Hondo's Charge

Geneseo week always ends up one of the biggest weeks of the year. Sterling and Geneseo have been rivals for over 50 years. When Sterling and Geneseo first starting playing each other, Sterling was getting blown out and Geneseo was winning state. As the years went on though, Sterling has slowly creeped up on them and are now competing with them and beating them more times than not. This year is no different. Geneseo is going to be excited just because it is a conference game and whoever wins will most likely be coference champions. Also, they are going to be even more excited because it is their senior night. There is going to be a lot of alumnis from both teams at the game that will be cheering on their team. Both teams play smash mouth football and don't try to trick the other team.

This game was no different then any other year. Both teams battled and play until the last whistle. This difference from this game and the games in the beginning of the series is that we (Sterling) won. We now win the all time series of 25-21. Everybody had a good game and our offense was unstoppable once again. We did not do a very good job as a team of finishing the game and we let them stay in the game when we could have finished it by stopping the offense and scoring more points. I had a good offensive game but i did bad on defense although i had two tackles for losses and a quarterback sack. Also, I had a blocked field goal. My offensive game is where i stood out this game. I rushed for 217 yards on 15 rush attempts. I will be on the single game rushing record list with many other great running backs, the most recent one was Corey Judd whom i tied his record.

The newspaper that came out the next day and I was so excited to see what they were going to say. I opened up the sports section and I saw a picture of me running the ball on the front. Along with the picture I saw the heading that read HONDO'S CHARGE. Hmm.. that is weird considering my nickname is JAndo not HOndo. I saw this and immedietly laughed and showed my parents who started laughing too. I do not know if they meant to do this on purpose or if they really did just spell my nickname wrong.

Either way, I had a  good game and i rushed for over 200 hundred yards. I do not really care if they spelled my name wrong even though people have told me to complain to them. I am sure they will figure it out sooner or later. The only thing that matters is that we BEAT Geneseo!!!

Sycamore who?

This was the game that i have been waiting for the whole year. The one that was a redemption game for not only me but for the whole Sterling varsity football program. Last year, we lost to them with a score of 30-5. We were both ranked number one in 5a and we both had an undefeated record going into that game. What that meant was that the team that came out with a win would remain as the top seed and the loser would drop in rankings. We lost and it was the changing point in the season last year.

This year was a little bit different going into the game. Sycamore was ranked the in 5a with an undefeated record and we werent even in the top ten in rankings. We also had a 3-1 record. If you would have went based off of last year and picked the winner of this years game, then you surely would have picked Sycamore. But, and the reason that i love football, it does not matter what your team did the last year or even the last week. You can not win a game with just an undefeated record. Every game, even every play, can determine the outcome of the game and even the season. It is the team that comes out and competes every single down and never gives up. We were the underdogs of this game which is a good feeling. It is a good feeling because this means that no one believes in you or gives you credit and it is nice being able to prove those people wrong. That is exactly what we did on Friday night. I think we won this game though starting Monday. This whole week every single person was focused and knew that we could win. Also, i felt that we were more prepared than any other week thanks to the coaches.

The game went into overtime and we pulled it off with a score of 34-27. This was the most excited that I have seen the coaches the whole time i have been on varsity. Also, this is the most excited that i have seen the players. This win is exactly what we needed to gain our respect from others and to gain confidence within ourselves to show us that rankings do not matter and that we can beat anyone that we play.

Sycamore WHO?

PBnJ!!

Today is the big day. I wake up at 8:00 in the morning, jump in the shower and get dressed. I throw on some my plain blue basketball shorts and my yellow Homer Musgrove t-shirt on. I put on my old black running shoes on and head downstairs for my manly breakfast, Cocoa Pebbles. After i am done with my 3rd bowl i am ready to tackle whatever comes my way.

I strike a look at time again and it reads 8:25. It's time for me to get going to the race. I hop into my mom's minivan as she drops me off at Thomas Park. I look around for my fellow teammates and I spot Nathan Blackburn. Then i spot Patrick Petrosky pulling up in his green minivan with our 7 foot long beast of a boat in the back of his van. We immediately go to the back and open up the trunk as me, Patrick and Branden release the monster and set it on the tarp that Nathan just laid out. As we look around and scope out the competition, we see boats that look like possible contenders but we have confidence in our boat. Most of the other teams went with the fancy route and decided that looks will win them this race. With our boat, we focused on stability and construction.

