Eeeeeeeeeeeeee Haaaw! Go Mules!

Welcome Mule Fans to the website that just Loves to Love on our Mules Football Team!

Again, please remember the Fall Kick-Off Picnic on this Wednesday, August 29th, where Volleyball and Football practice will take place from 4:00 to 5:00 PM and Bar-B-Q Dinner/H.S. Band Performance & Introductions will take place from 5:00 to 7:00 PM at Harry B. Orem Stadium.

PRE-SEASON WEEK THREE REPORT - MacARTHUR SCRIMMAGE

On Friday, August 24th, our football team scrimmaged a talented and athletic MacArthur High School squad.

The MacArthur "Brahmas" are ranked in the Express News ("EN") at #5 pre-season within their district. This 5A football team plays in the very challenging District 26-5A that includes the likes of EN ranked #1 Smithson Valley, #2 Madison, #3 Judson, #4 Reagan, #6 Churchill, #7 Wagner, #8 Roosevelt, and #9 Lee High Schools. The Brahmas #5 pre-season ranking seems to this reporter to be a little odd, as this team progressed last season all the way to the Division II Semi-Finals. With six returning Offensive Starters and five returning Defensive Starters, Mac has a core of talent that "knows how to win football games."

One may also remember that Mac came in 2nd to Temple H.S. at our own 7-on-7 tournament this past summer, showing solid capability at this schools Defensive Back, Receiver and QB positions. In summary, I hope I have clearly established in your minds that Mac has some kinda good football team!

Why is establishing that fact important? Well, for those that were in attendance at both our scrimmage with Mac and our scrimmage the previous week with Clemens, it might have appeared that during our scrimmage with Mac that we did not play quite as well on Defense, and played about the same on Offense (e.g., our Big "O" appeared to continue maturing on expected pace) as compared to the Clemens scrimmage... but, REMEMBER we likely played a more talent laden football team in Mac than we did against Clemens, and OUR MULES HELD THEIR OWN against a larger 5A school that was inches away from playing for the 5A Division II State Championship last year!

Note to self, Mules are tough animals that know how to work together as a Mule Team.

What this reporter was pleased to watch at our scrimmage with Mac was our young men playing together as a COHESIVE TEAM of Mules. No droopy heads, always patting each other on the backs, giving each other power fist butts, etc. This here is a TEAM supporting each other like a TEAM in the midst of a number of difficult position adjustments to find just the right blend of position-by-position talent and skill for our Mules to make the utmost of this football season.

Our Mules have already demonstrated C-H-A-R-A-C-T-E-R. YEAH BABY, when it comes down to that one play with everything on the line when perhaps things have not been going just as well as we would have liked up to that point, I'll take the character of our young men to stick together, not get down on each other, but truly buck each other up, and play tough!!!! This is what makes our Mules GREAT! "We is the Key!"

Note, we played two quarters in game-like fashion against Mac and ended up with a tie score of 6 to 6. Our touchdown came on a pass from Cody Courtney to Bobby Broadnax (Sorry, no pics this week, as the wonderful community photo-whiz, Mary Candee, was on travel this week).

One last thing to keep in mind about our scrimmage with Mac... our Coaches played it very close to the vest relative to play selection on Offense and the Defensive Sets we showed during Defense. We saw our Mules play at about half throttle... YOU GOT THAT MULE FANS, WE PLAYED AT HALF THROTTLE.... get ready Georgetown, HERE COMES DA MULES AT FULL POWER!!!!!

GEORGETOWN INTELLIGENCE REPORT

So, as I was think'n to myself about our upcoming game with the Georgetown "Eagles" this Friday, August 31st, at 7:30 PM at Georgetown, I was wondering about how them Eagles being the reigning State Champs and all in 7-on-7 Summer League Football might trans-o-late into success during regular 11-man High School Football? In erudite form, my research turned up some interesting stats....

Here is a link to an article from the Austin Statesman newspaper with a list of past 7-on-7 State Champions and what happened to them during the H.S. football season immediately following their 7-on-7 success:

http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/highschool/08/20/0820georgetown.html
Now, the article in the above link makes a big deal that six out of the past nine 7-on-7 state champs have gone on to participate in the state play-offs... but conversely, THREE out of nine teams did not make the play-offs, and (un-analyzed by the Statesman) FOUR out of nine had only "so-so" fall season records: two teams with 6-4 records, one team with a 5-6 record, and another with a 1-7 record (that is a one win season gang)... sooooooooooooooooooooo, just being 7-on-7 State Champion, in my book, has a pretty low correlation with fall season success.

