Position Photos and St. V's Grand Opening

Couple of quick announcements today. First, I've put the position group photos in our 2013 Team Picture photo album here. Good stuff.

Second, St. V's is having a grand opening of their Clay Terrace location. I wanted to pass along the details...

As many of you already know, we have opened a new SVSP location within the Clay Terrace Mall at 14455 Clay Terrace Boulevard, in Carmel, Indiana. We would like to invite you to attend the Grand Opening of this facility on September 5, 2013 from 3-7pm. It is open to the public and no registration is required.

Below are some highlights to the evening:

•  Live broadcast with JMV and 1070 The Fan
•  Professional athlete appearances 
•  Coach Matt Painter appearance 
•  Facility tours and demonstrations including the Alter G anti-gravity treadmill 
•  Drawings for Nike sports gear 
•  Special grand opening pricing on Performance Training classes 

SVSP Clay Terrace Features all the services you have grown accustomed to at SVSP Northwest, including: Athletic Injury Rehab, Performance Physicians (and 8-10am, M-F acute injury walk-in clinic), Performance Psychology, Performance Nutrition, and Performance Training. We will also have customer appreciation activities at SVSP Northwest, with a complimentary recovery beverage from our partners at Rockin' Refuel, the chance to win 12 free Performance Training class sessions, and discounted pricing on training classes purchased between September 3 - September 7, 2013.

Avon tomorrow. Fins up!

#RockReport - Freshmen and JV

JV

The JV Football Team started the season with a big victory over Harrison, 30-0. After a scoreless first quarter, they showed that they had the resolve to win with a 30 point onslaught all in the second.

Offensively, the Rocks were able to move the ball up and down the field thanks to the outstanding work by the O-Line, anchored by Zach Krieg and Jonathan Mendoza. Brandon Karsnick started the avalanche of scoring with a 60 yard sweep around the edge where he made half of Harrison’s Defense miss.  He also scored on a hard fought 5 yard run near the goal line. Nick Henderson was a deep threat for quarterback Sam Trompen. The two met up multiple times for big gains including a 20 yard fade into the corner of the endzone for a touchdown. Max McCool, Bryce Sears, and Nick Henderson also caught 2 point conversions from Trompen to help extend the lead.

Defensively, the rocks played fast, played smart, and played physical, harassing Harrison’s quarterback with multiple knockdowns and sacks. The highlight of the night was during a QB scramble when Chris Davis tipped a pass and Ben Huntley picked it off and ran it back for a touchdown. The Rocks secondary also contributed by intercepting the quarterback another two times; Jamarcus Davis and Jacob Eccles teamed up for one and Ryan Rubicz finished the night with another.

In the special teams phase, Gavin Cross was a heat-seeking missile on kickoffs making multiple tackles and Jamarcus Davis made an outstanding play for the punt team to save a turnover and change field position.

The JV Rocks will be at home next week as Avon travels to town on Saturday the 31^st at10:00 am.

Freshmen

The Freshmen Rocks football team beat Harrison last night 27-13. It was a great job by all of the Rocks. The first touchdown came off of a halfback pass from Caleb Sandburn to Evan Manley for 8 yards. The Rocks then added another long touchdown from Andy Sweet to Evan Manley again for 56 yards. The third touchdown was scored on a 3 yard run from TJ Trizil. The final score of the night was from Jackson Garrett on an interception returned for a touchdown. The defense forced 3 turnovers with Liam Jagow getting an interception also. Juan Obergon recovered a fumble. The Rocks travel to Avon on Saturday, August 31 at 10 AM. The Rocks are off to a 1-0 to start. 

#RockReport - Harrison Varsity

Varsity Football stood strong against Harrison on Friday night, rolling to a 42-13 victory over the visiting Raiders.

Offensively, the Shamrocks jumped out to a 35-0 lead by halftime, capitalizing on several extra early possessions. Frank Grimes shredded the Raider defense behind the stellar blocking of the Rock O-line. The Westfield ground attack was unstoppable all night.

The Rock defense generated 6 turnovers by halftime. Keyonte Crawford destroyed the Raider front five, delivering a performance that Harrison’s QB will have nightmares about for weeks to come. The big play of the night came from Josh Beer’s scoop and score of one of the many forced fumbles. Turner Edwards added consistent play to a defense that remained impermeable until very late in the game.

Shamrock Special Teams contributed to the victory as well, led by Wes Gagnon and the consistent play of Luke Peters. Field position often favored Westfield, and Harrison couldn’t get anything going in this phase of the game, either.

Special mention should be given to Colin White, Jacob Eccles, Noah Smith, and Sam Trompen. These Rocks made significant contributions in preparing the team for the Friday contest. They stood strong throughout the week, providing the best possible look for their fellow teammates.

Resolve to see Rocks Football next Friday, when Westfield will travel to face the Avon Orioles. Kickoff is at 7pm.

#Gameday - Harrison

The kickoff countdown is rolling over to less than 8 hours as I'm posting this. We're pumped to open the season tonight, hosting the Harrison Raiders. Kickoff is at 7pm. Red Stanley Stadium. Bring your neon green shirt. It's going to get wild.

Beat Harrison. Kenbe Fem. Stand Strong.

Obstacle Course Pictures

Quick check-in here. We're hard at work getting ready for Harrison, but Coach Sattison sent me the pictures he took during the overnight. I plopped them into our Season 2013 web album here. Click through to check them out. Hopefully I'll get copies of the team pictures soon, too. We've come a long way since the first day of camp, and it's only Week 1. I'm excited.