We see Mrs. Gatz as she is walking around checking for boats that do not follow the rules. She reaches our boat as we greet her with a unanimous "HAPPY BIRTHDAY", because of course, it’s her birthday today. As she realizes that our boat is decked out with birthday decorations just for her, a huge smile comes across her face and that is when we realized we are one step closer to sucking up and getting that A! After that, we put our party hats on and we put on beads and pull out some noise makers. We are in heat one so we hurriedly take our boat to the start line as we check for last minute problems.

Then, at a moment’s notice, we hear Mrs. Gatz voice over a megaphone that projects over the pond and says "ON YOUR MARKS, GET SET, GO!" As we hear this we rush to the water and Branden and Nathan get in and Patrick and I stand and push the boat into the foot and a half deep of a pond. They take off with good start and are neck and neck with the Swamp People team. Me and Patrick sprint to the finish line and start our cheering and using our noise makers.

We unfortunately got caught up in the mud as Swamp People beat us by 7 seconds and we take 2nd in the first heat. The other 3 heats go by and we hold our 2nd place time with some close races. This is good for automatic 45/50 points so we take this with honor. Our team, Patrick, Branden, Nathan and Jando, otherwise known as team PBnJ now truly believe in the statement, "first the worst, second the best!"

Destroy Dekalb

Homecoming week is full of school spirit, cheering, dancing, the bonfire, the powderpuff game, the parade and the most important... the football game. Coach King told us at the beginning of the week that the most important part of homecoming week is that we win the football game. I believe this is 100% true. The football game "makes" the homecoming dance and makes the rest of the weekend fun.

We play the Dekalb Barbs on friday and i can not wait. If we win this game, we will be the only team on the west side of the NIB 12 conference to have beaten a team from the east side. Also, if we beat them, our record will move to 3-1. This will be huge because the next 4 games that we have are all away so we need to have some good momentum. The next game is going to be one of the toughest games of the season i think. We will be playing Sycamore which is another team from the west side of the confrerence. Winning that game will be another huge win. We can not be worrying about that game though until we beat Dekalb!

On Thursday after our team dinner, me and 4 other people went over Connor Sisson's house where we spray painted an old beat up car that was donated to the football team so we can beat it up even more during the parade. We spray painted Dekalb on the sides and wrote homeoming 2011 on the hood with orange, black, and white. The paint job that we put on the car looks really good and its a shame that we had to beat the car with sledge hammers, and baseball bats. Oh well.. we destroyed dekalb just without the sledge hammers and bats. The parade was fun hearing people that are along the sides of the streets cheering for you and seeing the little kids eyes light up when they see the football float; their eyes getting even brighter when they see candy coming their way.

We easily destroyed Dekalb with a score of 40-26. I got player of the game with 110 rushing yards, one sack, two blocked extra points and 10 tackles. This definitely made the weekend fun and something that especially made my weekend even better was that Newman lost!

Always Compete!

Always Compete

Two simple words separated can have little meaning and be unimportant. However, when you put these words together it gives detail and important. Two simple words such as “always” and “compete” can be boring all by themselves. Webster’s dictionary defines “always” as: at all times; ever; continually. This meaning does not give us any subject about what is “always”. Is someone always walking, always talking, or always singing in the shower? Webster defines “compete” as: to contend emulously; to seek or strive for the same thing, position, or reward for which another is striving; to contend in rivalry, as for a prize or in business. Once again though, what or who is competing, and when?

            When you put these two words together you understand the subject of what someone is talking about. “Always compete” is as pretty strong statement. This means that you have to compete 24/7, 365 days out of a year, for the rest of your life. That’s pretty tough.

            Coach King constantly yells at us and tells us that we need to always compete. He explains that we need to always compete in whatever we do, whether it is in a sport, classroom, job, video game, or life in general. If we do this, we will be successful. Although this is near impossible to compete every second for your whole entire life, if you always keep this motto in the back of your head and strive to be the best at whatever it is that you are doing, then you will prosper.

            Our first football game we did not compete every down and we could see that when we watched film. This is why we lost. Last week at practice the coaches made us do drill after drill and forced us to compete every drill from whistle to whistle. We finally got the memo to say the least. I believe that this is why we won our game on Saturday against Chicago Curie is because everyone competed every single down and knew what it took to win the game.

            “Always compete”. These two words mean very little apart but when they are reunited, make sure you are ready to work and strive for the best and success.