JabberJuls

How disappointing to find out how High School Football really works!

This year the kids have to pay over $600 each to go to football camp taking place in Hawaii. As far as we’ve been informed, there is nothing available local for the kids to go to if they can’t make the Hawaii trip. Yes, this is a wonderful opportunity…but get real. If you have more than one student participating in the sport…you need to either be wealthy or have to take out a mini-loan just for your kids to participate.

After having both sons participate last year, I’ve come to find out its really a scam to actually think you’re part of something. We not only paid nearly $2,000 plus between the two kids, but our youngest didn’t even get a letter for participating the whole season. They don’t cut kids from the team any more… for one. On top of that, the football program not only gets quite a bit of money from you, but the coach doesn’t even have to play your child at all. Especially if he gets an itch up his xxxx and chooses not to.

Okay, we all agree that if you have talent you should be able to get the coach’s attention to play. To my dismay, that’s not the case. The coach has his favorites and plays them until they get injured and then you might get a chance to play…if he feels like it. Both my boys have talent and did get chances to show it and even get called out on the loud speaker a few time for what they did. Even though they always guarded their spot well and even made some awesome take downs for the team…it didn’t matter to the coach. His favorites got worn out and a few of them hurt badly even when the team was so far ahead anyone could have played at that point.
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Well, the El Capitan Varsity Football Team is 11-1! Great Football season. They were undefeated all year long, won the 1st CIF playoff game, and lost the final playoff game, which ended the season.

I feel there were several factors why El Cap lost the game last night:
(1) several important 1st string players being injured,
(2) bad calls by the refs (especially the ridiculous (2) SIDELINE penalties and face mask penalty not being called on St. Augustine, and a few other questionnable calls),
(3) Players were injured or just off some: like Holz just being off and not catching or keeping possession of the ball during a pass to him and Ben Wilkins being hurt part way through the game. AJ Conti was awesome, but had a couple moments himself.

The boys were great, considering all the challenges they faced. They should be extremely PROUD to have maintained an undefeated season and just making it to CIF. Excellent accomplishment for sure!!!! We’re Proud of the El Cap Players for staying focused and motivated to make it as far as they did!!!

Tim was pretty much put out of the games as of last week during practice. His knee was injured about 3 weeks ago during practice. The coach had decided to run some plays with Tim in the Running Back position instead of his normal special teams or safety position…and boom his knee was taken out during a major tackle and pile-up. Well, Tim briefly mentioned the injury to us and had continued playing during practice being injured. Finally last week, after another injury to the knee during practice the Sports Medic of the team evaluated his knee and felt he tore his menescus, which is critical. We were asked to have him xrayed and checked out.

So after having his examinination by Kaiser’s Sports Medicine Doctor today, he feels Tim definitely has a seriously bruised femar bone near the knee cap and could possibly have a torn menescus. He ordered an MRI which will take another 7-10 days to get to…basically to confirm the bruised bone and to get a good look at the menescus to see if anything is going on with it. That will then determine how long Tim will have to stay off of his leg. Right now as it stands…he is no longer to use ibuprofen to mask the pain and be tempted to walk on it. He needs to use crutches to get around for another 6-8 weeks right now. If the MRI shows a tear in the menescus, he will have to stay off his leg for up to 3 to 6 months or longer. If he walks on it, he takes a chance of the bone to split off in his knee area and cause other problems. Not a good thing. Pretty hard for a teenager to do, but there’s not much of a better alternative at this point. I just pray the menescus is in tact and the bone bruise heals quickly and strongly. I’m just thankful the injuries weren’t worse.

Tim’s football team has won their last game against Grossmont High School and are now ranked 10-0! This has been a big accomplishment for the El Cap Football Team. Unfortunately, the coach was out for the win and didn’t want to take any chances of losing during this close and tight game. So Tim wasn’t put in at all. Why? I’m not sure. Each time the coach has put Tim on the Special Teams position he’s tackled the Receiver before the 15-20 yard line. At the last game prior to this, Tim was put into the game in the last 9 minutes covering the Safety position and made a Huge tackle instantly and helped keep the opposing team between the 5 yard line and Goal. Not sure why the coach is determined to play mostly 1st string players for the whole game and a few of those players have been playing both offense and defense. A few of our top players have been seriously hurt because they’ve played through the game, even when El Cap was leading tremendously. With so many kids on the team…you’d think he’d train others to be effective backups and try to continously rotate them in to give them the practice and experience of playing too. Well, I guess its not about playing all the kids….it’s about Winning the Game. This sport has been a real eye opener for me, compared to Wrestling and I’ll share my comparison once the Playoffs are done. From what I’ve been told, There are 2 playoff Games and then the Final CIF Championship Game is at the Statdium. So keep your fingers crossed for El Cap to be able to go to the Championship Game this year. Wouldn’t that be Awesome!!!!

Have to high five the coach for taking all the boys out to a Special dinner last night to acknowledge their hard work and accomplishment this year. It meant a lot to Tim and I’m sure the other team players too.

El Cap won 44 to 12. They are now 9 – 0. Tim got to play in the last 10 minutes of the game and made a “Huge Takedown by #15 Vaqueros Player…Timmmmmmmm Wittttmannnnnnn” said the announcer. 2nd time Tim has been announced. He also stopped the opposing team at the 2 yard line. They stopped sending their guy Tim’s way and went to the far left and made it in. It made Tim’s night to be able to play.

