| The above will search Ashland Daily Photo. |
SOU football practice in Daytona with Smith, Dodge, and Singler
@SOU_Football @SOURaiders
With the graduation of the 2014 NAIA Player of the Year, Austin Dodge, the biggest question with regard to the future of the Raider football team is “Who will be the quarterback in 2015 (and beyond)?”
Teran Togia, Larry Bowen, Jeremy Scottow, and QB Jack Singler on the sidelines in Chicago
Kamerun Smith taking a snap in Chicago when Austin Dodge’s helmet came off
All-American Daniel Breaux has graduated
@SOU_Football @SOURaiders
The SOU football team will be losing many of their seniors from the championship team for next season.
Dustin Fretwell has used up his eligibility and will be graduating with a degree in business
However, the national championship should help with recruiting top student athletes in future years.
Austin Dodge will of course be gone, but Melvin Mason (over 1,000 yards and 17 TDs in 2014) will be a junior in 2015.
In addition, all three of the running backs have at least two years remaining.
Sean Tow averaged 5.6 yards per carry in 2014 and will be a junior in 2015.
Keegan Lawrence averaged over 7 yards per carry and will be a sophomore in 2015.
Julius Rucker will be a junior in 2015.
#92 David Weider will be a senior, #26 Daniel Abernethy will be a sophomore, and #42 Isaiah Carter will also be a sophomore in 2015.
#10 Tevin Lake on Marian rushed for over 5,400 yards in his career, but the Raiders allowed only 68 of those yards on 18 carries.
Jaylenn Hart had 57 tackles this year and 3 interceptions against Marian. He will be a senior in 2015.
The future looks bright. More photos of next year’s returning players coming…
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @SloppyJoesDB @DaytonaHilton
After the bus ride back to the hotel, the post-game recap took place in the Hilton rather than the normal location of on the field.
Max Proudfit and Coach Howard
SOU football post game in Hilton Daytona with Sean McShane, Sean Tow, and Grant Torgerson
Before the game, Coach Howard came out to the tailgate to give the fans a speech. ESPNU later aired his words in the first half of the game. Part of what he said included, “Let’s all jump in that ocean together after this game.” He kept his promise.
Coach Howard coming out of the Atlantic Ocean after claiming the 2014 NAIA Championship
Coach Howard shakes hands with Athletic Director Matt Sayre as President Roy Saigo looks on with friends, fans, and family – Sloppy Joe’s Daytona Beach
125+ more photos from the 2014 NAIA Championship can be found here.
offensive line
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @racetodaytona #NAIAfootball
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
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.