scoopno1

I was extremely disappointed that Coach Trawhon was relieved of his duties. Silsbee has a reputation of supporting its coaches with one exception. During the past 20 years the fans have never been happy with the baseball coaches. Trawhon had a bunch of young players and injured pitchers to deal with this year. They are good young kids but their talent level does not match some years in the past. The standard is set in recent years by the team that had Kevin McDonald, Joel Schooling and Rocky Calhoun in 2006. None of these kids could play at their level but if you look at the rest of that team, Blake Moss, Colby Hargrave, Craig Force, Josh Skinner, Keith Flowers, Rodney Daigle and Steven Steed they were all more mature and stronger players than the group on the field this year. Despite their youth and lower skill level this group performed well and finished the season nearly at the .500 mark. I think Silsbee has made a mistake and if we start judging coaches strictly by fan opinion and won loss record we may loss most of our coaches in the future.

I've only watched them for 20 years but during time I would have to pick Thad Holden, Chris Pee Wee Martin, Lewis Arline, Donyell Allen, and Sid Wilson as my top five players. I remember Brian Doss... he could shot the three's When he was on a streak it was unreal. I thought he made nine but it could have been ten. Another great outside shooter was Elester Whitmore. Probably the hottest prospect who ever played here was a guy who was only a factor on the floor for one year... Eddie Fobbs. He is now playing in Europe or somewhere. There have been a number of other outstanding players. Everything before 1991 was before my time.

I was probably as close to the floor as anyone. The coach did not yell at the officials but he made comments to him every trip down the court. The official warned him several times and eventually he warned him and the coach responded leaving the official virtually no alternative but to give the coach the heave ho. I think officials are way too easy on coaches. When the coaches are mouthy the players become mouthy. They are just a reflection of their coaches. If officials would kick a few more coaches out then the coaches might spend more time coaching instead of showboating for fans, players and officials.

I am from Silsbee. The Tigers will be strong again. They have a lot of lineman returning. They also have some outstanding defensive players returning. They will have some big shoes to fill in the skill positions. WOS is always tough. They have an assortment of real tough kids. They also have some big shoes to fill. They do a better job of filling them than most people. Jasper is a very good team. I saw them play Kirbyville last year. The difference in the game was that they outsized Kirbyville and forced their will on them. Kirbyville was actually pretty young last year. They have excellent people returning at the skill positions and have a balance of people returning from the whole team. I have watched many teams that went to and won and lost state championships. Most of the time the team that has the best player wins the gold. By this I am saying the team that has the guy who can make plays, make teammates better and change the defensive or offensive schemes of opponents. I expect Fred Ford to be that kind of player. To me he has improved every year. With that being said the "man" has to be surrounded by players with competitive skills.

I watched nearly every AAA team in the area last year. I also saw Kirbyville play. From this viewpoint Kirbyville should be favored in this area. The other top competitors should be in this order, Jasper, WOS and Silsbee. In small classes the team with the best player usually goes the furthest. Kirbyville has the best player at the start of the season and he has a strong supporting cast.

The best team I ever saw was Northside High School in Fort Smith Arkansas in 1969. They are a school about the size of West Brook. They were in the middle of a 34 game win streak. They had two starters who won state 100 yard dash championships (one of them was a 218 pound all american fullback) and another who who was the second fastest guy in the nation in the 440. I believe they had eleven members of that team who received major college scholarships. They beat the Number 2 team in Oklahoma, Muskogee, 28-7 that year in an early game.

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Sure! Will they? I said before the season that if they won one of the first three they would play for the District Championship. The Tigers did win one of the first three. Now they must beat Hamshire Fannett. This will be a test. My guess is that WOS will be first with Silsbee second and the winner of Hamshire versus Kirbyville in third. I have seen Hamshire play and think they have a line that can play with either Silsbee or Kirbyville. I don't know if they have the backfield speed to match the Tigers or the Wildcats. They gave the Tigers a tough test last year and it will be tougher this year.

Anytime you win with two sophomores and a junior in the backfield you are fortunate. This group have a long way to go but they will be special by the end of the year. Not many sophomore quarterbacks rush 21 times for 131 yards and two touchdowns and complete ten of 19 passes for 150 yards and another TD. The offense has good receivers, and a decent line. The Tiger defense needs work but there is almost no experience on the field with this group. They can't get anything but better.

I watched HF last week and see them as an improved team this year. I would think that they would defeat Liberty by a touchdown.