Imagine trying to intimidate your opponents if you play for the Poca Dots or The Poets?  Does the Linebacker from The Nimrods cause opposing Quarterbacks to lose sleep?  The teams, while they sound like a  fun bunch of guys, do not sound very scary.  I imagine, however, that most of the teams use their nicknames much the same way A Boy Named Sue did.  It just makes them meaner.  Just ask the many opponents crushed by the perennial powerhouse and state champion Cairo Syrupmakers.

Here is the list in Andy Staples order:

1. Cairo Syrupmakers, Cairo, Ga.

2. Glenville Tarblooders, Cleveland Oh.

3. Lakeland Dreadnaughts, Lakeland, Fla.

4. Cary Imps, Cary, N.C.

5. Poca Dots, Poca, W. Va.

6. Johnson Atom Smashers, Savannah, Ga.

7. Watersmeet Nimrods, Watersmeet, Mich.

8. Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits

9. Staples Wreckers, Westport, Conn.

10. Punahou School Buffanblu, Honolulu, Hawaii

11. Lloyd Memorial Juggernauts, Erlanger, Ky.

12. Don Bosco Prep Ironmen, Ramsey, N.J.

13. Dunbar Poets, Baltimore

14. Colorado Rocky Mountain School Oysters, Carbondale, Colo.

15. Stuyvesant Peglegs, New York

*Footnote – I have personally had the privilege of seeing The Atom Smashers and The Syrupmakers play in person.  If any of my readers have seen any athletic events involving Rocky Mountain Oysters please shoot me an email.

Read the original article by Andy Staples on Sports Illustrated.

Follow Andy on Twitter

• August 3, 2009 -- Why I Love High School Football (4)
• July 31, 2009 -- Friday Night Lights S3 Available! (0)
• July 30, 2009 -- 4.3 40 yard Dash? Probably Not! (2)
• July 29, 2009 -- Legendary Georgia Coach Retires (8)

I love the coach who calls a hook-and-ladder with 6 seconds left to win the game. I love the coach who calls the triple-punt pass only to have it intercepted for a touchdown. I love coaches who like blood and guts and would only throw the ball if they thought God himself ordered it. I love the coach who spreads the field and throws it all over the place even if at the end of the year their quarterback only completed 30% of his passes and the team went 2-8.

I love the parents, girlfriends, and siblings who live and die with every snap of the ball hoping their boy will make the big play and more importantly will finish the game uninjured. I love the parent who misses the big game in order to work the concession stand to raise money for that much-needed blocking sled. I love the parents who shake the coach’s hand win or lose and hug their son after the game no matter how much it embarrasses him.

I love the cheerleaders who give their all every game and keep cheering even when the less-than-faithful fans have given up and gone home. I love the cheerleaders that keep on plugging even though it started raining and the temperature dropped to 33 degrees. I love it when the cheerleaders run down to the end zone to cheer for an extra point try. Maybe we need to pay them back by attending their competitions (yes they are athletes).
I love the big glorious bands that have costumes, flag lines, cart-wheeling drum majors and baton wizards. I love the toot-toot-bang-bang reviews that only have 12 members but play their hearts out and get better every week. I love funky bands that are inspired by Virginia State and Grambling. I love traditional bands that only play Sousa.

I love the announcers at the game. I love the understated guy who simply gives us ball carrier, tackler, yards gained and down and distance. I also love the guy who thinks he’s John Madden and gets all fired up, questions referees calls and says hello to his friends in the crowd over the public PA.

I love concession stands, especially when they have at least one thing they sell that are really proud of. I love the teachers who give up their Friday nights to take tickets, or just want to get a chance to interact with the students in a different setting than the classroom.

I love a little trash talking in the paper and a little smack on the message boards. I love watching the pre-game warm-ups when both teams are just trying to look meaner than the other. I love watching a team gather together to pray before a game even though no adult told them they should. I love watching handshakes after a game when both teams know they faced an opponent who gave his all.

“I love watching a team gather together to pray before a game even though no adult told them they should.”

I love watching the referees get together before the game and at halftime to make sure they’re all on the same page. I love watching the referees scramble off the field before too many people think to tell them about that penalty they called with 0:06 left on the clock.

