Class of 2008.....   The Year in Review

Basketball

Same song, different verse. A team ranked high in the preseason with great expectations falls before their time. Years ago folks said “when those twins get there, our team will be great” Little did we know that we’d have a 7 footer from among the group that wasn’t a twin. We had other players around these big guys that filled in the blanks to make up a great team. BUT once again we looked back and saw a couple of youngsters that had the potential to be GREAT and once again we put to much on their shoulders. The result was an opportunity to concentrate on admin issues weeks early. This class of basketball seniors showed their class when the game was on the line and the choice was made to sub in and “tip” the game the other direction. Thanks BB boys for a great season!

Swimming

Coming soon... but they have a great coach that gets dunked in the pool often so it may be a different song, different verse.. let’s hope

Volleyball

Now if these girls were guys, they call them studs. Being beautiful ladies, I’m not sure I have the proper word. They are a class of ladies that were dominate and when you look up the  word team in the dictionary, their picture appears. They  are just another example of the “Class of 2008”, smart, athletic, classy, energetic... they made me smile so many times especially “skating down the road” at parades. These ladies are just another page in the special class of 08. Congrats ladies on all you accomplished while setting the standard at FHS

Football

I looked forward to this year for as long as I can remember. I always thought it would be the neatest year ever. I looked at the class of 2008 and had no doubt this was the class that would bring back the glory days of 1973. The closer it got, the more realistic it seemed. This class had talent that is special. Do I believe Luke Landers when he says he’ll someday be President of the United States??? You damn right I do. They started their winning ways in Junior High going undefeated both years. As freshmen, they experienced the curse of soccer gurus filling in as football coaches and learned there’s another component to the game called coaching. I remember starting the season... winning the coin toss, the ref tapped our guy on the shoulder and the coach yelled, “we want to kick”... Yep... kick we did, to begin the game and again at half-time at the other teams request. Pure talent can get you only so far. The years past and it all led up to great expectations this year. The fans, the parents, opposing coaches and media were spot on, this was a class of champions with tons of talent...

Things happened, choices were made, plays were run, there was plenty of blame to go around. The truth is... this is a class of boys that endured a ton of controversy, much of it, no fault of their own. Through it all they kept a great attitude and showed why they are so special. They taught me many lessons in life about attitude. It is in their spirit that I say... I have my ideas about where I think things went wrong, but sometimes its better to keep that to yourself and display a little “Class of 2008 Attitude”.

I am most proud of the guys that put their efforts on the line through a 5-0 start only to find themselves wondering what they did wrong to spend the next 5 weeks watching quite a bit from the sidelines.

This is a VERY special class.... not only guys, they have some of the best young ladies in their class too. They will remembered for years to come as one, if not the best class to walk the halls of BIG WOOD

Thanks Class of 2008, Stangs and Lady Stangs for all the memories......  rlbphoto.com