CardinalBacker

I can't speak for AHUDDLESTON, but many Kirbyville residents have openly questioned whether not Dr. Wallis could have pulled the trigger. The more this drags on, the worse it looks for Kirbyville. In most places, firing a principal for boofing his secretary is the only reasonable course of action... regardless of how charismatic the principal is. The good news is that all of the people of Kirbyville will get to share in any buyout of Dr. Wallis's contract should the school board opt to go a different way, and will no doubt pay for any settlement that the grieving family ends up receiving. So, when the citizens of Kirbyville are saying "I'll bring the diesel! You'uns fetch some matches! We'll meet up at the schoolhouse!!!," remember to yell "and we can all pay higher taxes!!!!" It's way too late for the school to replace a super, assistant super, high school principal, assistant high school principal, and junior high principal in less than two months. I doubt they can come up with enough candidates, much less good ones on such short notice.

Sounds like a party. I'm so ready for tackle football season.

C'mon! You gotta have a little faith in the locals! I wonder if we'll still have our first scrimmage against you guys again this year?

I thought all of y'all were boycotting that place.

I like to think that God isn't too impressed with those people from the Westboro Baptist Church and their "God Hates (gays)" signs.

Those are pretty subjective observations. Some people feel that both are sinful, and a lot of folks think that neither is sinful. I have my own convictions on the subject(s), but it's not my place to force my convictions on others. I think that's where we go wrong so often. I have to believe that it's wrong for me to particpate in some activities... if you don't feel like the same activities are wrong, then that's between you and your Creator....not my business. I guess we'll all find out for sure when we're standing tall before The Man.

I don't think any of the sins you mentioned are worse than homosexuality. The difference is that if you have the opinion that those behaviors are immoral, you aren't labeled as a hateful person.

We were taught that when the Bible warned the church about being "unequally yoked" it was referring to interracial relationships. I also was told that it referred to marrying non-believers rather than condemning interracial relationship. The good news is that we have become much more accepting as a society concerning interracial relationships. I worked up North 20 years ago and they were way more accepting than us in that respect. As a Christian and believer in the Bible, it saddens me that the word of God is now considered "hate speech" because of its unmistakable labeling of homosexuality as sinful.

Baker is fast. He started at the wing this year. Caleb Dubois will be a senior. He was the JV QB in 2015 while Camden Dubois started varsity. Missed the 2016 season recovering from surgery. Lefty, smaller than Camden or Trahan, but has a better arm, allegedy. I just haven't heard anybody say if he's playing football this year. The line is a question mark. The group that graduated started together for three years. The group that will be sophomores this year seem to be very similar and had a lot of success as a unit last year, but that wasn't against varsity defenses. The good news is these linemen have already been in Dubois' system for two years already. I think we'll be fine if they've been killing it in the offseason. But if they struggle, we'll be in trouble... finishing 3rd or 4th and getting sent home in the first round.

Draper will be replaced by Sophomore Alex Lara who had surprising success filling in for Draper last year. We'll have Max Baker returning and I expect to see Coach Dubios use Hunter Denton more on offense. I'm under the impression that Caleb Dubois will be back under center. It's the role players I'm concerned about. The entire O line graduated. Silsbee with a lights-out D would be scary.

The bad news is that Dr. Wallis is just over two months into what has to be at least a two year contract, and based on his resume I don't expect him to have been hired cheaply. My guess is that unless the ISD has $300-400k dollars lying around (which they don't), he's here for the long haul. You can absolutely fire him, but unless it's "for cause" the citizens of Kirbyville will still owe him the balance due to him. The sad thing about the Wallis hire is that Kirbyville is almost certain to never land a super with his proven record of success at previous positions. People might hate him, but the schools made dramatic improvements in testing (which Kirbyville needs) and he can manage the business of the ISD like few others can. He's just a prick. I've got a good friend that knows Wallis from before and knows Kirbyville. We talked two months ago about how this was going to end badly.... I just didn't expect this badly or this soon.

Silsbee did, too. There. I did Aggie's heavy lifting for him.

Silsbee ALMOST beat Carthage last year in the playoffs. I think Coach Smith has the program headed in the right direction. If they finish 1 or 2 in district I like their chances into round three.

Y'all are planning on losing to us, WOS, and who else? I predict 7-3, IF we get the quality of play from some kids who were big contributors that we need. We lost lots of kids to graduation. I think we'll start slow and build momentum as district play begins... kinda like the Tigers did last year. I see us handling HF and North Forest, I wouldn't bet against WOS, and we'll have real tests against Jasper and Newton. I think we'll hang on to beat the Bears (sorry LCM17), Cleveland, Navasota. I expect Huffman to regroup and be a DC challenger again this year, and I can freely admit that Silsbee has to be considered as a favorite for DC if you guys can replace some key pieces... but not as many pieces as we're trying to replace. It's definitely going to be a rebuilding year in BC for just about every starting position. Those BC kids had better be ready for one heckuva effort from the Tigers because I know y'all haven't forgotten last year. That's my honest perception. You can expect me to resume being an unrealistic homer as the season approaches.

