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A ‘must win’
Andalusia hopes to advance in region tonight
Published Thursday, October 8, 2009
Andalusia coach Brian Seymore said tonight’s region game at Clarke County is a “must-win” for his team.
“It’s got huge playoff contentions,” he said. “I think our kids understand the magnitude of the game. We talked to them about it Monday and told them how important a win would be Friday night.
“I think the kids’ focus is there and they understand what they need to accomplish this week,” he said.
Last week, Andalusia suffered a big loss to region foe No. 1 Thomasville, losing 51-0.
Tonight, Andalusia (3-3, 2-2 in Class 4A, Region 1) will travel down the road from Thomasville to Grove Hill to face Clarke County (1-5, 1-3).
Seymore said the loss last week could be attributed to offensive “struggles.”
“At times I thought our defense played well,” he said. “I just think offensively we struggled. We put our defense in bad situations and the breakdowns on special teams really cost us. I really felt like at times we were asking Deion (Akins) to do too much.
“So, we’re going to take some of the pressure off him this week and let him just hand the ball off a little bit and let some of our backs make some plays with the ball,” he said. “We’re just blessed to have another opportunity to play another week and we’ve still got an opportunity to make the playoffs.”
Seymore said he is “not taking anything away from Clarke County” this week. He noted that four of their losses were to strong opponents.
“I’m telling you, when your four losses are to T.R. Miller, Leroy, UMS-Wright and Jackson — that’s four quality football teams,” Seymore said. “The other loss was a last-second loss to B.C. Rain. So, I don’t take anything away from their program. Coach (Allan) Floyd does a tremendous job with his kids and I know they’ll be ready for us on Friday night.
“For us, we’ve got to put our best foot forward and go out there and play four solid quarters.”
Injury update
Junior left guard Lexius Bradley was injured during the Thomasville game last week when his foot was stepped on. He will return to action this week.
Junior quarterback Adam Zelensky underwent shoulder surgery Wednesday at a hospital in Gulf Breeze, Fla.
Zelensky has been out all season after dislocating his shoulder at practice.
“He’s going to start a long rehab process and I hope he’ll be able to take over in the spring,” Seymore said.
Comments
Posted by bamafootball (anonymous) on October 9, 2009 at 7:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I know this is "old news" to most, but I just learned that AHS band wasn't "allowed" to perform during halftime last week in Thomasville, cause it being their homecoming. Is that true, if so WTF??? Also heard lots of "referee stories" as well, if you know what I mean. Not saying the refs caused AHS to lose at all, but rumors are, they were a lot of awful calls.
Maybe the Dogs can turn it around tonight!
Posted by thugg4life (anonymous) on October 9, 2009 at 7:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Its common for visiting h.s. bands to have a short performance before the start of the game, play a very short show, or not play at all, due to Homecoming festivities. If you'll notice, the home bands have short shows also during Homecoming.
I'm not sure about this, but I would imagine that this might cause some bands not to even show up at all, especially if its a long travel.
Kudos to our band for being there. It is VERY expensive even using city school buses to ship a band there, so for the band to go knowing they couldn't play halftime is admirable.
Also, our kids and band boosters were hosting the A-town invitational band competition with a large regional crowd of several thousand people coming to our stadium the next day. The kids and boosters usually start getting to the stadium early morning and stay until almost midnight. Again, very admirable for the band and boosters to go to Thomasville.
Posted by Dogface (anonymous) on October 9, 2009 at 10:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
thugg4life - You are correct on exactly what happened with Thomasville having Homecoming. It was good of the band to show up with that taken into account. The only problem I had was the band left at the start of the 4th quarter. Now, I know you think they left because they had a long drive and were hosting the A-town Invitational the next day but, that is not the case. Apparently they had to go by the Walmart in Thomasville before the game was complete to do some shopping. Yes, I am serious about this. Hard to believe but true. They actually did not get home until after the foootball team. The football players thought something happened to them like a bus breakdown. I am sure this will get all the band people up in arms but it is the truth and I am a band fan myself just telling the truth here.
While I am at it I may as well really get everyone upset. Why does it take 4 or 5 games into the season before the band puts on a full halftime show? You ever notice this? I know there is much to learn to put on the full show but we would not accept our football team not being prepared for the season. For example, if the coach said we have not had enough time to put in our kicking game he would be ran out of town! How about if he said we have only had enough time to work on our defense so we are not going to play offense. Sounds crazy doesn't it. I am not saying that the football team is great and all areas of the team are fully prepared and perfect at the start or even the end of the season but they are able to play every aspect of the game at the START of the seaon. So, why do we let the band director get away with it? The band is great and the band director is great but someone is being paid to do a job and not doing the full job here. That is just the way I see it. I am sure I will have tons of people tell me how wrong I am.
bamafootball- The officials were terrible. Reminded me of a Pike County game a couple of years ago. However, that is not what lost the game for the Dawgs. Honestly, bad calls went both ways however they did really hurt Andy the most. The final outcome would have been the same but maybe a different score.
