In the coming weeks...

     Things have been really going well with this blog over the last few weeks. New opportunities continue to come my way and it is all very exciting to me. I have nobody to thank more than the players and coaches. From the players responding on Twitter to the coaches that are always very open with me about their team. In all honesty, this is just a blog and no player or coach really has a reason to respond to me. This is all very cool because in the end, I am still a fan.

     In this blog post I will layout a few things I have planned for the coming month before the first games of the season. I have a few ideas I want to toss out there with hopes of a few players and/or coaches joining in.

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Passing Leagues:

     In the next month or so a few teams around the state will begin hosting 7-on-7 type passing leagues. This information is hard for me to find as I basically rely on you guys to inform me. Some teams will have it on their website within a calender and if I have the time, I will sometimes go searching. Frankly, I don't have time to be doing a lot of that and need some help. I contacted coach Dave Miller of Lakes High School and he was very helpful with information of the Lakes Passing League at the end of this month. I hope to attend as many games as possible, but I can't guarantee I will be able to attend any.

     If you or your sons school is playing in a passing league, I want to know about it. You can contact me through email at Ringerland@gmail.com or on Twitter @HSFootballWA. Either way, I need to know. If you can just tell me who the school hosting the league is, I can typically do the rest. I just need to know which coach I need to get in tough with.

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Fall Camps:

     When fall camps open on August 15th, I want to be there. I would like to attend as many practices as possible and preview your school. If you are a coach, please contact me with your schedule and we can set something up. I would like to talk to the head coach for just a few minutes in person before or after the practice to get a few quotes to use here for the blog. I would obviously like to talk to any players the coach feels deserves recognition before the upcoming season. It is all up to the coach how I go about writing my preview of their team. I know what can and can't be said in terms of a preview. It is one thing to say "They will be using a 4-3 defense", it is another to go into schemes and philosophies. When we talk for a few minutes you can tell anything you want, just make sure to tell me if you don't want something posted here. I have coached football and understand how coaches heads work and would never do anything to potentially break the trust of a coach.

     If you are a player and you read/like my blog, it is simple. Pass it along to your coach. Let him know that you would like to get me out to see your team before the season starts. Do that and let me know, I will put you in the preview of your school.

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Trinity Trojans @ Bellevue Wolverines:

     August 30th can't get here soon enough, but before it does, I would like to do a big preview of the game. The Bellevue side is not that tough for me as I am very familiar with the team and have the ability to get more info if needed. The Trinity Trojans are a bit of an unknown to me though. I have noticed recently that I have gained a few followers on Twitter that are from Texas. You are the people I am going to rely on here. If there is a writer from a newspaper that does a great job covering the Trojans, I want to know. If there is a sports radio station that would be able to help me, I want to know. Who are the players I need to ask about? Who are the coaches I should contact? What are any tidbits about the team I should know? Other than the dance they do. The game is less than two months away and I plan on beginning to put the bulk of my post together in the next few weeks.

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Season Prediction Game:

     I will admit right now, prediction games is not my specialty. Sure it is easy to pick the Bellevue game each week. I can even tell you I would've correctly picked Skyline every game last year, except for Eastlake. When I did make game predictions last year, I WAS HORRIBLE! Almost a jinx for teams.I picked Juanita, Inglemoor ripped them apart. I picked Kennedy Catholic, Archbishop Murphy dominated them, even had the QB's mom record me on her video camera at the game admitting I was wrong.

     My plan for a prediction game is fairly simple. I would like to get 5-6 players willing to play along. Each week I will send an email with the 4 games of the week from leagues we all know, SPSL, KingCo, Metro, ect. I will also send out one random game each week from a league almost none of us know, 1B Northeast (8man football), 1A Caribou Trail, 2A Great Northern. One game each week will most likely be a guess, even for me. I will keep weekly standings and hopefully even allow the readers to get involved by sending in their picks.

