Memorial 0, Alamo Heights 56 October 16, 2015 and "Off Week Update and Floresville Preview"

IMPORTANT ALAMO HEIGHTS FOOTBALL UPDATE:
Several items of importance to communicate to you today.  By now you will have heard that Floresville experienced some severe storms and tornados on Friday morning October 30.  Due to all that mayhem, the game at Floresville was cancelled for Friday BUT RESCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31 AT HARRY B. OREM STADIUM AT ALAMO HEIGHTS AT 2:00pm.  Any tickets purchased already for the Floresville game will be accepted at the gate on Saturday for general admission on our side of the stadium.  All seating and all tickets will be GENERAL ADMISSION ONLY. If you have season tickets in one area, someone else's tush may be in 'em when you get there, probably mine. Unless you can produce title, don't whine about it.  Play like you're in someone else's ballpark.  It will be officially a home game for Floresville but we can also play like it's our home game.

Radio:  Well with all this hoohaa, we had to change radio stations for this week because there is a knitting tournament in spanish on KRDY-AM 1160 at our new kickoff time.  We move down the dial to KSLR 630 AM and as always on www.tsrnsports.com for the live webcast and you can download their app as well.  Broadcast time is 1:30pm for keen insight and pre game festivities.

More Radio:  Coach Mike Norment will be making an appearance on the radio on Sunday morning November 1st, which you can watch live at the Lion and Rose British Restaurant and Pub on 5148 Broadway (near Sorrento's and Satel's). You can call them at 798-4154 if you don't believe me. The live broadcast on CBS Sports Radio 860 AM is called SA Football Weekly and airs from 10am-12noon and this week, Coach Norment is the honored guest.  You're invited to Sunday brunch. It's AH Mules Day, for boosters, cheerleaders and players.  Of course, you loyal Mule Fan readers are used to reading Coach Norment's here each week. But why not show up and show him some love and hear his velvety voice.  And get some Shepherd's Pie and a pint (must be 21 to do that bit, the pint, not the pie.)

Okay, that's all the business points we have here late in the week. Show up at our park on Saturday.  No excuses now. Trick or treating is later on. Too wet to mow the lawn.  GO MULES!!!

Mules Take Care of Business With 56-0 Blowout of Memorial

            -Win Streak Extends to Three

            -Off Week Arrives for Mules As Prep Continues for Stretch

            By Bob Cohen, Senior Editor-Working-Off-Week

            (San Antonio)—Alamo Heights celebrated another great Homecoming Week last week and capped it Friday with an expected lopsided win over the Memorial Minutemen 56-0 in front of a great home crowd at Harry B. Orem Stadium.  As Coach Norment often says, it’s not really about the other team in these games but about Alamo Heights.  And Heights made the most of the opportunity to showcase as many players as it could in front of a few reunion classes and folks attending who might not see the Mules play every game. 

            With a bit under two minutes to go in the first period, most of the Mules starters were removed from the game as the clocked ticked towards a 28-0 first quarter lead as the horn sounded.  The game didn’t start that way as Memorial pooched kicked on the opening kickoff and fielded the ball.  So with the Mules defense on the field earlier than they expected to be, and with Memorial in Alamo Heights territory, the defense quickly put things right. On the second play of the Minuteman possession, Memorial’s quarterback threw into the corner of the end zone and a double team of Riley Carew and Nik Proctor.  Proctor secured the interception giving the Mules the ball back at their own 20.  Alamo Heights went to work on plays featuring the running of Deryl Reynolds and a deep ball from Will Chaney to Preston Taylor getting them into position for a two yard Deryl Reynolds bump into the end zone for the Mules first score.

            After the first of many “three and outs” for Memorial, the Minutemen got to see Nik Proctor again as they punted from their own 26 yard line.  Proctor fielded at the 35 and after trying a right step and a left step, settled on another try right following the blocks of Riley Carew and Justin Barsalou, the latter of whom laid the last available defender out giving Proctor his fourth special team return touchdown of the season.  Once again the Mules defense held without yielding a first down and it was running back Tucker Azar’s turn to feature on a drive and 13 yard touchdown run, his first of two first half scores.  And again the Mules defense stuffed the Minutemen back for another three and out.  For the last score of the quarter, Will Chaney followed blockers for 14 yards for the Mules fourth touchdown.

How big is Parker?  Soooooooo Big!

            It was more of the same in the second period as Memorial found no openings in the Mules defense.  On the night, Memorial managed only eight first downs to the Mules 27.  Alamo Heights scored on the ground for the rest of the half and the game.  With the Mules substituting liberally at this point, they added another touchdown run from Azar from three yards and a three yarder from Jack Heydenreich with under a minute in the half.  Alamo Heights  took a 42-0 lead to the halftime locker room as Homecoming activities took the field.

