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I’m pretty sure I don’t have any photos of the Seahawks or the Patriots so today’s photo is the next best thing, next year’s Super Bowl starting quarterback shooting from half court in a Seakawks’ jersey.
2014 NAIA Player of the Year swinging a golf club after his sophomore season
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The 2015 tournament to raise money for the football program at SOU will take place on May 2. You can register as an individual or as a team here now. Photos from the 2015 and 2013 event can be found here.
Austin Dodge and Bubba Rylance
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football
You can now buy National Championship t-shirts online to benefit the SOU football program. Click here for details and to place your order.
P.S. My photos from the National Championship game have now begun spilling onto a third page. The three pages are here, here, and here.
Austin Dodge – 2014 NAIA Player of the Year and Ken Fasnacht – 2014 NAIA Coordinator of the Year
This free video of the game isn’t in HD, but it’s better than nothing.
Austin Dodge
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… this happened.
David Weider, Kolby Koberstein, Gannon Schroder, Dylan Bratlie, Keegan Lawrence, and Nathaniel Timoteo
Daniel Breaux
Dylan Young
JJ Latu
Melvin Mason
Bubba Rylance, Max Proudfit, and Austin Dodge
2014 SOU football team @ Daytona International Speedway finish line
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2014 Rawlings NAIA Coach of the Year – Coach Howard
Aldrick Rosas had eight kickoffs that went for touchbacks in addition to being a perfect 7-7 in PATS and 2-2 in field goals including a 48 yarder
Walking on sunshine after another Melvin Mason touchdown
Alex Stork and Heston Altenbach
JJ Latu
Austin Dodge celebrates his final collegiate game
2014 NAIA Championship Game scoreboard and trophy
Coach Ken Fasnacht enjoys bus ride after the victory
offensive line
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2014 NAIA Player of the Year Austin Dodge
defensive line
Kelii Padello
Coach Greg Stewart and the running backs
Alex Stork, Mylz Blake, and Tyler Rogers
Coach Nathan Chin and the defensive backs
Senior Bubba Rylance and Coach Howard
shout out to Mr. Raider Stan Smith
outside linebackers
pregame speech by Coach Howard to the future national champions
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quarterbacks
Dylan Young’s final TD catch – he holds the SOU record with 33 in just two years
Matt Retzlaff has 21 TD catches and will be a junior next year
apologies that everyone isn’t in this–things were chaos and getting this many in wasn’t easy
Julius Rucker Jr.
receivers
Michael Bryant
Michael is an Emerging Media and Digital Arts student who is also on the football team. He has helped make some incredible videos. Here is the one shown before the game in Chicago:
Here is the one shown before the game in Daytona:
He will be graduating soon so if your company needs someone who can create masterpieces like these, contact him.
This last photo was explained in this post. My favorite part of it is the smile on Jim Nagel’s face. Coach Nagel has won many state and national championships so I’d be curious to hear from him how this bus ride compared to others he has experienced after winning the big game.
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Today’s first photo requires a bit of explanation. These were the players’ bus drivers for the entire week. I took this at Tuesday’s practice as our bus drivers watched from the sidelines. That’s CJ on the left and Ean on the right. I asked them how it felt to be the bus drivers of the future NAIA Champions, and they smiled and said I should probably get a photo of them. All week long I asked them how the bus drivers of champions were doing. Perhaps this planted a seed in Ean’s head? More on this possibility below.
The coaching staff at SOU is second to none. Although Coach Howard is not eligible for the NAIA Coach of Character Award, as he hasn’t been at SOU for five years yet, if NAIA officials could have witnessed everything he has done they would certainly make an exception.
I had the unique opportunity of standing on the opposing sidelines for seven of our games this year. I do this so that the SOU sidelines and crowds are in the background of most of my photos. Anyway, I can tell you from first-hand experience that the interactions between our players and coaching staff are very different than they are on other teams. The love, honor, and respect the SOU team has is incredible and a major contributing factor to the team’s success in my opinion.
Coach Howard gets the fact that coaching is about developing better people, better student athletes, and not just about how many TDs someone has. Of course, the former leads to the latter as demonstrated by this team.
Daniel Breaux with the sack
Dylan Young’s fourth catch of the evening would be his last as a Raider and the 159th during his two years in Ashland
Austin Dodge enters the bus after winning the championship and immediately takes photo of championship trophy sitting in Coach Howard’s seat
After the game everyone was in an absolute state of euphoria. We’ve all seen championship celebrations on TV. Sometimes you even get to experience them as a fan at the stadium. But to actually be there, with the players, takes things up several notches.
Back to my first point about our bus drivers…
I boarded Ean’s bus after the game. Spirits were high. As we pulled out of the stadium, without warning, Queen’s “We Will Rock You” pounded out of the stereo speakers, and the bus erupted into a celebration well beyond what I’ve witnessed before, anywhere.
I don’t know if Ean always does this, or if my constant reminders during the week that he was driving the future champions possibly sparked this idea in his head to make sure he had “We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions” at the ready, but either way, thank you Ean for making a special moment that much more memorable for these guys.
P.S. He also hooked up Austin Dodge’s iPod to the bus’s stereo to play “Sweet Caroline” after Queen.
Austin Dodge singing Queen’s “We Are The Champions” on the bus after the game
Coach Howard may not have sung as much as the players, but he still enjoyed the moment with his well-deserved trophy
Austin Dodge, Dustin Fretwell, and Sean McShane as SOU wins the National Championship
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The parade is Sunday (12/21/14) beginning at noon.
The team will go from the ice rink in Lithia Park to near Safeway. Bring your red umbrella.
