Ok, some of this is somewhat true. We got our butts kicked on Friday night. Westview looks like the best pass rush in the Region. But also, they played their first team defense (defensive line anyway) the entire game, even with a running clock. Maybe they had something to prove or an ax to grind. Well, they proved it.
Minor stuff: Got sacked 5 times with two intentional grounding calls on top of that. Call it seven if you wish. We were down our three top receivers. That didn't help.
Uninformed crap: We do have good coaches. The best we have had in 16 years in my opinion. We are just understaffed and undermanned as far as athletes go. We haven't had a 1000 yard rusher since 2017 and before that we had one for at least six straight years, still without winning a playoff game. Howell should fix the 1000 yard rusher, as he needs about 150 with two games to go.
Worse stuff: On Friday night, Westview had six unsportsmanlike penalties. Three of them after touchdowns. Looks like success was hard for them to handle. It's high school sports and yes, it does reflect on them and their coaches. Up 27-0 and still sucker-punching our kids?
A few tidbits on Bolivar football. After 2018, our coach made an impossible schedule (five non region games the winning percentage the year before was over .800) and left, making a recommendation to hire Montrell Craft over a local man that would still be here, in my opinion. But our previous coach had an ax to grind with him, I assume. Coach Craft is a good man and did a good job, but the schedule was way too much to overcome. Even so, we managed to win as many games with him in 2019 as we did the year before.
The next year, the 2014-2018 coach got a head coaching job and in July, hired most of Bolivar's staff at Fayette Ware, even recruiting some of our players. We had only three coaches for that year (2020), and COVID and it was rough. Coach Craft found a job closer to home after that and has had success. Bravo for him.
(by the way, our 2014-2018 coach basically did the same thing to Fayette Ware when he left last year...you can look it up)
We hadn't won more than 3 games since 2019, and we've won four this year. If we can win our last two, we might be the only team in 3A to have a better than a .500 record and not make the playoffs. Thanks TSSAA for an 8-team region. We have come leaps and bounds since we were left for dead. We do not have the athletes we used to have. But these teams have been my favorite to watch. And I haven't missed a snap since 2007.
And one more thing: Since 2008, we have had more penalty yards each year than our opponents. Except for the last two years. That is a sign that things are being done right. No more multiple personal foul games, which was the calling card of Bolivar Football the previous 13 years. You can look that up too.
We've never been in better shape, at least not since 2008, in my opinion. I don't know what the future holds, but I hope it's with these coaches and these kids.
