2009 PLAYOFF RECAP

VARSITY

Our varsity squad just played in a game that made the record books for the most points ever scored in a BC High School Football Game. Below are several accounts of the contest:

Harry Parmar G. 12 JB Receiver

In one of the most bizzare and unexpected games played in BC highschool football history, this one goes down for the ages. Too much insanity in this game for me to give a complete break down on everything that happened but I will do my best. I will start off with Barsby down early 17-0. In surprising fashion the Dawgs who had been running the shotgun spread offense all season long came out in a double wing look, yes thats right follks the double wing... Barsby had some promising drives early but failed to score until finally they got on the board with a quick strike in the 2nd quarter making it 17-6. Next possesion for Rick Hansen no problem another TD as they were doing what ever they wanted and finding the endzone making it 23-6. The ball game looked to be already over but wait with 5 minutes to go Barsby has some double wing magic finding the endzone yet again making the score 23-14. The following kickoff Hansen fumbles, Barsby recovers and with less than 2 minutes remaining in the half they make quick work with the football and find the endzone on a long passing TD play and all of a sudden we have a ball game 23-20 entering half time. The Hurricanes started with the ball in the 2nd half picking up where they left off by scoring yet again with ease 30-20 Hansen. Next possesion for Barsby was a good long drive but they failed to reach the endzone although they salvaged the drive with a crucial field goal made making it a one possesion game 30-23. Yet again Rick Hansen the following possesion finds no trouble getting into the endzone making it 37-23 but yet again Barsby answers back 37-31 all of a sudden. Barsby finally finds a stop and forces Hansen to punt giving them an oppurtunity to score to go up in the game for the first time. However on the very first play of their possesion they fumble it giving the ball back to Hansen in the red zone. Very next play Hansen with a quick stike TD pass extending the lead yet again 45-31. For the Dawgs it was almost a time to give up but they didn't in unbelievable fashion they kept believing... With less than 3 minutes remaining in the game Barsby finds the endzone with another long TD pass to the runningback out of the backfield, 45-37. With around 2 minutes remaining Barsby chooses to kick it deep rather than the onside, a crazy call I would say since Barsby's defense was not able to stop Hansen all game but when it mattered the most they came up big stopping them and forcing a punt. Now with a little more than a minute remaining Barsby runs a "trick" play to perfection something they like to call the hook and ladder, a hook route ran by the receiver perfect pass caught, perfect pitch/lateral, perfect catch by the runningback out of the backfield and perfect run all resulting in the perfect come back. 45-43 Barsby needing the two point convert and they got it. Less than a minute remaining in the game Hansen trying to get into field goal range and seemed to be in a grey area on a 4th and short but decided to kick the field goal for the ball game with less than 10 seconds to play. 40 plus yard field goal easily, snap, hold, kick, ball is up, has the distance, but just left of the upright... 45-45. Here comes the Tennessee style overtime and for those of you unfamiliar of this format, they flip the coin and the winner of the coin toss chooses to have the ball first or second and each team has 4 downs to score from the 10 yard line, if your team makes it the other team has to match it and if they dont its simple they lose. Barsby gets the ball first finding the endzone and not only that but getting the 2 point conversion aswell putting on a heap of pressure for the Hurricanes as they have to score a TD and also get the two point convert, anything less and they lose. Barsby was answering back Hansen's calls all day and now it was Hansen's turn. Finding the endzone on 3rd and long and needing the 2 point convert. This is it 3 yards and keep playing or less than 3 yards and thats your season. QB rollout, he keeps the ball runs for his life and picks up just barely 3 yards making the 2 point good, 53-53. Hansen now has to go again as Barsby went first in the first shootout. Hansen yet again scores driving the ball on the ground and converting the 2 pointer as well. Barsbys offense who had been clutch all game finally ran out of magic.. 4th down less than 10 for the endzone, jump ball to their tall receiver up in the air, ball in finger tips and their DB makes a great play on it the ball slips out and thats the ball game, thats Barsby's season...

