Dear Virginia Tech Football,
Thank you for making my first ever Virgina Tech football game absolutely amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect ending; down 5 points against #19 ranked Nebraska, our defense prevents them from getting a game ending first down, 1:44 left on the game clock, , starting from our 17 yard line, no timeouts left, one broken play turns into a 80 yard completion and soon after another broken play turns into the game winning touchdown.
[Weezer - Perfect Situation]
For the first time in my entire life I will be playing for an All-Star team. I’ll be honest, most of my life I haven’t been good at baseball. Since I was little right-field has been my home (the position where the worst kid on the team plays) but for some reason it was my favorite sport. When I was 14 I thought I could rapidly change my baseball skills during my freshman of high school by devoting the entire year to making the school baseball team. And when I say devoting I mean I have never worked harder at anything in my life, even getting into college, than making that team. At the end of tryouts my coaches were impressed with my improvement but it wasn’t enough, and after that I put off baseball for a while. This was until last summer when my normally disappointing LA Dodgers started to make some moves to make a run in October and my love for baseball came back. Unfortunately I don’t live in an area where the Dodgers are covered much but I make sure to read the recaps after every game. After following my favorite team intently for two years I decided to get back on the field again.
Three years removed from baseball I got back in the cage for the first time, I thought my swing timing would be off but instead it was better than it has ever been in my entire life. Suddenly getting on base became normal and fielding errors were a thing of the past. After I hit my first double last week I stood on second base and simply stopped for a moment and just hit my self on the head. My coached yelled out “Don’t worry about it Shan, just don’t hesitate next time,” thinking I was mad about not going for third base. But actually it hit me, for the first time in my life I wasn’t playing to impress anyone or prove myself, instead I was playing to enjoy the game I love so much. The pitches are faster now but focusing is easier and I’m not as hard on myself as I used to be if I have bad day. My calmness has brought about more patience and in turn more line drive singles. When baseball is played properly it can teach some great lessons. After 13 years of playing I’m finally listening and it has helped me make my first All-Star team.
With College just around the corner I plan to enjoy this summer and there couldn’t have been a better start then going to an Orioles baseball game. Now the Orioles aren’t my favorite team, the Dodgers hold that place in my heart, but watching any professional baseball game is always fun. Driving to Baltimore with a bunch of friends to enjoy a night game, getting a free bobble-head because of “Adam Jones” bobble-head night and witnessing college sensation Matt Wieters hit his first Major League career home-run is always fun. Hopefully I will be able to attend more Orioles games this summer especially when they play good games like last night beating the Mets 6-4.
Somehow, someway, in some world I scored 9 points in my community league basketball game (Chantilly Youth Association). As I explained in a previous post, in the draft for basketball this year I was the second to last pick among the group of 80 some 12th graders. Seriously, I’m not good at basketball but it’s still fun to play organized ball.
I play on Mattfeld’s team and our opponents in this game was King’s team. Before the draft King was the team I wanted to be on because all my friends were on that team. But this year they passed up on me with their last pick and decided to go with someone else. (Quick note; there is some history between Mattfeld and King because in the past few seasons everytime these two teams meet there is always a close game that comes down to end. Not only that but there is a good amount of hatred between the two teams because of the rivalry, so trash talking and hard fouls come with the package) Anyways back to me, this game was perfect for me to set my new personal best with 9 points. Playing the team I wanted to be on who decided not to draft me with their last pick and then coming out of nowhere with a great game. I couldn’t have asked for more.
But for the cherry on top, we won 63-60.
Every year at Chantilly High School there is a dodgeball tournament called “Chargerball” where groups of students can form teams to compete. Ever since it began in 2007 I have captained the Chantilly Robotics team in the competition.
2007: 0-8
2008: 5-3 (4 way tie for 8th seed in the playoffs, won the first sudden death 1v1, lost the second)
2009:???
In 2007 we had a horrible showing, basically making ourselves look like a bunch of nonathletic kids who build robots all day. But in 2008 we got our revenge and almost made the playoffs. On that day we made a statement.
Normally how I have always run this team is by picking kids from the robotics team but with little success I have started recruiting from outside team for the 2009 tournament. Chantilly Robotics Dodgeball (2009) will contain one official member (me) and 6 other temporary members.