This jives (e.g., 7-on-7 State Champs might only be so-so football teams during fall) with Georgetown's gridiron performance this reporter witnessed last Friday, August 29th, during an evening scrimmage between Georgetown and Seguin at Seguin's Jack Taylor Stadium. I was sitting in the stands at that scrimmage with Andy Allen and his son Drew Allen, Matt Vizza, my son Terry Andersen, and nearly the entire AHHS Football Coaching Staff. Chatting between Andy, Matt and I, we jointly agreed that Georgetown looked entirely beatable by our beloved Mules.

What we saw at the scrimmage was an Offense that ran the ball roughly 50% of the time and passed 50% of the time. Georgetown's QB, Morgan Mickan, IS A SOLID ATHLETE. He is a Senior that has already been recruited by University of Texas to play baseball. Mickan can run (as you might remember from last year's game). One of Georgetown's best offensive plays is for Mickan to roll-out like he is going to pass, and then tuck the ball and run. It seemed like Mickan picked up between 7- to 15-yards every time he did this to Seguin. Mickan looked a lot like New Braunfels QB Ryan Perez that we saw in the play-offs last year.

However, Mickan's receivers surprisingly dropped a number of easy catches. Also, Geogetown's Offensive line while HUGE, was sssssssllllllooooowwwwww offfffff thuuuuuuuuuu ballllllllll and stood straight-up (rather than driving out) when blocking. Do be ready Mule Fans for the visual impact of watching about six kids take the field during this Friday's warm-ups that are 6 feet 4 inches tall or larger and that weigh 270+ lbs pounds each, and one MONSTER that is probably 6 feet 8 inches and has to be a 320+ pounder.... just keep telling yourself, "slow and will be tired after one quarter" when you look at them.

On defense, Georgetown is on average about the Mule-D's size, if maybe a bit larger, and they have appear to have very good and smart Defensive Backs. This is to be expected from a good 7-on-7 team. However, Seguin did move the ball against them both on the ground and in the air.

Also, remember that Georgetown was only a 5 win 5 loss team last year that did not even qualify for the play-offs. Despite providing our Mules its sole blemish to last season's win record, the Eagles have traditionally been only a so-so football team in their own 14-5A District. Take a look at this article:

http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/highschool/08/20/0820prepbox.html
In the above article, Georgetown is picked ranked 10th in Central Texas by the Austin Statesman Sports Staff.

Based on all that I have seen, I truly believe our Mules can DESTROY Georgetown if we play up to our capability... this will not likely be anywhere near the challenges last year's team faced during the State Play-offs. Georgetown is an improving ball club, but does not appear to yours truly to be a "great team." Our Mules can beat'em... endastory

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING NEW VARSITY PLAYERS

In addition to last weeks move-ups, the following Mule Players were moved up to Varsity following our scrimmage with MacArthur:

#44 Stewart Korde, Junior, Defensive End
#57 Chase Munster, Junior, Defensive Lineman
#32 Rich Garza, Junior, Linebacker
#65 Rory Godley, Junior, Defensive Lineman
#11 Cullen Mills, Sophomore, Quarterback
#26 Tyler Marshall, Junior, Wide Receiver

Congratulations to all the above!!!

OTHER NEWS

Looking at recent Mule Quarterback grads, Alamo Heights might become known as the Future College Quarterback Kingdom.

Mule QB product Chase Clement, starting Rice University QB, is on the Davey O'Brien "Watch List" the end-of-season award for the best college quarterback:

http://www.daveyobrien.com/Pages/PressRelease-07_WatchList.htm

And, any serious Mule Fan might like to keep their eye on the Oklahoma University (OU) and University of North Texas (UNT) game this coming Saturday, September 1st, 6:10 PM, being shown on Fox Sports Network, that is taking place in Norman, OK, to watch Mule QB product Giovanni Vizza, at present UNT's #2 QB option for the OU game, to watch Gio get some serious playing time:

http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=9058&SPID=562&DB_OEM_ID=1800&ATCLID=1178782

I have it from a very reliable source that Gio has a very high probability to get, again, "serious playing time" during this game.

All for now Mule Fans!

