A Sports Fan’s Thanksgiving

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Posted by Monte Walker at 11:38 AM

1.  Thanks to my son Mahlon for arriving here in June.  Although I may not sleep much anymore, he is worth everything to me.  ( I know, it’s not sports...but had to be mentioned by a proud papa).

2.  Thanks to whoever started the tradition of having the Cowboys play on Thanksgiving Day.

3.  Thanks to Bill Parcells for injecting life into the Cowboys with Tony Romo.

4.  Thanks to the McKinney North Bulldogs for making a broadcaster scream "It’s touchdown time in Texas" after the regular season is over.

5.  Thanks to Don Nelson for leaving the Dallas Mavericks.

6.  Thanks to Tom Hicks for...wait a minute...nevermind...I drew a blank.

7.  Thanks to T.O. for not crying about anything this past week.

8.  Thanks to Tom Scheiffer for building the most beautiful ballpark in all of America.

9.  Thanks to the City of Dallas for making me drive to Arlington to see it.

10.  And the most important...thanks to McKinneyNews.net for providing this city with the best news and sports coverage imaginable.

Bledsoe or Romo?

Monday, October 16, 2006

Posted by Monte Walker at 12:56 PM

A local knee doctor in Dallas is about to make a fortune with all of the knee-jerk reactions after Sunday’s Cowboys win over Houston. Take every play away except for two completions that Tony Romo threw, which happened to be his first two in his career. The one touchdown that Romo completed to Terrell Owens will have more people talking about him replacing Drew Bledsoe than anything Bledsoe could have done wrong.  Before Sunday, to me it was ridiculous to think that Romo could come in and be the leader of this team.  I still say that it’s ridiculous to think he can just overtake a veteran with only two NFL passes under his belt.  However, in the Romo-camp, they were treated with massive ammo with his brief performance.  Before, it was always said that he hasn’t even thrown a pass.  Now he has...two of them...and two really really good ones.  

I’m just interested to see how things play out from here with the quarterback situation.  I personally think you have to stick with Bledsoe because of his track record and stability.  I don’t, however, think he can guide you to a playoff win.  He seems to be the second coming of Danny White.  He’ll amaze you with numbers and he’ll beat the teams that he’s supposed to.  But when it comes down to crunch time, he doesn’t have it.

I could almost guarantee an new quarterback for the Cowboys next season.  But it’s all about knee-jerking now.

Research Pays Off

Friday, September 29, 2006

Posted by Monte Walker at 10:16 AM

When I started broadcasting McKinney ISD football back in 2004, I started looking for as much information that I could find on McKinney and McKinney North.  It was rather easy to find McKinney North’s history, but it was a different ballgame when it came to the Lions of McKinney.  It took me longer than I anticipated to actually take the time and sit in the library and look at every year of microfilm and verify each score in the history of the program.  When I started, I decided to gather as much information at one time so I wouldn’t have to continue to go back and look at the same film on several occasions.  Therefore, I was able to research each date of the games, scores, outcome, and location (even most of the stadium names).

Being a history buff, this turned into quite an adventure into the past as if I were in some sort of a McKinney Lions time machine.  I learned that the program goes way back to at least 1901 with a game with Sherman.  I learned that the McKinney Lions were blue and gold long before the 1920s.  I also learned that they were red and blue for a couple of years in the 1930’s (the colors of old Boyd High School).  I learned that the first forward pass ever thrown in Texas was thrown right here in McKinney in a game vs. Greenville.  I also read that the famous play - The Statue of Liberty was introduced to Texas here.

But I was probably excited the most when I started adding all of these wins together.  I first ran a total of all of the games that I had researched and found over 500.  I then thought - I wonder how many they have under the University Interscholastic League (which started in 1920)?  I knew that the number of wins that I had researched and the number of games missing could put the Lions over 500 wins.  At first, I was missing around 6 games that for some reason either wasn’t reported, or there were no microfilm for that particular game.  I told someone in confidence about the situation and that we could be celebrating something special this season...that is, unless the Lions won the majority of those missing games.  Fortunately, the opposing teams had records in their local papers and I was able to complete each game.  I found myself hoping that the Lions had lost those games way back in the late 1920s just so we could have a fun celebration 80 years later.  Once I had a complete and verified list of every game and every outcome, I realized that the McKinney Lions were sitting at 497 wins going in to this season.  I was so excited.  And believe me, before I told anyone, I checked my records and list about 50 times.

