Go Friday Night

SMC BLOG 9

Here is an update on an article that appeared in the Abilene Reporter-News on the 19th of March about the Second Annual Six-Man Illustrated 6-on-6 National Championships that will be held July 21-22 in Colorado City. Mentioned in that article was a qualifier to be held in Sequin. That date has changed from June 30th-July 1st to a week earlier, June 23-24. Thanks goes to Tommy Wells for passing on that information. For more information about the 6-on-6 National Passing Tournament email Tommy Wells at newzboy3@yahoo.com .

I have blogged the last two or three days about the fact that there are now two divisions in six-man ball. Soon we will look at both Division 1 and Division 2 Region by Region, District by District, team by team. Get your maps out as we travel a good portion of the state of Texas looking at six-man football.

• March 31, 2006 7:08 AM

SMC BLOG 8

I am headed to Brownwood Friday March 31st and Saturday April 1st to attend the HEART OF TEXAS COACHING CLINIC. This clinic is being put on by Coach Burkhart and his staff from Richland Springs. It is being held at the Brownwood High School.

Here is a list of who I will be seeing as I try to become a more knowledgeable fan of the game of six-man football.

Friday March 31st 2006
10:00-10:45 Mitch Lee Knox City (J-Bird)
10:45-11:00 Breakout Session
11:00-11:45 Shawn Rogers Richland Springs (Recievers)
11:45-12:00 Breakout Session

1:30-2:15 Robert Lee Zephyr (Spread Offense)
2:15-2:30 Breakout Session
2:30-3:15 Ken Hoskins/ Coach Abney ( Transition to 6-Man, Garden City Passing Game)
3:15-3:30 Breakout Session
3:30-4:15 Doyle Clawson Richland Springs (6 man Philosophy
4:15-4:30 Share Ideas on Discipline Athletes
4:30-5:15 Fellowship of Christian Athletes

April 1st
9:00-9:45 Larry Uland Greenville Christian(Leading kids to Christ)
10:00-10:45 Charles Tindol (Abilene Christian) Getting the Program Started
10:45-11:00 Breakout Session
11:00-11:45 Vance Jones Aspermont (Veer Offense)
11:45-12:00 Breakout Session

1:00-1:45 Dewayne Lee Strawn (Greyhound Off-Season)
1:45-2:00 Breakout Session
2:00-2:45 Bret Tyler Valley (Patriot Defense)
2:45-3:00 Breakout Session
3:00-3:45 Mike Reed Rule (Spread Defense)
3:45-4:00 Break out Session
4:00-4:15 Closure by Jerry Burkhart Richland Springs.

There will be Late Registration available all day on Friday March 31st and until lunch on Saturday. $60.00 for both days and $30.00 for one day.

This is going to be a awesome clinic if you want to learn more about Six-Man football. If you have any questions, please call Coach Burkhart at 325-452-3325 field house/ 325-372-3345 home.

The address for the Brownwood High School is 2100 Slayden.

If you are coming from 377 North, go to Austin Avenuem and take a left. Go to Coggin Ave and take a right. Turn left on 9th Street. Go straightand you will see signs to High School.

If you are coming from 377 South turn right on Coggin Ave as you get into Brownwood. Turn Right on 9th street. Go straight and you will se signs to the High School. Go to the Auditorium. Please park were you see the sign for the Clinic.

• March 30, 2006 12:34 PM

BLOG 7

Why have two divisions in any of the classifications? It is a numbers game from Class A Six-Man all the way to 5A. Some will say having a two tier playoff makes money for the U.I.L. You better believe it does! There are other legitimate reasons concerning numbers. In Class 5A, should a team that has 1985 students compete with a school that has over 4600? In six-man can a school that has 30 kids compete with a team that has 90? In some cases they can. The problem is more pronounced in six-man. A 5A school on the bottom end of the 5A enrollment numbers will be able to field enough players to play football. The quality of their quantity may not match a school with two or even three times the enrollment but they have enough athletes to field a team. A school with 30 kids may have difficulty in fielding even a six-man team. Every year there are six-man schools that start out the season with maybe 8 or 10 boys and wind up canceling their schedule because of injuries or yes, grades. It isn’t true in every case but there are some six man schools that have 30 or 35 or more that participate on the varsity football team. The result is you can have a very young team going against a very mature team and more times than not the mercy rule will be applied.

• March 29, 2006 12:57 PM

SMC BLOG 6

I invite you to visit another web site, http://www.sixmanfootball.com/ . Lots of good information is available on this site including a message board. You can read without posting, lurkers are welcomed. Best of all it is free. This is a great place to visit for finding out what the “six-man community” is thinking or saying or posting.

Back to the current discussion. There are “purist” at the six-man level that believe there should only be ONE state champion. Not a Division 1 and a Division 2 State Champion, I feel their pain. I have followed Class 5A ball closely for the last 15 years or so and I have heard that argument more than a few times. Who is the best, the Division 1 or Division 2 Champion? That question will be posed in every classification as long as there are two champions crowned in each division.

