Senior Night.....

All Senior Football Players, Cheerleaders and Band Members were recognized before the start of the game. The football players got autographed footballs signed by the team and they had cake during their pre-game meal. The best part of the night was that we did have some success throwing the football for touchdowns with QB Bobby Potts. 4 TDs on passes. I was one proud mom eventhough we lost. We seem to be getting better as the year had gone on.
I wasn't as sad as I thought I would be but at our final game I will be sad for sure as the seniors play their final game of the season.

The rest of October has been busy busy busy!

I've been helping with my parents' pumpkin patch on a few weekends and two days last week. I help with the school groups, picking pumpkins and what not. It's really fun. Plus, you get to hang out with some great kiddos. They are always excited about finding their pumpkin out of the patch.

We also grow different varieties of pumpkins and an assortment of gourds. Check us out next year. We have a facebook page -- Farmer Jim's Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze and a website http://www.farmerjimspumpkinpatch.com/.

We played McAdams, our county rival, in what I will call the "Dust Bowl." We haven't had any rain and their field was a mess. So as the boys were running up and down the field they kicked up dust. I was still recovering from my bacterial infection and all the dust was making me cough. It was not our finest hour on the football field. We got beat and we did play better the second half.

Oh and there were stew benefiting all sports.....

I've been told that this might be the last Ethel Athletict Booster Club Stew. It sure is good. 140 gallons sold. It benefits all sports.

Season comes to an end for EHS slow pitch softball but what a season!

The EHS softball team finished post-season play at West Lincoln on Saturday during the second round of the playoffs. The were undefeated in district and No. 1 in District!
Congrats on a great season girls!

Bad Friday all the way around

I just thought I had a cold and since it was Game Day and I was headed to Farmer Jim's Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze to see my parents in Rolling Fork Saturday, I went to the doctor.

Well, it wasn't just a cold! I test positive for mycoplasma bacteria (that causes walking pneumonia) and it was all in my nose and throat.

I was determined to go to the ball game but since I was contagious and had to drive a good way, several people including Paul and my mom told me to stay at home.

I haven't missed a game since Paul and I were engaged that's at least 6 football seasons ago. It just killed me not going but I was able to get the score updates via text messaging.

We got beat 51-6 by West Oktibbeha and apparently, they have a QB that has a cannon for an arm and a receiving core that is the best we have seen.

Of course, I had to know all the details sick or not so we stayed up late talking once Paul got home.

I asked him what he said to the kids before the game and he said "I told them to play hard and that I loved them." And for the first time, the team told him -- "Love you to coach."

Even in defeat that has to make you smile. :)

New field house is looking promising

Story I wrote for The Star-Herald.

KOSCIUSKO — Concerned Ethel High School football parents gathered at the Attala County Chancery Building to address the need for a new field house for football, baseball and softball during the Attala County School Board meeting Monday night.

The board voted to have the asbestos checked in the current athletic field house as well as two houses on McAdams High School campus, to hire an architect and advertise for bids on a facility.

Christie Moody, a football parent and registered nurse, told the board there were two definite issues with facility – structural issues and health concerns.

Moody passed around pictures of the inside and outside of the structure showing damages and disrepair.

“The junior high football team dressed out for practice and after they left, part of the ceiling fell,” she said.  “Thankfully, they weren’t in there so no one got hurt.”

“It’s awful. We can go to away games and have better facilities to use than what we have at home.”

She added that there isn’t a place for the athletes to shower after ball games if they needed  and the floor is rotten in front of the urinals.

“They have to watch where they step so they don’t fall through the floor,” she said.

Numerous athletes over the years have gotten Staphylococcus or Staph infections through direct contact with the field house.

“Staph is a bad cookie,” Moody said.

Staphylococcus is a group of bacteria that can cause a multitude of diseases as a result of infection of various tissues of the body.

The bacteria can live on a non-living thing for up to three days, Moody said.

“This building is wood,” she said. “It’s dark. It’s damp. It’s rotten. It’s porous. It can live longer in that wood than three days.”

“The infection has to be treated with specific antibiotics and if not treated it can kill you,” she said. “We are allowing our children to be in harms way.”

“The best thing for that building is to bulldoze it down and never see it again,” Moody said.

Superintendent Larry Stevens agreed with Moody saying it was by far “the worst building in the district.”

“If the board votes to do that, then we will find the money somewhere,” Stevens said. “I don’t know if we can find money to build a building on the other end.  That’s the next thing that’s going to come up.”

EHS head football coach Paul Dees said he knew that originally plans had been drawn to build separate facilities for football, baseball and softball but it would be more cost effective to tear the current building down and put a new one in it’s place for football and baseball and remodel the weight room for a girls softball facility.

Hard work gets you...

Pizza and "Facing the Giants" on the big screen in the Ethel gym. Both the high school and jr. high football players were treated a couple of weeks ago and I forgot to post this.

I stopped by and snapped this on my camera phone.

The game against the French Campers...

We got beat 34-6. It's been a tough year and we've got 5 more to go. They play hard -- really hard.

And while I was down on the sidelines with the boys, a school board member (whom I believe was trying to get votes for his upcoming election) was up in the stands and the nearby areas telling people that "we need a coaching change."

His first mistake was telling Paul's lifelong friend and then, two parents who are very supportive. Apparently the school board member even went in the press box and said as much.

Well, that's all it took for me. Those kids work to hard and their coaches just as hard. I was mad to say the least and if we hadn't been through a similar situation at a different school, I probably wouldn't have said anything to the board member.

Monday's Attala County School Board meeting comes around and the board member asks me "How am I doing?" Well, I told him. He denied saying those things several times. If you are going to say something, you better mean it and stand behind it. 

Not to mention that the football players were visible upset at practice on Monday because of that crap. 

I do not put up with crap like that. You don't mess with my husband, my family, my friends or those kids at Ethel High School.