As a John Barsby football player I would just like to say that was the greatest football game I ever took part in and I am proud of the way we played today despite losing... We wanted it so bad and came so close but just as we did the Hurricanes wanted it just as bad and someone always has to lose, unfortunately it was us. I would like to thank everyone from the coaches, teammates and supporters of the John Barsby program for making my 4 years of highschool football a blast. A game for the ages which I am glad to say I was apart of and although we went out, we went out with a bang. Dawgs for life.

Thanks Sincerely, Harry Parmar #81 John Barsby Bulldogs

Coach R. Stevenson's Account

All,

Now the emotions have waned a bit, I will tell a bit of the tale from one side of the Barsby perspective.

Friday's game vs Rick Hansen was both unforseen and a game that will likely stand the test of time as one of the all-time greats in BCSSFA. Rick Hansen's offense was amazing from their first snap of the game and was far, far better than we had anticipated headed into the tilt. Man oh man, did their coaches have our number and the Hansen players were dialed in throughout. Headed into the contest, I thought that Mt. Doug's QB was the best pivot we had faced all year. I just cannot say that anymore. Bowcott is a stud. The Hansen Tailback seemed good but not great...wrong...he is a very, very good back. The offensive line we knew was good, but just how good they were, well... they put on a run blocking and pass protection clinic...well done guys! Then finally, there were the McCutchin bros. Wow! Each in his own way was superb and 44 seemed to hold that team together both on offense and defense. In short, the Hurricanes were the perfect offensive storm!

Athlete for athlete, position by position things looked pretty darn even and we were giving up some serious size to boot. Offense seemed a draw at best as Hansen has seen spread offenses similar to ours all season long and though we moved the ball well all year long, finding the end-zone with great frequency had been elusive for us. Defensively, we have played close with most teams, but were not as dominant as in the past couple of years. We placed Hansen in the Mt. Douglas/S. Delta category from a physical perspective and knew we were in tough vs them. The only place we thought we had a clear advantage was special teams. Overall, the math added up to a contest where we ran the risk of slowly, but surely, falling behind on the scoreboard as our offense probably couldn't keep up with the boys in blue. We'd fight hard, but get worn down or at some point the wheels would come off and we'd have to pick-up the pieces of a season ending disaster.

What to do? What to do?

We came to the game with an ambush in mind. You see, one of the enduring rules of successfull warfare is to sneak up on your opponent from behind, clobber the hell out of him and scoot. Football is surely not war, but there are congruencies. Here is what we thought:

Firstly time; Timberline had made a program saving move and decided in early September to play Tier 2. This had left us with a week 9 bye. If there was ever an opportunity to prepare something special for Hansen, this seemed God given.

Secondly a combination of technology and the timeless truths of the great 2500 yr.old Chinese strategist Sun Tzu. One of his first dictates is the tactics of parodox. Basically he says when you are near look far, far, look near, when you are strong, look weak, when you are weak, look strong.....and so on and so forth. Well, here again there was some God given (or BCSSFA executive given) opportunity as we had been required all year to exchange game video via DSV on the internet. Hansen we knew, had material on us dating at least back to week 1 and throughout the season, it was a no-huddle spread offense they had been looking at when preparing for our game. To that effect, our game stats and the stellar performance of a couple of our players over the season, QB Dylan Chapdelaine in particular, along with their stats, might influence defensive prep by Hansen. Maybe we could get their DC to do his work on gameday instead of all week long?

Soo, it seemed like we had an opportunity to sneak-up on the Hurricanes and clobber them, but with what? Like I said, the match-ups weren't in our favor and a frontal assault that they could see coming seemed doomed to failure.

Well hec, we have a great history of Double Wing Offense in our program and have purposely imbedded a lot of its DNA in our offensive schemes. In 2003 our JV's waited til week 9, switched to Double Wing, defeated a physically superior Mt. Douglas team and wound-up the only public HS in the semi's, this at a time when there was no AA or AAA. Everyone was lumped together. Now, with an extra-week of prep, here was the answer.

