It is officially the holiday season. Well, starting next week any way.
We are one week from Thanksgiving. With that a month-plus stretch of the holiday season is upon us. Lots of good food. Time to spend with family and even a present or two might be involved. It is a time of the year when things should actually be slowing down with more days off work from the holidays. It never seems to work that way, though. Things seem to speed up from Thanksgiving all the way to January.
But we should try and do our best to slow them down. Enjoy the time away from work. Enjoy that time with your family. Those are truly the most important moments we have. Don’t let them go by too fast.
Prep Thoughts
What a Friday of football last week. Wow.
Two of the more thrilling games of the night, unfortunately, were losses by some area teams.
The Great Bend game, man o man. That was just downright crazy. I was watching the game’s last drive on stream. Great Bend was calm and in control that entire drive. It’s just too bad the Panthers couldn’t get that game-tying TD. That game deserved overtime.
The Panthers can be proud of their season. It was fun to watch it develop. Week by week Great Bend made the state take little bit closer look until the Panthers proved they were one of the best in 5A.
Another crazy contest was Otis-Bison at Dighton. The 4th and 13 TD catch by Dighton’s David Cramer with one minute left was crazy. I was actually watching that game at that moment as well. Yes I spent Friday evening in front of the computer game-hopping.
But even after the miracle TD catch by Dighton, the Cougars held them from converting the 2-point conversion and still had a chance to tie the game.
When they got it all the way to the Dighton 21 with 31 seconds left, it felt time the Cougars would score. But an INT ended the night and a great season for Otis-Bison.
Now to the two remaining area teams. One win from a trip to the state championship contest.
Hoisington travels to Phillipsburg once again. The site of one of its two losses. It was pretty the first time. It was like 51-21 ugly. And it wasn’t actually that close.
But the Cardinals were more than sharp in their 30-0 dusting of Hutchinson Trinity Friday that I would venture to say most people around the state thought would be the last game for Hoisington. Phillipsburg was upset last year in this same game. It was at home as well. And remember two years ago. Phillipsburg beat Larned 50-0 in the regular season then had to hold on for a 14-7 win in the playoffs. So don’t count the Cards out.
Central Plains did something it hadn’t done since week two. Give up a touchdown. In fact, Hoxie went right down the field, scored and led 6-0. It was the first time all year the Oilers trailed. How did they respond? By scoring the next 54 points and ending the game in the third quarter. Impressive.
St. Francis pays a visit to Claflin in a game that will take place Saturday afternoon. The winner will be the favorite to win the state title the following week. At this point, I see no reason to think that won’t be the Oilers.
Former Barton Athlete/Coach update
Squeaky Wilkins is off to a pretty start at Western Michigan. The 6-6 forward who helped Barton a berth in the quarterfinals of the NJCAA Tournament last season put in 20 points, grabbed six rebounds and handed out four assists a win over Oakland Tuesday.
The Broncos are 2-1 on the season with Wilkins averaging 12 points, five rebounds and three assists so far. I am a Western Michigan this season for sure.
And Finally
Sometimes, when nobody is looking, we do things we might not normally do.
Perhaps I do drink straight from the milk jug. Maybe I do interview myself about my fantasy baseball team. I might have even slipped that candy bar wrapper under the passenger’s seat of Crystal’s vehicle.
But many a person’s favorite vice is singing in the car. Loud and proud.
The conditions have to be just right to do this. Usually, you are by yourself. Not always. There are some duets that can be sung in a car, right Steve Webster?
But generally, you have to be in a good mood and it needs to be a song from your era.
I did this the other day. I was cruising around town when Queen came on the radio. Fat Bottom Girls. Now, many people in their 50’s have sung this song at the top of their lungs. I have.
The mood hit me right and I turned up the radio and sung. Yes I was sober.
Those who know me know I can’t sing a lick. My mother doesn’t even try and lie to me about my singing abilities that is how bad it is.
But it doesn’t matter when you are by yourself driving with the radio loud. It all sounds good in your own head. I know I hit every note perfectly. That’s all that really matters.
It had been a while since I sung like that. It felt good. And with the Queen movie out now it was kind of timely as well.
We will call it my tribute to Freddie Mercury. I was just doing my part to make the rockin world go round.
