The Locker Room November 9, 2005

Pulaski County heads to Salem this week to take on the Spartans, but winning the game isn’t the only thing they want to do on Friday night. They’re also looking to get some respect back after a rough two weeks of district play.

Hello again Cougar fans, and welcome back to the another week at Cougarfootball.net, and the final week of the regular season for our Cougars and the River Ridge District. I’ve got a lot of stuff to cover this week, and I want to make sure that I get each and every point across as clearly as I can, so I’ll apologize now for going on a little too long, because I know I’m going to.

Let's start with last weeks game. Last week Pulaski County lost 20-10 to the Cave Spring Knights. There is no shame in the way that the Cougars played. They went out and played hard, each and every play, but in the end the mistakes that a young team will make caught up with them. Four turnovers will make it difficult to beat a bad team, let alone a team the likes of Cave Spring. The Knights have 20 seniors starting out of 22 positions on the field. They are big, fast, strong, and well coached. They were the pre-season favorites to win the River Ridge District, and they have proven those that picked them right. Their only “loss” came at the hands of the “undefeated” Salem Spartans. I’m sorry folks, but if the picture I saw on Friday night of the Cave Spring quarterback holding the ball and half of his arm across the Spartan goal line wasn’t doctored or tampered with, then the Knights should be undefeated and the Spartans should have one loss. That picture CLEARLY showed that the Knights quarterback successfully converted the two point play, which would have put the Knights in the lead with less than a minute to play in the game. On paper, we should never have even been close in our game with Cave Spring. Instead, we saw the Cougars in the game and the issue undecided until late in the game. We saw the Pulaski defense step up and make several key stops to give the offense a chance to win the game for the Cougars. Unfortunately, the Cougars weren’t able to make the most of those opportunities though, and the Knights were able to go away with the win. Make no mistake about it though, the Cougars DID play well enough to win that game, had it not been for the four turnovers.

Now with all that said, I think it's time to take a long hard look at the reaction some folks have had to the last two games, and the way some people have acted this season all together. People, I’m a Cougar Football fan. That’s it. I pull for them in the good years, the bad years, and the years that we just don’t know about. Do I always like the way things go or the way things happen? No, there are always going to be things that don’t go the way you wish they would, but that never changes the fact that I am a Cougar Fan. Unfortunately, I have seen the uglier side of some folks the past little bit, and these are people that also call themselves Cougar Fans. These people like to sit around and talk about how they would have done things, how they would have thrown the ball more, how they would have pulled this player out or put that player in. These people like to criticize everybody too. They sit in the stands and complain, they sit in their cars and complain, and they walk around town and complain. They talk about the coaches, they talk about the players, and this past Friday they even talked about me!!

“When are you guys gonna put something on your website about us needing to throw the ball more? We need a new offense!!” You want an answer to that? I’ll tell you what, I’ll be glad to give you an answer to all of your complaints.

First of all, people are saying that Pulaski County needs to throw the ball more. Well, we have. The Cougars have thrown the ball 46 times this season. For a team that makes its living running the ball, that is more than enough passing. The problem has been finding someone to CATCH the ball. Out of those 46 passing attempts, the Cougars have only completed 10, but those 10 completions have been for 241 yards and a touchdown. And lets talk about those 46 passes. Our quarterbacks have both done a fine job of putting the ball on the spot for the receivers, but unfortunately there have been a lot of dropped balls that could/should have been easy catches. Add those to the total of catches and your yardage has more than doubled. Now should we be complaining about our receivers? Folks, these are 17, 16, and even 15 or 14 year old kids out there. They are not in the NFL, they are in High School. As big and as tough as they are, they are still kids, and I for one am tired of hearing people talk trash about them and this team. They are doing the best they can, and that is about all we can ask.