Folks, a lot of people beat-up on the Double-Wing, but it is truly one of the great offenses to emerge/re-emerge in its current form since the 1990's. The mercy rule now employed across North America originated in Oregon in the 1990's due to a team running up crazy big scores using this offense. The US national scoring record is held by a double wing-team. If I were paid to win football games and my job was on the line due to win-loss I'd run it all the time. (I stopped because in a small school like ours, getting every available athlete to play ball is just as important and kids coming out for receiver and qb often look at you like you cancelled Christmas when you declare you are playing DW, which is of course folley when you look at passing stats and percentages but the NFL and NCAA are tough to compete with from a perception perspective). I digress.

We decided to run DW at Hansen with a couple key wrinkles. A) We were going to keep the no-huddle. It is a chainsaw offense and high reps are sustainable if you are in great physical shape which we are. Also, if our opposing DC is on his heels, then the less time he had to see the whole picture the better...lets make him blink and see snapshots (Thanks Malcolm Gladwell...article on AA Blog).

They played with a free safety all year and would not likely get out of their comfort zone when surprised by an unexpected offensive onslaught. This meant that we could get a numbers advantage in the box if we ran out of our spread formation which had two receivers split wide and the wing-backs in tight..we had 9 in the box and they had 8. Also, with the heavy pressure of the run, the FS would get out of position once and awhile and thus not be able to support vs 3 vertical routes.

Did it work? 53 Points, 461 yds total offense 281 of which were in the air (3 TD's) say yes it did. Did their DC completely panic or fall apart. Nope, he coached it up good enough to win. Well done.

More than anything however, the never, ever quit attitute and desire to finish hard by our players made the dad-gum thing work. Hansen's offense was also unstoppable and our ability to respond to adversity was what made the game what it was....a classic. Shaking hands with the Hansen players and coaches after the game I felt great admiration for them...they had some serious jam. I was also never more proud than right then as a BC HS Football coach. Watching what the kids on both teams did was amazing. It was great football but it was also a spiritual thing....there were huge life lessons that passed a physical/mental crucible of a test that day....faith in team, faith in scheme, faith in plan, faith in self, adapt, respond smart, never-quit, hang-tough, believe, trust each other, give of yourself, the idea that preparation counts....and the list goes on and on. The guys on the field will remember this game as old men. The game will echo in their lives to come when they are leaders of families, businesses, organizations, teams etc. They can lean on a day like Friday, 13th 2009 and find inspiration when it may be most needed.

There were tears after the game for sure, tears not over a loss, but over a milestone. For our 12's, HS ball is over. For all, the 09 Dawgs have come to pass. The tears were because they care so much for the game, the team and all that makes it so rich at heart. Harry Parmar said it best.."Dawgs for life".

Sometimes it seems in this life that the grass inside those sidelines is the last-best-most honest place in the world. You square up with an opponent guided by the same set of rules and the magic takes place. There is no rich, there is no poor, there is just you, your teammates and your opponents. Have at er!

Thanks fellas from both teams...that game was spiritual and surely added a decade to one man's anticipated coaching carreer!

