August 8, 2019
SULPHUR HS FOOTBALL ON RADIO!!
Sulphur HS Football returns to the airwaves this fall. It will mark the 34th season that Bruce Merchant is the play by play voice of the Tors (Not sure how that is when Bruce is only 31 years old!)
It will mark the first year that yours truly, Jon Fine, is making a concerted effort to serve as a marketing representative for Sulphur HS Football on SporsRadio-1310AM—KEZM
Bruce will be joined by Patrick Frey on color commentary
More on these broadcasts in the week to come in this newsletter
For now, we issue a very warm welcome to several Sulphur Businesses who are receiving this newsletter for the first time. And, we hope you join the likes of the first 3 sponsors we have on the broadcast
A special thank you to: Curl Up & Dry Family Hair Salon, Golden Hooks and Possibilities Counseling Services.
DENHAM SPRINGS HS FOOTBALL ON RADIO!!
Denham Springs HS Football Radio Broadcasts return to the airwaves for the 24th year as a Jon Fine Production in 2019. Josh Ward calls the play-by-play, Andy Duckworth provides color commentator and yours truly, Jon Fine, will contribute to the pre-game, half-time and post-game shows. The broadcasts can be heard 6pm Friday nights, on Family Radio, 91.9 FM, Baton Rouge and on the Internet at JonFineProductions.com… The first broadcast will be Friday, September 6, when Denham Springs plays host to Hahnville HS.
LSU, SAINTS AND MUCH MORE
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HOUSTON ASTROS BASEBALL
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
By the time you read this, it will be just over three weeks until LSU football opens the season. Even crazier, in just over two weeks the college football season will begin August 24 with Florida and Miami in Orlando. Whichever team still has 11 at the end of the game not receiving an IV fluids wins.
It won’t be much cooler in Tiger Stadium on August 31. As we begin to focus on the football season, I think it is proper to admit that I am very excited about the potential of this year’s team. Before I get to that, I want to take one more look at last year.
LSU had no experience at any of the skill positions. The quarterback arrived on campus at the end of July. The offensive line had 2 returning starters. The best pass rusher was injured for the season in the fourth quarter of the season opener. And LSU had one of its more challenging schedules in recent years facing fabulous defensive linemen every week.
Yet, it was a very successful season. The reason was LSU did all the little things. The special teams were great (except punt return). The offense hardly turned the ball over. The games were managed very well. The defense made big plays. These are key ingredients to any football season and nobody can know how the little things will work out until the games are played.
We are in the preseason, though, so let’s concentrate on things we can identify. What if I told you there was a team in the SEC with a returning quarterback who got better as the previous season developed? That team also has a talented junior backup quarterback. That description would fit Georgia, Alabama, Texas A&M, and perhaps Florida depending on what you think of Franks. Except for the backup part. Georgia, Alabama, and Texas A&M all had their backups transfer. Florida’s backup is a freshman.
Let’s also say that team returns all of its top wide receivers who were highly touted coming out of high school. The starting running back is a returner who got half the snaps the previous year. Meanwhile, the #1 and #6 rated running backs in the country were added. To top it off, the offensive line returns 4 out of 5 starters.
Texas A&M returns talented receivers, but loses the best running back in the league and one of the best tight ends. Auburn returns its offensive line, but will be breaking in a first year quarterback with little experience. Alabama only returns one offensive linemen, of course they are Alabama. Florida only returns one offensive linemen, and that could be an issue. Georgia is breaking in all new receivers and tight ends.
Clearly, the team I am talking about is LSU. In referencing last year, I demonstrated how success is more than returning starters. Therefore, I am not saying that LSU will be very good just because they return more players on offense than the other contenders in the SEC. My argument is that any other team in the SEC with the formula of returning highly touted players on offense, like LSU has this year, would be expected to have a monster year on offense. But, due to LSU’s offensive struggles for what seems like eternity, everyone is cautious. I understand the caution, but I will go ahead on record and say that the time has come. This offense will be top 5 in the SEC.
Next week, defense.
I have spent all this time writing about college football beginning, and the NFL preseason has begun. The Saints open Friday. The preseason this year should be considerably more interesting than in recent years. Here are a few things to observe while Drew Brees, Alvin Kamara, and many other stand on the sideline.
Teddy Bridgewater. Without doing any research, I would assume that he is the highest paid backup quarterback in the NFL. Hopefully, the preseason is the only time we will be able to see him play, so I will be looking forward to see him run the offense with the first team (or most of them).
The one position on offense that is in doubt, and therefore most crucial to the success of this season is center. Eric McCoy (78) and Nick Easton (62) are the two players to watch.
We know the top skill players on this roster, but there is considerable depth and interesting roster battles. Sometimes it is hard to tell how the skill players are performing if the backup quarterback is inexperienced. With Bridgewater and Hill, that should not be an issue.
On defense, I distinctly remember watching Crawley and Lattimore play soft in the preseason last year. Crawley wasn’t ready for the season to start and lost his job quickly. Lattimore got off to a terrible start last year. There were rumors that was due to poor preparation. With the depth of the secondary, we should see plenty of competitive fight in the secondary.
In the front seven, there are two issues, and both are on the front line. Is Marcus Davenport going to become the bookend to complement Cameron Jordan? Are any of the considerable number of veterans acquired going to make plays?
I am looking forward to Friday and starting to get some answers.
HEY REF
This was going to be what I thought would probably be the shortest column I’ve ever penned simply because I’ll be asking for help from those individuals that are right now simply not having fun doing what they enjoy doing. So, let’s get down to business; I’ve hit an all-time low after spending just two weeks as a member of the Baton Rouge Football Officials Association. I started my journey of working high school games in this association way back in 1979. Back then this association was home to the best football officials Louisiana has ever had.