            With an exhausted opponent forced to play most of their personnel both ways, the Mules slowed down the pace and ran the clock and the ball most of the second half.  Alamo Heights piled up 273 yards on the ground while the defense held Memorial to 16 ground yards and 113 in the air.  It forced four Memorial punts and three fumbles.  The Mules spread the running booty around.  Azar and Heydenreich had 75 and 74 yards respectively, while Reynolds, Will Chaney and Parker Taylor tacked on the rest.   Mules backup quarterback Will Chaney, played most of the game at quarterback and picked up 197 yards passing on 16 completions on 21 attempts.  Parker Taylor came in for a spell at QB late in the game and rushed for a 20-yard touchdown. 

            The Mules (5-3, 4-2) kept Memorial winless on the season and now have an off week before hitting the road on Halloween Eve to take on Floresville.

October 16 27-5A Results

Lockhart 42, Kennedy 7

Seguin 25, Floresville 22

Kerrville Tivy 48, San Marcos 14

Memorial 0, Alamo Heights 56

Boerne Champion idle

Standings after October 16

Kerrville Tivy 5-0

Lockhart 5-1

Boerne Champion 4-1

Alamo Heights 4-2

San Marcos 3-2

Seguin 2-3

Floresville 1-5

Kennedy 0-5

Memorial 0-5

Schedule for October 23

Boerne Champion @ Lockhart

Kerrville Tivy @ Seguin

Kennedy @ San Marcos

Floresville @ Memorial

Alamo Heights idle

Remaining Schedule After The October 23 Weekend

Boerne Champion 10/30 vs. San Marcos, 11/6 @ Seguin

Seguin 10/30 @ Kennedy, 11/6 vs. Boerne Champion

Kerrville Tivy 10/30 vs. Memorial, 11/6 @ Alamo Heights

San Marcos 10/30 @ Boerne Champion, 11/6 vs. Lockhart

Lockhart 10/30 idle, 11/6 @ San Marcos

Floresville 10/30 vs. Alamo Heights, 11/6 idle

Kennedy 10/30 vs. Seguin, 11/6 @ Memorial

Memorial 10/30 @ Kerrville Tivy, 11/6 vs. Kennedy

Alamo Heights 10/30 @ Floresville, 11/6 vs. Kerrville Tivy

Area Leaders

In this week’s Express-News Sub 6A rankings, Kerrville Tivy and Boerne Champion remain 1-2.  Alamo Heights maintains its ranking of 6^th.  Tivy is ranked 6^th in the state 5A rankings moving up one notch this past week.  Individually, Antoine Cole ranks 3^rd in pass receiptions and 12^th in receiving yards.  Brendon McClinton is tied for 8^th in receptions and Caleb Williams is ranked 14^th in receptions.  Mules quarterback Jack Woodland is ranked 14^th in passing.

“His Inside Voice”

A Weekly Conversation with Coach Mike Norment 

Mule Fan: You always talk about having your guys not focusing too much on the other team but more on Alamo Heights, which is especially important in games such as the Memorial game.  So in addition to the win, what did you get done on Friday against Memorial?

Coach Norment: Well we got a lot of players in which is always good.  We were able to look at some things and overall we did a pretty good job.  There were some things that we didn’t do that are correctable.  We want to get everybody in but we want to do everything correctly.  It doesn’t matter what the other team does.  We want to run the defense right, run the correct plays and do all those things right.  We’re getting to the point in the season where we have to be getting better every week.  I was pleased overall.  It’s really easy to come out, after we had the successful first half with a big lead, to do what a lot of times teams do and that is have a complete letdown in the second half. The guys who were in the game in the second half kept on playing hard. That’s what I was really pleased with.

Mule Fan: The starters, at least the offensive starters, weren’t in the game long at all. In fact it seemed they were out even quicker than they were in the Kennedy game. With the off week approaching, were you thinking you could get them even more rest?

Coach Norment: That was definitely one of the things, you know to get them some rest and make sure nobody gets hurt. But also we wanted to get the rest of the kids some reps because at some point in the rest of the season, if a “one” goes down, we want to get the ”two’s” some reps that we have not been able to get them so far in the year since we’ve had so many close games.  This gets them more prepared so that if they go into a game, they’ll be ready.

Mule Fan: As we said, you’re in the off week. You gave the kids Saturday, Monday and Wednesday off. What else have you done differently during the off week?

Coach Norment: We’re still lifting weights. We practice during fourth period just like we always do. The only difference we’re not practicing Monday through Thursday like we would a regular week. We’ll just practice two times.  Just a little bit less pounding on each other.  We’ll use this week to try and get people healthy, get the bumps and bruises healed up a little.  But at the same time, I told the kids this is not just a “take off” week, this is a “get better” week. So when we’re out there we are working with high intensity and getting after it.

