August 22, 2019
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
More on these broadcasts next week in this newsletter.
SULPHUR HS FOOTBALL ON RADIO!!
The First broadcasts will be the 2 nights of the Sulphur Jamboree on Thursday, 8/29 and Friday, 8/30 at 4:45 pm on SportsRadio-1310AM-KEZM and on the net at KEZMOnLine.com
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 9 sponsors we have on the broadcast
A special thank you to: Curl Up & Dry Family Hair Salon, Golden Hooks and Possibilities Counseling—Mildred Rodriguez, Adkins Automotive, Hometown Furniture & Mattresses, Innovative Expressions and Pumpelly Tire. Coming on board most recently were Casa Ole and Hancock Whitney Bank. We look forward to some more Sulphur businesses joining these enlightened businesses!!
LSU, SAINTS AND MUCH MORE
ArrestedDevelopmentMediaGuides, our EBay store, sells media guides. programs and baseball cards. Please visit JonFineProductions.com and click on icon to get to the store. Check out a full array of New Orleans Saints media guides and LSU media guides and programs and publications from much of the entire sports world. Over 6,200 publications listed.
HOUSTON ASTROS BASEBALL
Catch Houston Astros Baseball on SportsRadio-1310-KEZM-Lake Charles.
5 JOBS FOR JON!
I am proud to be employed by Hamilton Relay as I help facilitate conversations for their hard of hearing clients… So, that means that JF now is involved in 5 ventures (hairbrained schemes?… LOL)
They are: 1. ArrestedDevelopmentMediaGuides 2. Produce Denham Springs HS Football Radio Broadcasts 3. Serve as a marketing representative for SportsRadio-1310-KEZM-Lake Charles/Sulphur 4. Represent PayJunction 5. Work for Hamilton Relay… I (and my creditors) are deeply indebted!
WE THANK YOU FOR DOING YOUR UTMOST TO PATRONIZE SPONSORS OF OUR PROGRAMMING. THIS HELPS US TREMENDOUSLY IN SUSTAINING OUR WEEKLY LINE-UP AND WILL ASSIST US IN ADDING MORE PROGRAMS IN THE FUTURE. KINDLY MAKE AN EFFORT TO LET SPONSORS KNOW YOU HEARD THEIR BUSINESS MENTIONED ON OUR BROADCAST(S)
THE WIZARDRY OF OS
It is game week for Florida and Miami fans. For the rest of college football, we are days away from game week.
The last area of the LSU football team for me to look at is the special teams. We were spoiled for years with great kick returners from Eddie Kinchen to Dominick Davis, Patrick Peterson, the Honey Badger, etc. I certainly came to take it for granted.
I have little doubt that LSU has the players to remind us all how great returners can change a game. Stingley is going to be a great punt returner. Take that to the bank. With players like John Emery, Ja’Marr Chase, and Trey Palmer to name a few, the kickoff return role will be in great hands as well.
The punt cover team should be outstanding again. Improved depth at linebacker with a number of safeties that can run and hit should take care of that. Meanwhile, Avery Atkins should make the kickoff coverage unit’s job easy again by kicking the ball in and through the back of the end zone.
Von Rosenberg isn’t a great punter, but he is experienced and is pretty consistent. That leaves the most important job on special teams, the field goal kicker. Cade York is the name to learn. He has the credentials and ability. If he has the mental makeup, LSU is set for the next four years. Hopefully, he can get some easy ones under his belt to start the year and ride the momentum throughout the year.
As for the sort of football we have been watching with the Saints, it is frustrating because we have yet to see the real team and we hardly will. Brees is most likely going to only play 2 out of 16 quarters.
The good news is that we are starting to get a better picture of what to expect as the sample size increases. As we look at week 2 against Los Angeles (even though I told my daughter three times that we were playing San Diego), we should not lose sight of what we saw in game one as we look ahead to game three.
In two games, I have not seen much pocket presence from Bridgewater. If he slid around better and stepped up sooner, he would avoid a number of pressures.
After two games, I am still disappointed in what I see from Davenport. Any time he tries an edge pass rush, he doesn’t bend well and ends up 5 yards beyond the quarterback. This week, look to see if he is more effective with Cam Jordan on the field. As a matter of fact, let’s see if Jordan’s presence helps the whole defensive line. The one area the Saints tried to address on the cheap was the pass rush, and I have yet to see signs of improvement.
One trend that is headed in the positive direction is Deonte Harris on punt return. He makes the first man miss every time. Considering the Saints have kept Tommylee Lewis the last two years, I have to think Harris makes this roster. He is better than Lewis, and no receivers have stepped up to catch my eye as the fourth or fifth receiver. Not to mention that a great kick returner will impact the game more for the Saints than the fifth receiver.