Since it was Senior Night, the parents of the Senior players had to go onto the field to be acknowledged by their son and Tim had to write up a sweet thank you remark. His wrote something like this,”I want to thank my parents for supporting me in football this year. Love from you favorite right-center sideline benchwarmer.” He got some laughs, but the coach wasn’t impressed. We went to Bollweevil to meet up with the other players after the game and got Tim a special meal for the night. We had a great family time together.

One of the Team Leaders from our church “Journey” named Dana came with her God daughter to watch Tim play in the game. I guess Tim & Luke invited her out and she decided to take them up on it. She said she might even make it to the next game to support the team. Tim & Luke thought that was pretty great to see her there.

Tim’s team is now 8 – 0. The whole team has decided to wear the mohawk style haircut to show school spirit. They look strange, but hair grows back right!

Must view Tim’s latest football photos in the gallery. These photos are from last weeks game at SFC. The most interesting thing about this game is Tim’s team was getting creamed the 1st half of the game. Notice the scoreboard photo in the gallery. Half-time ended at 28 to 7, El Cap losing. When they came back from the Half-time break, something sparked for El Cap. They scored 3 touchdowns in 6 minutes time, which brought them back into the game. The other team was in shock and struggling to fight back. They missed their extra point, which ended up costing them the game at the end. El Cap WON 35 to 34, only a 1-pt. lead. The local news announced this comeback as the greatest High School comeback in over 8 years.

Tim is finally feeling part of the team. Sitting the sidelines the past 4 games was a real struggle, not knowing if he’d ever get a chance to play. He’s been working hard at the practices and trying to earn a chance to play, since it’s only his first year playing Varsity football. In his freshman to Junior years, he Wrestled for El Cap’s Varsity Team. This year being a Senior didn’t matter, Tim had to earn a spot. He finally got his chance today. Tim took down the opposing team before the 20 yd. line two times in a row and couple other times as well. Coach was finally impressed and Tim’s got a spot. So far the team sits at 5 – 0 and is breaking several records. Smartest football team holding 3.0 average for all players and
If they win today’s game, it’s been over 47years since that’s happened to go 6-0.
UPDATE: THEY WON THE GAME…48 TO 21 EL CAPITAN WINS!!! 6-0

Well, Luke (#47) played today against Steele Canyon High School. Luke was selected as the Defensive Captain at the beginning of the game. He was excited and was proud to be out there for the coin toss. The game started out good. Luke and the defensive team stopped the play. Until the offensive team let a man get through and took the ball on down for a touchdown almost right away. Luke got back out there and held them back as good as he could, but to no avail the other team just pounded them back to win the game. El cap’s Freshman Team didn’t have a chance with the offensive team turning over the balls and just not able to get through the other team to score.

Check out the latest photos of Luke in the Gallery.

September 1, 2006 was Tim’s first official football game. El Cap vs. Serra. El Cap creamed them hands down. The score was 49 to 14. I was really impressed with the turn out for the 1st Home game; the stadium was full. Tim was put in for special teams. At the kickoff, he was right there — finalizing the hits that helped end the plays. Tim’s quick!

Tim played his 1st football game on Saturday. Since he was slightly injured in practice the following week, the coach put him in sparingly this game. Dad and Mom come over to our house early for lunch. Mom and I went shopping together and spent the day together while the guys went to the football game. Checkout the photos of Dad, Russ, and Luke in the stands and Tim on the field

Mom and I had a great time being looky-lous. The Lord blessed us with some fun items. Mom found a beautiful tall, China tea pot. It is gold trimmed and has a blue, pink roses print, and best of all the perfect price that you couldn’t pass by. We also found some unique dessert cups that were shaped like opened flowers with a slight pedastool, again at a price you couldn’t pass by. Mom and I struggled with deciding what would be simple enough to throw together for dinner when the guys got back from the game. We decided to browse through our newly remodeled “Harvest Market” store to see what they had. We saw the beef shiskabobs and knew right then that was what we’d have. So we had the table all set, salad prepared, and the kabobs ready to be grilled. Everything pulled together nicely. Another beautiful day that the Lord had made.

Well, Luke has fractured his right wrist. Luckily it was in the growth plate which heals quickly. So he’ll be casted from anywhere between 3 to 4 weeks. Just in time for the 2nd game of the season. He continues to suit up and hopes the coaches will put him in forgetting about his cast. His coach decided to have him come to practice without his pads until the cast comes off. So they don’t forget. They realize Luke is dedicated to the team and get a kick out of his perseverence.

Tim is doing great! He got his first major hit by 3 guys in practice that knocked the wind right out of him on Thursday. He was on concussion watch for the night, but didn’t show any signs of that being the case. He was completely aware of his surroundings and was calculating what went wrong and making plans on how to avoid that situation. He woke up the next morning feeling great. Thank the Lord!

I hate seeing the boys get hurt. I realize this has been one of Luke and Tim’s dreams since they’ve been little boys. So here’s their chances to play and see what it’s all about. We’ll see what the Lord’s plans are for their lives. Keep them in prayer for protection on and off the field as we go through this sport season. The season has only just begun.

I’ll be putting photos up here soon. The team just took pictures yesterday, so hopefully we’ll get photos within the next month.