I love 50-50 drawings, local businesses that advertise in the program even though it probably won’t bring them even one more customer. I love the sheriff’s deputies shooting the breeze with members of the community. I love seeing principals talking with the kids and I love 6-year-old girls who cheer as mascots with the cheerleaders.

I love football players strapping on their pads in silence while coaches sit in their office and chew their nails. I love it when the “two’s” get in the game and actually score. I love watching the JV players and little league players walk around with their jerseys on. I love it when a punt goes 70 yards and when it only goes 2. I love it when a play is so confusing that the referees have to talk for five minutes to sort it out. I love watching the emotions of the coaches on the walkie-talkie on top of the press box and I love watching the smoke come out of the ears of the coaches on the field. I love it when the coach keeps reminding his kids to “get back,” and then gets tangled in the chains the very next play. I love the look on the faces of the scouts when they get back after the game and get the news that their team just upset the district favorites.

I love a big hit, a qb sack, a 90 yard run, a blocked kick, a broken play that goes for a touchdown, a long bomb (even if it’s dropped). I love it when a kick hits the upright (whether it bounces through or not). I even love touchbacks.

I love onside kicks, 4th down and goal, 3rd and short, 1st and 25. I love it that I know the difference in a muff and a fumble. I love safeties. I also love trick plays.

I love the playoffs, I love upsets, I love overtimes and I love blowouts.

I love getting in the car ANYWHERE in the state on Friday night and being able to pick up several high school games on the air, even if I’m the only one listening. I love coming home and getting online to see the scores and watching the local television stations for scores and highlights. I love getting the paper on Saturday morning and reading about a game that I already saw. I also love reading about the games I wish I could have seen in person. I love hunting down that one score that nobody seems to have.

I love that I know the difference in a dive, a power and a trap. I love wondering if the defense really plans to sit in that 4-4 all night or if they will adjust after another couple of big runs. I love wondering if that linebacker is division I material.

I love Senior’s Night and Homecoming. I love a long road trip and love hosting our most hated rivals.

I love watching the bats catch the bugs in the lights and I love schools with no lights that play on Saturday afternoon. I love watching the streamers blow on top of the goal posts. I love that there is always a great pick-up game going on behind the bleachers and that there are a lot of middle school students at the game just to talk to their friends.

I love it when the crowd claps even when the other team’s star gets up after an injury and that we go quiet together when we see them bring out an ambulance. I love it that we have after game parties.

I love homecoming parades. I love it when they tell us the J.V. score over the PA and I love it when they tell us how the field hockey team is doing. I love being in a big crowd and love being the only guy who toughed it out on a cold night to see a struggling team.

I love tailgating, running in to people I haven’t seen in years, and watching kids eat pop corn. I love getting in the car and cutting on the heater after a particularly cold night. I love eating at the local greasy spoon before the game.

I love it when a game is “for all the marbles,” and I love it when the kids are playing for nothing but pride. I love it when the cheerleaders run to the end zone to cheer for the extra point. I love it when a welcoming party greets the team after a big win, and I love it when a greeting party awaits the team after a heartbreaking loss. I love it when the crowd gets word of a score from another game that will determine if their boys get in the playoffs.

I love kids who are honorable mention for all-district and I love kids on the scout D. I love people diligently keeping stats on every play of the game and the four mangers who keep everything working smoothly. I love an act of sportsmanship.

I love the way the field looks when it is freshly lined and mowed. I love the way it looks on week 8 when a year’s worth of battles and drought has rendered it mostly grassless.

I love that football players are football players at least for four months a year instead of being rich kids or poor kids or white kids or black kids or cool kids or nerds or smart kids or dumb kids.

I love that kids never forget their coaches, and I love the coach’s families for letting them do such a thankless job and touch the world in such a special way.

I LOVE IT!

By Cavalier Dave Forrester of Hugh M. Cummings High School, North Carolina.

• August 4, 2009 -- Dots, Tarblooders, & Buffanblu’s? (5)
• July 31, 2009 -- Friday Night Lights S3 Available! (0)
• July 30, 2009 -- 4.3 40 yard Dash? Probably Not! (2)
• July 29, 2009 -- Legendary Georgia Coach Retires (8)

For me, the third season was as strong as the first.  But its brilliance lies in the way it sets up season 4 in the last few episodes and leaves you wanting more.  This show is underrated, much like the Dillon Panthers, but once you watch it, the brilliance and quality of this production leaves it well beyond the first down marker when other TV productions should punt and get off the field.