     As far as players I am looking for. I would like to get 1 from each of these general areas. 1 from each of these areas, KingCo, Metro, Wesco, Narrows and 2 from the SPSL. Now for instance, when I say Wesco, that doesn't mean the kid needs to play in Wesco. I want him to be from that area. I would be more than happy to say get Billy Green from King's High School in north Seattle to join this game. I use the big conferences as a guide more than anything. I would like for the players to be 2013 graduates, aka. Seniors, but it is not completely necessary. This is only because I would like to use new players each season. Would I like high profile names? Of course. That doesn't mean I will only pick the high profile players though.

     If you would like to join, send me an email or talk to me via Twitter. This is a way to get your name out there as I will profile the players helping me with the game.

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College Recruiting:

     In the last few weeks I have been contacting a few college coaches attempting to secure an interview for my blog. It is a much tougher process than you may think. More often than not, I have to talk to about 10 different people before finally getting to hear anything from the coach himself. I have secured one interview and will be doing that in the next week or so. The general idea is to give these coaches a platform to speak to the players in our area about their school. I have 8-10 questions about the school, program and coach himself that I feel are good questions to help a player gauge his interest in that particular school. If you have a school you think should be part of that, let me know. I am always willing to at least consider any school, at any level and anywhere.

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Player Interviews:

     Last week I spoke with Kahlil Dawson from Graham-Kapowsin and received some great feedback from the readers. I would like to do more of these, but obviously have very limited resources. Some players can be very tough to get in contact with. I get very luck when it comes to finding players on Twitter. Sometimes I will go through one players followers in search of names I might recognize as football players. Other times I get lucky and they find me. I think one player a week is a very realistic goal. Now it is just a matter of finding the players I want.

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     Thank you for reading my blog. If you know a player that you think deserves more recognition, send me an email about them. Links to articles, highlight videos, stats are all very good starts for me. From there I will do the research I need to give that player the recognition he deserves. The best email I ever received to help promote a player had links, stories and even a coaches quote. It was very well presented and after a seeing that player, it led to me wanting to interview him, which I will be doing soon. There is no such thing as too much information on a player.

     The best way for me to grow this blog is by word of mouth. Please to pass the link along and retweet the links on Twitter as much as possible. A retweet takes about 3 seconds to do. I could name about 30 useless things I do a day that are longer than that.

Schwend's 3 TDs help Woodinville remain unbeaten...

Pop Keeney Stadium, October 14th, 2011-

It was homecoming at Pop Keeney and Woodinville Senior, Alec Schwend was determined to put on a show. Woodinville (7-0, 4-0 Division) was looking to beat rival Inglemoor (4-3, 2-2 division) for the first time since 2008.

Schwend entered the game with 9 touchdowns and would waste no time in adding to that. On only his third carry of the game, Schwend would take the handoff and sprint 59 yards straight up the middle for the touchdown and a 7-0 lead. Schwend would finish the night with touchdown runs of 59, 64 and 2 to raise his season total to 12.

Inglemoor Cornerback, Junior Vi would intercept a tipped Brett Arrivey pass and return it to the Falcon 8 yardline. Just three plays later, Brandon Edwards would hit Derek Telin on a underneath screen for 6 yards and a touchdown.

The game would stay tied through the end of the first quarter. On the second play of the second quarter, Arrivey would drop back to pass and eventually scramble towards the corner of the endzone before barreling in for the touchdown and a 7 point Falcon lead.

The two teams would twice trade punts before Schwend would break free for his second TD, this one from 64 yards to give the Falcons a 21-7 lead with 3:48 left in the half. The halftime score would stay that way.

On the first play of the second half Woodinville Linebacker, Trey Fornelious would step in front of a Hans Fortune pass and return the interception to the Viking 25.

It appeared as though Inglemoor was going to get the ball back after a missed FG attempt, but the Vikings were flagged for running into the kicker, giving the ball to Woodinville at the 4 yardline. After an offsides penalty on Inglemoor, Alec Schwend would get in for his third and final touchdown of the night.