GO MULES!!!!

Howdy Mule Fans!!!!

Don't forget about the Fall Kick-Off Picnic on August 29th, 2007. For complete details scroll down to the top of previous posting (at the bottom of this posting).

PRE-SEASON WEEK TWO REPORT - CLEMENS SCRIMMAGE

Our beloved Mules scrimmaged Samuel Clemens High School at Harry B. Orem Stadium of Alamo Heights this past Saturday, August 18th. I submit that the Varsity Football Team performed perhaps better than expected on Defense (e.g., our Defense absolutely shut down Clemens' Offensive Unit), and that our Offense appeared to be "maturing on an acceptable and expected pace" as reported by Head Coach Don Byrd at the Varsity Football Dinner on the evening following the scrimmage.

Clemens runs an Offense that uses a running game to open up the passing game. The Buffaloes' First Team Offensive Unit never scored against the Mules' First Team Defensive Unit. In roughly 40 First Team Offensive plays I estimate that Clemens achieved only two or three first downs. I mean, our Defensive Unit SMACKED DOWN Clemens.

Here are some Defensive shots that capture the Defensive Unit-wide spirit of achievement of this past Saturday.

Mules Team Captain, Jacob Aguirre, Defensive End takes down Clemens' QB.

Linebacker, Beau Wilson, a Junior, shown here wearing Jersey Number 17 for the scrimmage breaking out of the huddle with other Defensive Starters, had a "stand-out performance day" seemingly in the middle of just about every other defensive play, making a number of solo tackles, and also caused a fumble.

Defensive Lineman, Chris Layne, a Senior, demonstrates in this pic why I gave him the nick name "Big Stick." Clemens Running Back goes doooowwwwwwn after getting hit by our Big Stick! YA MUN!

Relative to the Mules' Offensive Unit, we moved the ball at times, but did suffer from early season timing issues at points. The consensus amongst the football dad's was that our Offensive squad's efforts were consistent with last year's first offensive scrimmage performance by our State Champion Football Team... we did some things well, but need to work on our timing. Another scrimmage and two more weeks of football practice before our first game against Georgetown should help us unleash the powerhouse offense us ardent fans are confident will strongly begin coming to the forefront by the start of the first game.

Here are some Offensive Unit shots.

Team Captain, Cody Courtney, breaks the First Team Varsity Offense from the huddle operating at the QB position.

Running Back, Sergio Acosta, a Junior, makes a nice open field move on a Clemens Defender.

Team Captain and Wide Receiver, Bobby Broadnax, catches a TD pass from Drew Allen.

Bobby Broadnax breaks a couple of tackles to run it home for the TD! Get used to this shot, because it is likely one that will be repeated many times this season.

Junior Quarterback, Drew Allen, shows his 4.6 second 40-speed on a roll-out.

In summary, our young men comported themselves well during the scrimmage against a Clemens team that was ranked by the Express News as the Pre-Season #7 Sub-5A Football Team in the Region. Note, that the same article had Alamo Heights ranked #2 Sub-5A behind the #1 Sub-5A New Braunfels Unicorns.

EXPRESS NEWS PRE-SEASON RANKINGS ANALYSIS, SUNDAY AUGUST 19 NEWSPAPER, SECTION M, 2007 FOOTBALL HIGH SCHOOLS

While ranking our reigning 4A Division I State Champion Football Team as the #2 Sub-5A in their readership area, I suppose the Express News Sports Staff looked at the how many Seniors we lost from last year's team, and then looked at the fact that the New Braunfels Unicorns have a very good All-District QB, in the form of Ryan Perez, returning to lead his team's offense, as well as, 5 other offensive and 4 defensive returning starters, as compared to our 3 returning "O" and 3 returning "D" starting players. This element, combined with the solid play New Braunfels gave us last year during the State Play-Offs gives an air of logic to the Express News Sport Staff's pre-season ranking of our beloved Mules.

HOWEVER, I believe we will very quickly show the Express News Sports Staff that their logic may have been faulty should we beat 7-0n-7 State Champion Georgetown in their own backyard at the first game of the season. This will simply be a HUGE WIN for our Mules should we prevail.

