Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
“Knock ’em down, help ’em back up and tell ’em you’ll be right back,” Bear Bryant summarized the essence of football with this simple instruction to his first college football team at Texas A&M in 1954.
Bryant and his Aggies finished 1-9 record that first season, the only losing season of his illustrious career. That first year was marked by a brutal training camp in Junction, Texas, which led many players to quit and earned the few survivors the nickname “Junction Boys.” A made-for-television film was released in 2002, portraying the brutal practice conditions Bryant imposed back in the 1950s.
For most players, football remains as simple as that statement from “The Bear.”
Woody Hayes gave Ohio State players Buckeye stickers to put on their helmets after making great plays, and many high school coaches followed suit. Some teams use the team mascot as a sticker, while many others use the old skull and crossbones. Coaches do this because it promotes good play, builds healthy competition, and creates an intimidation factor for the opponent who sees a helmet full of decals.
In a well-run program, these stickers go to any player who contributes to the team. Good coaches know that touchdowns are not scored without good blocking up front, and games are not won by the backfield alone; they are won by everyone on the field. Players appreciate the notoriety that comes with a helmet full of stickers, but what do football players really admire?
The first thing players notice about the guy across the line from them is the paint on his helmet. Not the paint that goes on the helmet, but the paint that rubs off another team’s helmet and leaves scuff marks. The only way to earn those marks is by banging heads. By the end of the season, an offensive lineman should have a rainbow of colors on his helmet. Green, white, red, blue, and purple show up from colliding with rival helmets of high school and junior high teams across the county. Depending on where you play, you want a mix of those colors plus the conference opponents’ colors.
On Monday before practice, players still check each other’s helmets for the memories of last Friday’s hits. Each mark has a story. The stories sometimes grow with time, but the marks are there to prove that at least some of it is true.
The paint usually lasts only through the season, since schools now send helmets in annually for cleaning and a NOCSAE safety inspection. That simply means everyone gets an even start next fall.
What else do players admire? The “slobber knock” is a favorite. It is just as disgusting to look at as it is to say, but it is fun to deliver one. A slobber knock is a hit so hard that it creates exactly what the name suggests, knocking slobber, and literally the snot out of your opponent on a devastating hit.
Another thing is the woof. It does not happen much anymore, but in the 1960s and 1970s, when headgear was more primitive, it was common. You got a woof when you knocked the other guy’s helmet off. With single and double crossbars and a single snap chin strap, helmets used to roll across the field regularly. You knew you had arrived as a ball player when your teammates surrounded you after a play and began barking like dogs, chanting “woof, woof, woof!”
On the field reactions like that would be flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct today and probably lead to sensitivity training now that we are in our touchy-feely era.
Another mark of pride is the pancake. If you block your opponent so thoroughly that he lands flat on his back, you have pancaked him. It is the highest honor for an offensive lineman or a blocking back, while being pancaked is the most humiliating thing that can happen to a defensive player. Stack up enough pancakes, and you win.
I’ve often gone a bit beyond in praising a player in print by pointing out in the game story that he delivered the pancake with butter and syrup. That’s a hit.
Hammer, crush, nail, drill, pile drive, blast, and jack up. These sound like construction terms, but they describe hits put on ball carriers and receivers. Construction terminology fits well with football because, like a construction project, the individual components do not produce anything on their own. When everything is added together in a cohesive and controlled fashion, the finished product is a victory.
High school football ended last weekend at War Memorial Stadium in Laramie.
Of special interest locally was the battle between the Cody Broncs and the Star Valley Braves. It was a great game with the Braves taking a 20-14 win over the boys from Park County. It elicited a lot of speculation from Riverton fans. The Wolverines, battered, short-handed, and decimated by injury, gave the Broncs everything they wanted not quite two weeks ago in the semi-finals. At full strength, Big Red may have had a chance. We’ll have to wait until next year to find out.
In 1-A 6-man, Little Snake River is a machine under head coach Jack Cobb. Congratulations, Rattlers, on another state title.
In 1-A 9-man the trophy goes once more to the far southeast corner of the state in Pine Bluffs. Head coach William Gray had another unbeaten state championship team this year with his Hornets.
The best game of the weekend came in Class 2-A with Mountain View edging Big Horn in a battle of the unbeatens in a 41-38 shootout. These are both great programs.
Speaking of great programs, how about the Sheridan Broncs and head coach, and former Riverton Wolverine, Jeff Mowry.
The Broncs celebrated their fifth consecutive Class 4-A state championship with a 17-10 win over the Camels of Campbell County High School. Sheridan is rolling on a 55-game win streak, the second-longest in the United States after Garden City in New York.
The longest high school winning streak of all time belongs to De La Salle, California with 151 consecutive wins between 1992 and 2003.
It was a great year.