Bracken Christian Embraces a New Year

Sam Hilgendorf returns with more holding on the season

What we do know? BCS has had a great run the past three years which encompassed a State Championship and two final four appearances.

A case can be made that the Warriors were the second best team in both of those losses in the semis, as they played the eventual Champion in both cases and played them much closer than the other bracket winner.

Now The ReSporter would like to look into the crystal ball and see what this year’s edition might do in a two part series breaking down the schedule with non-district games first and then see what the district might have in store this year.

When Bracken took their Summer vacation last May, the district had six games which was the largest in Division 1.

Then San Antonio Atonement was put on probation from TAPPS for playing eighth graders during the baseball season. SA Atonement decided to leave TAPPS for another league, so now what was going to be a district game has been moved to a non-district game.

2012 Schedule:

8.31  Austin Hill Country  There
9.7   Sugarland Logos Prep Here
9.22  Brenham Christian    Here
10.12 SA Atonement         Here
11.3  Houston Emory-Weiner There

Bracken Christian now has two games during the district part of their schedule where they play non-district foes.
Houston Emery-Weiner was taking up a natural schedule break based on having seven teams in district. Now with Atonement’s change the Warriors have two games breaking up the district drive.

Three of the five teams will certainly be a good test for BCS as they start this year having to replace several key ingredients to the last three years of play.

Austin Hill Country will be a good test right out of the box. The good news? Austin has also been depleted with players running out of eligibility.

These two teams have had some classic games and this year should not be any different as BCS starts play away from home.

There are only two teams that have put two losses on Bracken’s ledger and AHC is one of those teams.

In both games last season against AHC, the Warriors allowed forty or more points (90 combined) and the other nine teams scored four more points (94 pts) combined than those two games.

Sugarland Logos Prep will be next as the home crowd will get a taste of what could be a special year.

Sugarland finished with a 6-5 record and their only common opponent was Tomball Rosehill. A team the Warriors beat 66-18.

Sugarland lost to Tomball but has several key players returning this year and with six-man football you know by experience that is the main ingredient for turning a year around for programs.

After an open date, BCS will have a tough game against Brenham Christian. This team was State Champion in the lower division two years ago and many pundits thought that this team was better than the Warriors.

Brenham Christian lost several players from that team and started rebuilding immediately, so last year’s season (4-7) was not as successful and the Eagles should be in a race for a deeper run into this year’s playoffs.

The Warriors then will start district and after two weeks play SA Atonement at home.

The Atonement team was 4-6 with one of the wins coming over SA Lutheran. That score? 32-30.

SA Lutheran was the only team Bracken beat in their first year of competition as Lutheran still searches for a ball that is oblong instead of round.

In other words, Bracken should be able to handle SA Atonement.

Bracken will finish their non-district schedule against Houston Emery-Weiner.

Emery-Weiner is a six-man independent school because the school actually has enough players to field an eleven man team. So the rules prohibit this school from playing in a district for a chance to advance in the playoffs.

Last year, BCS won at home 58-8. Is this Emery-Weiner team fifty points better or could the Warriors be a tad off from their run to State?

That is why they play the games. Bracken will have to find a lot of pieces to the jig saw puzzle and luckily for this particular game, the Warriors should know after playing eight games.

Six-man football does not take much to change the chemistry of a team. Losses to graduation along with injuries can be a big night and day issue on how each year might transpire.

The ReSporter will talk about District next as practice starts up and this team starts to make their imprint into their seventh season.