I completed the research on the night before the scheduled Fan Fest at McKinney High.  I had talked with Coach McVey earlier in that day and told him of the situation and that I wanted to announce this to the Fan Fest crowd that night.  As luck would have it, we had the first rain in months and it went unannounced.

Playing the record low-key for the past several weeks, it is now time to open the curtain and show-off the proud McKinney Lions history.  There are so many people who are responsible for the opportunity for McKinney to win #500 tonight.  I hope that the city of McKinney and all of the fans of the Lions will appreciate the winning tradition of this program and what this means to a community.  I feel like discovering this event is worth all of the blurred vision from the midnight microfilm.

Ron Poe Stadium Press Facilities are A+

Thursday, September 7, 2006

Posted by Monte Walker at 10:44 AM

The newest additions to the 44 year old stadium now known as Ron Poe Stadium are top notch.  I had a chance to take a tour well before my first broadcast on September 1st and was completely impressed with the detail that went in to the construction of the new pressbox.  To a broadcaster, little things can make or break the press facilities in a broadcast booth.  Since we use a Comrex cellcast to transmit back to the radio station, a phone line is not necessary for the broadcast....that is, until something goes wrong.  At that point, it is not only necessary, but crucial.  The pressbox was installed with live phone lines in each of the pressrooms.  In the old pressbox, in order to get crowd noise for our broadcast, we’d run a "shotgun" microphone out of the pressroom and hang it on the stadium.  That usually meant that the door wouldn’t close very good because the wire was in the way.  The new facility has built-in crowd noise that requires me to simply plug a cord in the wall.  That is tremendously helpful!  The amount of room was very comparable to all of the new press facilities that we’ve visited around the area.  Plus, the placement of the radio room was stationed directly at the 50 yard line (which was brilliant).

Overall, I’d give the new facilities an A+ in all areas.  If I were to be picky, I’d want a deeper counter in which to set the equipment on...and probably holes drilled in the counter in order to hide the wires.  Other than that, great job MISD!

Boyd Fan Fest Was Amazing

Monday, August 21, 2006

Posted by Monte Walker at 10:53 PM

Good job...well done...fantastic.  Those were the words I heard constantly from everyone after the first McKinneySports.net Fan Fest at McKinney Boyd.  With the sweat, adrenaline, and exhaustion it felt as if I just got through beating the favorite rival of choice.  First of all, we all need to give a collective pat on the back to Angie Bado our Founder/President of McKinneySports.net.  She has masterminded all of these fan fests and put so much work into all of these in order to give back to McKinney.  Also Kathy Baublits has spent countless hours making sure everything is to perfection.  At least for one night...everything WAS perfect.  I couldn’t have imagined a better event.  What started as a swealtering 100+ degree miserable mid-afternoon turned into a nice overcast 90 degree evening.  I’m looking around the stands and I see countless little kids wearing T-Shirts that say "Future Boyd Bronco".  (note to MHS and MNHS...get there early if you want your kid to have their respective "Future" shirts).  American Bank of Texas gave us a zillion pink stress balls and whiz rings that were flying all over the stadium.  The band was absolutely incredible.  I had the best seat in the house during the choir performance as I kneeled with the wirless mic in the middle of the choir huddle.  How beautiful was that National Anthem?  My Goodness!  The Bailadoras (which I learned means dance in Spanish) did a magnificent dance routine to their own music.  When the lights came on for the athletes, they shined like a brand new dime...in a brand new stadium.  As I’m announcing the golf teams I’m wondering how many times to they actually get to run through a victory line?  It had to be a nice moment for all of the athletes.  Maybe the most impressive grand enterance was the volleyball team who strutted their brand new trophy through the victory line.  What a site to see!  The football team had their very first victory line experience and recieved an incredible applause from the 1,000 fans that showed up.  Coach Drake recognized his entire staff and then it was autograph time for the players.  Kids marched onto the field and sharpees were in full tilt.  As I put away the microphone and talked to some fans and parents I assumed that this massive crowd had just filed out and gone home.  Well, I had yet to see the parking lot where the bounce house was located.  Kids were EVERYWHERE!  I kept thinking....this has to be a kids heaven!  I found a deal at the football boosters smoker where I paid $5 for all you can eat BBQ, burgers, and hot dogs (It was a late tearing down special I think).  I took advantage of all of it.  When the night was over and I came home, I reflected on what must be one of the most special nights in the history of the city of McKinney.  One’s persons vision with the help of many can become such a special event.  Thanks Angie, Kathy, Megan and all of the McKinneySports.net staff and MISD administrators for making this a night that many will never forget.