Another positive trend has been the push from the offensive line. In both games, 4 yard runs have turned into 7 yard runs because the offensive line has had the defensive line on skates. And the Chargers and Vikings have very good defensive lines.
Considering we will have only 2 quarters to see Brees with the offense, here are a few things I want to see.
Brees to Cook over the middle. This aspect of the offense that has been missing since Jimmy Graham left.
McCoy with Brees. It is obvious that the Saints hit the jackpot with McCoy. All that needs to happen is from Brees and McCoy to communicate smoothly and minimize pre snap issues.
I want to see Humphrey get some work with 2nd team. He is clearly better than third stringers on defense athletically. I want to see him in the first half.
Finally, I am hoping for a candidate to be the third and fourth receiver to show chemistry with Brees. I don’t care if it is Smith, Cobbs, Carr, Butler, Humphrey, or Harris. Someone needs to show they can handle that role. But there isn’t much time for things to happen because after halftime, it will be over two weeks until we see Brees and the real Saints offense again.
HEY REF
I know everyone has heard that old saying in which you don’t throw away a bunch of apples because one of them is bad. That may be good as long as the subject is apples but when the subject is high school football officials…
That singular bad apple will not only ruin it for those of us that are working hard to improve the quality of officials in the Baton Rouge area but will in time destroy everything that makes Friday nights special in south Louisiana.
As I talked with some of my fellow officials the last six to eight weeks they’ve made it very clear that changes need to be made and there is no time to wait or waste in making those changes. I earlier wrote some of their concerns they shared with me and they continue wanting the LHSAA to make the needed changes. But they don’t see anything changing and it’s very frustrating. I asked each one if they’d gone to the LHSAA and filed a complaint but I knew the answer long before I asked that question. Let’s just say it would be suicide to do anything close to that.
I’ll share this story with you. There was a crew of officials well just three out of the five members were still working on the field. One had 40 years’ experience while another had close to that many years and the third had 25 years, 20 in Baton Rouge. Those three officials basically retired after last season and weren’t returning for another year. But as the summer got closer they started talking about working one final year together. They decided they’d come back this year for one last year.
All of these officials had worked multiple big games, many playoff games and all had worked state championships in the Dome. Together the three officials had 105 years’ experience. They then asked two other officials to join their crew which added 40 more years’ experience which gave this crew a total of nearly 145 years combined experience. Ask any coach if he’d have a problem with a crew calling his games that had a combined 145 years’ experience.
This crew wasn’t allowed to work games in Baton Rouge because of the assignment secretary wouldn’t allow them to work together. He still wouldn’t allow this crew to work games in Baton Rouge even after learning this was going to be the last year these three former crewmates are going to work. So, to all the coaches in Baton Rouge all I can say is this; it isn’t hard to figure out the reason why you can’t get a hard working competent crew to work your games.
Too many officials feel abandoned by the LHSAA and it shows as the number of officials returning from year to year continues to drop. Many have said they’re fed up and have just walked away. Others have told me that if something isn’t done they’ll do what so many have already done and that is simply don’t come back. One official that’s been calling in Baton Rouge for about ten years would only say he’s disgusted because of the money he’s had to “invest” from year to year. That’s a very common complaint since the LHSAA and the principals group now demands that all officials must attend a state sanctioned camp every two years.
Costs per official to attend these camps can run from about $400.00 to $600.00 or more depending on the location of the camp, travel expenses such as gasoline, hotel rooms, meals, etc., etc. Camp attendance was mandated a few years back when the officials threatened to strike if they weren’t given a pay raise. So, at the end of the day any extra money in fees the officials thought they would be earning simply went to pay for these camps.
And the KICKER is at each camp five associations MUST send a crew of officials to work a game. And if you don’t send a crew to work for nothing then in December the LHSAA takes a Finals Championship game in the Dome away from that association. This is another problem the officials have with the LHSAA. The LHSAA claims its officials are independent contractors (which is nationwide and being fought in courts throughout the country) but there isn’t anything independent when you’re told what you’ll wear, what you’ll earn, what you will do and what you won’t do.
Coaches before you rant about the officials working your games ask yourself “Who’s responsible”? In today’s America nobody wants to accept responsibility for anything. But I do know where the blame lies on Friday nights.
Till next week… …
DENHAM SPRINGS HS FOOTBALL RADIO BROADCASTS ARE A JON FINE PRODUCTION ON FAMILY RADIO, 91.9 FM, BATON ROUGE and JonFineProductions.com.
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JON IS PROUD TO WORK AS A MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE FOR SPORTSRADIO-1310-KEZM-SULPHUR/LAKE CHARLES.
JON IS PROUD TO WORK FOR PAYJUNCTION AS A MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE AND HAMILTON RELAY IN FACILITATING CONVERSATIONS FOR THE HARD OF HEARING