The Tangent Express

Ladies and gentleman, thought it may be approaching the wee hours of the morning, my one blog post a day must be sustained, plus I've wanted to rant and rave about this particular issue since Monday. Is anyone else uber-pissed at Kevin Westerman playing in the Texas A&M spring game? Not the fact that he played, but that it raises a few major gripes in my eyes. To me, it emphasizes all that is wrong with STJ athletics. It proves that a certain coach has his backwards-thinking head shoved so far up his traditionalist ass that St. Joes will never be able to evolve and transition into a potential state-title winning team. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we will ever be on the consistent level of a Dallas, Houston, or even SA school because of the wide talent pool and range of boosters, but let me explain my point here. Too afraid to deviate from the old school, wishbone-style offense made famous in the 50s by such legends as Forest Evashevski and some other dead irrelevant guy, STJ is faced with de-evolution. Being creative and open to change are crucial elements to STJ competing on a larger stage; playing physical, 3 yards and a cloud of dust football may tear apart the district when you have a cast of guys who play hard and play together (cliche, I know) and are just plain bigger than the runts from Hyde Park, but once we run into a bigger/more athletic squad, airing it out and throwing in some "exotics," what legendary Iowa coach Hayden Fry called trick plays, become a must. The playoff game against the Dallas school is all the tangible evidence you need that we have the skill position talent. There is something to be said for sticking to a certain system and style that you know brings success, and not changing your values just to "keep up with the times," but this is the same issue I have with a certain Theology teacher-when does sticking to one's values become plain ignorant and close-minded?

This is all brings me to my point about the strong-armed Westerman, and how embarassing it is that he didn't start his senior year. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong at any time, seeing as I have a generally limited view of what goes on with the team seeing as I never played football. But with Kevin, we have a guy who, in his last game at Patti Welder stadium (a playoff game no less), got in the game on the last drive, with a victory already assured, leading the Flyers down the field in about 30 seconds with a series of crisp passes. Of course, you're gonna let the senior finish the drive out, correct? Wrong. Kevin was promptly pulled for a young Andre (nothing against Andre here, just a pawn), who got to run 3 straight zero gain QB draws to end the game. Is this how you reward one of your seniors, already slighted by the coaching staff in the 1st place? Now, this guy is a QB on a frickin major conference BCS school, while the preferred option QB who started in his place is now living it up in Lubbock, Texas. How do you justify not playing him now? If he's good enough to make the Aggies roster, he was good enough to play in TAPPS. It is an embarassment for the program, and a sign of the obstacles that STJ will always face to innovation and change for the better if they cannot look past their own narrow blinders and see the stud right beneath their eyes, preventing us from making that small leap from consistent success to a potential state title. I'm starting to ramble, so let me clarify that I am no big Kevin fan by any means, and this is nothing against the guy who started ahead of him, but seeing K-Dub play in the spring game filled me not only with Flyer pride but also a real bitter taste in my mouth that never should have been there...