Here Is To A Better Week

I have always said that there is something special about Hardin-Simmons that you just can’t explain. Maybe it’s the people I work with, maybe it’s the students I get to see every day, maybe it is the Christian environment that I get to work in every day. In athletics you hear all of the time about the It factor, whatever that is, Hardin-Simmons has it.

Since I have been at Hardin-Simmons the good weeks outweigh the bad ones by about a 15:1 ratio. Sometimes when you see what our kids put into not only their sports, but just being good students and doing the right things off the court, course or field, you hurt a little more when they don’t reach the success they want to reach.

The last time I had been in the football locker room, prior to last Sunday, was after the Howard Payne loss. There was hurt on the faces of so many young men in that locker room. They were suffering from a loss, it was a loss on the football field in a game. It was a scene I had seen before after a Cowboy loss, but it is something that usually passes in a few hours.

Last Sunday, I knew I witnessed what it is like to really lose. What real suffering from a loss means. When there was a memorial to a fallen teammate there was hurt and pain in that room. They were still trying to comprehend the loss of a teammate that was taken away from them early. There was hurt in the eyes of close friends, not close friends, coaches and administrators. The Cowboy family vowed to come together as one, to get through this trying time together. That kind of hurt doesn't go away in a few hours or days.

Coach Keeling was so brave and such a leader for his group of men in that service, but you could feel the hurt and pain in his voice. He is a great example of a leader of men. Brentdrick Walker is gone from this life, but he will never be forgotten by the HSU family.

Emotions were still running high throughout Monday and then of all things HSU was set to play McMurry in basketball that night. The Cowgirls gave a great effort, battling back from a large deficit to make it a game late, before falling. The men’s game was an instant classic as both teams laid it all on the floor. HSU led by 10 late in the second half and McMurry came right back to send the game to overtime. It went to a second overtime and eventually the Cowboys won the game.

What happened after the buzzer has been played and replayed on the Internet and newspaper. There is a lot out there that is so far from what really happened. Coach Howard will be the first to admit he over reacted and let emotions get in the way of the situation and could have handled it better.

I want to start out by giving my view of what happened underneath the basket as time expired. McMurry missed the 3-pointer and Mardochee Jean grabbed the rebound. When he cleared the rebound he pushed off on Robert Moreno. It is not something more than what you see when battling for a rebound 10-15 times a game. There was not a malicious elbow thrown. Moreno went down and Jean asked him if he was alright (not trash talk as has been thrown out there). Moreno said he was fine and things were fine.

Casey Jones then threw the ball at Mardochee and words were exchanged, but nothing really happened as far as punches being thrown or anything. In Jones’ defense, you could tell from the film that he immediately felt bad for what he had done.

Coach Howard was walking away from where the player’s had the incident, toward the HSU bench and you can plainly see Garza yelling something at Howard. Howard turns around and you can see Coach Howard and Coach Garza in a verbal exchange and there were things said on both sides that neither is proud of. Coach Howard had to be restrained, which he was, he went and celebrated the win with our student section (which was the best they have been in several years by the way) and went back to the locker room.

There is a saying in sports that says the film doesn’t lie. A lot of what has been said about the whole situation has been over the top. Howard and Garza aren’t monsters. Moreno, Jones and Jean aren’t dirty players. Are there people that wish it had not gone down the way it did? Absolutely! Were there things said and done that should not have been? Absolutely! For the most part, it was the emotions of big rivalry game that got to the best of a few people.

The thing that many people don’t realize about the whole event that was blown out of proportion is that during the whole verbal exchange between the coaches players on both sides were talking, hugging and embracing each other on a game well played. Moreno and Mardochee were part of that. There was mutual respect being shown on the court.

I can’t tell you for sure what kind of person that Moreno is, but from everything I have heard he is a great guy and leader for their team. I can tell you FOR SURE that Mardochee is one of the most polite, engaging people you will ever meet. Trash talk and throwing elbows would be well out of the norm for him.

The thing the whole incident did was take the spotlight off of one of the best games ever in the series.

Those two things were the start to an emotional week. Walker’s memorial service was held at the school on Thursday and his funeral was in Dallas on Saturday.

The basketball teams were on the road at Texas Lutheran and Schreiner and it was a clean sweep on the road, which was a good end to an emotional week.

I am ready for the good 15 weeks in a row now. Even though a down-and-back trip to Alpine is on the agenda, this week has to be better.