Posted by mbishop (anonymous) on October 9, 2009 at 11:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Well, half-time shows are long and drawn out. You have to remember sets and counts and when to mark-time and when to halt and when to high step and when to put your General Effects in exactly where you're at on the field and where the people around you are at because sometimes you have to fall in line instead of be exactly where you're supposed to be at. On top of that you also have to remember all the half-time music which generally consists of about 3 songs, sometimes four if you throw a drum feature in the mix and those are usually the hardest too march because you're really not playing much. Plus you have to learn stand songs and new stand songs so that you can play at pep rallys and in the stands during the game. On top of that you have to spend alot of time teaching rookies that are not that great how to march correctly and how to play different music they've never seen before. In football you don't play your rookies that don't have much experience, the band marches everyone.
Posted by Dogface (anonymous) on October 9, 2009 at 12:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
mbishop- I understand and it is all alot to learn. The same thing can be said for football. Any idea of how many rules one offensive lineman has to learn for one running play based on the many, many different type of defensive fronts and assignments each player has to learn for one offensive or even defensive play? I know there is much more than meets the eye when it come to marching and playing in the band. In fact, the same could be said of any other athlethic or artistic endevour.
My point is simple. The football team and the band have exactly the same amount of time to prepare for the opening of the season. The only exception is football does have a rule that does not allow them to start organized practice before a certain, set, specific date as do all high school sports in Alabama. I am simply saying get it done. Do the job you were hired and are being paid to do.
We have a great band at AHS no question about it. However, it would be nice to see them do a full show before the season is half over. In fact, with the way the schedule is for the rest of the season it is conceivable that some fans will not see a full show all year. We only have one more home game this year and it is Homecoming. Will they do a full show then?
By the way, tell the rookies on the football team they don't have to learn all the plays, assignments, rules, gaps, and the many other things they have to know for a single play. I would love to see and hear their response.
Again, I am not trying to say one is harder than the other or one is better than the other. I simply see two sets of standards being applied for a job my tax dollars go to pay. Is it wrong for me to expect more?
Posted by mbishop (anonymous) on October 9, 2009 at 12:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)
dogface trust me I know I played football for two years in school but, i j/ didn't enjoy being a practice dummy but, i do know how much you have to learn to play offensive line cause that's what I played but, it's much different and we don't have the same amount of time to practice as football regardless of whether or not we have a set time before we can practice.
Posted by pingbalata (anonymous) on October 9, 2009 at 2:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I love a good band myself. Instead of asking the AHS band to do a whole show at halftime lets have a guest band each week. We could have the Johnny Mott band one week, the Bobby Spears band one week, and maybe even Milford Colvin could be persuaded to play. I'd pay to hear "hang my hat" and the classic 'SeeSaw". Just a suggestion...
Posted by thugg4life (anonymous) on October 9, 2009 at 2:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I sort of see your point about leaving, but have a heart!
Dunno the full facts about the Walmart stop, but most of the time on longer trips, he lets them stop to "take care of business" and change, etc, since they don't have bathrooms on the bus or locker rooms. I don't know if football players can use the visitor locker rooms after games (probably not).
Stopping at Walmart for 15-30 minutes doesn't mean they will show up to A town at 1 in the afternoon instead of 9 in the morning. I know, I know, leaving 30 minutes later from the game wouldn't make that much of a diff either.
I don't begrudge them for stopping outside of town to take a break. Football team/cheerleaders could do it too; I don't care.
Not slamming the football team, but I also don't see staying in the 4th quarter would really have gotten a rally going anyway. How many fans were left? I don't know, I wasn't there.
As far as speed, I don't know why they got in later, or how late was it, 5 minutes-1.5 hours?? Maybe the football bus driver needs to be in Nascar or something, I haven't a clue.
Band director does do his job (very well I might add). He also has other jobs to do also at the school. Did you know he coaches of some of the sports? Of course he didn't coach during summer, but gimme a break, he's top notch.
Try to get a kid to do something you want. Multiply it by getting 100+ of them to do it at the same time while playing music in unison and see how that's like herding cats. I know football practices alot also, but you don't have the full team out there at one time running the same play.
Plus, these are high school kids. Just as you don't see Alabama/Auburn caliber football, you won't see that with high school bands also. Some of them can't even drive a car yet!!
Whatever, get off them please. Consistently, year in and year out, the band is one of the best in the state, as the scores at competitions prove.
I can't even play a kazoo or catch a football, so my hats off to all of them, band, cheerleaders and football team.
Go Dawgs
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