RS

Coach Paul Gill Rick Hansen

Barsby started with the ball and drove the ball to the Hansen 30 yard line and turned it over on downs
Hansen scored on it's second offensive play 60 yard TD from Greg Bowcott to Daniel McCutcheon ETA good by Suraj Gill (7-0 )
Hansen defense stopped Barsby in their own end again on a turn over on downs
Hansen offense marched down and scored Bowcott to Matt Schwab (12 yard TD) ETA good by Suraj Gill (14-0 ).
End of 1st Quarter
Hansen D stops Barsby again and marches down the field and kicks a 37 field goal by Suraj Gill (17-0)
Barsby scores on their next drive and miss the 2 pt convert score 17-6 Hansen
Hansen drives down the field and scores Bowcott to Matt Schwab (11 yard TD) ETA missed by Suraj Gill (23 -6)
Barsby drives down and scores and converts on the 2pt convert score is 23-14
On the kick off Hansen fumbles the ball on the return (questionable call runner was down) Barsby scores again and misses 2pt convert.
Score at the half is 23 - 20 Hansen
Hansen starts with the ball in the second half and scores to make the score on a 6 yard pass from Bowcott to Mark McCutcheon ETA good by Suraj Gill (30-20 Hansen)
Barsby drives down the field and kick a 25 yard field goal (30-23 Hansen)
End for the 3 quarter the score is 30-23
The first play of the 4th quarter is a punt by Hansen ( first punt in the game for either team) Barsby fumbles the ball on their first Offensive play , Hansen Defensive recovers the ball and on the next play Bowcott hits Mark McCutcheon on a 35 yard pass for a TD , ETA good by Suraj Gill (37-23 Hansen)
On the next drive Hansen has Barsby Qb in the back field on a 3rd down and six, the 2 defenders trip over each other and the Qb throws to Wr for 20 yard pass and sets up a first and goal. Barsby converts the 2pt convert (37- 31 Hansen)
Hansen drives down the field and scores on a 6 yard TD run by Avi Harry ,Bowcott runs the ball in for the 2 pt convert score is 45 -31 with 3:40 remaining in the game.
Barsby scores on a 70 yard pass on its second play , the 2pt convert is stopped score (45-37 Hansen)
Hansen takes the ball and has to punt with under 2 mins on the clock, the punt goes for 5 yards, Barsby is in great field position with lots of time on the clock
Barsby scores on it's second play on hook and ladder, and gets the 2 pt convert tie game 45-45
Hansen drives down the field and tries to kick the game winning field goal with 7 seconds on the clock (37 yard) by Suraj Gill , misses to the left, Barsby takes a knee with 2 seconds left- OT
Barsby get the ball first and scores on 8 yard pass on 3rd down and converts the 2pt convert ( 53- 45 Barsby)
Hansen gets the ball and scores on a 3rd and goal on the 3 yardline Bowcott throws the TD to Mark McCutcheon , 2 pt convert by Bowcott ties the game.(53-53)
Hansen get the ball in the second OT and Avi Harry scores on the second play (4 yard rushing TD) , Bowcott throws the ball to Harry to put the Hurricanes up by 8 (61-53)
Barsby is stuffed by the Hurricane D, on second down Barsby takes penalty, moves them back 5 yards, On third down Avi Harry sacks the QB, setting up a 4th and goal from the 10 yard line, Barsby throws the ball to Marshall Cook, Daniel McCutcheon is on the coverage and makes a great play to bat the ball down for the Hurricane win
It was an emotional roller coaster! I am proud of our kids and theirs! Our defense finally clutched up at the end. We had great performances from Avi Harry and the McCutcheon Bros on both sides of the ball, Greg Bowcott played an outstanding game. Our offensive line played extremely well. It was without a doubt a Friday the 13th type of night!

Junior Varsity

Round 1 JV Dawgs 45 Ballenas 0

Our JV's dismantled the JV Whalers in front of a very, very large crowd evenly represented by parents and fans of both schools. It was a late afternoon of big defensive hits and big special teams/offensive plays in Harewood for the Dawgs who served notice that the rivalry has taken a big Barsby turn in 2009.

Round 2

We had two stormy ferry rides on this trip narrowly escaping a wet and agonizing overnight stay in the ferry terminal! Aside from this bit of drama, the football day went quite well as our JV's posted a 30-8 BC Quarter-Final victory over North Vancouver's Handsworth Royals. Great stingy defense carried the day along with exceptional special teams against the number 1 seed from the Lower Mainland Western Conference. Our JV's now advance to the BC Semi-Final Game versus the undefeated and number one ranked Mt. Douglas Rams of Victoria. Game day, time and location TBA.

We will book a fan bus if there is sufficient parent interest in doing so.