by Jason Strunk
Lubbock High School Head Football Coach
Follow @WestTXCoach
All I can say is this: the effort we received on Friday night is the effort we need every time out. This was the new Westerner Way. The way we have been trying to instill for three years. We got it on Friday night. We came up short, as you do in life sometimes but we left it all on the field!
Dumas came out on top, 36-32. Well played game by both teams. It was a nail-biter. LHS had the ball on the Dumas twenty three yard line with five seconds left in the game. QB James Garcia threw a fade into the left corner of the end zone to Jacob Bayouth. The ball came down and hit Bayouth in the left arm/shoulder just as the defender swatted the ball. It bounced to the turf and Dumas gets the win.
Everything I wanted to see from this team I saw, sans the win. We fought. We played tough. The defense stiffened up. We played with effort. Like I said, if they give me that every week, we are going to be alright!
PLAYMAKERS
DeVante Greathouse – 12 rec. 133 yards, 1 TD.
Dae Dae Morgan – 15 car. 67 yards, 2 TD’s.
Steven Duke – 14 tackles and caught a 4 yard TD pass.
Tony Garcia – 1 sack and 6 tackles.
THIS ONE HURTS
So far this season, we have lost key players to injury. QB James Garcia went out during week one. Jordan High, 6’5″ WR broke his collar bone in week two. Week three? Yeah, you guessed it. Another injury, this time the season ending variety.
Captain, All-District WR, Alex Loredo went down at Dumas with what we thought was a tweaked knee. An MRI today showed it is far worse than a tweak. Alex tore his ACL and will miss the remainder of the season.
Alex is the epitome of what we do here at LHS. He works from 2:00 a.m until 7:00 a.m. pouring concrete for his father. Once he is done he goes to school. He is at football practice twice a day and leaves Chapman field around 7:30 p.m. Once home, Alex does his school work and takes care of his infant daughter. He is probably in bed around 10:00 p.m. every night. Four hours of sleep and he is up to repeat his day.
He is a great kid. Tremendous kid. He told me today he wants to be a coach because of what we have done for him. He was in tears. It was one of the toughest moments in my career. But in the end it was the kid consoling the coach, as is often the case here.
I’m not sure why this happened to Alex or to any of our players. What I do know is we have them prepared for anything. Injury or football, these kids respond. Getting them ready for the real world is what matters. Alex lives in the real world every day. He will be fine. He will coach with us the rest of the year. Maybe, one day down the road, he will join my staff as a full time coach.
Gotta keep moving forward.
RANDOMNESS
– People who create fake Twitter accounts are cowards. Find something to do in life that is productive. Jealousy gets you nowhere.
– Yankees stink. Awful way to send Jeter out.
– Big news week in the NFL. Once people stop worshipping this league you may realize this goes on every single day in lives all across the country. It shouldn’t take pro athletes to create awareness on topics every day people encounter routinely.
– Cliches are not my thing. Unfortunately, this week has reminded that people cling to cliches instead of tackling topics head on with some honest dialogue. The society is becoming soft.
– At the end of the day, I am a football coach and proud of it.
– Hockey season starts soon; go Pens!
– I eat candy bars with a knife and fork. Figure it out.
That’s it. Cowards are lame. Football is real. Life carries on. Love who you are and remember to keep things in perspective.
FIO… Or be stuck in neutral for life.
