The Mule Fan

Looking Back:

AH Mules vs. Reagan Rattlers

“What Just Happened”

After trailing the Mules for most of the game, the Reagan Rattlers had just driven downfield and scored the go-ahead touchdown on an acrobatic catch in the corner of the endzone to take the lead 21-17. With 5:19 left on the clock, the Mules, under quarterback Dub Yarborough, started their drive downfield to take back the victory from Reagan. They would have to march 80 yards. A field goal wouldn’t be enough. After picking up three first downs, the Mules had a second down and eight on the Reagan 16 yard line with 2:00 left in the game – plenty of time to score and win the ballgame. It was the perfect time to throw the middle screen - a play that had worked all season long for big yardage. As the ball was snapped, wide receiver Robert Schuler took one step forward and cut hard to his left and ran down the line of scrimmage to receive the pass. Yarborough dropped back and the offensive line released to set up downfield blocks. But Reagan read the play, and their defensive end wiped-out Schuler before the ball reached him, instantly drawing a flag from the nearby line judge, signaling pass interference.

It turned out that Yarborough’s pass was also intercepted, but no one really even noticed, as all eyes were focused on the clear interference against Schuler. The Heights crowd roared as the penalty would move the ball down inside the 10-yard line with an automatic first down. But wait! There was a long pause as the officials conferred, and suddenly the referee picked up the yellow flag and waved it above his head to indicate that there was no penalty on the play. ARE YOU KIDDING? How can that be? What was the call? It was obviously pass interference! Schuler still lay on the ground dazed by the shot to the side of his helmet as the angry Mules crowd voiced their disbelief and clear disapproval of the referee’s call. As Schuler wobbled off the field with a minor concussion, the Reagan offense took the field to run down the clock and take home the win. The official call was that Schuler was behind the line of scrimmage when he was brought down, and therefore no interference. It was a heartbreaker for our Mules who fought so hard all night long and who came so close to victory and redemption of last year’s disappointing loss to Reagan.

It was a beautiful fall Friday night at our own Harry B. Orem stadium. The weather was cool –around 93 degrees. The Mules came to play ball. They had played tentatively during the first half of last year’s game against Reagan and found themselves down 20-0 at halftime. But this year was different. This year the Mules planned to stand up to the big 5-A bullies.

The Mules delivered the first punch as Robert Schuler returned the opening kickoff past midfield to start Wes Yancy’s drive toward the endzone. The big play of the drive came on a 3^rd and 5 as Yancy scrambled to his right and hoisted a pass up high to Truman Biggs who fought his way down to the 7-yard line for a 36 yard gain and a big first down. Three plays later Coby Bailey would score on a one-yard option play to give the Mules a quick 7-0 lead. Wow, we came to play! Reagan looked a little bewildered.

Now it was time for the Mules defense to show they came to play, and they promptly held the Rattlers to a quick three-and-out, forcing a punt. But the Mules fumbled the punt return and gave the ball right back to the Rattlers, bringing the Mules defense back onto the field. Reagan QB Trevor Knight, who showed why he is a D-1 commit to Oklahoma, completed one of his many crucial third down passes to pick up 22 yards and a 1^st down on the Mules 32 yard line. But three consecutive penalties would kill the Rattler drive and they again were forced to punt.

The punt travelled through the endzone and as the Mules offense trotted back out, QB Dub Yarborough surveyed the field from the Mules own 20-yardline. On the first play of the drive, Yarborough, rolling to his right, showed his arm strength by throwing the ball 55 yards in the air to a sprinting Garrett Iverson who jetted the final 30 yards into the endzone to give the Mules a 14-0 lead with 3:24 left in the 1^st quarter. Complete silence in the visitor stands. Reagan looked stunned by the two quick scoring blows from the Mules. This wasn’t like last year.

But Reagan wasn’t knocked out. On the second play of their next drive, Rattler running back Elijah Ball bounced twice off a couple of Mule defenders and scampered 46 yards to give Reagan their first score and narrow the Mules lead to 14-7. Ball would be trouble for the Mules all night as he bounced his way to over 200 yards rushing. The Mules took over and once again, Wes Yancy marched the Mules downfield on a 16 play drive that unfortunately stalled when the Mules couldn’t pick up the first down on a 4^th and 4 down on the Reagan 14-yard line. In hindsight it would have been a good opportunity for Mules kicker Zander Komet to try a field goal. Komet has been gaining confidence over the past couple of games and his kicking has shown great improvement. Reagan would eventually score again to even the score 14-14 before going into halftime, reminding the Mules that they are one of the city’s best 5-A programs.

