Green Vs Gold Scrimmage

For obvious reasons, the start to this season has been bizarre to say the least. We have no idea what the season is going to look like in the end, nor how long we'll be able to enjoy one another's company on the field. So, we're just trying to work hard and enjoy whatever time we are given to practice and play the sport we love. This group of Rocks has already shown incredible perseverance and adaptability, putting in the effort on their own even when we weren't allowed to congregate. 

We've all been looking forward to getting back on the field, and this week provided some of our first official looks at the 2020 Rocks. We were able to hold our annual Green vs Gold scrimmage this Saturday, and had a blast competing against one another. We wanted to share a picture from the event, just so you all know we're out there working hard and doing our best to appreciate every second we get to spend with each other this season.

 

Stay safe out there!

More Images From State

If, like me, you find yourself curiously addicted to pictures from the State Final, here are another 250 courtesy of Michele Davis. Michele has done a terrific job capturing the Rocks this year. Take a look and thanks for all the hard work, Michele!

Getting Ready For Friday Night Lights

We scrimmaged Carmel on Wednesday, and we'll have another scrimmage down at Warren Central this coming Wednesday. For everyone that came out Wednesday, hopefully you received a very small appetizer for the feast of Friday night football that is coming your way in just a few short weeks.

Along those lines, I was passed this drone's-eye view of our new stadium. It gives you a pretty cool view of the new facility and we can't wait to take the field for the first game that counts. We can't wait to see these (much bigger) stands filled with green and gold!


Westfield High School Football Stadium from Adam Whitaker on Vimeo.

Stadium Update: Field View

We were able to go out and walk on the new field this last week. I took the opportunity to snap a few shots. Can't wait for there to be football played on it!

G, as in Go Rocks.

Red Zone

Going to be stands in the way eventually.

Sidelines!

Click for big view!

Pictures of Rocks!

Recently, we were graciously pointed toward football photos taken by Michele Davis. If you'd like to browse the images, find the links below (or find them all on Flikr here). Huge thanks to Michele! Enjoy!

• JV Brownsburg 40 photos
• Varsity Vs. Avon 34 photos
• JV vs. Avon 61 photos

Special Olypmics Clinic

Each year, one of our favorite activities is the short clinic we host for Special Olympics. It always serves to remind us what is pure and fun about the sport of football. It is all too easy to get caught up in the wins and losses, the highlights and lowlights, standings and schedules. Sports are so much more than all of those things. Thank you to all of our Special Olympics participants for taking the time to remind us...

Below are some more pictures (for even more, check out SOHC's Facebook post here).

Coach G's Favorite Day of the Season

Picture Day

Colts 7 on 7: Pictures

Mick Trompen sent me a handful of pictures from the 7 on 7 tournament. I've started a "2014 Season" album that you can find here. I'll be adding pictures to that album throughout the season (as well as putting some on here), so feel free to browse (and email us any pictures you'd like to share). Thanks Mick!

Great job Rocks at 7 on 7! We had a blast! Here's a taste of the pictures...

Resolved and Returned

I will publish the official Rock Report tomorrow as usual, but wanted to drop a quick note today. As most fans know by now, your Rocks won on Friday night and are State-Bound! We feel incredibly blessed for the opportunity to play in the state finals against Indianapolis Cathedral. What a wonderful opportunity!

A few notes, as I'm sure many of you are curious about the upcoming schedule. Some of this may be subject to change, but here is what we know now:

• Calendar has been updated on the right at the blog with our planned schedule.
• Because Lucas Oil is an indoor stadium, we would like to practice indoors a few times this week. Access to facilities is pending and could alter some things for players (and parents).
• Thanksgiving Day practice will be early so that we can all have family time in the afternoon/evening.
• Friday will have a "send off" event. Follow the team from the high school to the stadium, cheering and honking the entire way if you would like. We plan to leave at 4:30pm for the 7:05pm game.
• Game time could change depending on how the games go prior to ours.

Another important note from Friday night...