Mule Fan: Will every coach be out this week looking at a game?

Coach Norment:  Pretty much. We have two games left on our schedule so we’ll go hit two of those games involving those teams and see what’s going on.

Mule Fan: What’s on your mind as you look at the schedule for this week and the remaining games?

Coach Norment:  Well the big thing is that we control our own destiny so we’re worrying about Floresville and that’s all we can think about right now because we have to win that game so we’ll be at that game against Memorial. They’ve been struggling a little bit this year (Floresville), but their game with us will be their last game and their playoff game. Because their bye week is week #10.  We’re playing there. It was a close game last year. In some ways they feel they could’ve beaten us last year. I guarantee you they’re going to be up for us and getting after it so we have to worry about those guys. Then we’ll look to Kerrville. Then hopefully if we get those two taken care of and we’ll be in the playoffs.

Mule Fan: Floresville faces Memorial this week. They had a close one against Seguin last week, which they lost. They had three winning seasons coming into this year but have managed only one win so far. What’s changed over there?

Coach Norment:  You really don’t know. We just started watching a little film on them.  There could be a number of reasons like injuries.  As we know with injuries, a couple of injuries at key positions, we can’t go recruit like the colleges, and a couple of key positions on offense or defense can really affect you especially if your defensive scheme or offensive schemes are revolving around those players. That throws a huge wrench into the system.  Just looking at it so far, I can’t really tell. I have watched and they get after it.  We’ll break down the film we just received a little more. And we have to realize that we have a tough district. When you’re playing Kerrville Tivy and Boerne Champion, they’re pretty good teams. They are struggling but at the same time, teams that are struggling are dangerous and we can’t take them lightly.

Cliché Corner-Cuz Chix Dig Dudes hu no Football Frazis

Name the football cliché.

A.     Load the box

B.     Loaded diaper

C.     Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

A. Load the box – to put most of the defensive players inside to protect against the run

Mules Dine Out Day

This week, you can dine out at the new BurgerFi near the H-E-B at Oak Park behind Thundercloud Subs at Nacogdoches and Rockhill on Friday, October 23.  Mules Football gets 20% of sales between 5pm-9pm as long as you put your receipt the Mules Football bucket.

Mules on Twitter

There’s a lot to be said about these Mules and another way to follow Alamo Heights Football is on Twitter @ahmulesfootball.  Don’t forget to follow.

Floresville Preview Ahead-Check Back Next Week

The miserly management buffoons that run this rag put a clause in our contract that the only time off we get during the off week is for lunch.  So we wrote the regular version this week and will provide a preview on Floresville and updates to standings and other items next week. So check back for some more information during the prep week for Floresville. We’ll have ticket information at that time as well.  In the meantime, management has demanded that we cover the shrimp boat races near the Bolivar Peninsula this week.  Enjoy your Friday night off this week Mule Nation.

Off Week Update

October 23 Results

Floresville 43, Memorial 0

Kerrville Tivy 52, Seguin 18

Boerne Champion 47, Lockhart 26

Kennedy 6, San Marcos 48

Alamo Heights idle

Standings after October 23

Kerrville Tivy 6-0

Boerne Champion 5-1

Lockhart 5-2

Alamo Heights 4-2

San Marcos 4-2

Seguin 2-4

Floresville 2-5

Kennedy 0-6

Memorial 0-6

October 30 Schedule

Alamo Heights @ Floresville

Seguin @ Kennedy

Memorial @ Kerrville Tivy

San Marcos @ Boerne Champion

Lockhart idle

Floresville Preview

Alamo Heights travels to Floresville to take on the Tigers on Friday October 29 at 7:30pm.  It is an important district game for the Mules who are chasing a playoff berth and resume action after a bye night on October 23.  Floresville won on the road last week against Memorial 43-0 raising their season record to 2-8 and 2-5 in district play. Their other win was against Kennedy.   The Tigers are suffering through their first losing season since 2011. In 2014 Floresville finished 6-4 overall and 4-4 in district play. The Tigers are 0-3 all time vs. Alamo Heights having faced the Mules in 2014, 205 and 2004. They average 28.5 points per game and allow 43.2 ppg.  The Mules won in 2014 in an offensive showdown 47-43.  Floresville returns 10 starters from last year’s team, six from the offense and four defensive. They are led by two three-year starters, quarterback Koby Wilkerson and running back Alex Mermea both of whom were all district first team selections in 2014.  Mermea rushed for over 1,200 yards last season.

Follow the Mules on Radio

When you can’t be at the game, follow along on KRDY 1160AM with Dave Parker and Albert Gonzales providing lead vocals and harmony.  You can also listen online at www.tsrnsports.com and on the TSRN mobile app. It's the same guys doing it just out of a different device.  Please patronize the sponsors and thank them for making it possible for the Mules to hit the airwaves.