It got this way through hard work and dedication from each and every official. We all knew that the only way to continue being the best was to commit to a program where we’d never say we’ve become the best we can be. Simply put nobody rested on what they accomplished the year before because there was this unwritten code that went something like “if you feel you’ve called a perfect game then it’s time to retire because you’ll never call two perfect games in your life”! In fact early on we learned from a shared passion for the game of football that we must learn something new each and every time we walked off a football field.
Oh, how things have changed. There was a time not too long ago when health problems took me off the field. Things turned very serious as an out of control infection in my lower spine had eaten away at three vertebrae and the only thing that the doctors were concerned with was that I’d survive the infection and be able to walk again. The next three years were pure hell as I had to learn how to live with bone taken out of my hip and spliced into my lower spine. It took me twelve long years before I tried to once again walk out onto a football field to enjoy working games once again.
That first meeting back was a complete and total shock for me. Gone were the well-oiled organized meetings. As I took the seat I occupied for more than 15 years I saw members playing video games on their laptops. Some were totally fixed on texting with their cell phones. Some were seated in a ring of 6 to 8 members just in another world and not concerned with the matters being debated on the floor. I felt like I was in an episode of The Twilight Zone.
I’d been in touch with the referee of the crew I was in before and told him I wasn’t sure if I was going to work one final year. He too had the same feelings and told me he hadn’t made up his mind either. As the winter temps faded away and spring was in full bloom we talked again and decided to work one last year together and then call it quits. My white hat has maybe 40 years of service and I am getting close to 30 years so we thought this would be a great way to end this part of our lives.
Well, just hold your horses, not so fast, grasshopper-son! Fast forward to three weeks ago. Since I’d been working in another association the past couple of years the assignment secretary in Baton Rouge told my referee that he considers me a NEW official with no seniority. Even though I’d put in nearly 25 years of service in Baton Rouge’s Association this assignment secretary was pulling off a power-trip and refused to allow me and two members of my old crew one last year of working together. Neither of us could believe he was doing this but after hearing from many of the present day members and former members in Baton Rouge it became very clear that he is running the Baton Rouge Association with two iron fists.
He intimidates the membership and they’ve told me he carries a grudge. Many feel that if they say anything he won’t assign them a game, which they say has happened. As I sat in on two recent meetings I noticed something just wasn’t right. I saw members sitting in their seats with this cold stare as if they were afraid to make a sound. Some looked like little robots or worse little zombies. I’ve never seen anything like this ever before. Grown men sitting quietly, looking into space I guess dreaming of when or if they’ll be paroled.
During my time away from the game I’d talk to coaches in the Baton Rouge area and whose games I’d worked throughout the year. I began to notice more and more of them complaining of the lack quality officials calling their games. The number of veteran officials began to drop off and many have refused to return. I counted just ten the number of officials I recognized at the two meetings I attended. I asked those officials I knew to tell me “what’s up” but most declined to talk about the problems in the Baton Rouge Association fearing the wrath of the assignment secretary.
I asked them why they haven’t gone to the LHSAA’s offices on Old Hammond and filed a complaint. And here’s the reason they can’t say anything, Baton Rouge is the ONLY ASSOCIATION IN THE STATE OF LOUISIANA THAT ALLOWS THE ASSIGNMENT SECRETARY TO WORK GAMES ON THE FIELD AND ASSIGN GAMES FOR THE ENTIRE MEMBERSHIP. This little SWEETHEART arraignment came by way of Keith Alexander the former head of officials with the LHSAA. In my day and in every other association present day the one and only job of the assignment secretary is to assign games. He works for the principals in theory but this little ‘ole honey of a deal came via the powers that be at LHSAA headquarters in Baton Rouge.
So, just a couple days ago I sat down with the newly appointed head of officials at LHSAA, Lee Sanders, and tried to impress upon him that this practice has to end. It’s caused all the Baton Rouge area schools to be in dire straits looking for and retaining good officials that can become great once again if only they’d stop this practice of legitimizing a gestapo type of atmosphere in Baton Rouge’s association. I could feel right away I wasn’t getting through to him because he’s been kept in the dark about the situation in Baton Rouge and he’s still very new to the job so I’ll give him a pass for this one season.
I ended our talk by mentioning a good friend of mine that I’ve known for more than 30 years and is a fellow football official in Baton Rouge that had a stroke a short time ago and was in the hospital. He mentioned his name and I confirmed the name then told him less than a week ago while visiting him at Lady of the Lake Hospital my friend also mentioned how far the Baton Rouge Football Officials Association had sunk. He was also one of the ones that worked our collective butts off keeping Baton Rouge at the top for so many years.
And as luck would have it as I stopped at Lowe’s to pick up some lumber to make shelves at my house I ran into another referee that I knew and he’s still in the Baton Rouge Association. I gave him a quick rundown of my morning’s events and he too chimed in on how bad things are with the Baton Rouge Football Officials Association. What I thought would be a quick 5 minute talk went on for close to 30 minutes. He sighted one instance where he gave a list of officials he wanted in his crew to the assignment secretary as he was asked to do. He still doesn’t know what he did wrong because he wasn’t allowed to work with any of those officials on his list.
I’ve been told many other horror stories of what’s happening in Baton Rouge and its football officials. But fear is a mighty tool and it’s being used with great effectiveness in Baton Rouge. I really feel bad for the schools, players and especially the coaches who’ve got to “gamble” their careers with the lack of good officials. Until the coaches finally get fed up nothing will change because those officials sitting around and allowing this to happen have soiled the work and reputations of many hardworking, honest and competent officials who went before them!!!
Till next week…
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