Fantasy Football Looms Again

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Posted by Monte Walker at 10:48 PM

The most hated time of the year for a lot of wives is looming.  Draft dates and pre-draft dates have already been penciled in.  Wings are being heated up and beverages are being cooled down...it must be time for another stake to claim of Peyton Manning or Shawn Alexander.  As a matter of fact, I’ve been playing this sleeveless plaid shirt wearing, couch-potato sport that they call fantasy football for twelve years now.  How long is that...well, the Dallas Cowboys went to the Super Bowl my first year....Vinny Testeverde was the QB for the Cleveland Browns (there were no Baltimore Ravens yet)...Errict Rhett was the talk of the draft that year...and "internet" to my friends probably had something to do with fishing.  I started my own league with friends the following year.  I found out that being a commissioner of a fantasy football league was a pretty time-consuming ordeal.  In those days, lineups/waivers/trades had to be phoned in (no email or internet with my friends), which usually meant I made 10 phone calls on Thursday night and spent about 5 hours updating an excel spreadsheet each week.  We actually had to get our stats out of a newspaper on Monday (hahahahaha).  Rules were also in their early stages of trial and error perfection.  Around 1998 software programs finally came to fruition with automated scoring through email updates  (we actually made a rule - You have to have an email address to play).  My league invested in one of those companies before finally moving our league to a popular national website who has handled all of our fantasy football needs since 2000.  Also, the job of commissioner of your league has been reduced to changing the year on the web page from 2005 to 2006.  All of this and some ask, "Why do you play fantasy football?"  If you were to ask any of the guys in our league, the only answer you would get would be "bragging rights and trash talk."  Don’t ask my why it is so much of a power-trip to lay ownership to the rights to Chad Johnson’s stats and claim your intelligence over your buddy because he had more yards than Tory Holt in week 3.  I have no idea how we can get so involved...but we do.   I guess it’s the power of actually creating your own dream-team and trying to put together a championship.  Every year since 1995 I have felt on draft night that I was going to run-away with the championship, but have come up short every year except for "The Miracle of 1996."  Guys that play this ridiculous "sport" have their winning teams memorized and know exactly who their starting quarterback was (I alternated Vinny and Mark Brunell that year).     For the newcomers to fantasy football, I have some recommendations for you.  1.  Stay away!  This can sometimes make you root for a guy who’s playing the Cowboys (well, for some people anyway).  2.  If you’re not in my league...I don’t care about your team.  The last thing I have time for is hearing how good your team is in your "other league."  3.  If you’re going to play this crazy game...cook for your wife a lot.  Nine times out of ten, she hates the fact that you play...be nice to her.  And finally, sharpen your elbows and thicken your skin, another year of fantasy football is about to begin.

The Little Tike Comes Home

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Posted by Monte Walker at 10:23 AM

My son Mahlon was able to come home July 1st after spending a week in the hospital. His first stop outside of the hospital was his Mamaw & Papaw’s house in Sherman (that is, if you don’t count Whataburger drive-thru on Forest & Central). We spent around three hours visiting and also had other family members visit. He got to meet his great Papaw (which was very special to me). Mahlon finally arrived at his house at 2:53pm Saturday afternoon. The nurses said that he had his days/nights mixed up and we found that to be very true as Tonia stayed up all night with him. We took turns feeding and changing diapers all weekend and were both massively deprived of sleep. He got to meet his other great Papaw (Wilson) on Sunday and the 93 year-old could barely hold the 9 day-old because he’s so heavy! After a 2nd of July get-together at some friends house, we had a family 4th of July cookout at his Mamaw & Papaw’s house. Tonia and I both took 4-hour naps as Mamaw looked after Mahlon. That was the best 4 hours of sleep I’ve ever had! The holidays couldn’t have come at a better time! Now, it’s back to the old grindstone for the next 18+ years.