On Thursday, I made my first appearance at the Wheatley Heights Sports Complex as the St. Anthony Yellow Jackets played the Lee Academy Rebels. I do have an unpublished list of San Antonio area stadiums that I haven’t visited yet and thanks to St. Anthony, I was able to cross off St. Gerard in Week 1 and Lang Field in Week 3. Two more will be crossed off soon and they are TMI in Week 8 and Central Catholic in Week 11. Lots of firsts and I am loving it (did I just use the McDonald’s jingle?).
That is not the reason why I chose to be a writer and photographer for the St. Anthony football team. I am doing this because I love what I do and the St. Anthony fans, players, coaches, and staff members have all been extremely friendly and supportive. I am also really enjoying communicating with everybody on Twitter, Facebook, and by email. It always makes my day when I see my photos on players Twitter feeds.
I must be honest and tell you that I had to look at a map (I am not talking about the GPS navigation app on my smartphone) to see where Wheatley Heights was located. The map I used wasn’t an old fashioned paper map (I think my wife has some of those). I used Google maps because it allows me to zoom out and I can see an approximate street view of the location.
When I arrived, I was surprised by how nice the stadium was despite being located on the East side of San Antonio (which isn’t the best area of town). The only thing I wasn’t impressed with was that the locker rooms were just a small mobile trailer for each team. I didn’t even mind walking up the bleachers to get into the press-box (yes, no elevator) — it is good exercise. I had to get some pictures of Mark Thomas, the voice of Yellow Jacket football, doing what he does best.
One of the things I absolutely love about being on the field during games is I get to hear all the chatter and watch the interaction from both the coaching staffs and players. With all the moving parts, it feels like a beautifully executed off Broadway production.
Last week, St. Anthony lost to Lytle 21-18. Now, I know that a team coached by Coach Smisek will never put their heads down after a loss, they will learn from whatever mistakes happened in Week 5, and they will be ready for the next game (which just happened to be against a winless team). Basically, what I am trying to say is that had a feeling that St. Anthony would dominate this game.
When the 1st quarter ended, the game was over as St. Anthony had a 26 to 0 lead. At halftime, St. Anthony led 53 to 0. They had offensive and defensive touchdowns and on the majority of them, the player who scored for St. Anthony didn’t even have to break any tackles. It looked easy from my vantage point.
A lot of the larger schools have an advantage of resting starters for the 2nd half when they have a huge lead, but that isn’t the case for St. Anthony since they only have about 40 players on the team. It was really interesting to watch the coaching staff work on substitutions. I almost volunteered to put on a uniform!!!
The final score was 60 to 6 and with that win, St. Anthony improves to 4 and 1 under first year head coach, Kevin Smisek.
Olan Vining, III, the senior running back for St. Anthony had a very productive day at the office. He had 7 carries for 150 yards with 4 touchdowns (all in the 1st half). For the season, he has 891 yards. I think he will easily get to 1,000 yards!! I will be very shocked if Olan doesn’t get any interest from colleges.
Chris Hernandez, a senior for St. Anthony had 13 carries for 66 yards with 1 touchdown and his brother, Diego Hernandez, a sophomore, had 2 carries for 22 yards with 1 touchdown. I got to meet their dad when St. Anthony played Cornerstone in Week 3. I am pretty sure he is extremely proud. The back-up quarterback for St. Anthony, Zach Sanchez, a junior, had 5 carries for 54 yards. On the defensive side of the ball for St. Anthony, Kyle Davila, a junior; Stephen Satsky, a senior; and Ashton Vienne, a sophomore each scored touchdowns.
St. Anthony is now 4 and 1 on the season thru 6 weeks and that is the most wins since 2007. They still have to play Antonian, Central Catholic, and Brownsville St. Joseph in District play. But, all the non-District games will help them tremendously.
Here are some photos from the game:
If you want to see all the photos, please visit: https://thestatmanspeaks.smugmug.com/St-Anthony-Yellow-Jackets/Football/St-Anthony-at-Milton-Lee/
St. Anthony plays the Harlingen Marine Military Academy at Lang Field next Saturday. This morning, I got a text from Mark Thomas, the voice of St. Anthony football, that Harlingen Marine Military Academy has canceled the game. So, if that is indeed true, I hope everything is OK for HMMA and it is very unfortunate for St. Anthony because they will have to practice against each other. Yes, St. Anthony will get a 2nd bye week but I think they would rather play a football game.
Follow St. Anthony football, presented by Little Caesars Pizza, all season long on the Texas Sports Radio Network at www.tsrnsports.com online or on your phone by downloading the TSRN Mobile app.
Here are the games I plan to attend:
Week 8
10/14 St. Anthony at TMI
Week 9
10/22 Antonian at St. Anthony
Week 10
10/29 Brownsville St. Joseph at St. Anthony
Week 11
11/4 St. Anthony at Central Catholic
Please follow me on Twitter @ statmanspeaks and like my Facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/statmanspeaks/.
