SPORTS
SB LIII guide for dummies
In case you did not know, the Super Bowl is this Sunday.
While some football die-hards have been following week-to-week since pre-season, many more people will tune for what might be their only football viewing experience of the year at a get-together or party. In the right atmosphere they might actually pay attention to the game for a quarter or two and will need one team to root for to make it more fun.
Well this is for you as I will try to make the case for either team in the Super Bowl and try to give you a clip notes version of key things to know. This is Super Bowl LIII for Dummies.
New England Patriots
If you have even slightly been paying attention to who has played in the Super Bowl through the years, you might have heard of this team before. They are the team that lost last year’s Super Bowl, but since 2001 they have appeared in eight Super Bowls and have won five of them, which is an unprecedented run in league history.
The two constants this whole time have been the grumpy genius head coach Bill Belichick and golden boy quarterback Tom Brady. Belichick is the coach every coach at every level wants to be the like now, besides the greatest of all time Vince Lombardi.
His commitment to his team and making the team culture all about being selfless comes at the expense of charisma and fashion sense, Belichich usually wears a dirty looking hoodie, but you cannot argue with the results.
On the flip side, Brady is the quarterback this generation looks up to the most based on the results. Brady frequently comes through for his team in the biggest of games and the Super Bowl and has done it for so long now, it’s a wonder he is still as good as he is.
Age 41, while not old, is ancient in football years. While it seems like he has it all with his boyish good looks and a former super model for a wife wife, Brady did work for all of his success on the field. Until his breakthrough in his second year, he was destined to be a back-up quarterback for most of his career as no one believed in him. In that regard, he is the definition of hard work pays off that you can get.
The elephant in the room for the Patriots and why they evoke such strong reactions one way or the other is of course the controversies. The first was “spygate” where they were caught by the league video taping an opposing teams’ signals back in 2007.
The other controversy was more recent and was called “deflategate.” It was discovered after a game in 2015 the Patriots balls were slightly more deflated than was legally allowed, allowing for better grip.
While the team paid the price from the league both times, a fine and lost draft pick in the first case and a four game suspension to Brady in the second case, many fans have used both of these cases to discredit their entire run and label the organization cheaters.
Along with fatigue of constantly seeing them succeed for so long, a lot of fans root against the Patriots on these principles alone.
You may risk annoying people rooting for New England, but if that is what you are after then there is no better team to jump on the bandwagon for one game.
To read about why you should cheer for the Los Angeles Rams as well, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Red River High School Bass Club competed this past weekend, May 31 – June 1, at the State Tournament on Lake Conroe for the two-day tournament.
Two of the teams from Montague County traveled south to try their best at the culmination of the year for the state title. Teams were able to pre-fish on Friday before the Saturday and Sunday competition. On Friday, there was a flipping contest for the youth and Cooper Johnson won third overall and won a $500 scholarship and an Academy gift card.
The club’s two teams who competed were Lane Smith/Colt Henry with boat captain Jimmy Smith. The team placed 63rd with a total of 16.22 pounds. The second team of Cooper Johnson/Corbyn Patton and boat captain Jayson Toerck placed 169th with a total weight of 2.29 pounds.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
The Maskat Shrine Oil Bowl is this week on June 6-7 and graduating athletes from Bowie, Nocona and Saint Jo are confirmed to be playing.
In total, seven athletes from Bowie, five from Nocona and three from Saint Jo are planning to play in the all-star games this week. Nocona also will have a pair of coaches participating as well.
The girl’s basketball game kicks off events on June 6, scheduled for 6 p.m. at Wichita Falls Memorial High School. In the game, the east team will have Nocona players Avery Crutsinger, Meg Meekins and Reagan Phipps playing while Kyler Spitzer and Clayton Brown coach them one last time.
On the west team, Saint Jo’s Payzlie Cervantes is confirmed to be playing.
The boy’s basketball game is scheduled to follow at 7:30 p.m. On the east team, Bowie’s Boston Farris and Nocona’s Jose Gomez Jr. will be playing.
On June 7, the volleyball games are scheduled to start at 4 p.m. with the small school game. On the west team, Nocona’s Kaygan Stone and Saint Jo’s Taylor Patrick are confirmed to play. On the east team, Saint Jo’s Aubrey Morman will get to play her teammate.
There are no local athletes confirmed to be playing in the big school volleyball game.
The final event is the football game, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium. It is an all Bowie affair with six players confirmed to be playing for the east team: Justin Clark, Jorge De Leon, Hunter Fluitt and Braden Rhyne, Preacher Chambers and Moh Azouak.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Nocona Independent School District officials looked inward for a new athletic director/head football coach, selecting Jeff Hill for the position.
Hill, who served last year as Nocona football’s offensive coordinator and also led the softball program to the playoffs for the first time in a while as its head coach, was upgraded to the role.
This came on the heels of former Athletic Director Blake Crutsinger, who served in the role the last four years, resigned in May.
For Hill, the choice to apply for the position was a no brainer. His one year in Nocona had impressed upon him and his wife that it was the place they would like to be long term.
“I’m looking for a town to raise my kids in and Nocona has treated my family really well,” Hill said. “There are some really good people. The kids work hard. Everything I am looking for in a hometown is right here in Nocona and I want to try and make it as best as it can be, especially through athletics.”
Before Nocona, Hill served as the athletic director at S&S Consolidated while also spending time at Hebron and Whitewright in his coaching career.
Hill expresses great respect for the departing Crutsinger and besides changing a few small things in how he personally wants to do things, he is not trying to come in with a sweeping restructuring of the whole athletic department.
The program had five of its six team sports make the playoffs, with volleyball playing in the regional final and the girl’s basketball team winning the state championship.
That along with two athletes competing at the state championship in cross country and track with one earning a gold medal, it was one of the more successful school years in athletic program history.
“Coach Crutsinger was awesome and did a great job so honestly just little tweaks, a little bit of structure and cohesion amongst the coaching staff between boys and girls,” Hill said. “I hope to keep the winning tradition going overall in the athletic department.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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