Here is the Express News complete Sub-5A Pre-Season Rankings:

1. New Braunfels, District 26-4A

2. Alamo Heights, District 27-4A

3. N.B. Canyon, District 26-4A

4. Kerrville Tivy, District 27-4A

5. Boerne, District 27-4A

6. Brackenridge, District 28-4A

7. Clemens, District 26-4A

8. South San, District 29-4A

9. Sam Houston, District 28-4A

10. Pleasonton, District 27-3A

Now, also take a gooooooooooooood look at where our very ownest own conference foe Kerrville Tivy stands in the above listing. This will be our last game of the regular season AT KERRVILLE. Kerrville has 7 returning offensive starters and 9 (that is right, 9 out of 11) returning defensive starters. cough, ahum. The returning Antlers include 6 foot 4 inch, 190 lbs, QB Colton Palmer and 6 foot 2 inch, 210 lbs, All-Area/All-District Linebacker Kyle Prater. Anyone doubt that this game will be very un-cake-walk-like? I did not think so.....

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING NEW VARSITY MULE PLAYERS

Following our scrimmage with Clemens the following players were moved up to Varsity:

#25 John Cabell, Sophomore, Wide Receiver

#40 A.J. Lewis, Junior, Running Back/Linebacker

#59 Kody Bowen, Sophomore, Defensive Lineman

#79 Forrest Hagar, Sophomore, Offensive Lineman

#80 Trevor Lovelady, Sophomore, Wide Receiver

Congratulations to all the Mules above!

VARSITY DINNER

On the evening of Sunday, August 19th, the Varsity Players and their families were treated to some Southern Hospitality by Bob and Pam Broadnax who volunteered their beautiful home in Terrill Hills to host this year's Varsity Dinner. The event primarily took place "pool side" in the multi-terraced backyard of "Casa Broadnax." The terracing of Bob and Pam's place made this truly perfect venue as it was easy for all diners to see all the speakers and our boys.

Here is a Casa Broadnax backyard hillside photo of our Varsity Football Mules as joined by the terrifically talented Varsity Cheerleading Squad:

I am biased, but are not these all handsome young people!

That some of which, OF COURSE, had to get into the pool in their street clothes!

OTHER NEWS

I think everyone should keep their eyes and ears open for some likely college football season accolades former Mule Football Player Patrick Bailey who is entering his Senior Year at Duke University. Patrick is the son of Mickey and Linda Bailey. Mr. Bailey is head of the Math Department at Alamo Heights High School who lavishes his prodigious teaching skills and TLC on our students. Colonel Linda Bailey, USAF, I am proud to report, is a fellow alum with yours truly of the USAF Academy, that CONTINUES to serve our Country. THIS IS AN INCREDIBLE FAMILY.

Patrick has been the starting Defensive End at Duke since his Freshman Year (I MEAN HE STARTED AS A TRUE FRESHMAN!), likely resulting in his being a 4-year Varsity Letterman. Significantly, Patrick carries a 3.2+ Grade Point Average in Electrical and Computer Engineering at one of the top ranked academic universities in the Nation. Please see this link:

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=22667&SPID=1843&DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=157288&Q_SEASON=2007

Be sure to thank Mr. Bailey for his service to our Community, his wife, Colonel Bailey for her service to our Nation, and shake Patrick's hand when you see him for being an inspiration both on- and off-the-field for our young people.

2006 4A Division I State Champ Offensive Lineman and former Mule Football Player Connor Cook has played well enough to make Angelo State's published Team Roster. Please click on the following link and then scroll down to Connor's Jersey Number 75:

http://www.angelosports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=12200&KEY=&SPID=5085&SPSID=50605

For those former Mules that are out-of-town, here is a picture of our new press box... note, that there will be a large "2006 4A Division I State Football Champions" sign at the top of the press box that has yet to be added. Unlike much of the new construction at the High School which is being done by professional contractors, this structure was constructed under the care of Alamo Heights School District Mike Hagar (proud papa of #75 Forrest Hagar) and the Alamo Heights ISD Maintenance Staff.

The Mule Fan website is pleased and thankful to have the photographic support of Mary Candee at Dulce Design Photography who makes the bulk of wonderful photos our site presents available to us. There are many more of the photos that Mary takes from Alamo Heights sporting, school and community events that can be viewed and easily purchased online at http://www.dulcedesigns.photoreflect.com/. Also, please feel free to call Mary to support any of your personal events at (210) 821-5229. Mary Candee is a standout person in our community, so please support her business!

GO MULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Howdy Mule Fans!!!!!! HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL IS HERE!!!!

