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Scouting: Reagan Rattlers Poised For Greatness

Sunday, October 01, 2006
District 26-5A is known for it’s great football, it’s also know for it’s great Volleyball, Baseball, Cross Country, Swimming and Track. Reagan High School has excelled in almost every sport since it opened six years ago except Football. This year may be the year the Rattlers break into the Football playoff scene. Reagan got off to a slow start this year dropping games to O’Connor, Churchill and MacArthur but last week they showed signs of greatness coming from behind against a tough Roosevelt team and recording their first district Victory. How important is this game for the Mavs? A Loss brings them to a tie with Reagan in the district race, a win and the Mavs are in the drivers seat for a playoff spot with 3 wins in 26-5A.

Rattlers Offence: Reagan runs the spread offence but has not had much success this year with putting points on the board. The offence has only scored 4 rushing TDs in 5 games this year and only 3 passing TDs. In comparison the Mavs have rushed for 17 TDs and has added 2 TDs through the air. Reagan has not scored over 24 points in one game all year, and 3 times they have been held under 14 points. With that said this team is very dangerous as noted last week against Roosevelt. Marcos Wright is the featured back for Reagan and he is 5th in District 26-5A with just over 500 yards on the ground this season. Wright was an all-district selection last year as a Soph. and started his first game last year vs Madison. Reagan will run the trap and sweep to try and get Wright into some space. Reagan will throw the ball but usually only the high percentage passes as they don’t posses a deep threat. Reagan will throw the ball to their starting wide out Travis Tatsch most of the time. He has nice size and some great hands. If there is one area where Reagan has struggled is at the QB position. Matt Smith started the year under center but has lost the job and is back at WR where he was a standout last year. Reagan has had a QB by committee lately with Soph. Derrick Walls and Jr. Josh York getting the most snaps. Neither one has found a good rhythm with the receivers; Walls is a converted DB and has some speed. The Rattlers do not want to get into a shoot-out with anyone as they don’t have not shown to have the offence to score 35-40 points in a contest, but last weeks second half against Roosevelt might just be the spark the Rattlers need to jump start this unit.

Rattlers Defense: Coming into this year most people figured this would be one of the best units in the city with 7 starters returning from last years team. But with the Offence not being able to sustain drives this unit has been pushed all year by time of possession. The defense backs are some of the best in the area and have picked off 5 passes on the year. They also have a nice set of Line backers and last week the defense scored a Touchdown of their own. Reagan traditionally is very aggressive and opportunistic on defense and they are usually hard hitters. The Rattler defense has not allowed over 190 yards rushing in one game all year so the Mavericks with their rushing attack will be tested. The Defense should be well motivated as they got a breath of new life last week in beating Roosevelt in come-from-behind fashion.


Rattlers Special Teams: The Mavs learned last week what a great place kicker can do in this district and they will get to see another great kicker again this week. Grant Edlund plays in the aggressive defense back field and kicks off and punts. He also is having a stellar year kicking FGs and is amazingly the team leader in points scored with 25. His 47 yard FG against Georgetown in Week 1 is the longest in 26-5A this year. He has converted on 6 FG in 5 games and is perfect in PATs. You have to figure this is one of the Rattlers best weapons and if Reagan drives inside the 30 yard line they are more than likely going to at least get 3 points. Edlund also holds down the punting duties where he is equally impressive. He averages just over 40 yards a punt and has shown the ability to pin teams inside the 10 by kicking to the coffin corner. Edlunds kick offs rarely get returned as he has enough leg to get the ball out of the back of the end zone. Kick returns and punt returns are above average.

Rangers Coaching and Extras: Head Coach David Wetzel is a young aggressive head coach. He likes the high percentage passes and running Traps and sweeps. He will try to open it up a bit but still is considered conservative with his play calling. Reagan is in a situation they are familiar with as again they have backed themselves into a corner but after winning last week they find themselves facing the Mavs with a chance to move up quickly. A loss will mean 3 losses in a 9 team district with Smithson Valley and Judson still on the schedule. A Win and they pull into a tie with Madison and hold the tie breaker over the Mavs. Seeing the importance of this game will be motivation enough for this team.

Players to Watch –
#8 – Grant Edlund DB/K
#11 – Travis Tatsch WR
#21 – Marcos Wright RB
#34 – Steven Little LB
#43 – Ben Stonestreet LB
#72 – Adam Arthur DL

Madison Varsity Football Let’s One Slip Away for First Loss

Going into Thursday nights contest with Smithson Valley few outside the Maverick communities gave the Mavs a fighting chance. The Rangers came in as the number one team in the area and number 4 in the State AP pole. The rangers left with a victory but also with a lot of respect for the 2006 Madison Mavericks.