After some halftime adjustments (which could be heard through the cinderblock walls in the Men’s Room), the Mules came out and quickly forced the Rattlers to punt from their own endzone. Iverson’s return down to the Rattler 28-yard line gave the Mules a short field and a great scoring opportunity. Coby Bailey took the ball down to the 10 yard line on a great run inside, but the drive stalled at the 3-yard line and the Mules settled for a field goal on a good kick from Zander Komet to push the Mules back on top 17-14 with 7:30 left in the 3^rd quarter. Both teams would trade series through the rest of the 3^rd quarter and half of the 4^th quarter before Reagan would score again on a perfectly thrown ball from Trevor Knight to give the Rattlers the lead 21-17 going into that final drive by the Mules.

Looking back over the game, our Mules have something to be proud of. They brought a confident attitude into this game and were determined to let Reagan know that they got off easy last year. It was a game that we could have won, barring a few mistakes. In particular were two tough penalties against the Mules in the second half, one for holding and one for a block in the back, that killed two promising drives that had real scoring potential. It was a solid performance that would lead us into district play. The Mules are now 2-2 against 5-A schools in pre-district play. They could easily be 4-0. This is a team with a lot of potential, and each week it’s exciting to see our Mules improve. It’s now on to district where it counts. Our boys are ready! Bring it on!

Chirps from the Byrd – Head Coach Byrd, that is:

Mule Fan: Well coach, our Mules have played well again this year against another round of 5-A teams. How do you pick who we play in pre-district?

Coach Byrd: Right now is when we start thinking about next year’s schedule.We have to go out and find teams to play. Every two years our districts could get realigned. I find that it’s hard to schedule pre-district games against rival 4-A schools. Let's say you are able to schedule a pre-district game with Kerrville Tivy. If the districts happen to get realigned and if Kerrville ends up in our district, then you don't have that pre-district game. It’s kind of tough because we have been in the San Antonio district; we’ve been up in the district with Kerrville and Uvalde, and now were in the district with Clemens up to Hays. So if you schedule a pre-district game with someone in those districts and then later wind up in the same district with one of those teams, then you lose a pre-district game. The 5-A schools are nice because we don't have that potential problem where we schedule a pre-district game before we’re locked into a district. But it's very hard to find 4-A schools our size that want to play Alamo Heights. Also, playing the bigger 5-As allows us to play bigger, faster competition and forces us to improve the way we play as a team before going into district.

Mule Fan: That was a heartbreaking loss to Reagan last Friday night.

Coach Byrd: I hate it for the boys because they played hard enough to win, just like we did against O’Connor. But to me, the ultimate picture is where you go back and you see where we were when we started against MacArthur and where we are now. And I think we are a lot better and we've overcome a lot of obstacles. We’ve had some kids hurt, but instead of making excuses, we came out to play. We could have won the O'Connor game but instead of sitting around pouting, we set our goals and moved on. So they're doing a lot of great things. That’s the key to it - it’s to see where we’re at right now and hopefully we've done everything we can to get ready for district. So I'm excited about it.

Mule Fan: Pre-district is now over and we start district against Lockhart on Friday night. What kind of game can we expect?

Coach Byrd: Lockhart has not been playing as well as they’re capable of. They’re scary because when they think they're outmatched, they gamble. During their last game, every kickoff was an onside kick. They went for two after every touchdown. (Laughing) So don't turn around to talk to somebody during this Friday’s game - you might miss something exciting! They will pull out all the stops. Lockhart has a brand new coach and he's getting a feel for the team. They run a condensed offense so they've got a couple of backs and a tight slot, and everybody's in tight. They do all kinds of cross actions, traps, off –tackle dives, sweeps, and reverses. They run these starbursts on kickoffs where the receiver takes the kickoff and runs into a huddle where they shoot out and you don't know who has the ball. Defensively they will jump into different formations and try different things. Last week they played Dripping Springs and they thought they were outmatched, so they blitzed all the time. But nobody can blitz more than Reagan did. They gave us every blitz known to man. The defensive coordinator at Reagan coached in college for many years, and to me, he's one of the top defensive coaches in the state. Reagan gave us a lot of different looks. Hopefully, we’ve now seen it all. We will react and do the things we need to do to play well. Homecoming is this week so I hope we don't get too distracted by it. The kids sure get fired up for their dress-ups during the week at school and that's great fun, but we've got a football game to play so I hope they stay focused on that.

