Mules 2014 Season Comes to Soggy End at Hands of Austin
LBJ 20-13
By
Bob Cohen, Senior Editor Still Drying Out
 |
| Just in case you think we're exaggerating about the rain! |
(San
Marcos)—Back in the 60’s and 70’s the Dallas Cowboys had a thing about wearing
their blue jerseys in playoff games as in “nothing good happened” when they
did, or not usually anyway. The editorial
staff of the Mule Fan is typically indifferent to superstition but perhaps is
just starting to get the heebie-jeebies about Bobcat Stadium and playoff
games. The Mules have been
eliminated from the playoffs in three of the last six seasons on that field
including the 2014-15 edition, which went down last Saturday afternoon to
Austin’s LBJ Jaguars 20-13 ending a fine season on a down note. Well heck, all the season-enders sting,
no matter what round.
 |
All
of Mule Nation knew that the weather was going to play into this one. And it did. It could have been worse in the first half. It could have been 36 degrees as one
fan in the stands put it. It
bucketed down rain for most of the fans on the commute up IH-35 and throughout
most of the first half. As
luck would have it, the rain let up for both bands at halftime. But it is fair
to say that the Mules football team was harder done by it. A slippery ball played a role in
putting the Mules behind 14-0 in the first half. The first Jaguar score was a result of a strip from the
hands of running back Tucker Azar, which Jaguar’s linebacker Ashton Williams
took for 45 yards to break the ice.
And later in the second period, with Mules on their own 26-yard line, the
football squirted out of the hands of Mules quarterback Dalton Banks in a
one-two combination initiated by a jarring hit from an LBJ defender and the
resulting scoop by linebacker Sam Oyewale who barged eight yards to the end zone
planting the Mules in a 14-0 hole under still darkened skies. That’s the way the scoreboard looked at
the end of the first half.
 |
| Photos courtesy of Mary Candee www.dulcedesigns.photreflect.com |
It
had been more than two months since Alamo Heights had even trailed in a game
let alone by two scores. This
time, in addition to a slippery slope to climb in bad weather, Austin LBJ threw
a net over the Mules passing game with defensive backs that seemed sewn on to
Heights receivers. Had there been
any sun to see, one wouldn’t have been able to see it in the space between Mule
receiver and Jaguar defender. This
issue caused visible timing issues with a Mules battery that feeds on reads and
timing routes. 
Coach Mike Norment has talked often
about taking what the defense gives it.
On Saturday, the Mules paid full retail for every yard on the ground and
in the air. There was no “give”
involved, best evidenced by the Mules first scoring drive of the game. Alamo Heights got on the board in the
fourth quarter when quarterback Dalton Banks finally succeeded in getting the
ball over the goal line from point blank range. But this was only after the Mules were stopped inches away
from the end zone on fourth down on the previous possession after several tries
to push the ball over. The Mules
gave the ball back to LBJ but forced a fumble on the first play of the drive and
made a huge recovery, then scored on the first play as Banks forced his will on
the Jaguars with a dive into the end zone.  |
| Photos courtesy of Mary Candee www.dulcedesigns.photreflect.com |
The next Alamo Heights touchdown
was also hard earned. Banks
connected with Cole Yoeman on a 15-yard pass over the middle, which Yoeman
bobbled but recaptured in the end zone to get the Mules to within a point of
the Jaguars. The goblins jumped
back on the Mules’ collective backs when Cameron Dawley missed the PAT leaving
the Mules still behind by one point.
 |
With the Mules back in business but
requiring a crucial defensive stop, LBJ sharpened up. Quarterback Avery Jackson
got to the outside of the Mules left side containment and raced 53 yards to the
north end zone. The Mules were
able to stop the run attempt for two, which froze the LBJ lead at seven.
With three minutes left and two
timeouts in their pockets, the Mules seemingly had a chance to let their
offense, which had begun to find its footing in the second half, get to work on
making a last run in a one possession game and by comparison, in “dryer”
conditions. This is where all of
the field length drives that the Mules had during the regular season would
surely come in handy. However, the
LBJ defense stayed on script and rose to the occasion one more time on this
soggy afternoon when safety Zae Giles laid out to pick off a Dalton Banks pass
attempt, ending the Mules 2014 hopes.
The stat sheet told the story in
two places. To begin with, Alamo
Heights won almost every category.
But it was known that to win, the LBJ running attack needed to be
stopped. For the most part, it was. The Jags went 189 yards in 44 carries and
threw the ball only six times. The
Mules defense made stop-after-stop.
But LBJ got in THE key lick on the last rushing TD from their
quarterback. The last 53 yards of
his 114-yard day were cyanide-laced and dictated the do-or-die nature of the
final Alamo Heights possession. In
actual fact though, the serrated-edged dagger to the Mules was that they lost
all four of their turnovers, two of which were for touchdowns. The one fumble that LBJ did lose was
crucial to the Mules as well and put them in a position to keep the pressure on. But the task, while tough under any
circumstances, becomes Herculean when the aquifer is in the “all you can eat”
mode.