• March 28, 2006 9:50 PM

SMC BLOG 5

Six Man is different. The difference in six man is both Divisions 1 and 2 will play their own district schedules, based on enrollment numbers, and each district will send forth two representatives to each division playoffs unless the District is a BYE. Clear as mud? Let me try restating it a little differently. District competition will be against only schools in your division, schools of similar enrollment numbers. A school can schedule pre-district games against Division 1 or Division 2 schools but once the district schedule begins Division 1 teams play only Division 1 teams and Division 2 teams play only Division 2 teams. Is that so bad? That would depend on who you talk to.

• March 27, 2006 5:38 PM

SMC BLOG 4

The end result of this most recent reclassification and realignment is that beginning with the 2006 season, there are now two divisions of Class A, Six-Man football teams, Division 1 and Division 2. Some will say so what! We won’t print what others say. According to the U.I.L., a school’s enrollment number must be less than 100 students to participate in six-man football. Division 1 schools are those with an enrollment of 63 or greater while Division 2 schools have an enrollment of 62 or less. Those may not be the exact cut off numbers but it will be very close. There will be two state champions in six man football. Doesn’t each classification name two state champions in football? Yes. Yes, they do. Well? What’s the big deal?

• March 26, 2006 4:08 PM

SMC BLOG 3

I would like to offer a couple of disclaimers at this time. First, as much as I wished I was, I am no expert on six-man football. I did play six-man in high school a long, long time ago. There are a lot of you six-man fans that have forgotten more about the sport than I will ever know. Secondly, I have no control in what goes on with the sport. The University Interscholastic League better known as the UIL, see http://www.uil.utexas.edu/ for additional information, is the governing body when it comes to athletics among other things in public schools in Texas. They are, in my humble opinion, the king makers and the heart breakers all rolled into one. Every two years they do their “R & R“. Again, I don’t make the rules, heck I don’t even try to enforce them. I just blog. The most recent biennial UIL reclassification and realignment for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years has been released. The new alignments will serve as football and basketball districts for the next two school years. BTW, the alignment is not the same for football as it is for basketball.

• March 25, 2006 5:14 AM
• Comments (1)

SMC Blog 2

Perhaps there might be some early readers of this blog that are clueless as to exactly what six-man football is all about. I used to explain that six-man football was kind of like basketball with pads. Lame! It is indeed a game of football that is as wide open as you can possibly imagine. With that said, the game tends to be high scoring. Thanks to the mercy rule, scoring is usually kept from getting completely out of hand. Well, sometimes.

Here are the basic rules of the six-man game:
There are 6 players on a team. DUH!
The field is 80 yards long from goal line to goal line. It is 40 yards wide from sideline to sideline.
You must gain 15 yards to make a first down.
A clean exchange of the ball from the quarterback to another player must occur for the play to be legal.
All players including the center are eligible receivers.
A touchdown counts as 6 points. The PAT’s count differently. One point is awarded for a successful PAT running or passing. Two points are awarded for successful kicks on the PAT. Field goals are worth 4 points.
The length of a quarter 10 minutes.
Earlier, I mentioned the mercy rule. After the first half of the game is complete, if a team is ahead by 45 points or more, the game is officially over.
One more thing, there are no fair catches in six man.

If you have those rules down, you will have a good grasp of what is happening at a six-man game. The games are very entertaining. If you like lots of scoring you will love six-man football. Occasionally, you will have a true defensive battle but not often. If you have never seen a six-man game you owe it to yourself to go and watch a game. Be careful though as they are addictive.

• March 24, 2006 12:33 PM

SMC Blog 1

Welcome to SMC. Spring has just sprung and it is still a long ways until the start of the new football season. Some people are happy about that and others are anxious to get started again. Obviously, I can’t wait.

I must stop here and say a big THANK YOU to Laura Gutschke. She serves as the Online Content Editor at www.reporter-news.com and www.GoFridayNight.com and is allowing me the opportunity of writing a web log or blog about six man football in general.

The sole purpose of this blog is to promote the sport of six-man football and the communities that are represented by their respective schools. I hope to find an audience with this blog that will range from die hard six-man fans to those who may have never seen a six-man game and everyone in between.

You, as a reader, will be given the opportunity to respond to the content that appears in this blog. This is a family site and if you want your comment to be read by others, keep it clean and to the point. You may also respond by emailing me at txsixii@yahoo.com. I anticipate this being lots of fun. Depending on the feedback I receive, I intend to post schedules, give scores, standings, preview games, recap games, rank teams, possibly do interviews and so forth. If there are things you would like to see addressed, let me know and I will see if I can accommodate you.

Be sure and check back often as this is just the beginning!

• March 22, 2006 10:08 PM
• Comments (2)