As those of you who attended know, we resolved to be good neighbors and organized a collection for the family of the Carmel HS football player who lost his father during the game the previous week. Our goal had been to raise $3,000 to help with funeral costs. Freshmen players circulated throughout both the Home and Visiting crowd, collecting money. I've been told that we knocked our goal out of the park, and the actual figure raised was closer to $7,500! That is amazing, and a real victory for both our fans and Concord's fans, many of whom graciously participated. Our hats off to our visitors, and much respect to a very classy program. This game is truly a blessing when it brings together two great communities for a good cause.

Finally, we are unbelievably grateful for the support we have received all year. We truly feel that our team has been blessed, and we look forward to representing our community (and the north half of the state) well in the upcoming contest. Thank you.

We resolved to return, and we will do just that on Friday. Hope to see you there.

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.

B-D Team Camp

Summer is still fresh, and for us that means leaping into the Bishop-Dullaghan Team Camp. The Rocks are over at nearby Anderson University, getting to down to work. Today and tomorrow, we'll be playing Ben Davis, Fishers, Homestead, Crown Point, Mooresville, Columbus East, and Lebanon. An auspicious lineup to be sure. This is a great opportunity for our team to start the summer off right and pit ourselves against some of the best competition in the state.

67 days left until kickoff.

Coach Carnes, From the Field...

I asked the coaches for an update on our Spring Camp, and Coach Carnes sent me this...

This week has been an exciting time for Westfield Football! Our annual spring camp gives younger players in our program, who are not yet in high school, a chance to improve their skills and learn more about their offensive and defensive positions from varsity players and coaches. Players have had a chance to practice some of the same techniques and drills that we do with our varsity guys to get them ready to play. It has been great to watch these young men develop and learn more about football. We have some truly talented athletes coming our way and we can't wait for them to get to the high school and play for us on Friday nights. The future here at Westfield is looking great! This is an exciting time for Westfield Football. With only four days left in the school year, finish up the year the right way and let's have a great summer! Keep up the good work!

It's a great time to be a Shamrock.

Coach Pribbs and the Habitat Report

Apart from the pictures, Coach Pribbeno sent me the following report from the field...

On May 4th, the high school football team did their Spring community service project. This season we wanted to make a difference locally. We got into contact with Habitat for Humanity to see what we could do around here. They were building a house in Cicero which is 15 minutes Northeast of Westfield. We decided that was the project for us. The only problem was that it fell on a day where many players had other things going on. Some had SATs and some had another sports event. We had about 15 people able to make between players, coaches and family.

Before we started, we made sure to let them know that our work was not guaranteed and there was definitely no warranty! They still wanted us to work, so we got started. The flooring had already been started but we needed to finish it first. We had to glue down plywood, and then have the players come through to nail it down. When they first asked who wanted to use the nail gun, thankfully another lady’s hand went up first. The rest of the players had to do it the old fashion way. Some struggled more than others and needed (on estimate) 14 nails and 100 hits before they finally got 1 nail in the right spot and straight in. Others got the hang of it quickly.

We kept looking around and from time to time some of the guys were missing. Turns out they were sneaking off to eat some donuts!

Brock and Russell had the difficult task of going underneath the flooring and making sure there weren’t any nails sticking out and pick up anything that fell down there. They were picked for this job because of their tall stature and being nimble.

Coach Sturgis showed up and he had a look in his eye of determination. He was ready to build this house and nothing was going to stop him. Oh wait... lunch came and that stopped everyone for a little bit. The church down the road was nice enough to provide some ham or turkey sandwiches, a bag of chips, and some cookies.

Now, back to the building. One of the carpenters (you know someone who actually knew what he was doing) works in one of the prisons teaching the men there carpentry skills. He and the prisoners would build all of the panels for each house. The guys get some great training and Habitat gets some panels which help make this process so much easier. So they had all of the panels built and numbered. Now was the fun part of just carrying these panels up to the house and putting them in the correct spot. No problem with all the great football players… or so we thought. It was funny that every time we needed some muscle some of the guys were missing!

Then, surprise surprise, AD somehow found the nail gun. I sat back and thought our biggest and strongest guy is now doing a job that does not need much muscle while we are asking Mr. Krieg and Mr. Turley to carry some of these big panels!

Either way, we had Ryan “nimble like a cat” Pape, Gavin “Doin’ Work” Cross, Mitch “Handyman” Turley, Nick “1,000 hammer hits” Kreig, and other volunteers bringing the panels up and putting them where they needed to go. Then, AD would hammer it in with the gun. Whenever he was going to use the gun, everyone made sure to clear the area just to be sure we were safe and kept all of our digits.

Overall, it was a great experience and the players really got a feeling of accomplishment. We picked the perfect day where there was a lot of heavy lifting and no painting. After the last experience with these guys and a paint brush, I made sure that was something we were not doing! Thanks to everyone who took time to come and help. Delores (the lady we were building the house for) was very appreciative. I also think the other volunteers were very happy we were there to lift the heavy panels and do all the fun work no one else wanted to do.

Thanks again to everyone! I had a blast, and it looked like everyone had fun and felt like we Made a Difference!

Middle School 7on7 Pictures

Coach Gilbert passed along some photos to me from last night's 7on7 workout at HSE. 40 Rocks showed up to play in the rain! Our 7th and 8th graders are going up against players from HSE, Fishers, and Noblesville over the next couple of weeks. This is a great opportunity for us to get better in the offseason, and it's a lot of fun. I've always been a fan of 7on7's. Feels sort of like organized backyard ball.

I've started a Summer 2013 album online here where I will be adding any photos we receive (feel free to email some of your own if you have some!), and I'll be sharing my favorites here on the blog.

Go Rocks!

#RockReport - JV and Freshmen Results

I was able to chase down a summary from both the JV and Freshmen coaches. Here's what they had to say about their games...

JV (1-0)

The JV Football Team started the season with a big victory over Harrison, 49-6. They were hungry, and they ate.

Offensively, the rocks scored all of their touchdowns on the ground. Elvin Caldwell had three touchdowns and was selected as offensive player of the game. Luke Peters, Trey Stewart, Bailey Partlow, and Austin Dalton also had a touchdown in the game. Senior Dalton had the big play of the game with the 75 yard touchdown run. Ben Wainscott and Bubba Malloy were especially consistent on the offensive line as they opened up holes for the running game.

Defensively, the Rocks D may have broken records with 8 forced turnovers. Brock Ginder and Matt Kinney had two big interceptions. Cam Shaw, Matt Kinney, Bailey Partlow, and Ryan Pape had fumble recoveries as well! The D line had multiple sacks from many players, including Keontaye Crawford and Ben Huntley. Grady Young, Josh Blanton, and Evan Harlan played hard on defense with multiple tackles for the rocks!

In the special teams phase, Daryn Milton blocked a punt and Paul Waite was 3 for 3 on extra points. Ryan Pepiot led the team on net punting with a big kick to the opponents’ ten yard line.

The JV Rocks will be on the road next week as they travel to Avon Monday at 6:00 P.M.

Freshmen (1-0)


The freshman football rocks started off their season with a victory. The game was delayed an hour and a half because of lightning, but that didn’t stop the rocks. Brandon Karsnick scored three touchdowns and all of them came on run plays. Jordan Grimes scored a touchdown after a 10 yard run up the middle. Sam Trompen threw 2 two-point conversions. The defense forced 4 turnovers. The defense was lead by Sam Trompen and Colton Murphy in tackles. The rocks played an excellent game and won 28-12.

Come out and support the Freshman team at their next game when they host Avon on Monday, August 27th at 6:00 PM.

Great job, Rocks! Wins all around!

#RockReport - Harrison

Varsity Football opened their season on the road at Lafayette Harrison. The hard-hitting Shamrocks overwhelmed their opponent, achieving a 27-7 victory over the Raiders.

Offensively, the Shamrock aerial assault was devastating. The one-two punch of Nick Ferrer’s arm combined with an avalanche of Rocks on the ground to put up 27 points. Zane Burtron led a line that dominated scrimmage all night, enabling Ferrer to deliver end-zone celebrations to Devin Reece, Frank Grimes, and Kory Kostecka (twice).

The Rock D stifled the Raiders, giving up no points. (The only points put up by Harrison came from a third quarter kickoff return.) The Rocks were led by the consistent play of Austin Jordan and the stand-out tackling of Mitch Turley. The highlight of the night came when Matt Kinney forced a fumble that was scooped by A.J. Gilchrist. The big man burst out of the pack with the end zone in his eye, returning the recovery for a good chunk of yardage before the Raiders were able to catch up and bring him down.

Special mention should be given to Josh Blanton, Elvin Caldwell, and Daniel Kainrath. These three Rocks made significant contributions in preparing the team for the Friday contest. Overwhelming victory owes its roots to overwhelming preparation and hard work on the practice field.

The Rocks will play their home opener this Friday against the Avon Eagles. Kickoff is at 7pm.

(Edit: JV and Freshmen netted wins for the Rocks on Monday night as well. Great job! I will try to squeeze a write-up from the JV and Freshmen coaches.)

Sheridan Scrimmage

Well, the scrimmage last night was a short one. Storms rolled in, driving us inside. We were able to play against several of the teams there. Frankfort, Sheridan, and Lebanon were represented. It was a fun day, and it's hard to be upset about the rain. Our poor fields needed it. Still, pretty funny that we break the drought on the day of our scrimmage.

If you're not following us through our twitter account (@ShamrockFB), you're missing out. I try to tweet live from the field during our events. I've also gotten the scoreboard running on our home page. You can see the recent "game" score against Sheridan. (I just put in 7 to 7 to make sure it worked). When the season start, I'll be posting live tweets and scores from the box, keeping you up to date even if we're on the road (or you couldn't make it).

Two-a-days start on the 30th. That's less than two weeks away. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling hungry.

Reece Report: Some Long Horns, International Banners, and a Familiar Face

I believe this may be the last batch of photos. Thursday was scheduled to be the last day. Devin should be on his way home (if not back already). It looks like the trip was a blast, filled with both fun and hard work. A pretty neat experience that Devin can take with him and bring back to help the Rocks win a whole bunch of games this year. Here are a the last shots...

Those are some long horns.

Banners at the hotel HQ.

More than just Sweden was involved.

They play football in France?

Made some new friends.

Taking the field.

"You're on."

Replay looks like a TD to me.

Watch the snap.

Recognize that Trainer?

Once a Shamrock, always a Shamrock. Family.

Scrimmage vs. Pike

As I mentioned yesterday, the Shamrocks had a scrimmage against Pike Tuesday night. I managed to snap a few pictures in between plays. It was a fun evening, but not our best energy level. We need to keep the throttle on full if we want to achieve all the goals we've set for this season. We can't afford to take days off, especially going up against a team the caliber of Pike.

Still, there were some good things, and it's always a great day to be a Shamrock. Especially when you get to play football. Every play, every down is a blessing... and it will all end sooner than you'd like. We'd do well to keep that in mind.

Younger Defense

Older Defense

Rock O

Sideline view during the scrimmage.

Looking down the field.

Getting read to score.

Reece Report: Jamboree

I'm running about a day behind with all that's been going on. Today we'll have some pictures from the International Jamboree down in Austin, TX. Tomorrow, I've got a few shots of our scrimmage with Pike last night. Not that anyone would confuse Pike's stadium with UT's stadium (no offense to Pike), but I wanted to split up the events.

I tweeted out some of the initial reports from the Jamboree yesterday. It was moved up due to the threat of rain (you'll notice the clouds in the background on some of these). Devin scored a couple of TD's for USA Blue, and had a solid showing all around. Here are some pictures from the event (you should be able to click on these to get a bigger view).

This one's a little grainy, don't know why, but it was a good shot of Devin. 

Those jerseys are pretty sweet, if you ask me.

Action shot against Sweden.

A pretty neat view looking across the stadium.

Sideline, looking toward the scoreboard.