Well today was one helluva day. Morris last won the state
championship in 1984. I was eight years old. I didn’t get
to go to the game. I was too young to really appreciate the
championship especially since we also won in 1980 and were runner ups
in 1979 and made the semifinals in 1983. An 8 year old kid thinks
that it is just Morris’ right of passage to win the title. 21
years later, I was still waiting to experience my first championship
victory. I had seen 4 runner ups and those teams will forever be
dear to me as well but this is SO MUCH BETTER. We went to Ryan’s after the game and the cheerleaders chanted “MOR” “RIS” on the way into the restaurant and all of us fans gave the football team a standing ovation when they entered Ryan’s…it was a great moment.

The one bad thing I will take away from today is the fact that there
were several war protesters outside the stadium passing out flyers in
front of the National Guard recruiting tent. Fck those
assholes. Spread your political agenda on your own time at your
own event. Chuckie and I tried to talk the National Guard into
kicking their asses but they told us that the protesters had freedom of
speech and could say what they wanted. I guess there was also a
second bad thing…leaving the game, I told one of the protesters that
“I don’t support your pinko commie agenda” and one of the Normal High
cheerleaders turned around to congrat me on saying that. When she
saw me dressed in Morris gear, she instead said “oh…you’re a redneck
from Morris” and I replied “yep and your team just lost to us
rednecks…BIYATCH.” Chris and Chuckie almost lost it.

I woke up at 7 am and started pacing the hallways. Around 7:30 I
notice that my back is killing me. I mean killing me. The
pain is in my left shoulder blade and I can’t get it to pop no matter
what I try. Stretching it just makes me want to cry. I take
a couple of tylenol and wait an eternity for 2 hours to pass so I can
head into town and pick up Chuckie. I pick up Chuckie and pick up
Chris and we are on our way to the State Championship game in
Champaign. It is a fun ride and all of us are in a good mood
because we are finally heading to a state championship game where we
are the favorites to win.

I took 24 pictures at the game but most of them didn’t turn out very
well and I think everyone would kill me if I posted 24 pictures in this
live journal.

The game started off very badly. Our QB sucks. He sucks
very badly. He completed one pass for negative 5 yards in the
entire game. We have 6’7″ Jamie Cumbie as a tight end and our QB
couldn’t even get the ball to within 5 yards of him. Of course it
is very difficult to throw a football when both of your hands are
wrapped around your throat. He threw 2 interceptions and should
have had about 4. Dergo fumbled the ball on the opening drive and
we are losing 3-0 after 1 quarter and our defense had given up 15 yards
on 13 plays to that point.

John Dergo finally got an opening and broke the state record for
touchdowns in a season with 52 at the end of the first half. Here
is the play being shown on the scoreboard:

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We come out in the second half and get a touchdown on the first drive
and go up by a score of 14-3. Everyone thinks that we will
finally start playing and run away with the game. Everyone was
wrong. Normal Community High, knowing that our QB couldn’t
complete a pass to a teammate to save his life, put all 11 defenders
within 3 yards of the line of scrimmage to stop Dergo and the running
game. They ran 20+ more plays than us and wore out our defense to
the point where they marched down the field towards the end of the game
and got a touchdown and missed the 2 pt conversion to pull within
14-9. Dergo then took over the game and ran the ball 5
yards at a time to run the final 4:30 off the clock and win the game
and the championship for Morris. Dergo 34 carries for 203
yards.

Here is the scoreboard after the game declaring Morris as State Champions:

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Here is a shot of the team celebrating by the trophy stand:

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This next picture is a little blurry but it gets the point
across. Plus I was holding the camera with one hand and
trying to get the pic because I was holding a sign and getting on
television around this time. More on that in a couple of
seconds:

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Here is a better picture of the captains carrying the state trophy…I
had put down the sign by this point in order to take the best pic
possible but alas…I’m no photographer.

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Now for the getting on tv part that I mentioned earlier. We
headed towards the trophy stand with 90 seconds left in the game and
beat the rush to get over there. A guy had “REDSKINS” spelled out
one letter to a posterboard. We were where he wanted to be so he
gave Chris, Chuckie and me ones to hold so we could all get on tv and
probably in some papers. Being the glory hound that I am, I
gladly accepted. I’m holding the “K”, Chris is blocked out by the
flash of the camera but he has the “S” in front of my “K” and Chuckie
is holding the “I”. Yes I came home and took a picture of it on
my television after Chris’ wife called us to tell us we were on tv.

image gone 🙁

They had a victory celebration at the high school after the team
returned from the game. That was a crazy atmosphere. The
gymnasium was packed. Those of you that we at the first wrestling
show in Morris should remember how big that gym was. It was
standing room only on the floor and the bleachers full. I
tried to take several pictures there but they didn’t turn out because I
was in the top row of the bleachers leaning against the wall because of
my back hurting so badly. Turning from side to side is next to
impossible but I don’t even care right now. Coach Dergo
said something very amazing to close out his speech at the
ceremony. He told the players that even though they are now loved
by the entire town, that they are to act like champions should and be a
class act. Don’t take advantage of the fact that you have a free
ride around town. That everyone in the town is a state champion
from the players to the fans that drove hours on end to the games to
cheer them on and hold nothing more dear in their hearts to all the
former players that put their blood, sweat and tears into being a
Redskin. Cherish the memory but don’t let it change who you are
and what made the town love you to begin with…hard working loyal kids
that wore the uniform that so many other great ones have.

I will leave everyone on that note.