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Thomas Giddens and Aldrick Rosas with Coach Howard
Thomas averaged about 50 yards per punt with his 5 punts in the championship game
Seniors Laurence Calcagno and Heston Altenbach
Coach Josh Winfield and the linebackers
pregame speech by Coach Howard to the future national champions
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football
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.
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football
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
SOU fans showing some muscle
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @racetodaytona #NAIAfootball
I have had lots of people asking for photos to print. I will be adding about 20 photos (from last Friday) a day to this blog. If you want to print any photos click on the photo first to get a higher resolution version, and then save the original for printing.
If you want to print any of the photos on Facebook, and they aren’t here yet, leave a comment letting me know which photo, and I will upload the original file within 24 hours. Do not print any photos off of Facebook. They will come out looking like crap, and I don’t want one of my photos hanging on your wall looking like crap.
Coach Howard talking to ESPN while Dylan Young, Drew Gibson, Max Proudfit, and Austin Dodge hold the championship trophy
Florida sunset behind the NAIA Championship game
beginning of another Melvin Mason touchdown
Alex Stork recovers the fumble and the crowd goes wild
Max Proudfit
All-American Daniel Breaux #47 🙂
Jaylenn Hart with his third interception of the night
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @Jrucker10
The play of the day, and ESPN’s SportsCenter agreed, was the Julius Rucker return of an interception for a touchdown on Marian’s first possession. The play set the tone for the rest of the game.
The pick 6 would not have happened without the assistance of Dustin Fretwell, pictured above. I actually took the above photo of Dustin a split second before the ball was snapped on this very play.
After Fretwell’s tip, Rucker came down with the ball, dodged, weaved, and broke tackles before hitting the open field.
Julius Rucker Sr. could not have been happier
If you are in the Rogue Valley, don’t forget about today’s parade.
Austin Dodge, Dustin Fretwell, and Sean McShane as SOU wins the National Championship
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football
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.
Gannon Schroder, Drew Gibson, Coach Berk Brown, and Daniel Breaux take the field for the second half
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @racetodaytona #NAIAfootball
Wow! What a week! What a season!
I just returned from Florida where the SOU Raider Football Team won the NAIA National Championship.
Many of you have asked where you can find my photos. There are some here, here, here, and here. I took over 2,000 photos and haven’t looked at most of them yet so give me some time.
I will post Florida related photos here and NAIA National Championship related football photos here.
Conner Dodge holds up some support for his brother Austin
Melvin Mason scores one of his three touchdowns
Matt Retzlaff and Bobby Heiken doing the “Mo”
Alex Stork recovers a fumble
Max Proudfit and Tylor King protecting Austin Dodge
Raider fans
Karrington Jones celebrates his interception with Jaylenn Hart and Kalan Hoedl
Dylan Young battles for the ball
Coach Howard riding on bus after game with trophy by his side