Tiger football blog: Sept. 28

Homecoming.
For the community, it’s a fun time to get together with friends that come back to town.
For the football team it hopefully means a bigger crowd and a big game on Friday night.
Marshall High School is having its homecoming this week and the 4-0 football team will play against one of its bigger rivals, Pipestone Area.
Homecoming always gets football players amped up, but there is always the worry for the coaches that the players will get distracted during the festivities of the week.
With all the different days at school, the pep rally and the excitement of other spots, there is plenty that can take a player’s focus away from the game at hand.
When I talked to coach Terry Bahlmann on Wednesday, I asked him if all the other activities had taken focus away from the players.
Bahlmann said that the players had been focused in on the game this Friday, which is always good to hear.
I remember what it was like to be a senior on an undefeated team going into homecoming.
The whole town is behind you and want to see you keep the streak alive. People come up to you and wish you luck and ask how things are going.
But there are the things that can take a bad turn.
There will probably be parties that the players will get invited to, and some of them may consider going to those parties.
All I have to say about that to the players: Don’t.
There is a lot of pressure to go to these extra-curricular activities, but I know when I was a senior, my first thoughts were always football.
I have had the pleasure to get to know many of the Tiger football players, covering them since they were just starting their varsity careers, and I would like to think that they all have the smarts to take care of themselves this weekend.
I see a lot of my senior football team in the Marshall squad. The record, the players and the desire to win.
I hope that I get the chance to cover them deep into the playoffs and this Friday is a big one on the road to the Metrodome.

Tiger football blog: Sept. 21

By Alex Oey
aoey@marshallindependent.com

I was out at the Marshall football practice on Wednesday and saw some things that looked real positive to me.
The Tigers were running first team offense and defense to finish up Wednesday’s practice and when I was in high school, a lot of the first team players would take this time to beat up on the scout team.
But not the Tigers.
One thing I kept hearing from the coaches was that while there was hitting, they didn’t want anyone getting tackled to the ground, no matter who it was.
When the first team defense was taking their reps, they would come at the scout team hard, but tried to make sure that they didn’t lay them out. It was much the same when they were on offense, but there are always some hits, no matter how live practice is.
Why do I think this is important?
In football, the team drills are always building camaraderie and when the first team beats up on the scout team, that camaraderie is broken down just a bit each time it happens.
It made me think back to my high school career when I was a freshman. A group of us were brought up to practice with the varsity squad the final week of the regular season and I couldn’t believe the disdain that the first team had for the scout team.
The linemen would try their hardest not to make their blocks, but to put the scout linemen on their backs and then laugh at them. In fact, a few players got into it and one ended up injured, not something a coach wants to see.
This was not the case with the Tigers. If someone got knocked down, he was helped right back up, no matter which team he was on.
The coaches also recognized when a player made a good play; again, no matter which team he was on.
I heard the coaches compliment several of the scout team players on solid plays. This not only makes the player feel good, but makes him want to try that much harder the next time.
There were a few hard hits that sent players to the ground, but there was no ill will.
That’s always a good thing.
Another thing I saw was that every player wanted to make sure he knew what was going on and that he was making the correct play.
Instead of getting mad at the players when they had a question, the coaches would either talk to that player or the whole group to make sure that they understood what was going on.
A lot of the questions on defense were what to do against certain plays and formations. This is important because when the game is on the line, you want your players to know exactly what they should do.
You always hear that the little things can make or break a team’s success. It seemed that on Wednesday the Tigers were doing those little things that could help them keep their unbeaten streak going.

Tiger football blog 9/16/06

It has been my pleasure to cover the Marshall High School football team the past few years, and with the new technology, I want to add another dimension to that coverage.
A blog.
Now this blog won’t be the same stories, previews or features that I write for the paper. It will be other observations that don’t make it into those stories.
I am going to try to have a new blog at least once a week, maybe more depending what is happening. You can find the blog at http://www.marshallindependent.com.
After the loss to Hutchinson last year there were a lot of sad players, but the majority was looking forward to the next season. When I would talk to players or coaches, they would tell me how the players were hitting the weight room and the improvements they were making — and it showed. A lot of the players were adding weight and muscle during the offseason.
At the beginning of July I did a story about weight lifting at MHS and the importance to all the sports, not just football. In taking to head coach Terry Bahlmann, he said that attendance was very high for the team and they were building camaraderie as well as strength.
When I went out to practice for the first time this fall, you could tell that the players were ready for the season. They all had two years under Bahlmann’s system and had the majority of it down early. The players were very excited to get the season underway.
Then came the first game.
Marshall faced off against Luverne in Luverne to open the Southern Alliance season.
You could tell the players were very pumped up to get on the field.
Those of you that go to the Tiger football games know that I like to walk the sidelines. It allows me to get great shots for the paper, plus I see and hear what happens on the sidelines during the game.
During that game against Luverne I could see the first-game jitters. Though there are 30-plus seniors on the team, there is always an adrenaline rush the first time you step on the field, no matter how long you’ve been playing. The Tigers got a little excited at times, which cost them penalties. I remember when I played in high school, if you committed a penalty, you didn’t go near coach. Though Bahlmann may have gotten mad at his players, he didn’t get too vocal with them. The other players would also try to pick up their teammates.
The Tigers finally got rolling to start the second quarter and cruised to a 35-0 win over Luverne.
At the first home game last Friday, it was great to see all the orange in the stands at Mattke Field.
The Tigers were able to pounce right on St. James, building the lead quite quickly.
Though Marshall won 47-13, it wasn’t a case of the first team running the score up on the Saints. Bahlmann and the coaching staff made sure to get everyone in staring in the third quarter.
I have seen some coaches that didn’t even turn around to see who had played or not in a blowout, but not Marshall’s coaching staff.
I believe that each player in uniform that night got to see the field, which is no small feat. For some of the players, it was their chance to show what they could do in a game situation, for others it was the chance to just play a varsity down.
The Tigers will be in New Ulm today. They have beat the Eagles in the last three matchups, but all three were in Marshall.
This could be a real test for Marshall.
Alex Oey can be reached at aoey@marshallindependent.com
You can also find this blog and its archives at http://tiger-football.blogspot.com.