other team. We made a couple of errors that hurt us points-wise - not finding some guys that were open in the end zone, and then we read the wrong receiver and bit on a play-action that cost us. But I thought our quarterbacks did a great job. Both of them were 5 out of 6 throwing the ball. Both of them do things a little differently, so we get to sort of change our personality a little bit when either Dub or Wes are in the game.

Mule Fan: How about defensively?

Coach Byrd: On defense, I think we're tackling well. I think we are moving well. We had some communication mistakes. We are going to try a new way of calling our defensive plays by using some large numbers. I think that's going to help. On the kicking game, we didn't do quite as well as we did against O'Connor. This is something I have been concerned about. We need the kickers, whoever it might be and we are still having tryouts, to come out and forget about the crowd and all the Friday night excitement and just relax and kick the ball. They do a nice job in practice and I know they will get there. We had a good practice today.

Mule Fan: What opened up the running game this past Friday compared to last week against O'Connor?

Coach Byrd: A couple of things. Against Clark, we ran the option at them and they didn't have a good plan against that. Once we saw that the option was going to work, we went to that a little more and we got them spread out which opened up some of the inside runs. Clark gave us some good matchups giving our receivers a guy to block so we could pull our linemen around to pick up the linebackers. I think we are getting to be fundamentally sound on the outside running game. Who knows, next week, they might load up against the run and give us the pass. That's why you've got to be able to do both, and I think our short passing game looks really good. I think we were 10 for 12 on the short passing. We still need to improve some on our inside run and throwing the ball downfield if we are going to be a complete offense.

Mule Fan: It was nice seeing some of the young guys step-up, especially at receiver.

Coach Byrd: Absolutely! Schuler came in and did a real nice job. Biedenharn made that big third down catch over on their sideline in that last drive. I thought they all blocked real well. We have some good depth at receiver, which gives us some fresh feet when we rotate them in. When Andy Brooks is back healthy, having Coby makes it like we were last year with Andy and William Thompson, when having two running backs with fresh feet really makes a difference, especially in the second half. That's what we are hoping to get at receiver also.

Mule Fan: What can we expect this Friday night against Southwest?

Coach Byrd: Southwest is a team that lost a lot of good seniors last year and they really haven’t found their personality yet. They have made a lot of mistakes in their last two games. They are a better team than the score indicated against Warren, and they just made some mistakes against Lee and they lost that game as well. They are a dangerous team and they are going to come alive and figure it out before the season is over with. So we had better be ready for a much better team than they have shown so far. They run usually everybody in tight and they just come right at you. It will be a good warm-up because it's the same system they use at Canyon. The coach at Canyon was at Southwest for five years and so we will get to see a lot of things we will see against Canyon when we play them in district. They are going to have everyone in tight and then snap the ball and run right at you. But really it's not so much about Southwest as it is about Alamo Heights. I’m looking for our team to play without getting penalties, not having communication errors, growing at all positions, playing quicker and with more confidence, and getting our kicking game going. Those are the things we are looking for this week.

Mule Fan: Thanks Coach and best of luck on Friday night!

Looking Ahead:

AH Mules vs. Southwest Dragons

Friday, September 9^th - 7:30 PM

Southwest Stadium - Old Pearsall Road, just east of Loop 1604 (map link to stadium)

Get ready Mules Fans as our Mules travel out to farm country to face the Dragons of Southwest High School. Located on the southwest outskirts of town, this is an area steeped in history. Most of the land around Southwest has been inhabited by Belgian farmers, who have a long and storied history of providing San Antonio with some of the best vegetables in the area. Don’t be surprised if you notice some kids on their roster with names like Verstuyft, Verstraeten, Van De Walle, Friesenhahn, Grothues, Aelvoet, and Persyn. These are down to earth, hard working families, and some of the nicest people you will ever meet.

This is a young Dragon team with seven starters returning on offense and only three starters returning on defense. Most of Southwest’s experience will be on their offensive line, which will be important as the Dragon offense relies prodominantly on the running game. Southwest comes into Friday’s game against the Mules after disapointing losses over the past consecutive weeks. Southwest was caught off guard in week one when they lost to Warren 63-13 and then barely lost to Lee in a thriller last Saturday when Lee won on a touchdown pass with 30 seconds left in the game. Players to watch for Southwest will be offensive lineman Chris Cooper, who is listed at 6’3” and 310 lbs! Also watch for running backs Bryan Donnell and Henry Martinez. Load up the car and head southwest this Friday night as the Mules take on the Southwest Dragons at 7:30 at Southwest Stadium. See you there!

Six Degrees of Separation:

There seems to be much confusion and consternation this season between the two Baileys on this year’s Mules team - Coby Bailey and Cole Bailey. Just to set the record straight, the two Baileys aren’t twins, brothers or even cousins. They're not related. But here are some interesting facts that connect the two, and true to "Six Degrees of Separation", connect them back to Kevin Bacon:

• Coby is a senior, Cole is a junior
• Their names are both four letters
• They are both the same height.
• They both played on the same Little League team
• They both have summer birthdays.
• They both live in Terrell Hills
• They both live on streets that begin with the letter “G”
• They both drive black trucks
• Both of their dads drive Chevy trucks
• They both have sisters that are freshmen
• Both sister’s names contain six letters
• Coby’s parent’s names each contain five letters
• Cole’s parent’s names each contain four letters
• Coby’s dad’s cell phone number ends in 5050
• Cole’s dad’s cell phone number ends in 3030
• Coby’s dad went to college at Texas' rival, Oklahoma
• Cole’s dad went to college at Oklahoma's rival, Texas
• Both of their dads lived in Dallas and moved to San Antonio
• Both of their moms are blonde and good looking
• Kevin Bacon’s mom used to be good looking!

