It’s not game week: Bulldogs take advantage of extra time
Published 7:44 pm Tuesday, September 12, 2017
NEDERLAND — This was the week Nederland was to travel to Livingston to open District 22-5A play. That game won’t kick off until next Wednesday … of all nights.
It won’t be the last mid-week game, and first-year Nederland coach Monte Barrow said the players are looking forward to it.
“Maybe the mental test will be the day after [the game or], the next couple of days after you get back from that long road trip,” he said Wednesday. “We’ll be in tune to that and make sure we get them back ready to prepare for the following Tuesday. It’ll start happening pretty quickly.”
Yep, after the Bulldogs (1-0) visit Livingston (0-1), a 41-14 loser to Conroe Caney Creek last Friday, they’ll host Baytown Lee on Tuesday, Sept. 26. That will be followed by a Monday, Oct. 2, home game against Port Arthur Memorial and a Saturday, Oct. 7,
game at Vidor.
“That just means we have to practice harder, fast and go out there and execute each and every game,” said running back Devon Simmons, coming off a four-touchdown effort in a 26-14 win at Dayton.
And, then, all will return to normal in this district. The Bulldogs’ last four games will be played on Fridays.
But this week, Nederland focuses on Nederland. No game is going on for another week.
This is all the result of the 22-5A executive committee’s decision made Friday to compress the schedule to allow teams that have not been able to practice or play since Tropical Storm Harvey’s impact more time to gather their players and prepare for the season and allow district play to be completed in time for the UIL playoffs.
But just imagine how the next day of classes will be following Livingston, Lee and Memorial for the Bulldogs.
“I know I’m going to feel tired. I know that,” Simmons said.
Naturally, Barrow’s players weren’t the only ones concerned how the season would turn out in the wake of Tropical Storm Harvey.
“When all this started, I told them, ‘I’ll let you know when I know because the parents are asking them and there are people in the community asking them,’” Barrow said. “What I didn’t want is them wondering about it as we’re going to play a game. … Before we left to go to Dayton, I met with them and told them how the schedule was going to go. I think they were just excited that we were going to play the entire schedule, regardless of when it was. Regardless of what we went through the past couple of weeks, we’re playing football on a Wednesday night.”
The Bulldogs are not practicing under a usual game-week schedule this week, as a result. Barrow said Mondays will be treated as game-week Wednesdays if a game is Wednesday, with Tuesdays treated as game-week Thursdays.
Playing in the middle of the week will be something else.
“We’ve never had to do it, but baseball, basketball, softball … they all do that during the week,” Barrow said.
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I.C. Murrell: 549-8541. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews