Highlights: WHS vs Avon

I'll publish the Rock Report on Monday with a better summary of Friday's game. For the weekend highlights, I just wanted to share the results and link to our video area. We played Avon well last night, but came up on the short end of a 20-24 score. Avon punched in the go-ahead touchdown with less than a minute on the clock. A Shamrock heart-breaker to be sure.

Still, the night was not without Shamrock highlights. You can find the team clips selected each week by the coaches here.

Fair warning, some are selected for learning purposes, but we tag the exciting plays, too. So if you see a clip that makes you scratch your head, likely we were speaking to it at film review this morning. Just enjoy the good ones. :-)

We've forwarded two clips to the Indy Star for consideration in their weekly top ten poll (Gilly's play finished 3rd last week, I believe). I'll post a link once the poll goes live, probably early in the week. The plays are:

• QB Nick Ferrer's 80 TD pass to WR Kory Kostecka.
• LB Logan Floor's fumble recovery and 20 yard return for a defensive touchdown.

It also bears mentioning that the team took part in a service opportunity this morning with Kids Against Hunger. I've tweeted a whole bunch of pictures from the experience, and will be posting an article (with reflections from some of our players) in the near future.

As much as I hate losing on Friday, packing 12,000 hunger relief packets this morning felt like a victory of a different sort. Hungry to win. Hungry to serve. They go hand-in-hand.

Gameday: Avon

Home opener tonight! Your Westfield Shamrocks will play host to the Avon Orioles, looking to extend our record to 2-0. Avon has been a particularly tough opponent for us, but this year we're looking to claim our seat at the table. We've prepared hard for this game.

I'm told the theme tonight is "Beach Party." Kickoff is at 7pm. No directions this week, just look for the bright lights in your backyard. Listen for the cheering.

Something new for this week, to remind us of our all the work we've put in (and to give credit where credit is due), I'm going to share the list of PRIDE Pin nominees. A bit of an explanation: PRIDE stands for "Personal Responsibility In Daily Effort." Each week, the coaches select the Rocks in their position group that have shown a high level of personal responsibility, and put forth exemplary effort in all areas expected of them by the coaching staff. This is not just practice effort. This includes efforts in lifting, classwork, self-review of film on Hudl... everything. If any coach can find even one place where a player is deficient in effort, they do not receive a nomination. Three nominations grant that player a PRIDE pin. In our program, this is a very prestigious award.

For week 2, the following Rocks earned a PRIDE Pin nomination:

Renzo Alvarex, Josh Blanton, Jalon Burns, Zane Burtron, Emmanual Calhoun, Sam Coe, Johnny Crawford, Anthony Daugherty, Will Davis, Turner Edwards, Nick Ferrer, Logan Floor, Ethan Goins, Normando Gonzalez, Caleb Graff, Conner Harrison, Josh Hayward, Nick Henderson, Jack Hiatt, Adam Horkay, Ben Huntley, Austin Jordan, Daniel Kainrath, Kory Kostecka, Nick Krieg, Zack Krieg, Luke Lammers, Dan Liebbe, Carson Lorts, Austin Mazura, Eric Miner, Ryan Pape, Ryan Pepiot, Devin Reece, Jacob Robinson, Jay Simons, Evan Slagle, Deryion Sturdivant, Cory Sucese, Jacob Tebbe, Kelly Tompson, Sam Trompen, Mitch Turley, Paul Wait, Ben Wainscott, Sam Walden, Nick Woerner, Grady Young, Dani Hartnett, Patrick Wood, Peyton Lorts, Carlie Crain, Andy Aiken.

Leadership is... Toughness

The game of football requires physical and mental toughness.

Physical toughness means:

• Enjoying the contact that is a part of football.
• Making it a goal to hit your opponent harder than he hits you.
• Being willing to play through the minor bumps and bruises that are a part of the game.
• Ignoring fatigue.
• Practicing with an all out effort, all the time.
• Playing every play as if it were the only one that counts.
• Winning games in the fourth quarter.

Mental toughness means:

• Being self-motivated and self-directed. 
• Choosing to be positive and confident at all times.
• Not being afraid to make a mistake.
• Learning from mistakes and letting them go.
• Keeping emotions under control.
• Enjoying the challenge of pressure situations.
• Having the ability to get pumped up for all types of competition.
• Being relentless in pursuit of goals.
• Developing a long concentration span.
• Never being intimidated.
• Standing tall in the face of adversity.
• Being able to focus on those things that are within your control.

Toughness is the ability to consistently perform toward the upper range of your talent and skill regardless of competitive circumstances. A fundamental component of toughness is physical fitness. Great coaches have always understood the connection between fitness and confidence, and between fitness and the ability to hold up under pressure. Being more physically fit means you’ll have the energy to fight mental, physical, and emotional battles. Becoming physically stronger deepens your belief in yourself. You become confident that you can go the distance; you simply refuse to surrender. You truly believe that you can handle anything your opponent throws at you.

Kids Against Hunger

The season theme for this year is "hungry." You've probably seen it around. We want to be hungry for victory, hungry to compete, hungry to preform our best. We also want to be hungry to serve. We talk a lot about how our football program is about more than Friday nights. Our goal, every year, is to make WHS Shamrock Football the most memorable and rewarding experience of a family member's high school career. That doesn't happen through just practicing and playing games.

Our program is hungry to serve. We have a unique opportunity that being a large family grants us. We have the strength of numbers and the power to effect change, improving lives in our community and world at large. Even in season, we are committed to service.

With this in mind, it's pretty easy to see how we came up with the Kids Against Hunger service opportunity. We choose to be hungry. There are plenty of folks out there who don't have that choice.

We're putting our muscle where our mouth is (or something like that). This Saturday, in the WHS LGI room, the Westfield High School Shamrock Football team, with the help of the WHS Cheerleaders, will be packaging 12,000 hunger relief boxes. That's right: Twelve Thousand. Cans will be flying.

In addition, we're aiming to raise $3,000 for the relief efforts. That shakes out to around $20/player. Larger donations are certainly welcome. We're hoping to hit that mark, because any shortfall will be put up by Coach Gilbert out of his wallet. He committed the amount, and believes in our team to have his back. Let's not leave him hanging.

I'm hoping to post some pictures of the event, and maybe convince one of our leadership council members to relate what the experience was like from the perspective of a player. Here is a picture of the flier if you'd like to print it and pass it around. Please consider making a donation.

Click to for larger view.

Vote For Your Rocks!

Check it out: Gilly's fumble recovery made the top ten vote at the Indy Star. So did Ferrer's deep pass to Reece. We need some votes! C'mon Shamrock Faithful, click through and cast a vote! Spread the word...

#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.)