For the not so passionate football fans, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, the first couple of Dillon Football, represent a realistic and gutsy couple whose trials and tribulations keep even the most avid soap fan enthralled.   Football keeps the show centered in much of the same way that the hospital keeps ER centered.  It provides a vehicle for the story but doesn’t require you to love football (I know I don’t love hospitals).  But if you do love football, the actual story lines carried out on the field are gripping and hard hitting and never leave you unsatisfied like a poorly done boxing scene.

If you have never watched it, watch it.

If you have watched it, watch it again.

If you don’t own it, buy it.

If you have never heard of it, you are on the wrong site.

In Dillon, winning is always a good thing but the problems remain after the stadium lights go out.  Make no mistake, this show is not a teen-centric football version of Beverly Hills 90210 but an often uncomfortable look at the politics and problems surrounding big time high school football.  From academic problems, funding, and steroids, it’s all there. Like many, I started watching for the football but stayed for the story.

Buy your copy below.  If you are not convinced, please scroll down to the GQ video shoot featuring the Girls of Friday Night Lights.  If you are not convinced after that, then there is no hope for you!  Go watch Star Trek!

See the Carousel Store at the bottom of the article for other FNL items.

Check out this footage of the FNL Girls from a GQ photo shoot. No wonder the Dillon Panthers are motivated to win State!

• August 4, 2009 -- Dots, Tarblooders, & Buffanblu’s? (5)
• August 3, 2009 -- Why I Love High School Football (4)
• July 30, 2009 -- 4.3 40 yard Dash? Probably Not! (2)
• July 29, 2009 -- Legendary Georgia Coach Retires (8)

Since there are no official world records for the 40 yard dash, the shortest distance recognized for record purposes is the 50 meters (about 54 yards), it is difficult to draw comparison to world class sprinters with the fastest football players.

The problem lies in the fact that most of these times are reported with hand timers and not electronic timers like the ones used at the NFL combines.  Even then it is hard to draw a comparison among players because many factors such as the type of track and weather conditions can have a significant effect on times.

With recruiting sites and services reporting so many times at 4.3 or better for high school  athletes it seems curious, if not shocking, that the average 40 time  since 2005 for NFL defensive backs is 4.56 and 4.57 for receivers.  What is it that bleeds the speed from these guys after high school?

“Knowingly or not, fans and media members have created a culture in the sports that’s conducive to this obsession and inflation of individual and team speed. In doing so, we’ve in fact created our own monster when it comes to not only evaluating talent, but in effect determining the educational and financial situations of the thousands of young men who hope to earn college football scholarships.” *

Stories about Deion Sanders purported 4.17 in high tops and the hulking Brian Urlacher pushing his massive frame to a 4.4 make you wonder how these guys would stack up to world class sprinters?

Although it is not a perfect comparison, timing officials broke down Ben Johnsons 9.79 100 meter sprint at the ‘88 games in Seoul and found that he went 40 yards in 4.38 seconds.  He was running in spikes with a tailwind and Carl Lewis chasing him while millions were watching on TV with a gold medal at stake.  Oh yeah, not only had he trained his whole life for his, he was geeked up on the anabolic steroid stanazlol.  And all he could muster was 4.38 seconds.  Granted, running a 100 meter race is certainly strategically different from a 40 yard sprint but it is a good point of comparison.

Make no mistake about it, the athletes today are blazing fast and getting faster.  But so many liberties have been taken with 40 yard dash times that it is time settle down and be a little more truthful in reporting them.  After all, if it is o.k. for an NFL DB to run a 4.56, it should be good enough for high school.

*Adam Nettia has a great article  this -

“Nobody Runs a 4.3″: On the Inflation of High School 40 Times

• August 4, 2009 -- Dots, Tarblooders, & Buffanblu’s? (5)
• August 3, 2009 -- Why I Love High School Football (4)
• July 31, 2009 -- Friday Night Lights S3 Available! (0)
• July 29, 2009 -- Legendary Georgia Coach Retires (8)

Robert Davis burst onto the scene in the early seventies taking over the Head Coaching position at Warner Robins High School in Middle Georgia. It didn’t take him long to establish winning ways at the school and by 1976 he had built a state and national powerhouse that ran roughshod over its opponents. That year, the Warner Robins Demons shared the mythical National Championship with Gerry Faust and his Moeller Crusaders from Cincinnati, OH.

