American Brittany, American Dad: Week 2 Alder Vs. Marion Harding

Well week two has came and gone, and with it came another tough opponent in Marion Harding. The preseason butterflies of a senior year are behind us now and we are just excited to see the guys in black playing smash mouth football. As the boys warmed up tonight I had memories of my obstacle conditioning course set up behind the junior high, blowing my whistle, and yelling encouragements at PC white to hit harder, move faster, and to push themselves. While across the field I could see the other 1/2 of the boys with coach Dye, him in his shoulder pads and helmet, yelling "come on boys, you got to hit me harder than that". While our methods were different, I have to say they both worked. After thinking of those young boys learning the game of football from us the best way we each knew how, to now. I lookout across the field and see the guys from both of those teams "getting it done" every Friday night. Those were fun times, but these are better.

Back in Black was playing tonight when the boys took the field, as it should be every week. 4th year hearing it as they walk out, and we all still get cold chills in the stands. (Well Stacy and I do anyway) The boys in black got it done tonight in a physical battle at the line of scrimmage. The Marion D line was big and strong so yards wouldnt come easy for either team, on this night. But in the end the battle at line was won by Alder on both sides of the ball. Jamie Dye ran hard (as he always does) and fought for yards after contact all night. The O line fought and fought hard for their brothers with the football, providing time for Preston to throw when needed, and seams for Jamie and Drew. We were outmatched in size physically , but it was no contest with size of heart.

Tonight, Nolan had one of his best defensive games in high school. He seemed to be all over the field, and must have knocked the QB down 6 or 7 times. He had multiple sacks, tackles for losses, and a knocked down pass. In a couple of my favorite plays, he had some of the best hits of the night leaving a couple of their guys looking up at the stars when the play was over. He had a very disruptive game to the Marion offense, and I have no doubt he was a topic of conversation about adjustments at 1/2 time in their locker room. He again, only missed a snap or two from scrimmage and never seemed to tire much. Since a lot of people read this, I'm trying not to feel guilty for writing a paragraph about my kid, but I'll remind you all (and myself) this is not the sports page. This is a journal for him down the road, that I am just sharing with you too...

Nolan is really close with my life long best friend Luke Payton, his "uncle Luke". Luke lives out of state but was there tonight to watch him play for the first time. I know it meant a lot to both of us that he was there, and these two guys (Nolan and Luke) are two of my favorite football players. Back in the day (20 years ago) Luke was serious D End also. Thanks for being here brother....

The contest ended with Alder on top 21-7 so we advanced to 2-0 on the season. After every home game this year Stacy and I are feeding the Varsity boys breakfast on Saturday morning following their film session. This week we had a special guest that wanted to come over and talk to them. Our Neighber Dan Thomas was a member of the only undefeated Jonathan Alder team back in the 73 season (Class of 74) He only talked to them for about 5 minutes, but what he had to say was profound. He said this, "We didn't have any superstars on our team. But we had a lot of heart, and we played for each other. We played as hard as we could EVERY SNAP. You do the same, and you could be the next undefeated alder team". Can't thank Dan enough for taking the time to give these words of wisdom. They all seem to be listening, we'll soon find out...

(Photo credits to Bill Morgan)

O line getting it done