The Mules finished their season
with an impressive 9-3 record but a quiet bus ride home would have definitely
told the story of the team’s disappointment with the second round exit. And so it goes in football. As one varsity dad pointed out after a
tearful hug from his senior son before boarding the bus for the unhappy trip
home, “somebody has to win and somebody has to lose.”
District 27-5A
Playoff Results
Cedar Park 49 Boerne Champion 27
Kerrville Tivy 35 Georgetown East View 17
Austin Vandergrift 42 Lockhart 13
Photos and a Message by Mary Candee
As you know, the Mule Fan blog struggles to make sense each
week. On our best days, we hope we
might entertain. Crucial to that effort is the photographic wizardry of one
Mary Candee, without whom you’d be subjected to crayon on butcher paper and
football stick figures from your editor.
That would hardly be up to scratch for the discriminating taste of the
citizens of Mule Nation. So each
week, Mary comes through with great shots, which are a “net add” to our efforts
and when you absolutely can’t stomach to drivel you’re reading, at least the
action shots are worth the price of admission. Thanks Mary, for completing
us. Please see the message below
directly from Mary Candee and her team.
Mule Fans,
It has been an honor and a privilege to capture all our
2014-15 Alamo Heights High School students this fall.
We have enjoyed capturing the fun, the effort and the
community as the students have all excelled throughout these years. Many
of you know we archive all of our photos. We hire our own students and we
give back to our community.
We know our students, our families, our community. For
those families who have signed up for your sons' file of photos from the season
- those will all be available for viewing by the middle of next week, around
December 3rd. From these file photos, your holiday selection will be an
easy - customized option, with plenty of time for holiday delivery.
Thank you again for the wonderful opportunity this fall.
Mules, be proud - it was a fun vibrant season!
Thank you,
Mary Candee & Jeff Weigel
Katie Weigel, Sean DeJong-Tinney
Alex Greenwood & Hannah Williams
Dulce Design Photography
Your Personal Photographers
Your Community Photographers
(210) 241-3112
The Final Canned
Ham
Traditionally, the pig gets this week off. But not in the land of the Mule Fan. To be accurate, it is true that the
Mayflower came loaded with pigrims. It just isn’t reported as
commonly. The swine was a stowaway
on that voyage to Pigmouth Rock.
Remember, the turkey was for lunch. What do you think they had for breakfast
that morning?? It wasn’t Pop Tarts. There was bacon for everyone. There were no canned hams in those days
because aluminum hadn’t been discovered.
Anyway, this week in celebration of appyhay anksgivingthay
(that’s pig latin), we dump out the cornucopia full of the pinkest turkey
around, to all the parents (especially the cadre of Mule Moms) who worked so
hard to make the season fun for everyone.
Arranging lunches, painting posters, booking busses, putting the program/rosters
together, ordering and selling merchandise, hosting tailgates, and on and on
and on. There’s no way to properly
say thanks for that awesome effort.
Hopefully a chunk of mouth-watering-preserved-in-natural-juices canned ham
will be seen as some kind of gesture that at least gets us part of the way
there.
How to Sum it All
Up??
When we get to this time of year, it is emotional to say the
least. As the collective Mule
Nation, there are so many people we want to thank. As the editorial staff of the Mule Fan goes into off-season
negotiations with the Grinch-like board of directors, there is always a chance
that we’ll be kicked to the curb or won’t be able to strike a deal with the
suited clowns called upper management for next season’s chronicles. We have
enjoyed bringing you this mish-mash of vowels and consonants and thank you for
paying the subscription. We hope you feel you got good value for money. We thank all the coaches and staff for
the access that they give us and for the information that they provide us. And we wish the seniors all the best as
they charge ahead into life.
Once again last Saturday, we watched players file out of the
Bobcat Stadium locker room before boarding busses, some in tears, and head over
to family members and girlfriends for a hug (and an occasional sob). The red eyes were mostly seniors
knowing in most cases that they’d played their last organized football game.
A few years ago, I penned a little piece, which some folks
have remembered and have asked if I would reprise. So it has now become somewhat of a tradition I suppose and
it still works I think. Consultation
with my agent raised some questions of royalties and copyrights and our ongoing
struggle with management. What’s
new about that? We’ll go for it.
First some context for those who don’t know what the heck
I’m talking about. This was originally written after the gut-wrenching
conclusion to the 2009 season coincidentally in the same danged stadium as last
week and last year for cryin’ out loud. This reporter’s oldest son had just
finished his senior season, in the state quarterfinals against Lake Travis, the eventual state
champion. It was the end of a
terrific and exciting season, a close game, and none of us were ready for it to
end. But end it did. Some of us
knew we would get another bite at the apple in a few years, including your
humble scribe. Others knew that
was it. Next chapter starts
now. While the piece was a
personal reflection, it was written thinking it would resonate with all parents
of seniors.
