KFDM COOP Posted December 13, 2008 Report Posted December 13, 2008 Dayton takes ‘Bronco Fever’ to Georgetown By Dave Rogers Published December 13, 2008 Guess the ‘Who’s Your Daddy?’ sign ran out of room. So Jim Smesny, owner of Dayton’s Farm & Ranch Supply, took down the names of all those the Dayton Broncos have already vanquished in this year’s playoffs and went another route this week with his sign on Highway 90. “Tivy-Flavored Deer Stew – Saturday at Georgetown,†the sign said this morning as the citizens rolled up the streets behind them and headed to the north side of Austin for this afternoon’s Class 4A Division II state semifinal game. The Broncos, 12-1, play 12-2 Kerrville Tivy at 2 p.m. today at Bernard Birkelbach Stadium in the Georgetown ISD Athletic Complex. As usual, Dayton’s 5,000 citizens are going mobile. “We’re going to have to get ahold of the police and get extra security in town,†Smesny said. “It’s going to be a damn ghost town.†Both Tivy and Dayton are poised to make history as neither school has been in a state championship football game before. Tivy’s Antlers went to the state semifinals in both 1987 and 1988, losing both times to West Orange-Stark. “We’ve just never got over the hump,†Tivy coach Mark Smith said. “A lot of things have to go right.†The Broncos went all the way in Class B in 1931 and again in Class A in 1941, according to records posted on Texasfootball.com. But back then, teams in the smaller divisions were allowed only to compete for two rounds. After wins in bidistrict and regional games, that was it. Dayton had never played more than three rounds of playoff games until last year and now, the 13th straight playoff season under coach Jerry Stewart, the Broncos are in the fifth round for the second straight year. They’ll need to go to round 6 to have a shot at the state title next week, against either Sulphur Springs or Everman. The District 19-4A champ, Dayton has logged playoff wins against Livingston (39-28) Elgin (42-14), Terry (28-13) and Brenham (42-21). At each game, the Broncos fans did their part to put their opponents in a purple haze. “The last couple of weeks, at Katy last week and at Conroe the week before that, we had about 4,500 fans,†said Larry Wadzeck, the radio voice of the Broncos on KSHN-FM for the past 26 years. Dayton’s Bronco Stadium, renovated in 2005 and 2006, has more seats (6,000) on the home side than Dayton has people, but the home side is always full. “There’s a lot of people on the outskirts (of town),†Wadzeck said. Between the Thanksgiving holiday and the official start of Christmas shopping season a couple of weeks ago, a visitor to Dayton then could have left thinking the playoff push was being taken for granted. Smensny admitted as much back then. “But it’s fully caught hold this week,†he said Friday. “It’s been tremendous.†“We stay fired up all year long,†Lori Tapley of the Dayton Chamber of Commerce said. “We love our Broncos and we stay fired up all year long. “Our stands have been full, all of our windows are painted. As far as Bronco Fever around here, it’s booming.â€
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