Freshman Football Banquet

Our Freshman Football banquet will be on Wednesday November the 17th @ 6:30 pm in the Patrick Henry cafeteria.

Hunter's Steak House will be providing tri-tip steak, chicken breast, salad, garlic mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables and garlic bread. Cake and drinks will be provided by the Booster Club.

Dinner has already been paid for players who purchased a Spirit Pack. Additional tickets may be purchased for $18 a piece.

We will be recognizing the players, awarding the Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year and the Top Academic Award winner.

We will also show a highlight DVD of the seasons best plays. If you wish to purchase the highlight DVD, I will be taking orders at the banquet for $10 a DVD and $5 for individual games.

I will be sending the banquet order forms home with the players today after our team photos. The due date for turning in the banquet order forms is Friday 11/12/10.

Hope to see you all there!

Cathedral Catholic Dons 55 Patriots 0

I want to start by saying, the Cathedral Dons were very good. They had some very good athletes and I was impressed by their play and ability. I look forward to seeing them move up the ranks and onto the next level. I sincerely salute you all.

The Dons are definitely the class of the Eastern League and if we are to ever have a chance at them for the next 3 years, we need to get bigger, stronger and faster. And all that comes from working out in the weight room.

We are in a downward spiral and the team is currently in a funk right now. We are making too many mental mistakes and it is too late in the season for us to be doing that. We asked the players to compete. And try as we may, we are just coming up short. After the Dons scored the first TD, you could feel the wind come out of our sails. It was a lopsided game and we will take our lumps like men.

So we will circle the wagons and button it up for our upcoming game against the Lancers of Hilltop HS.

Hilltop Scheduled for Wednesday 11/10/10

We were scheduled to play Lincoln HS on Wednesday 11/10/10. But due to grades and not enough players, Lincoln folded their Freshmen team leaving us without a game.

I called my former co-workers at Hilltop HS in Chula Vista and we scheduled a game with them to fill the void. Hilltop Freshmen Head Coach Mark Flint is a great guy and playing against them is like playing against my brother. We are looking forward to going to Hilltop HS.

Directions to Hilltop:
S/B on I-805
Exit west on H Street
Left on Hilltop Drive
Left on I Street
Hilltop HS on the left side of the street

Hope to see you all there!

Team Pictures on Friday 11/5/10

Our team photos will taken in the PHHS Stadium on Friday 11/5/10 at 1:30. We will be wearing our white jerseys for the photos. I will send the order forms from Sharon Cooley Photography home with the players after practice on Monday 10/1/10.

A team portrait is included as a part of each player's spirit pack. If you wish to order individual photos or more team photos, those prices will be on the order form. To track each player, order forms must be filled out and turned in regardless of ordering individual shots or not.

Scripps Ranch Falcons 37 Patriots 14

Quicksand... that is the best way to describe our game yesterday. We walked into quicksand and the more we struggled, the deeper we got. We tried to do more than we needed and we kept sinking deeper and deeper until we buried ourselves.

Quicksand, is where we were as the Patriots lost to the Falcons of Scripps Ranch 37 - 14.

Mental mistakes were too many to list. Suffice it to say we all know we are better than the product we put on the field yesterday. But through all the dark clouds, there was some silver lining that came out of the game.

I saw our players develop into men and leaders. Several times on the sideline yesterday, I saw team Captains Charlie Martinez and Aaron Ping huddle their perspective units and rally them to stay positive, focused and do the job they were capable of doing. Even back-up LB Colton Barr kept going up and down the sideline passing words of encouragement and maintaining a positive outlook on things.

You can't put a price tag on leadership. You can yell and scream all you want. But to get people to follow you is hard to do. If you can lead people to do things for you because they want to do it for you, because they care for you, because they respect you, then you are a leader. We need more leaders in the world and our players are on the right track.

Our Alma Mater

Back in the day, back when I wore leather helmets in 1979, the Spirit of 76 Patrick Henry Marching Band would always play the Alma Mater after every game. Win or lose. (We didn't lose much) The Alma Mater is our anthem to our school.

All the players and the Cheerleaders would assemble in front of the band and sing the Alma Mater along with the band, all the while, pointing our index fingers to the sky to signify we were #1. Fans, students, parents, players and cheerleaders would sing along. It was a unifying moment for all and has always been the tradition of Patriot football.

Here I am 31 years later and we have gotten away from that tradition. A tradition of being unified as a team, student body and as a school. The Alma Mater after every game was a badge of pride in our school and I feel we need to re-introduce that sense of pride to Patrick Henry High School.

For the last week, I have been working with the Freshman Team to sing the Alma Mater. From this point on, win or lose, as long as I am the Head Coach of the Freshmen team at Patrick Henry, we will always sing the Alma Mater in front of our crowd before we do our victory jumping jacks.

I have attached the words to our Alma Mater:

PATRICK HENRY PATRIOTS HIGH SCHOOL
ALMA MATER
On our city’s eastern border
midst the hills and the sky
home of our most valiant Patriots
Patrick Henry High.
In our many halls of learning
on our fields of play
goals of excellence and honor
always lead the way.
As we march along together
let’s be brave and bold
all hail to Patrick Henry High School
hail to the green and gold.

The 5th Quarter

Freshman football is a developmental program built to teach players how to play football. It is rare to put 2nd string players in during a tight game. The only way to learn football is to play in game type situations.

After the Mira Mesa game, their coach approached me and asked if we could go with a 5th Quarter. I said yes.

The 5th Quarter is an opportunity for the 2nd string players to get some playing time against the opposing teams 2nd string players. It is a controlled scrimmage with coaches in the huddles and monitoring the play on the field. It is a non timed quarter and it is used as a teaching tool for our less experienced players.

On defense, Edgar Delgado, Sylvestre Berdeja, Ben Cooper and Jake Batson were highlight players for the Patriots as Nick Soarse, Jeremy Naughton and Tyler Holmes stood out on offense.