CougarDave
Corner
The 2005 Pulaski County Cougars got together one last time on Monday night to celebrate their season and to wish the departing seniors farewell as they begin preparing for next year. Hello again Cougar Fans, and welcome back to cougarfootball.net and my yearly post season look at what we accomplished and what we have to look forward to next year from Cougar Football. I have to be honest, I actually wrote this article a bunch of times, and had every intention of posting it right after the last game, but I just never felt like I had it just right. There were a lot of emotions that went through everybody this season, myself included. It was a roller coaster ride that went from feeling really good right after the Lord Botetourt scrimmage in the TD Classic, to feeling really bad right after seeing Kevin Crouse go down on the second play of the Liberty Scrimmage. We watched a hurt and injured Cougar team give Patrick Henry a real fight, only to lose a slugfest in the final minute of the game. We watched them limp to Roanoke to take on a senior dominated William Fleming without the services of Crouse, Cody Harmon, and Ryan Brown, as well as having a few other players with nagging injuries to deal with. The Fleming game was a hard one to watch, as Pulaski County was forced to play a lot of younger players in what turned out to be a dominating win by the Colonels. Things were looking down for the Cougars heading to Franklin County. PC was 0-2, there were still players hurt, Crouse was going to be making his first real start of the year, and morale just seemed really low for the Cougars. Sometimes…all it takes is a spark. Pulaski County got that spark, and after Crouse ran for 276 yards and Benji Poindexter ran for 112 yards, the Cougars headed home with a big 44-41 win in overtime. Senior place-kicker Luis Piscura hit the game winning field goal after the defense held in the overtime period, and the Cougars went home feeling positive for the first time all season. The next four games of this past season left Cougar fans feeling like we were back in the drivers seat again. Pulaski County kept up the pressure on offense, and at the same time played some great defense to take down Jefferson Forest, E.C. Glass, Hidden Valley, and Blacksburg in very convincing fashion. Things were looking up for the Cougars, and everybody started getting visions of District Titles in their heads. Unfortunately however, it wasn’t to be this season. The Cougars fell victim to bad luck in a game or two, injuries in a game or two, and just plain didn’t show up for another game. However, their stellar play and tough schedule (one of the toughest district and out of district schedules in the state thank you) allowed them to have enough power points to do something that the Cougars hadn’t done in three years: Pulaski County was back in the playoffs. The Cougars lost in the first round of the regional playoffs, but making it back was a big step. So now the season is over, and we look back and while we can wish this or that had been different, the bottom line is that our kids played hard, and we can be proud of them. This season could have ended a lot different than it did. It could have went really bad, with the amount of injuries the Cougars had over the course of the year and the relative youth on this team when compared with Cougar Football teams of the past. It didn’t though, because our kids kept working and never gave up. I’d like to take a moment to say a special thank you to all the seniors who will be graduating and moving on to college and the rest of their lives. These seniors did something that the past few groups of senior weren’t able to do: they put Pulaski County back into the playoffs, and forever more when anybody looks at that big white banner on the side of the press box, they will see that the 2005 Cougars made it to the playoffs. Good luck to all of you, and for those of you who may get a chance to play football at the next level, keep in touch and let us know how things are going. For those of you that will go on to college but not to play sports, we’ll be expecting good things out of you too. Get your education and make us proud. No mater what you do once you graduate, you will always be part of this family, and you’ll always remember your days playing Cougar Football. This program is a special one. You don’t find too many like it anywhere in the Country. You’re a part of that now, and no matter if you were All-State, All-District, or just one of the guys on the scout team, your picture will always be up in that field house. You are now a part of the history of this great program. No matter where you go, you will always be a Cougar. Thank you Andrew Schlottmann, Andrae Hash, Zach Quesenberry, Austin Twine, Trey Angle, Luis Piscura, Ryan Brown, John McDaniel, Andrew Haga, Cab Cabaniss, Stuart Jeuck, Rob Abbott, Adam Adkins, Eric Haga, Trey Parris, Andrew Kirkner, Mike Bolt, Casey Turpin, and Jacob Meadors for your hard work. Thank you for all the time you spent in the weight room, that you for all the laps, that you for going through two a days, and thank you for wearing that gold helmet and for putting it all on the line for us for the Cougars. Like I said before, other players will come and go, but you’ll always be a part of the Cougar family.
In the end, the 2005 Cougar Football team gathered one last time on the Pulaski County High Schools little theatre stage for one last “Cougar Pride” breakdown. The seniors were honored with jackets that said “2005 Region 4 Playoffs”, the JV coaches were presented with two footballs signed by the undefeated members of the JV District Champions, and the Pulaski County Touchdown Club presented its annual player of the year award to junior running back Kevin Crouse. Kevin finished the year with 1,520 yards and 19 touchdowns, as well as having a great year on defense after moving from linebacker to safety. Crouse has a chance next season to re-write the Pulaski County record books if he stays on track. So that brings us to the end of another season. I’d like to thank Steven for the chance to be a part of this website and to use it to stay close to the program. Thanks to Ardent Cougar also for providing his numbers and all that to my weekly articles. Most schools around the state could only wish to have a website like this one, and while I do write and take some pictures, those two guys do all the fancy stuff for me. It always amazes me how coaches and fans of schools all over the state email and comment on how much they liked the site and what we put on it. Hopefully we can continue to do that for years to come, and with a little luck maybe we can even take a trip in early December down to Liberty University. Next year looks to be a great season, so be sure to check back for all the information as it comes available. Until then, this is Cougardave saying take it easy, and feel free to come out and check out some of the other Cougar Sports that go on throughout the year.
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