I have seen my kid(s) come up wrong on a few calls, or not get calls that I felt they deserved. I didn't get ejected over it, if that's what you're asking. "Life's not fair and the world is mean. You're going to get passed over for a promotion you deserve. Tons of cars will fly by you right before you get pulled over for speeding. Your wife might leave you for somebody else... but your ol' Daddy won't be there to cuss somebody for you. And you're not going to get very far out of BC if your plan "a" is to flip your lid every time you feel slighted." For what it's worth, I wonder if we'd still be playing this weekend if so many Cardinal fans weren't trying so hard to take up for the team.

You know, there will always be those guys that can get pulled over for a busted taillight and talk their way into a ride in the back of a new Crown Vic. And still claim it was the cop's fault for over-reacting to a good cussing.

People used to ref because they loved the games and liked making a little extra $$$. I strongly believe that the overall climate of how we treat one another is largely to blame. Why would I want to dedicate my nights and weekends to going out and getting disrespected and possibly attacked? Maybe 25 years ago when you might catch a little heat over a blown call, but to have to hear that crap over every call you make is ridiculous. Every close call an official makes will elicit a prompt howl form whichever side feels like they were wronged. "Love of the game" isn't enough to make most guys want to put up with that crap. Video evidence has made their job that much harder. Now we can pick which camera angle we prefer as evidence that the ump screwed up during his fraction of a second that he had to look at the pitch... and still be carrying on a week later. So if guys that actually love the game won't officiate, who gets left? Guys who just need the money, or guys who wouldn't have cut it as an official back before so many good refs stopped officiating. I'd be willing to bet that none of the "experts" that got tossed out of the stands last week have ever geared up and called an actual game.... but they know the ref stunk.

[Hidden Content] If the conditions continue to deteriorate in Kirbyville, I'm afraid we may see parents actually consider transferring their kids back to Newton.

Oh, I'm onboard with the team... I just have a problem with fans who hassle the officials, then act surprised when future calls go against them, too. I wasn't at the game... but I wouldn't have gotten tossed out and possibly hurt my team in the process, either. I'm a diehard BC fan, but I'm not dedicated enough to blindly support our fans and players abusing the officials... regardless of how bad the officials are.

I heard the same report.... I was under the impression that the kids were fighting each other.

Vidor would have a problem if they ever started winning.

Well, on a plus note, I didn't see any BC or CS kids throwing punches or fighting among themselves as was previously reported. BC kids were out of line, no doubt. No excuse for that at all. Very disappointing. I don't have a problem with discipline being handed down from the UIL. I'll be very disappointed if Landry/Dubois don't make a very strong statement by punishing the kids who touched or aggressively approached the umpire. That's not who we are. Back to my original thought that was misunderstood by a lot of the faithful. You have to wonder if this whole situation was worsened by the behavior of some BC fans. I'm not justifying the calls.... I wasn't there and the video of the at bat in question looks bad, but who knows? I DO know that multiple fans from BC were ejected from the game prior to this altercation. Did their behavior improve the umpire's performance? Apparently not. How are players supposed to react when they've got an hour's worth of "Hey, Blue.... you're blind..... You're horrible..... Got to hell," etc, etc.? How can you expect kids to respond appropriately when their fans (and possibly family) have been disrespecting the officials for an hour or better? Nothing good comes from bashing the officials.

I dont know. Somebody posted a story saying that the current secretary posted on fb that the "affair" occurred between the principal and his old secretary... and the new secretary has been on the job for a year. Doesn't explain why admin had the secretary writing up an account on the day of the shooting. Boy, can you imagine the mess if it turns out that the super was mistaken and thought the affair that everybody knew about was with the current secretary? I don't see the super still being the super at the first of next year.

It all comes down to the judges... and those guys are typically music wonks. I remember a few years ago when some band played nothing but cartoon themes and the crowd(s) loved it. I'm sure the judges would hate that routine in competition. We were told two years ago that one of the three judges scored us poorly because we had a patriotic theme.... Not because the judge was a commie, but because the judge felt that we were playing to the cheap seats by playing taps, etc.... It's totally subjective. It's also a fact that most of the directors are friends, colleagues, proteges, etc... they really look out for each other at contest time.

As a sign of new-found maturity, I shall let this go forth and spare my typical criticisms.