We are one week from Thanksgiving. With that a month-plus stretch of the holiday season is upon us. Lots of good food. Time to spend with family and even a present or two might be involved. It is a time of the year when things should actually be slowing down with more days off work from the holidays. It never seems to work that way, though. Things seem to speed up from Thanksgiving all the way to January.
But we should try and do our best to slow them down. Enjoy the time away from work. Enjoy that time with your family. Those are truly the most important moments we have. Don’t let them go by too fast.
Prep Thoughts
What a Friday of football last week. Wow.
Two of the more thrilling games of the night, unfortunately, were losses by some area teams.
The Great Bend game, man o man. That was just downright crazy. I was watching the game’s last drive on stream. Great Bend was calm and in control that entire drive. It’s just too bad the Panthers couldn’t get that game-tying TD. That game deserved overtime.
The Panthers can be proud of their season. It was fun to watch it develop. Week by week Great Bend made the state take little bit closer look until the Panthers proved they were one of the best in 5A.
Another crazy contest was Otis-Bison at Dighton. The 4th and 13 TD catch by Dighton’s David Cramer with one minute left was crazy. I was actually watching that game at that moment as well. Yes I spent Friday evening in front of the computer game-hopping.
But even after the miracle TD catch by Dighton, the Cougars held them from converting the 2-point conversion and still had a chance to tie the game.
When they got it all the way to the Dighton 21 with 31 seconds left, it felt time the Cougars would score. But an INT ended the night and a great season for Otis-Bison.
Now to the two remaining area teams. One win from a trip to the state championship contest.
Hoisington travels to Phillipsburg once again. The site of one of its two losses. It was pretty the first time. It was like 51-21 ugly. And it wasn’t actually that close.
But the Cardinals were more than sharp in their 30-0 dusting of Hutchinson Trinity Friday that I would venture to say most people around the state thought would be the last game for Hoisington. Phillipsburg was upset last year in this same game. It was at home as well. And remember two years ago. Phillipsburg beat Larned 50-0 in the regular season then had to hold on for a 14-7 win in the playoffs. So don’t count the Cards out.
Central Plains did something it hadn’t done since week two. Give up a touchdown. In fact, Hoxie went right down the field, scored and led 6-0. It was the first time all year the Oilers trailed. How did they respond? By scoring the next 54 points and ending the game in the third quarter. Impressive.
St. Francis pays a visit to Claflin in a game that will take place Saturday afternoon. The winner will be the favorite to win the state title the following week. At this point, I see no reason to think that won’t be the Oilers.
Former Barton Athlete/Coach update
Squeaky Wilkins is off to a pretty start at Western Michigan. The 6-6 forward who helped Barton a berth in the quarterfinals of the NJCAA Tournament last season put in 20 points, grabbed six rebounds and handed out four assists a win over Oakland Tuesday.
The Broncos are 2-1 on the season with Wilkins averaging 12 points, five rebounds and three assists so far. I am a Western Michigan this season for sure.
And Finally
Sometimes, when nobody is looking, we do things we might not normally do.
Perhaps I do drink straight from the milk jug. Maybe I do interview myself about my fantasy baseball team. I might have even slipped that candy bar wrapper under the passenger’s seat of Crystal’s vehicle.
But many a person’s favorite vice is singing in the car. Loud and proud.
The conditions have to be just right to do this. Usually, you are by yourself. Not always. There are some duets that can be sung in a car, right Steve Webster?
But generally, you have to be in a good mood and it needs to be a song from your era.
I did this the other day. I was cruising around town when Queen came on the radio. Fat Bottom Girls. Now, many people in their 50’s have sung this song at the top of their lungs. I have.
The mood hit me right and I turned up the radio and sung. Yes I was sober.
Those who know me know I can’t sing a lick. My mother doesn’t even try and lie to me about my singing abilities that is how bad it is.
But it doesn’t matter when you are by yourself driving with the radio loud. It all sounds good in your own head. I know I hit every note perfectly. That’s all that really matters.
It had been a while since I sung like that. It felt good. And with the Queen movie out now it was kind of timely as well.
We will call it my tribute to Freddie Mercury. I was just doing my part to make the rockin world go round.
Mike Marzolf is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at MarzolfM@bartonccc.edu.
