Burnet Middle School football sweeps Gatesville
CAPTION: Burnet Middle School coach Sonny Wilson (center) handles much of the seventh-grade offensive play calling, while Burnet Middle School athletic coordinator Mark Zeigler (back) is the game manager. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Burnet Middle School football program went 4-0 against Gatesville Sept. 25.
The seventh-grade B team won 18-6, the seventh-grade A team was victorious 40-0, the eighth-grade B team won 22-6, and the eighth-grade A team took a 42-6 victory.
Burnet Middle School athletic coordinator Mark Zeigler said he was happy with the wins, especially the eighth-grade A team, which face Hornets squad “that was not bad, and they were physical.”
“We played with 17 kids,” he said. “And they played the whole game both ways and special teams. And they were wore out, and I’m glad that game was over when it was over. Even though it was 42-6, that Gatesville team was physical. They don’t have a bad program over there either.”
All four Burnet teams have winning records. The eighth-grade B lost to “a pretty good group of San Saba” players that brought its A team to Burnet.
“Honestly, we just have two good groups, and we got lucky that we have two good groups together,” Zeigler said. “It’s both seventh and eighth with pretty decent athletes, and no matter who, no matter what they tell you, your coach is only as good as your athletes. Usually 90 percent of the game comes down to athletes and the other 10 percent comes from coaches, but in my mind, just consistency and trying to be consistent with both groups.”
Zeigler, who is in his first year with Burnet Consolidated Independent School District, said one of the big keys is the players embrace the daily preparation.
“The hard thing in junior high try to make sure our kids understand is that they have to be at practice every day,” he said. “We’ve battled that a little bit at first and we’re finally coming around and making sure that our attendance is really, really good every week. And that’s what it’s all about – just getting them there and working with the kids that you have and like I said, we have good kids.”
The other encouraging commitment is the BMS coaches are teaching the same basic schemes as the high school program, the coordinator said.
“It is all (head) coach (Ben) Speers’ stuff and we try to implement that the best we can and get kids to the high school,” he said. “We’re running all of their stuff. Everything that we run has come from the high school coaches — offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator — we’re running the same defense, we’re running the same offense.”
He indicated teaching the base schemes accomplishes several points. The first is that the base schemes are simplified so that these players, who are still learning the sport, can better understand their roles so they are thinking less about how to step or move and are simply doing it once the ball is snapped. Secondly, the University Interscholastic League gives guidelines on how many minutes of practices each week athletes of that age can participate. By teaching the base, Burnet Middle School stays in UIL compliance. And finally, knowing the base schemes well is the starting point for adding more – the quarterback then can learn multiple reads, the players can learn more plays from each formation, and the defense can learn more exotic blitzes that confuse the offenses.
“I have probably four main offensive positions — formations — that we run. And we run plays within those formations,” Zeigler said. “A lot of times those plays carry over – just keep running out of different formations. So we are running exactly what they have. We work with the high school coaches directly. It’s the same thing. Now they run more stuff than we do of course, but our stuff is their stuff.”
Zeigler emphasized that while winning records are an indicator of a job well done, they aren’t the only markers for himself or his colleagues.
“If I have 50 kids that play eighth-grade football then I need 50 kids to go to ninth-grade football,” he said. “And if that happens, I think we’ve done our job. Since I’ve been here last year, I went to some of the games, I was friends with some of the parents (whose children) were in seventh grade, and I saw the potential that they had, and that’s what made me want to come back and help. I thought my experience could help guide these kids to getting them to the high school and hopefully start from this year on making sure that we get the exact number that we had out in junior high into ninth grade football. I want to get all kids that are on my football team as seventh graders to eighth grade as eighth graders to ninth grade.”
Zeigler, who still spends a lot of time with Burnet Youth Football and Cheer, noted those young Bulldogs also are playing well so far this season.
“Burnet can be pretty good for years to come, too, because our youth teams are the same,” he said. “I think all our youth teams are undefeated besides our sixth grade team. I think they got a couple of losses and a couple of wins.”
The BMS program has a bye this week. The Bulldogs will welcome Marble Falls Thursday, Oct. 9.
CAPTION: Burnet seventh-grade A members Brantley Corbell (12), Jackson Ray (18), Graydon O’Hair (11), and Carter Deleon (68) celebrate a touchdown as Brayden Houston (1) heads to the sideline. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