Coach Hill and the Rangers have always been a second half team, they have always been able to make the adjustments at halftime to win contest. And Thursday was no different. Madison came out of the locker room on fire in the first Quarter. Starting on their own 20 it only took 1 play and 80 yards on the legs of Devin Thomas for the Mavs to start the scoring.

The first quarter would continue to look good as the Mavs would pick off a pass on Smithson Valley’s first play from scrimmage as Madison Jr. Linebacker Jason McLean would haul in the poorly thrown ball. Madison could not capitalize on the INT and SV would tie up the contest at 7 going into the 2nd Quarter.

Devin Thomas would add a couple more TDs for the Mavs before the break while SV could only must a couple of FGs to match. Going into half the defense looked good, the offence was clicking and short of a missed PAT the Mavs seemed to be heading for a victory.

The second half SV came out looking like…well…SV! Smithson Valley would start running the clock and grinding out yards behind their feature back Trent Rios. By the time the teams changed up ends to start the 4th quarter the game was all square at 27. The 8000+ on hand had to this point seen a great contest and both sides felt they could win the contest.

Unfortunatly for the Mavs as time ran out and a Ranger FG split the uprights it would be Smithson Valley celebrating the victory. While the scoreboard did not go the way of the Mavericks and Madison’s starting QB Matt Towne sat out the whole second half, there were a few positives that came for this game. The 271 yards rushing that the Mavs racked up is far and away the best performance on the ground by any team this year vs. Smithson Valley. The Passing game finally returned to it’s week one form, and Devin Thomas proved that he can run the ball against the best defense in the area.

The most impressive thing that came from Thursday is the overwhelming community support. Thursday games are a hard sell with work and school the next day but filling up the home stands and forcing NEISD athletic department to use the end zone overflow was nice to see. Madison has the greatest fans in South Texas and it showed Thursday night at the Mavs Home opener.

The Mavs will have to put this game behind them, but learn from their mistakes as they have Homecoming week and the Reagan Rattlers on tap this week. Reagan has had an up and down season and is coming off a come from behind win vs. Roosevelt on Saturday night.

Volleyball Stays Focused On Making the Playoffs

Madison Volleyball started the second half of the Home-and-Home district schedule this last week. Madison basically can control their own destiny by beating the teams they beat in the first half of the district schedule and turning one loss into a win in the second half. This last week brought two teams that Madison handled nicely in the first meeting.

Monday night the Mavs hosted Wagner at Littleton Gym. Madison opened district play against Wagner and swept the T-Birds in three sets back in August. Just like their first meeting Madison would dominate their opponent and Madison would close out the match with out being challenged 25-21, 25-11, 25-10.

Friday Night the Mavs would have the Lee Volunteers to compete against. Lee who has just recorded 3 district wins but has two wins in local early season Tournaments is a streaky team. And the Mavs caught them on a hot streak. Lee would push the Mavs to the 5th set before folding 15-7 in the last set. The Mavs showed a lot of character winning a match they needed to win and some of the players put up season high numbers. Amber Wetz scored 23 kills, May Allen picked up an incredible 41 assist and Spencer Ladd dug out 30 balls for the Mavs.

The Mavs have another big week this week and some huge contest on tap. The Mavs will travel to Smithson Valley on Tuesday. The Rangers sit alone on third place right now in 26-5A. On Friday things don’t get any easer as the Mavs will look to upset the number #2 team in the state Reagan Rattlers at Littleton Gym.

Madison fans are invited out to Littleton Friday at 4:30pm to cheer on the Mavs against one of the top rated teams in the nation. The match starts at 4:30pm and will be done well before the Football game and homecoming festivities.

XC Girls Pick up 6th place, Bots pick up 9th at SAISD Meet

Both Varsity Boys and Girls Cross Country Teams completed this last week at the SAISD Meet. The Boys picked up a top tean finish with a 9th place. The Girls followed that up with a 6th place finish.

This week the Varsity team travels to Round Rock for a meet at the site of this years State Meet. The JV will stay in town and compete in the IWHS meet back out at San Antonio State School grounds.

Booster Club Meeting, Cross Country Pot Luck, and Homecoming

The booster Club will be meeting this Monday night at 6:15pm at the Madison High School Cafeteria. After the meeting the Boosters will be hosting the Cross Country Teams for a Pot Luck Dinner. The Booster Club has quite a few events scheduled for this Homecoming Week, that they can use some help with, including The JV Home football game on Thursday, the Homecoming Pep-Rally Thursday evening, Friday’s WOAI Kiolbassa Tail Gate Party, and the Homecoming game. For more information on how you can help come to the Booster Club meeting on Monday night or contact johnny vega via email at jhnnyvg@yahoo.com