Inglemoor would get the ball back and get a roughing the kicker penalty of their own, but two plays later would be intercepted again. This time Junior, Caleb Hamilton would get the pick and return it to the Viking 19 setting up a 32 yard Field Goal by Connor Zaback.

The Vikings would go three and out but get the ball back three plays later when Linebacker, Mikey Tupou would snag a tipped pass as he fell to the ground giving Inglemoor the ball at the Woodinville 47. Inglemoor would go 47 yards in 9 plays finishing with a 15 yard pass from Hans Fortune to Quinn Edlin for the score.

Down by 17 with 12 seconds to play in the third quarter, the Vikings elected to try and onside kick, but would not be able to recover. That decision woud prove to be fatal as the very next pla Woodinville Running Back, Devin McKee would rush 49 yards around the left side for the touchdown.

The third period and scoring would end with a Point After Touchdown by Connor Zaback. Final score 38-14, Woodinville.

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Scoring Plays:

1st Quarter-
Wood: Alec Schwend, 59 yard run (PAT Good)
Ing: Brandon Edwards to Derek Telin, 6 yard pass (PAT Good)

2nd Quarter-
Wood: Brett Arrivey, 4 yard run (PAT Good)
Wood: Alec Schwend, 64 yard run (PAT Good)

3rd Quarter-
Wood: Alec Schwend, 2 yard run (PAT Good)
Wood: Connor Zaback, 32 yard FG
Ing: Hans Fortune to Quinn Edlin, 15 yard pass (PAT GOOD)
Wood: Devin McKee, 49 yard run (PAT Good)

4th Quarter-
No Scoring

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Next Week:

The Woodinville Falcons will travel to Memorial Stadium in Seattle next Friday at 5pm to play the Roosevelt RoughRiders.

The Inglemoor Vikings will also travel to Memorial Stadium next Friday night at 8pm to face the Garfiel Bulldogs.

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I am at 99 followers on twitter, @HSFootballWA. Please share this page and my twitter to anyone you know that would appreciate my writing.

Late FG gives Kentlake win over Auburn...

French Field, October 13th, 2011.

The seventh ranked Kentlake Falcons(7-0, 7-0) managed to stay undefeated Thursday night with a 10-7 win over the Auburn Trojans(2-4, 2-5). While it may not have been the best win of the season, it was done in what is becoming typical Kentlake fashion... From behind. In 5 of 7 games this season, including 4 straight, the Falcons have trailed at one point in the game before eventually winning.

The games first touchdown was scored when Kentlake Quarterback, Steffin Church couldn't complete a swing pass that was ruled a backwards pass and a live ball. Auburn Cornerback, Seth Mizoguchi would pick the ball up and sprint 63 yards down the sideline for the TD.

Auburn held a 7-0 lead at the end of the first quarter as they looked to extend a six game winning streak over the Falcons.

With just over four and a half minutes to play in the first half, Caleb Saulo would fake a hand off and keep it himself before powering into the endzone from one yard out. The score would tie the game at seven and it would stay that way into the half.

The third quarter looked as though it end with only three punts before Kentlake Lineback, Tanner Lucas intercepted his second pass of the night. Lucas would return the Auburn 48 with 21 seconds to play in the quarter.

The Falcons would run 14 plays and eat up 6:28 of the clock before settling for a 23 yard Field Goal by Mitchell Habryle.

With almost 6 minutes still to play the Trojans would get the ball back on their own 29 and begin to drive, but an untimely false start on fourth and four would force them to punt. They Trojans would not see the ball again as the Falcons would get a big third down conversion, a Tanner Lucas 35 yard run and a victory formation.

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Scoring Plays:

1st Quarter-
Aub: Seth Mizoguchi, 63 Fumble Return (PAT Good)

2nd Quarter-
KL: Caleb Saulo, 1 Yard Run (PAT Good)

3rd Quarter-
No Scoring

4th Quarter-
KL: Mitchell Habryle, 23 Yard FG

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Notes:

- It was Kentlake's "Pink Out" to raise awarness for breast cancer. Fans wore pink, players used pink tape and towels.