Go Rocks!

#RockReport - Heights

During the season, Mondays are Rock Report days. That's where I recap Friday night's action and give some shout outs to our top performing Rocks of the week. This week we just had the scrimmage up at Hamilton Heights, so we didn't choose players of the week. I'm also going to try to get a link pictures and video highlights when we have them. For this week, I just have a pre-game photo to share. It was a gorgeous August night for football.

It was great to hit a different color for a change, and they have a solid program up there at Hamilton Heights. We're looking forward to opening kickoff this Friday night, at home, against Harrison. Wear your neon green!

Kembe Fem and the Scrimmage Format

To wrap up camp, we had a fundraising opportunity to help a Haitian orphanage that was destroyed in an earthquake. They're attempting to rebuild, and we committed to sell 1,000 T-shirts to raise money for the cause. This would net the orphanage $10,000, enough to replace one of the buildings lost in the disaster. "Kembe Fem" is Haitian for "Stand Strong," and we thought it went well with our season theme of "Resolve." Plus, we're suckers for a good service opportunity.

It was a really short fundraiser. We only had a few days before we needed to turn in the order forms so that the shirts could be printed in time for our first game. I'm happy to report that we made the goal anyway, and are looking forward to celebrating against Harrison on the 23rd. We're hoping to see a sea of neon green Kembe Fem shirts in the stands supporting us and the Haitian orphanage. If you weren't able to get a shirt, feel free to find something that is neon green and wear it anyway. Visibility is always good.

Before we get to the home opener, though, we have a scrimmage tonight. 7PM at Hamilton Heights. Come on out and support the Rocks. We'll be sporting our new road jerseys tonight.

For the curious, we will be following scrimmage format B (as dictated by the IHSAA). The scrimmage setup is as follows:

OPTION B
Note: This scrimmage does not involve the kicking game in any way (i.e. punts, kickoffs,extra points).

• 20 Minute Warm-Up
• 15 Plays or 15 Minutes Team B -35 Yard Line
• 15 Plays or 15 Minutes Team A -35 Yard Line
• 4 Minute Break
• 10 Plays or 10 Minutes Team A +10 Yard Line
• 10 Plays or 10 Minutes Team B +10 Yard Line
• 4 Minute Break
• 12 Plays or 12 Minutes Team A +35 Yard Line
• 12 Plays or 12 Minutes Team B +35 Yard Line
• 1 Minute Transition Break [Entry of reserve players who have not yet played]
• 8 Plays or 8 Minutes Team A - RESERVES -35 Yard Line
• 8 Plays or 8 Minutes Team B - RESERVES -35 Yard Line
• 4 Minute Break
• 8 Plays or 8 Minutes Team A - RESERVES Yard Line of Choice
• 8 Plays or 8 Minutes Team B – RESERVES Yard Line of Choice
• Total Time for Scrimmage: 2 hours & 19 minutes (including warm-up & breaks) (106 plays)

Green vs Gold

Shamrocks played against Shamrocks on Saturday in the annual Green vs Gold game. A good crowd turned out to take in the event, and they were treated to some solid Shamrock Football. There were a lot of exciting plays on both sides of the ball, at all levels. It was a beautiful day for it, and I snapped some pictures from the sideline. Wanted to share before we head up to Heights for a scrimmage on Friday!

Warming Up.

Set... Go.

Wrapping up.

Some Ropes Course Pictures

Coach Sattison will be sending me pictures he snapped of the obstacle course a bit later in the week, but for now I have a few from the ropes course we did later. It was a bit of a wet camping trip this year, but still a lot of fun. I love that we're able to start the season this way!

Get another spotter in there!

15 Rocks on a log.

Don't touch the web!

Left foot. Right foot.

Homepage Migrating

In August, the www.gorocksfootball.com webpage will be shutting down. The Westfield Athletic Department has commissioned a pretty slick looking site for everyone, and we wanted to integrate with the rest of the school. This blog will be staying as-is, but the new team homepage will be over there. I'm working with the web designers to transfer a lot of the content found on the old homepage, so bear with me. It's a little barren right now, but I'm hoping to get a lot of things settled prior to the start of the season.

Big Thank You's!

I've been delinquent in reporting on several key things. Some of you may have seen this stuff already on Twitter, but it bears re-posting. Good news is infectious, or something like that.

First of all, thanks to everyone who came out to the car wash last weekend. It is one of the few fundraising activities we do for the program, so we definitely appreciate the support. I have a pic here somewhere...

I don't think Coach Schlicher knew a pic was happening.

We also were able to successfully defend our Blood Drive title with a record 89 donors! That's pretty awesome, especially considering we are nowhere near the largest school in the region. Shamrocks can definitely mobilize for a good cause, and that's a big point of pride for our program. We love making a difference. The reward, of course, was being able to take the team to see a Colts practice and have lunch. I've got another pic here...

Defending Champs!

Finally, Coach Zimmer's trip is drawing to a close, but not before he was able to tweet out a pretty cool picture from Jordan. I wanted to share it...

Rocks in front of World Wonder rocks!

The start of the season is just around the corner. Our ticker shows 21 days until kickoff. On Monday, we start two-a-days. Excitement is definitely building among the staff and players. It's a great year to be a Shamrock.

St. Vincent Information

St. V's will be supplying our trainers again this year, and we couldn't be more excited. We've worked with them for many years now and always appreciated what they've brought to the field. They wanted us to help distribute information regarding their new sports facility being opened in Clay Terrace. Here's the letter...

Click for a larger view.