When it comes down to a rivalry game all statistics really don’t matter anymore. It’s Oakton vs. Chantilly and normally during the regular season these two rivals are fighting for position and bragging rights. But on Saturday the stakes are much more important, they are playing for the Regional Championship and the right to keep playing football. Although these numbers won’t matter at kickoff, here are some astonsihing numbers to show the quality of each team. (All statistics are year totals)
Chantilly:
Chantilly’s Offense has been averaging 30 points per game
Chantilly’s Defense has been allowing 18 points per game
Key Players for Chantilly:
Torrian Pace (RB, #25): 2609 rushing yards, 32 TD’s, 9.4 yards per carry
Kevin McGrath (FB, #31): 752 rushing yards, 7 TD’s, 6 yards per carry
Mike Ryan (TE, #47): 14 Receptions for 250 yards and 2 TD’s
Rodger Strittmatter (QB, # 7): 51 – 108 Passing for 793 yards, 9 TD’s, 6 interceptions and a 76.7 QB rating
Oakton:
Oakton’s Offense has been averaging 36 points per game
Oakton’s Defense has been allowing 17 points per game
Key Players for Oakton:
(*Stats from Madison are not included, they could not be found)
Trey Watts (RB, #28): 577 rushing yards, 615 Receiving yards, 21 TD’s
Jonathan Meadows(RB, #25): 749 rushing yards, 103 Receiving yards, 10 TD’s
Jay Young (WR, #11): 14 Receptions for 246 yards and 8 TD’s
Chris Coyer (QB, # 10): 64 – 115 Passing for 1085 yards, 15 TD’s, 3 interceptions and a 116.5 QB rating, 993 Rushing Yards, 10 Rushing TD’s.
Ryan Harris (QB, # 6): 22 – 47 Passing for 346 yards, 6 TD’s, 1 interception and a 102.5 QB rating
Since Westfield beat Chantilly in week 4 here is how each team has been doing to this date:
Has been 5-2 against a combined opponents record of (45-29)
Chantilly’s Offense has been averaging 31 points per game
Chantilly’s Defense has been allowing 14.5 points per game
Key Players since the Westfield game:
(Stats since the Westfield game)
Torrian Pace (RB, #25): 1448 rushing yards, 21 TD’s, 8.5 yards per carry
Kevin McGrath (FB, #31): 500 rushing yards, 4 TD’s, 6.5 yards per carry
Rodger Strittmatter (QB, # 7): 22 – 45 Passing for 410 yards, 5 TD’s, 4 interceptions and a 80.8 QB rating
Westfield:
Has been 5-2 against a combined opponents record of ( 34-29 )
Westfields’s Offense has been averaging 34 points per game
Westfields’s Defense has been allowing 21 points per game
Key Players since the Chantilly game:
(Stats since the Chantilly game)
Jordan Anderson (RB, #38): 1184 rushing yards, 17 TD’s, 8.6 yards per carry
Danny Fenyak (Qb, #12): 63 – 106 Passing for 871 yards, 10 TD’s, 4 interceptions and a 101.5 QB rating
*(Danny’s Stats from the Oakton game could not be found)
(The winner of this game will play the winner of (1) Oakton vs. (4) West Springfield)
Since Chantilly beat Annadale in week 3 here is how each team has been doing to this date:
Chantilly:
Has been 4-3 against a combined opponents record of (44 – 26)
Chantilly’s Offense has been averaging 31.5 points per game
Chantilly’s Defense has been allowing 18 points per game
Key Players since the Annadale game:
(Stats since the Annadale game)
Torrian Pace (RB, #25): 1255 rushing yards, 16 TD’s, 7.9 yards per carry
Kevin McGrath (FB, #31): 500 rushing yards, 5 TD’s, 6 yards per carry
Rodger Strittmatter (QB, # 7): 25 – 59 Passing for 395 yards, 4 TD’s, 4 interceptions and a 59.5 QB rating
Annandale:
Has been 6-1 against a combined opponents record of ( 30 – 40)
Annandale’s Offense has been averaging 32 points per game
Annandale’s Defense has been allowing 19.5 points per game
Key Players since the Chantilly game:
(Stats since the Chantilly game, *Stats from Hayfield are not included, they could not be found)
Cason Kynes (Qb, #17): 61 – 118 Passing for 1296 yards, 14 TD passes, 6 interceptions and a 109.2 QB rating, 590 Rushing Yards, 7 rushing TD’s, 4.6 yards per carry
(The winner of this game will play the winner of (2) Westfield vs. (7) Herndon)
One thing that I have never understood about high school football in Virginia is how the ranking system works. That was until this past week when I contacted the LRG asking exactly how the system works. Today I got a response for him but since the question and answer was so good they got posted on digitalsports.com . So instead of me having to summarize how it works on my blog, here it is the from the man himself:
http://www.digitalsports.com/article/type/organization/typeid/40/id/44042.aspx
(Hey look that’s me on Digital Sports!)