There you have it!

Get To Know Your Varsity Coaches!

Meet Coach Randy Osborne

Name: Randy Osborne

Coaching responsibilities: First Assistant - Wide Receivers

Hometown: Nevada, Missouri

High School: MacArthur (what?)

What sports did you play in high school? Football and Track

How long coaching at Alamo Heights: 13 years!

Family: Wife Nicole; sons Jake and Cole

Hobbies: Fishing and hunting

Favorite College Team: Nebraska Corn Huskers Pro Team: Arizona Cardinals

Prior coaching jobs before Alamo Heights: Wide receivers coach at East Texas State University

What else do you teach here at AHHS? Math

What was your first car? 1982 Pontiac Sunbird

What is your favorite restaurant? Chuy’s

Favorite junk food? Nutty Bars

What CD would your friends be surprised that you own? Sir Mix-A-Lot

Do you think Big Foot is for real? Yes, I’ve seen him

If you could have a super-power, what would it be? X-Ray vision

French Fries, Onion Rings or Tater Tots? Tater Tots

Mountain Hideaway or Beach House? Mountain Hideaway

Summer or Winter Olympics? Summer

Who is your favorite…Mo, Larry, Curly, or Shemp? Curly for sure

What advice would you give to your players? Play every play like it’s your last and enjoy your teammates. They are the best friends you will ever have.

JV Falls Short Against Cougar Size

The drought ridden dust field at Clark high school proved to be the appropriate setting for the JV football game last week. This was an old fashion physical football game. The Mules were clearly outsized but as is usual for our boys they went toe for toe with Clark. Both teams came up empty on their first drives but went deep into the other team's territory. For the Mules Kalen Brockwell had completions to Christian Lalinde, Scott Uhl and Jake Osborne. A great scramble by Brockwell resulting in a completion to Uhl would prove costly to the Mules as Brockwell was forced out of the game with a severely sprained ankle and a mild concussion.

After a scoreless first quarter, Clark got on the board first with a nice misdirection pass play back to the tight end. The Mules stopped the two point conversion. Uhl replaced Brockwell at QB and had a nice scramble for a first down but the drive stalled. Two great tackles by Ben McSween and a sack by Conner gates highlighted the next defensive series. A bad snap on the punt and Juan Alvarez tackled the Clark punter for a 15-yard loss. Another nice Scramble by Uhl and a completion to Weigel took the Mules deep into Clark territory. Uhl then rolled out and found Dubrof in the end zone where he made an outstretched catch and brought a toe down just inside the side line for a touchdown. The point after was blocked and the half ended in a 6-6 tie.

In the third quarter Giordano Fontana made a great catch to extend the drive that was capped by a field goal by Wes Sparr. That would be all the scoring for the Mules and the size of the Clark team wore us down. They scored two more times and eventually won the game 18-9.

The JV B game also did not go the way of the Mules, but there were some great plays. On the opening kick off, Chris Abdouch grabbed a fumble in mid-air and returned it for a touchdown. Unfortunately we were called for offsides and the play was nullified. Armando Tamez played well at QB with nice receptions by Riley Zander, Wes Sparr and Daniel Mays. Mays was going old school and playing both ways. He recorded several nice tackles. Barrett Hardy led the running game and really ran hard. William Faz had a huge hit to end the half but in the end Clark was just a bit too much for our boys.

Announcements:

Pre-Game Get-Together:

This weeks pre-game tailgate dinner will be at the Longhorn Steakhouse at 7833 IH-35 South. Take IH-35 toward Laredo, exit Zarzamora. Stay on access road and Longhorn Steakhouse will be on the right. See ya there! Go Mules!

Calling All Mules Fans:

Come support the Varsity Football team by eating at Josephine Street Café. Josephine Street Cafe will donate 25% of all Mule sales receipts to the Mules football program. Be sure to tell them that you are a Mule Fan and put your receipt in the bucket! Click here for the Flyer.

Mules Photos by Mary Candee:

Many thank to Mary Candee for supplying the Mule Fan with great photos of the Mules in action. Her photos are available for purchase at www.dulcedesigns.photoreflect.com. The Mule Fan would like to remind all you Mules football fans that Mary works extremely hard to photograph all Alamo Heights sports, so please generously support Mary and order your photos throughout the season. No question – her photos are better than anything we mortals could take and you will be happy you have her great photos when it comes time to create that end of season scrapbook. Thanks Mary!

Mules Game DVDs – Murfman Productions:

You can still order your game DVDs of every Mules football game from the Murfman! You can get the entire season for $150 or individual games for $15.00 each. You can also order individual player highlight DVDs. $5.00 from each DVD sold will be donated back to the group of your choice: Football, Band, Cheerleaders, or Spurs. Look for the Murfman in the stands up near the pressbox. He will have a video camera set on a tripod. You can’t miss him!

Write to the Mule Fan:

The editors of the Mule Fan would like to hear your comments or story ideas. It’s tough coming up with fresh, entertaining bull week after week, so we welcome your thoughts. If you have something interesting for the blog (actually, we will be the judge of that) then let us know at jeff@baileycommercial.com

Mules on the Radio:

Don’t forget that if you make the lame choice to go to the deer lease instead of the football game, you can still catch all of the Mules football action on KTKR-Am 760, “The Ticket”. Dave Parker and Ed Suarez will be broadcasting all of the Mules games and the best part is – they are unapologetically big Mules Fans!