- Kentlake was penalized 8 times for 50 yards.

- I would like to point out the play of Auburn Cornerback, Josh McCoy. I am not sure how many tackles McCoy finished with, but I don't think anyone had as many "Big" tackles as he did. Twice on one drive McCoy would make an openfield tackle on a Falcon ballcarrier behind the line of scrimmage.

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Up Next:

Next Thursday the Kentlake Falcons are again home, this time in a non-league game against the Emerald Ridge Jaguars of the SPSL 4A South.

Next Friday the Auburn Trojans head home to host the Kent-Meridian Royals.

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Friday night I hope to be at Pop Keeney Stadium in Bothell when the Inglemoor Vikings take on the Woodinville Falcons. If so you can follow it live on Twitter @HSFootballWA.

On tap for this week, Sept. 27th, 2011...

I am glad to get back to High School Football. Last week was a rough one for me and my group of friends, but we will survive. I ended up attending a high school game (Bothell @ Roosevelt), a college game (Cal @ UW) and a pro game (Arizona @ Seattle) all in one weekend. It was a lot of fun! If you have never taken a boat to a Husky game, you are missing out. It is really an experience like no other.

I have decided to stay close to home this Thursday and attend the Ballard @ Woodinville. The Falcons are really playing good football and I feel like I need to see them play. The game is at Pop Keeney which is also one of my favorite places to watch a game. It is really a no brainer.

Friday night will most likely see me head right back to Pop Keeney when the Bothell Cougars and Inglemoor Vikings clash in the annual "Spaghetti Bowl". Both teams got wins in Memorial Stadium last friday night, Bothell over Roosevelt 24-0 and Inglemoor over Ballard 35-14. Last season's game was a 27-3 win for the Cougars, who haven't lost to the Vikings since 2000.

As for Saturday, right now I have no plans to attend a game. I may end up going to Portland to see the Thunderbirds play the Winterhawks, hockey for those wondering. I may end up going to see Orcas Island vs Bellevue Christian @ Lake Washington High School in a non-league 2B game. I might even just go find some junior football to watch most of the day.

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Doug Pacey of the Tacoma News Tribuns has his state football rankings for the week, find them right here.

Mason Kelley of the Seattle Times has his own rankings, they can be found right here.

The Bellevue Wolverines continue to climb in the national rankings. Mason Kelley took the time to pull all of them together and a you can read about that right here.

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I hope to be able to get the "This week" stuff done tomorrow for SPSL 4A and 3A. If I have time I will do KingCo 3A and 4A as well. The Wesco appears to have some very good teams, I would like to get a look at what they have to offer, I hope to be able to do that before the game Thursday night.

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Either this week or next I will be sending a few emails to the east side of the state to talk to coaches from the best teams on the other side of the state. I would like to put something together with Chiawana, Kamiakin, Kennewick, West Valley of Spokane, Prosser, Cashmere, Colfax and Almira/Coulee-Hartline. If I can get three of those schools to respond I will put a piece together.

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HIGH SCHOOL STADIUM PIC OF THE WEEK:

This is a look at the home stadium for the W.F. West Bearcats. They have no seating on the other side of the field, so this is what you get. Behind the stadium is a beautiful baseball stadium. To see more pictues of this stadium and pictures of many other stadiums I have visited visit Washington State High School Football Stadiums.

If you looks closely at the pic you will notice a group of red seats. These seats are for what I guess you would call "Season Ticket Holders". The seats have the name of the owner on them. I have attached a picture below with a closer look at the seats... Do they look familiar to anyone? This isn't the first stadium they have been in.

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I have recieved a few emails with support and encouragement during a tough moment in my life. I would like to thank all of those who read and commented to me about my piece. It really means a lot.

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I can be found on twitter by following @HSFootballWA.