SPRINGER' HIT OF THE YEAR. WHAT A WAY TO GO OUT.

[TEAM FALCON]

EVEN THE ANNOUNCERS COULDN'T BELIEVE IT ON THE RADIO.
HERE'S THE HIT SPRINGER PUT ON THE WESTLAKE RB.

www.teamfalcon.net/2006WESTLAKE.html


BOTH JEREMY AND JUSTIN WERE SAID TO BE 'TRUE DIVISION 1 PLAYERS' ACCORDING TO THE ESPN RADIO ANNOUNCERS FROM AUSTIN.

SURE THEY WERE FROM AUSTIN BUT THEY DID SAY A FEW GOOD THINGS ABOUT LF.

[kathy78566]

Man for a minute there I couldn't believe what happened but he sure did pound him to the ground!!!! Good Job Falcons you all did great this year...Go Falcons!!!!

[Newbler]

kathy78566 said:

Man for a minute there I couldn't believe what happened but he sure did pound him to the ground!!!! Good Job Falcons you all did great this year...Go Falcons!!!!

After watching a hit like that are you SURE you want your boy to play football? ;D

I was kinda dizzy after watching that kid get his clock cleaned.

[kathy78566]

Well to come and think I believe that any type of sport he gets into he is capable of getting hurt. Maybe basketball would be good because he is going to be a tall boy. I'm not really sure hes only 4 so I'm starting him off with Karate classes.

[bubba10]

Raise him to be a man. Injuries are just part of it. The kid is only 4. Don't push him on anything. Put him into as many sports as you can. That includes football. Encourage him when he does well and get on him when he doesn't. That is not just one man talking. As my kid brother told me once, if a dog doesn't bite when its a puppy, it won't be a good dog.

Of course now, he has three girls. I like to think that was God's way of giving those girls the father they might not have had. Now he's looking forward to them being the girls hockey team like none other.

[westlakechaps]

You guys played tough. I sure wish I played football when I was in school. But I think I work just as hard when I'm typing on this keyboard so I think it the same.

And that hit, wow.......I wish I knew what it felt like to wear a helmet so I can have a least have an idea of what a hit feels like.

[Newbler]

westlakechaps said:

Are you serious??? So his helmet came off, big deal. After the tackle, Max Minor got right back up again and then proceeded to run the ball down your throats. You guys are just too funny.

What you should pay attention to is the scoreboard. The one that said 28-0 at halftime and 45-19 at the end.

Oh, and I have to hand it to you, cheering and taunting during our alma-mater at the begining of the game, and sending your team out one-by-one early after halftime so that your side could cheer during our marching bands performance was totally class-less.

When I first showed up I thought that it was really cool that you were all there to support your team like that, but as the game went on I got to see just how low-rent you guys are.

*sigh*
Max Minor did NOT get right back up sir. He popped up, swayed a bit, then headed for the sidelines.

As far as the score, yup Westlake got the best of us. Nothing I can say there.

Don't even start with the Alma Mater dude. Something tells me you were the punk in the student section that started the "Westlake-High" chant during ours. We have NEVER done that before and quite frankly I was appalled that we did it in retaliation to your taunting. For that I apologize.

I could care less what you think of us. I thought it was a good game. A little bit more lopsided than I expected but our kids hung in there and never stopped fighting.

I am happy about what your COACH thought of our kids though. Perhaps you noticed he kept the Springers on his sideline for a few minutes after the kids shook hands?

Your team was a class act and it was an honor to see our kids play with them. Good luck in your quest for State. I'm pulling for your kids.

Oh, and grow up man.

[alexacool]

ya that was so cool and wierd at the same time! i was like "wow"!

[TEAM FALCON]

Springer’s jarring hit a memorable highlight from 2006
Brownsville Herald Jan 2006

Every Rio Grande Valley high school football season has its share of memorable moments and 2006 was certainly no exception.

Looking back on the season just completed, there were plenty of offensive highlights, but the one play that I’ll probably remember the most came on defense courtesy of senior middle linebacker Justin Springer of Los Fresnos.

It happened in the Falcons’ Class 5A Division I regional playoff game against Austin Westlake on Dec. 2 in Victoria. Westlake defeated Los Fresnos 45-19 and wound up advancing to the 5A Division I state final against Southlake Carroll before falling 43-29 on Dec. 23 at the San Antonio Alamodome and finishing with a 12-3 record.

Even though Westlake played three more playoff games after beating Los Fresnos (12-1), I’m pretty sure the Chaparrals won’t soon forget the Falcons, particularly Springer, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound force on defense who hopes to prove himself on the college level along with twin brother and teammate Jeremy, a standout quarterback who passed for 3,502 yards and 42 touchdowns this season.

Justin Springer was credited with making 17 tackles against Westlake. The most impressive of those 17 stops came near the end of the first quarter when the Chaparrals were moving down the field for their first touchdown.

On first-and-10 from the Los Fresnos 8-yard line, Westlake running back Max Minor, who had gained 32 yards on the previous play, took a handoff and went into the line thinking the goal line was nearby. Instead, he was stopped cold before he could even reach the line of scrimmage on a jarring tackle by Justin Springer.

The Los Fresnos linebacker hit Minor so hard that the Westlake running back’s helmet came flying off and he was dropped for a 3-yard loss.

I hadn’t seen such a hard collision like that in quite some time. It reminded me of a game in 2004 be-tween St. Joseph and Marine Military Academy in Harlingen when then-junior linebacker Daniel Guillen of the Bloodhounds came flying across the field at full speed to deliver a crunching tackle just inbounds on a Leatherneck ballcarrier.

It happened right in front of the MMA bench, and the MMA crowd, which had a close view of the colli-sion and clearly heard the impact of pads, reacted with a collective gasp.

There was a similar response when Springer leveled Minor only on a wider scale. Los Fresnos had ap-proximately 4,500 fans on the visitors side at Victoria Memorial Stadium.

While I was watching the game from the pressbox, Valley Morning Star sports reporters Armando Garza and Eladio Jaimez were covering the action from the Los Fresnos sideline and received a much closer view of Springer’s jarring tackle.

“It happened right in front of me,” Garza said. “You just heard it (hard hit) and everybody gasped. It echoed through the crowd.”

An Austin Westlake fan who was at the game emailed me the next day, saying he was impressed with the Springer brothers. He asked how many tackles Justin Springer had recorded.

“I don’t think we blocked that guy all day,” the email read.

After the game, I went to the Los Fresnos locker room and wanted to make sure that I asked Springer about the tackle. He was understandably disappointed over the loss but still proud to have made such a solid, textbook tackle.

“I just read the play and hit him hard,” Springer said. “It felt good to get a hit like that, but a win would feel better.”

As we say goodbye to another Valley football season, that’s the play that will leave a lasting impression in my mind from 2006.

I wish the Springers well along with all our local athletes who desire to continue their football careers in college. Let’s hope the 2007 season will be as entertaining as the one we just completed.

[falconfamily]

I would like to know what westlake's coache said to the springer brothers???