First this important news:

FALL KICK-OFF PICNIC

Date: Wednesday, August 29th, 2007
Place: High School/Harry B. Orem Stadium
Time: 4:00-5:00 PM Football and Volleyball Practice
5:00-7:00 PM Bar-B-Q Dinner/Enjoy a Performance of our H.S. Band & Introductions

Kick-off the 2007 Season! Come out and support the players, meet the coaches, leaders and families of this year's sports teams, band and spirit groups. Let's build community spirit for the upcoming season!

Bar-B-Q Dinner Plates are $6.00 per plate and tickets can be purchased at the picnic. Dinner plate proceeds go towards the direct cost of the event.

SPONSORS ARE NEEDED AND WILL RECEIVE BANNER RECOGNITION AT ALL HOME FOOTBALL GAMES. If you would like to become a sponsor please send a check for $200.00 (or More) PAYABLE to: "The Mule Team" and return to: Brent Marshall @ 505 Terrell Road, San Antonio, Texas 78209. Names on banner will be the name printed on the check unless otherwise noted. Should a sponsor choose to designate their contribution to a particular team or school organization please note that team or organization on the check. Any undesignated contributions will go into the athletic fund and used at the discretion of the athletic director. Checks need to be received by August 24th for banner recognition. Non-Sponsorship donations are appreciated and welcomed.

To help the event organizers to plan for enough food, please indicate to your coaches or group leaders before August 27th, 2007, via written communication how many family members will be attending. A flier is in distribution, but if you do not see a flier turn up very soon, please feel free to communicate with your most logical contact point as to your head count.

PRE-SEASON WEEK ONE REPORT

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaallll righty gang... here is "da plan" for reporting this year. I am going to make every effort to have a report ready each week this season by Monday evening (could be very late Monday evening) for posting on the previous week's football endeavors. So, herewith is Alamo Heights Mule Football Pre-Season Week One Report.

This week started with equipment issue on Monday and practice to follow. Players practiced in helmets, T-shirts and shorts from Monday through Thursday for "Two-a-day-practices" from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

Friday, was "HIT-DAY" as our beloved Mules donned pads for the first time this season... and there was some serious up-close-and-personal-hitting going down on that football field, aahuh aahuh, as yours truly (with some other Mule-Dad misfits) could not help ourselves to stray from our work desks into the stands.

For those that might be checking up on Mule Football without an active player in your close-in midst, as is the tradition here at Alamo Heights, the Varsity and J.V. practiced together, as they do all season long. This is a WONDERFUL tradition, as it sets a tone of continuity as players progress in skill from J.V. to Varsity, and keeps the more experienced players in position to help younger players along. It REALLY WORKS!

As a matter of fact, this reporter asked our Defensive Coordinator, Coach Bobby Newton, for a quotable quote at the end of the 1st week of practice, which was provided as follows:

"I think we have gotten off to a terrific start thanks to our more experienced players stepping in to provide the leadership needed to help our less experienced players quickly begin to adjust to the demands of their respective skill positions. I look forward to this kind of team work throughout the season, it is one of the attributes that makes Alamo Heights Football so special... our older players truly trying to HELP the upcoming athletes."
Coach Bobby Newton, Defensive Coordinator

I think the general consensus of the football dads that watched the first week of practice was that our Defense looked fast and athletic, and that our Offense appeared to continue the tradition of having multitude of receivers that can CATCH THE BALL with incredible skill and grace. I MEAN IT! This team can CATCH.

It should be a very exciting year with this much Defensive and Offensive talent in Mule Football Uniforms!

OTHER NEWS

Some updates on other former Mule Football Players:

To gasp the quick progress 2007 AHHS Graduate Gio Vizza appears to be making up the Quarterback depth chart at University of North Texas (UNT) see:

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/sports/stories/DRC_UNT_Scrimmage_0812.2641ff05.html

If you would like to see the welcome news that 2007 AHHS Graduate Colton Haverda has made the 105 player roster at Texas A&M University following summer practice and has AN AGGIE JERSEY NUMBER at Running Back see:

http://www.aggieathletics.com/bios.php?SID=MFB&PID=8080&YOS=2007

For the latest Houston Chronicle News Article on Alamo Heights product Chase Clement, a Red Shirt Junior Quarterback at Rice University see:

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/college/5029268.html

GO MULES!!!