Mule Fan: What are the some of the things you are looking for on this team as we head into district?

Coach Byrd: It’s pretty simple. We need to get a little more consistency on offense and take away some of those third down plays on defense. We need to work on being error free; not missing assignments and cutting out the penalties. We had two penalties last week that really hurt us. We also need to keep growing the kicking game. I was real pleased with the improvement in our kicking game this past week against Reagan.

Mule Fan: Who's in and who's out this week with injuries and illnesses?

Coach Byrd: We didn’t have Frankie Alvarez last week against Reagan, but he's back this week. Cole Bailey was out sick last week but he’s back. Andy Brooks got cleared today to play with a brace, and we will be working him back in slowly. We want to keep that knee strong. Dub’s walking around pretty sore. Molak has been sick this week and so has Biedenharn. Schuler got a concusion on that last play so he's out for this week. It's been such a revolving door at receiver. We started off against MacArthur and everybody's healthy and doing well, and then we loose Biggs, so we had to move Iverson to his spot for a couple of games. Biggs was back last game but Bailey was out. Now Schuler and Biedenharn are out so we move Iverson to their spot. It's been a revolving door. Moms and Dads, we need to make sure on weekends they get a lot of rest.

Mule Fan: I saw in the paper before the Reagan game that their coach said that he was telling his team “don't you take Alamo Heights for granted - they're a really good team!” I thought was a really good compliment on our program.

Coach Byrd: They do a good job over there. I hate playing them because their defensive coordinator is a good friend and we talk football all the time. But since we have played them for two years now, I haven't really been able to talk football with him. We have to talk about the weather and stuff like that! This year against Reagan we came to play. Last year we were worried about them being so stinking good and having district coming up. This year, we’ve got a good attitude on this team. We're starting to get that edge back that we lost a little bit over the last couple of years. Our attitude is that we don’t care who's on the other side - just put a football down and let's go play and we’ll see what the outcome is. These boys have a lot of fight in them!

Mule Fan: Thanks Coach! We’re fired up for Lockhart and for district play. This is when the fun starts. Good luck on Friday!

Get To Know Your Varsity Coaches!

Meet Coach Bobby Newton

Coaching responsibilities: Co-Defensive Coordinator, Cornerbacks

Hometown: Gonzales, Texas

High School: Gonzales High College: Tyler Junior College

What sports did you play in high school or college? Football, baseball, and track

How long coaching at Alamo Heights? Oh gosh – 25 years!

Family: Wife: Shannon; Children: Jake, Kyle, Derrek, Ray, and finally got a girl – Jenna!

Hobbies: I like to ride my motorcycle and my wave runner.

Favorite College Team: UTSA – Go Runners! Pro Team: I guess the Cowboys

Prior coaching jobs before Alamo Heights: I’ve always been at Alamo Heights!

What else do you teach here at AHHS? Geography

What are your pregame rituals or superstitions? I walk the field

Most embarrassing moment in your athletic career as a player? I was disqualified in a district track meet due to a false start.

What was your first car? 1974 Buick Regal

What is your favorite restaurant? Jacala Mexican Restaurant

Favorite cereal? Raisin Bran

What’s the best thing you cook? New York Strip!

Favorite movie of all time? The Shawshank Redemption

Name three people alive or dead, that you would like to hang out with: My father, David Robinson, and all the coaching staff here at AH (as if you guys don’t hang out enough already!)

What CD would your friends be surprised that you own? Tom Petty – I’m Country all the way.

If you were doing one song in an “air guitar” concert, which one would you tear ‘em up with? That ain’t my style!

What’s your best dance move? The two-step

If you could have a super-power, what would it be? To be able to breathe underwater. (they now have scuba gear for that!)