Should we be complaining about our coaches? You make the decision based on what we’ve seen so far. What have we seen? Well, I’ve seen a team (a very young team mind you) win five games out of nine in a schedule that would destroy most teams in the State. I’ve seen them lose one to a AAA team in the final minutes of the game, and they’ve lost one to a senior dominated team that should go pretty far in the Division 3 playoffs. One of the other losses was to a team that will most likely end up 8-2 and give who ever they play in the AA Division 4 playoffs an extremely tough game. But what else have we seen besides the losses? How about a win, in overtime, over AAA Franklin County after being behind for most of the game? How about a win over first year opponent Jefferson Forest? How about a win over AAA powerhouse E.C. Glass? How about a road win over last years Homecoming spoilers Hidden Valley? But the wins aren’t the only thing, lets look at the work they put in. I will promise you three things about this coaching staff. One, they will never be outworked. I have been there until late at night and they are there getting plans ready for the next game. They are there on Saturdays, they are there on Sundays. They work as hard, if not harder, than any other coaching staff in the State of Virginia when it comes down to getting the game plans together. Second, no coaching staff is made up of a group of coaches who love their program more than this one does. These men grew up wanting to play Cougar football. When they got their shot, they played with heart and determination, and now they coach with that same heart and determination. Come by practice some time and watch Rodney Landreth or Andre Eaves. Watch Scott Vest or Jack Turner. These men LOVE this program and the kids in it, and they do everything they can to help it succeed. That brings me to my third point, and that is that NOBODY feels the losses more than these coaches do. Are they putting in all this work for the money? Not likely, considering that Pulaski County teachers are among the lowest paid teachers around the area. They do it because they love this school and they love this program, and they want nothing less than the very best for it. End of story. So now let me ask you, those of you who complain about all the problems…..when was the last time you spent an entire weekend away from your family to try and do something to make Cougar Football better? I’d be willing to bet there aren’t too many folks out there who can honestly say they’ve done ANYTHING other than come to the games.

Folks, I warned you all this was going to be long, and again I’m sorry, but this just needs to get out there.

These are our kids, and this is our school. These kids have busted their tails all summer long. They spent the summer in the weight room and running to get ready. The coaches have scouted and planned. Now its all come down to the final game, and in this game we find our Cougars facing the Salem Spartans. There is a pretty good chance that we could end up playing the Spartans two weeks in a row. The Cougars are pretty well locked into a playoff spot, the outcome of a couple of games this Friday will determine weather they are ranked the #2 seed, the #3 seed, or the #4 seed. Cougarfan tells me that pretty much the worst the Cougars can end up Power points wise is the #4 seed. We will most likely play either Salem or Amherst in the first round of the regional playoffs.

The Spartans come into this match up with a perfect 9-0 record. The last time the Spartans lost a game was October 15, 2004 when they lost to the Christiansburg Blue Demons. That’s a 13 game winning streak. The Cougars lead the series between the two teams 16 games to 11, but the Spartans have won the last two. Can Pulaski County win this game? Of course they can!! This is the Pulaski County Cougars football team, and its time people remembered that!! Its time for these players to put it all out on the line. Its also time for some of you fans to put it out on the line too. There are some fans that come out and scream on every play, but for the most part when I look up into the stands on a Friday night, I see a lot of folks sitting around, and its time to put that to an end.

GET UP OFF YOUR HANDS PEOPLE!!! THIS IS PULASKI VS SALEM!! THE COUGARS VS THE SPARTANS!!

Lets make that trip down to Spartan town and let these people know that COUGAR PRIDE is alive and well in Pulaski County!!!

GO COUGARS!!! BEAT THE SPARTANS!!!
 

Friday, November 11 - Salem Spartans (Away):

Series: PC leads 16-11.
Streaks: Salem won the last two, after PC had won 4 in a row, following losing 3 of 4 from 1996-1999. Before that, the Cougars had won 3 in a row, after Salem had won 5 consecutive, which followed a Cougar 8 year run from 1978-1985.  The Spartans won the inaugural game of the series in 1977.
Biggest Cougar Winning Margin: 40, 1982 (40-0)
Biggest Cougar Losing Margin: -47, 1998 (0-47)
Closest Game: 1986 Spartans 14, Cougars 13
Average Score: Cougars 19, Spartans 16
Last meeting: 2004 at PC.  Result: Spartans 31-3.