So remember that it has not been altered at all from that
original form. But these are new
eyes on the same emotions that many surely would have felt Saturday. Next year, I imagine I’ll do something
a bit different since I’ll be one of those senior parents putting a period on
the sentence. Hopefully that'll be about 56 weeks from now.
“The Drawer”
A Reflection by Bob Cohen
While looking in my son’s
closet for one of my shirts recently, I opened “the drawer”. Not “a” drawer. It
was “the” drawer. After a pause, the realization of what I was seeing hit
square. I’ll bet nearly everyone reading this has one of these drawers as well.
Folded up inside the drawer, or wadded up to be truthful, were pants, jerseys,
sweat bands, belts, 8 ½ inch long shin guards, mouth guards small enough to fit
a puppet, socks and more representing the game gear from a career in kid’s
sports.
How is it possible that my
oldest son has played his last game? All the 8:00 am Saturday soccer games, the
nights at the Little League fields, spring afternoons in the batting cage, the
weekday fall afternoons watching football practice and then finally those
indescribably wonderful Friday nights under the lights in all those stadiums in
all those places. Poof-over! Only the intramural fields await but I won’t see
any of those contests, not without causing nearly irreparable embarrassment anyway.
Obviously this is a moment
that is typically reserved for the parent of a senior, or at least a senior
that isn’t moving on to the next level of organized athletics. But most of us
are having our own little moments like this right about now. While I watched it
all wind down last Friday night in that cold stadium in San Marcos, I struggled
hard to put a period on the sentence. Can you be ready for that moment? Those
were hard yards…
I stood there silently with
all of the other dads, moms, grandparents and friends surrounded by my own
emotions and a teary wife. Mentally it felt like being yanked out of that stage
of my life into the next (with this kid anyway). I watched him kneeling down on
the goal line watching the other team's celebration and wondered what he was
thinking. Did he realize that he would probably never again experience the
feeling of “team and camaraderie” in quite the same way? Did he recognize that
he had shared an experience and a journey that he will always remember with
some guys with whom he will remain life-long friends and some with whom he will
lose touch? He’ll remember them all and that includes the coaches. It’s a
different memory than the one about the guy who sat next to you in biology.
From running up and down a
soccer field at the age of 6, right arm thrust in the air shouting
encouragement to teammates while staying as far away from the ball as one can
and still be in-bounds to the first year of pads and getting into a three point
stance that looked like something from a Three Stooges episode to locking up in
the biggest game of his life with a defensive lineman with a weight and height
advantage and probably a future of playing on Saturdays…these are the images
that will be etched in this parent’s memory.
There are people to thank
and I’ll leave some out but not mean to do so. You fill in the blanks with your
own list as you look into your drawer. Thanks to all the dads who coached him
early and gave positive encouragement and constructive criticism. Thanks to the
moms who cheered from the camp chairs on the sideline and who car-pooled to
practice and who went to Vivroux for the umpteenth time for another batting
glove or mouth guard. Wait a minute; come to think of it Vivroux should
probably thank me. There was enough merchandise in that one drawer to cover
their rent for a month! Thanks to the trainers and docs for keeping him patched
up especially for that all-important senior year. Thanks to all the parents and
grandparents and other dads for the camaraderie. These are kindred spirits
brought together for an experience that is naturally shared from the inside
out. To all those people who were sick of the football parents who could
seemingly talk about nothing else for four years, thanks for your
understanding. It will ease off now we promise. Thanks to the boys for all of
the time and effort spent making themselves the best players they could be and
for the priceless memories. Yes it sometimes was a hassle to tell us about
every syllable that was uttered by the coaches at halftime and after the game.
We’re not sorry. It was as close as we could come to a do-over. And finally,
thanks to the coaches at the junior high and high school. When we hand off to
you, you play a vital role. In my very ordinary high school sports career I had
a few good coaches and a few that were dreadful. I remember each of them. I
personally am grateful, and I know others are as well, for the experience,
skills, values, lessons and confidence that this Mules coaching staff imparted
to our kids from junior high on up.
If you haven’t done so yet,
approach “the drawer” with caution. Do it because you have to eventually cross
over. But give yourself a few minutes and reflect on the importance of the
moment. Don’t just open it and shut it like you would the one just above it.
Remember the hours in the backyard tossing the football or baseball, tackling
the guys in the hallway in their pajamas before bed, hauling the juice boxes
and donuts on your snack day, painting their helmets, throwing batting practice,
car-pooling to practice, playing H-O-R-S-E, and all the rest. Then close the
drawer. Maybe you can use the stuff for the younger brother. If this is truly
the end of it, I hope you soaked up every minute of this year and stored the
memory in its own special place. I did.
See you next season
Mule people. Happy Thanksgiving!
Go Mules!!!!
Fabulous Bobby!
ReplyDeleteCaledonia '85