French Fries, Onion Rings or Tater Tots? Onion Rings!

What advice would you give to your players? Enjoy the playoffs. Back in my day, only one team from each district went to playoffs. We had a great team when I was in high school, but we came in second place and missed the playoffs.

JV Falls Short Against the Rattlers

The Mules traveled north of Loops 410 and 1604 to take on the Reagan Rattlers Thursday evening. The evening started with the Mules losing the coin toss, which was not a good sign of things to come. Physically, the Rattlers were much larger than our Mules, but hands down, our uniforms looked a lot better than their uniforms did!

The first half was primarily played between the 20’s, with the exception of a blocked punt by the Rattlers, which they converted into the only score of the evening.

The defense was led by Connor Gates, Josh Arnold, Jay Hargrove and Juan Alvarez, who made key tackles (several behind the line of scrimmage) forcing the Rattlers into long yardage situations. Hargrove forced and recovered a fumble for the Mules and Elijah Williams intercepted a pass in the 3^rd quarter to stop a key drive.

The Mules offense was challenged by a stiff Rattler defense the entire game. The Rattler defense was quick to shut down the Mules running lanes and kept the quarterbacks on the run much of the evening. QB’s Scott Uhl and Kalen Brockwell were able to connect with Robert Weigel and Christian Lalinde for several key receptions throughout the game.

The final score of the game was Rattlers 7, Mules 0.

Looking Ahead:

AH Mules vs. Lockhart Lions

It’s Homecoming!

Friday, September 23^rd- 7:30 PM

Alamo Heights Harry B. Orem Stadium

District play begins this Friday night here at our own home field as the Mules square off against the Lions of Lockhart. District play -this is when it starts to count. This is what our Mules have prepared for. District 27-4A is shaping up to be one of the toughest districts in the state with Alamo Heights, Smithson Valley and New Braunfels Canyon all ranked in the state‘s top 25. And while 2-2 Lockhart is not highly ranked, they are predicted to be unpredictable! How’s that for saying that you can’t look back at Lockhart’s prior season records and judge how they will perform under new head coach Paul Kilby. Kilby comes to Lockhart from down the road in 3A Mathis where he gained notice by winning 18 games over the past two years and averaged over 46 points per game in 2010. Lockhart runs a Slot-T offensive formation that will rely on the running strength of backs Marcos Rodriguez and Levi Mair. Also keep an eye on running back Joseph Bell who was an all-district running back last year. Lockhart doesn’t throw the ball much so the Mules will need to contain their running game, which will include some razzle-dazzle with plenty of reverses and misdirection. It’s also Homecoming here in the Bubble, so the Mules will need to put those distractions aside and focus on Lion Hunting. It’s going to be an exciting game and should provide lots of football entertainment in addition to the homecoming festivities. The Mule Fan will see you there! Go Mules!

Spirit Spotlight:

The Posse!

This week the Mule Fan would like to spotlight one of the integral organizations that support the Mules – The Posse. These are the guys that will punish their bodies to stir up school spirit and are always a crowd pleaser. What other group could run with the big flags that spell M-U-L-E-S and keep the letters in the right order? It’s a highly guarded secret as to what qualifications are required to become a member of the Posse and how they are chosen. But the Mule Fan has obtained a secret video of their tryouts, conducted at a secret off-campus location by the JROTC. This video shows that selecting these finely tuned “actorbats” is no small feat!

And here they are! Your 2011 Posse!

Collin Garwood, Taylor Monroe, Drew Gaiennie, and Jacob Gutierrez!

Announcements:

Pre-Game Get-Together:

La Fonda at Sunset Ridge is the place to be before and after all Mules home games. It's a great place to hang out with friends and get your cheese on before every Mules game. Then head up the street to enjoy Friday Night Football AH style! Also, don't forget to stop by La Fonda after the game as well. Rick Shaw plans to keep the kitchen open until 11:00 so come by and have a drink and reload the belly. 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!

Mules Photos by Mary Candee:

Many thanks 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 dove hunting instead of the football game, you can still catch all of the Mules football action on KRPT 92.5 FM. This is a change from previous weeks. Dave Parker and Ed Suarez will be broadcasting all of the Mules games and the best part is – they are unapologetically big Mules Fans!