The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 108, No. 48, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 26, 1998 Page: 2 of 36
thirty six pages : ill. ; page 19 x 13 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
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opinion
page
Football playoffs
By Jim Hudson, Publisher, The Perryton Herald
I HIS IS THE FIRST YEAR for the new football
I playoff system in classification 3A and it stinks.
Even though the Perryton Rangers made the
playoffs and are doing well, advancing to the regional
RECORD
INCORPORATED FEBRUARY 1998
USPS 087-960
P.O. Box 898, Canadian (Hemphill) Texas 79014
Fax #: (806)323-5738
E-mail address: lrbrown@well.com
BEN EZZELL Editor & Publisher 1948-1993
NANCY EZZELL Editor & Publisher
LAURIE EZZELL BROWN
Editor
JENNIFER BROWN Advertising Manager
STAFF:
Kim McKinney, Cathy Ricketts, Leslie Fry
Mary Smithee, Gabriel Brown, Greta Bass
PHOTOGRAPHY:
Laurie Ezzell Brown
Periodicals postage paid at the Post Office in
Canadian, Texas. Published each Thursday after-
noon in Canadian by Nancy M. Ezzell.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
The Canadian Record, Box 898, Canadian, TX 79014
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
$20/Year in Hemphill County
$25/Year in adjoining counties
$30/Year elsewhere
round, the entire system is more of a joke than a way
of determining the best football teams in the state.
A few years ago, classifications 5A and 4 A went to
the two-tiered playoff system. In that system, three
teams from each district qualify for the playoffs. The
tw'o smaller schools (from enrollment numbers) go to
Division II and the largest school that qualifies goes
to Division I.
This year that same system was adopted for clas-
sifications 3A and 2A. The result is not pretty.
Not all districts ended their season the way 1-3A
did. In our district the three top teams tied for the
district title with identical 4-1 records. Perryton, as
the largest enrollment school, wall travel through
Division I bracket to the state championship. River
Road and Sanford-Fritch were placed in the Division
II bracket.
What’s the difference, you ask. The trip to the
state title is one game shorter for Division I schools
than Division II. The area round of play is eliminated
in Division I.
That is just one of the shortcomings of the new
playoff system. Is it fair that a school that is smaller
in enrollment, but has a better district record, faces
a longer road to the top than the third place finisher
in district? I think not.
There are other problems with the new system.
There is one team which made the state playoffs with
a 2-8 season record—Wichita Falls Rider. There
were eight playoff spots awarded to teams which had
3-7 records. In all, there were 62 teams from classi-
fications 5A to 2A that went to the playoffs that did
not have a winning record for the season.
That has diminished the importance of winning a
district title. Slide into third place and a playoff spot
is assured. The team winning the title gets a trophy
ieid
by laurie ezzell brown
Continued on Page 4
I SAW THE OPENING in Jim Ned’s line at almost the exact
moment I heard Wildcat Assistant Coach Kyle Lynch say, “Lord have
mercy!” His words were hushed, almost reverent, but man, they packed
a wallop. I knew exactly w'hat Lynch meant, too, as I watched Ty
Dickinson blow' through the hole and shrug off a couple of defenders on
his way downfield for a 66-yard touchdowm in 'last week’s Region I
semi-final. I felt chills up and down my spine. Still do, if I think about it
much.
He w'as gone. Dickinson w'as as gone as most of the black jerseys I
saw in Friday night’s stunning first-half scoring blitz by the Wildcats.
Those guys were smoking. Seven touchdowns in the first half alone, and
all told, it only took 14 plays on offense to get the job done. How' many
times do you see that happen in a playoff game?
And as hard as it was to capture that tw'o-legged blur on camera, it
was ten times harder to find one frame on those three rolls of film that
I shot rather too enthusiastically—to find just one single frame—-that
showed how- focused and intense and confident and just plain smart the
Wildcat ‘D’ played. They sw'ooped and sacked and jumped and pumped
and just generally raised havoc on the I ndians’ side of the line. And they
were always there. On the run. On the pass. On the draw'. On the keeper.
On the punt. On the mark. They were there.
Why, you could see it in the other players’ eyes. I watched as one
Indian kick returner dropped the ball, recovered it, anti looked up warily
to see which freight train w-as on the same track as his. He knew* it w'as
coming. It w'as just a matter of deciding how' hard...and how soon.
If you w'atch these Wildcats long enough, they just tend to get under
your skin. The arms outstretched to help an opponent up after the
whistle blow’s...the words of encouragement to each other...the concen-
tration and respect as they talk a play over with the coaches and make
a few' adjustments. There are no excuses when something doesn’t
work—just that unflinching determination to make sure it does the
next time. There is no grandstanding, no strutting. There are no solo
dances in the endzone. These victories are shared—with high fives and
hugs and helmet-to-helmet glee. Every once in a w-hile, a player takes
a knee and bows his head.
Not once in 12 games has one of these Wildcats asked if I got his
picture. Now' that’s not an uncommon question for a photographer on
the high school sports beat to hear, but I haven’t heard it once. Until
Friday night, that is, when second-stringer Miles Henderson got his
first pass reception—ever. And then, I didn’t hear it from Miles, but
from every first-
stringer standing on
the sidelines, cheer-
ing him on, lifting him
to their shoulders to
celebrate when he
hooked up with quar-
terback Jared Ho-
hertz for a 27-yard
gain.
“Did you get Miles
catching that pass?”
they asked. “Will it be
on the front page?”
I’m not the only
one who has noticed
something special
about these guvs,
either. Their parents
surely know. And
when the Wildcats
pause at the end of
the game to approach
the grandstands and Miles Henderson’s pass reception...
thank their fans, , ,__.
those folks can't help and yes. I got ,t.
but know it, too. The
coaches know it well, and more than one opposing coach has com-
mented—not only on the talent evident in that Wildcat squad—but on
the good sportsmanship they display, as well. And that’s one powerful
combination, as anyone who has been there for the last 12 Friday
nights—and one miserable Saturday afternoon—can see.
I’ve stood on those sidelines for five years now, and loved almost
every minute of it. But I’m telling you now, I’d do this job...for this
Wildcat team...for free. Just for the joy of watching them play.
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Ezzell, Nancy & Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 108, No. 48, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 26, 1998, newspaper, November 26, 1998; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth520832/m1/2/: accessed May 14, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hemphill County Library.