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.
On the Thursday the final Lone Star Cup standings were released for the 2023-2024 school year.
Montague County had two schools that finished among the top 25 in their classification.
Nocona finished tied for 13th place in 2A while Saint Jo was tied for 24th place in 1A.
It is the highest finish for Nocona ever since the Lone Star Cup started up in the late 1990s. While it is associated with and measures the overall success of a school’s athletic program, it also takes into account the school’s success in academic and other programs like band, one-act-play, robotics, etc.
Nocona scored points in volleyball, football, cheerleading, girls and boys basketball and baseball. Unfortunately, its state appearance in film did not count towards the total. It all added up to 41 points, which is the most in program history
For Saint Jo, the success of its volleyball, football, softball, baseball, girl’s and boy’s basketball teams led to 32 points.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The University Interscholastic League announced on Tuesday changes for the upcoming school year when it comes to playoff formatting.
For 2A-5A schools, playoff formatting for volleyball, basketball, softball, baseball and soccer will now be split up into two divisions that will model itself like the 6A football playoffs. For 1A schools, this will only be applied for basketball. In all, there will be 12 state champions in those sports now.
This means there will be two playoff divisions within every classification. Districts will stay the same and not be affected. Four teams from every district will still make the playoffs, but now the two biggest schools of the four will play in the bracket with the other bigger schools while the two smaller schools will play in the other bracket.
This will not be like 1A-5A football, where divisions are hard cut by enrollment numbers and district alignments are set up with this in mind. Some districts that feature schools with low enrollment numbers within a classification will have to send two schools to compete in the big school bracket.
At lower levels, it might still set up a scenario where a team faces a school with twice the enrollment numbers. The thought process is it should happen less.
With fewer teams in the playoff bracket, certain parts of the playoffs like the area round and the regional tournament will not be featured as there will be less games to play on the way to the state tournament.
While the announcement was surprising to some, other coaches said they first heard about it at the basketball state tournament. UIL polled coaches, who were reportedly all for the change according to Nocona athletic director Blake Crutsinger.
For some schools, the changes will not mean much besides fewer games. Bowie is in that spot. With an enrollment number of 493, only Vernon and Iowa Park are the schools in its district that are bigger and would have to finish at the top two spots in the standings in order for Bowie teams to play in the smaller bracket.
For other schools, the change could be a big deal. Nocona’s enrollment of 234 is only 20 short of the 2A limit. The Indians will most likely play in the bigger bracket in every sport.
The Lady Indians basketball team finished as runners-up at state this year and will return four of their five starters. The teams that have beaten them the last two years, Martin’s Mill and Lipan along with several other 2A basketball powers have low enrollment numbers and would probably be in the smaller school bracket.
For 1A schools, the change is welcome but the fact volleyball was not included was sad to see for some coaches. From a numbers perspective, there are almost twice as many schools that offer basketball (213) than volleyball (123) in 1A.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
These girls were all around winners at the June 8 Montague County 4H Horse Club show. High Point buckle winners were Emersyn Denoon and Laney Dyer, reserve all around halter winners were Kenzi McEwen and Audrey DeMore.
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