Most high school prognosticators from those days agreed on two things  – 1)  The Crusaders would not have stood a chance against the ‘76 Demons and 2)  Notre Dame should have hired Robert Davis instead of Gerry Faust!  Thankfully for Warner Robins they didn’t because five years later in 1981, Davis and his Demons once again bullied every team on their schedule to repeat as State and National Champions, while going virtually unchallenged throughout the playoffs. This time Davis stood alone at the top of the football world with his team as the best in the country.

Davis is the second winningest coach in Georgia history and the winningest coach at the state’s largest classifications. His team won more games from 1970 – 1980 than any other team in Georgia and Warner Robins was named “Team Of The Decade.” He was selected to coach in 3 Georgia All-Star games and, as expected, won all three. In 1990 he lead the Georgia All-Stars to victory over the talented Florida All-Stars.

Coach Davis left Warner Robins in 1997 to take over a new program, Westside of Macon, Ga., and true to form immediately constructed a winning program that won region titles and was an annual contender for the state title.

Having never endured a losing season, Coach Davis said he will enjoy his free time by watching his Grandsons play on the same field he coached on for so many years.

Coach, I just wanted to personally thank you for everything you did for me to make me the man I am today. You helped me turn my life around at a time in my life that I was about to take the wrong path. You and your coaches stuck with me, and a lot of other punks that didn’t have a clue about life, and instilled in us some of the best values we cherish everyday. Thanks again and congrats! Scott Noblitt, WRHS Player – 1988 – 1991

Coach Davis will have more time to enjoy his grandkids.

Greater than all the stats and championships that Coach Davis earned during his career is his lasting contribution to the game through his players. They have a tremendous amount of respect for him and say that playing for him was the defining moment of stepping into manhood. Many of his players, too many to count, got into coaching after their careers and now dot the high school, college and NFL landscape. They are passing on his lessons and examples to the next generation. Like a mighty oak tree that has dropped thousands of acorns, Coach Robert Davis’ legacy will continue to grow for years and years to come.

• August 4, 2009 -- Dots, Tarblooders, & Buffanblu’s? (5)
• August 3, 2009 -- Why I Love High School Football (4)
• July 31, 2009 -- Friday Night Lights S3 Available! (0)
• July 30, 2009 -- 4.3 40 yard Dash? Probably Not! (2)

The first suggested a 3 year pilot program to study the A11 offense and its effects on the game in areas such officiating, competitiveness, fan enjoyment, and safety.  Rejected.

The second proposal said that the CIF should simply decline to adopt the January rule changes made by the National Federation of High School Associations (NHFS).  Just ignore the rules.  Heck, if you can bend them for a few years, why not break them for a few more?  Rejected.

So, finally, the A11 is dead!  Not quite….there is the remote possibility that the CIF Executive Committee could ignore the recommendations of the Advisory Committee and  look at the petition and its merits anyway.  It is unlikely, however, because the CIF would risk losing its status with the NHFS.  But remember, this drama is unfolding in California where the unlikely is often probable.

It should be noted that Piedmont High players were in attendance in the meeting and should be commended for being bold enough to stand up and debate a controversial subject.  They spoke about the opportunity it gave to more undersized players to succeed and that may indeed be viewed as a positive.  However, if the rules of the game are changed to remove much of the power aspect of football then who is going to stand up for the bigger kids that aren’t fast enough to be a potential reciever or running back.  Who is going to cry “foul” when a big kid can’t earn a spot in the lineup?  It seems that the game of football, as it stands, features a nice mix of speed and power and affords many young men to find an area to specialize based on thier God given size and ability.

If some are too small to play football, don’t change the rules to accommodate smaller sizes.  A better suggestion would be to look toward other sports such as soccer, baseball, tennis, etc.

• August 4, 2009 -- Dots, Tarblooders, & Buffanblu’s? (5)
• August 3, 2009 -- Why I Love High School Football (4)
• July 31, 2009 -- Friday Night Lights S3 Available! (0)
• July 30, 2009 -- 4.3 40 yard Dash? Probably Not! (2)