The Football Brotherhood- Ronnie Gage

[JagFan]

Great article on the Lone Star Gridiron about Ronnie Gage. Great man and not surprised he named Neal Wilson as his mentor. Proud that my Jags play in the Neal E. Wilson Stadium.

What are some of your memories of playing high school ball? Coaches that made an impact? Since I am a girl I don't have any except I know I was about the only girl that actually watched the game while in high school.

http://lonestargridiron.com/2015/05/coach-ronnie-gage-personifies-brotherhood/

[svhorns]

I didn't play HS football, played baseball, but my memories/feelings from watching Smithson Valley football was probably very similar to what the Buffalo Bills fans felt between 1991-1994.

My baseball coach when I first started playing at SV was Matt Gustafson, the nephew of Cliff Gustafson, who won 1466 games at The University of Texas. Coach Gus (SV coach) was laid back, smart, and always had to have his chew and big league bubble gum. I was a move in to SV from the Round Rock/Austin area, I had to go through the whole transfer situation and my coach at my previous school was a real ****, and I remember my dad having a hard time with him getting a release signed. We didn't move for athletic purposes but I found myself in a much better situation

As most kids would feel when they move to a new school, I was nervous, anxious, upset because I had to leave my childhood friends, and the culture shock from moving from a budding city to a rural cow town didn't help either. My first day of class was awful, I sat literally by myself at lunch and didn't know a single soul. I remember staying in the bathroom for way longer than I needed during lunch because I didn't know what to do after I finished my lunch. I figured instead of looking stupid sitting by myself, doing nothing, I might as well get up and walk around. Life has funny ways of putting people in your life sometimes because as I was in the bathroom 2 kids walk in and asked me my name, stating they've never seen me before, remember it's a cow-town, everyone knows everyone. I told them my name and we started talking and as the conversation went along they said they were part of the baseball team. In my head I screamed yes! physically I told them "That's cool, I play baseball too." After that conversation they told me to come sit with the during lunch from now on.

One of the first memories I have from playing baseball at SV was, man, these kids are some corn fed boys. Huge kids everywhere. I remember telling myself there's no way I have a chance here. I was a Sophomore at the time and I remember seeing a Freshman by the name of Joe Pawelek for the first time, he ended up being an All-American linebacker at Baylor, again I told myself if that kid is a freshman I don't want to know what the seniors look like.

Coach Gus was a quiet man and you never could really get a feel for what he was thinking. I remember being intimidated by him because of who his uncle was and the amount of knowledge he possessed. When I stepped out on the baseball field with these giants I knew I was going to have to work that much harder to get them to notice me, the new kid, My defense was always above average as was my speed so naturally I was a middle infielder. I told myself before the first practice with the team, I have to practice harder than I've ever had to before. I was diving at balls left and right, running everywhere when instructed to go to another area for different drills, saying yes sir, no sir, even though I was never raised to speak like that. That's another difference I noticed between the city and the rural area, "yes sir" and "no sir." I didn't hear that in the Austin area where I grew up, it was something I had to learn and learn quickly and it has stuck with me to this day. After finishing practice that day, I remember Coach Gus wiggling his finger at me and telling me to come here, without saying a word. I thought, oh ****, it's my first day and he's going to tell me I'm cut from the baseball team or something that would make my day worse. What he told me was a surprise to say the least. He said "Kid, I have no clue who the **** you are or where you came from but welcome to varsity." I said "yes sir, thank you." then walked off nonchalantly.

After practice that day I talked to the 2 kids I met in the bathroom and told them what he said to me. Those 2 kids ended up telling a bunch of people and I never had trouble finding people to sit with at lunch after that. We did pretty well that year and beat Austin Anderson in the 2nd round of the playoffs. I knew most of the kids on the Austin Anderson team because I played little league and summer ball with most of them, they were shocked to see me there and some of them gave me a ribbing, as they thought I moved to SV for baseball purposes. We lost to Corpus Christi Calallen in the 4th round. Obviously every kid wants to win state but I felt I achieved most of the goals I had set for myself and that was to make varsity as a Soph. and get some playing time.

My junior and senior year we had a new coach who was an ex marine. He was more vocal and more physically demanding, I don't think I've ever thrown up so many times from running and training but it was all worth it in the end. I "played" JUCO ball for a year in North Texas, I put played in quotes because I didn't play at all. I didn't like the makeup of the team and what they were injecting themselves with or taking. I shouldn't have to go any further than that. It wasn't for me because it became more of a profession and business at that point.

I'll go ahead and stop rambling but this is one of the few memories I have.

[sTp]

Awesome story, thanks for sharing!!

[svhorns]

To add on to the previous book I wrote above in the last post, the impact the coaches made on me have never been more obvious to me than right now, in the workplace. You hear people bitching and moaning about the dumbest things. Co-workers who don't understand what it means to be on a team. I'm not saying you had to have been on a team to understand what a good work ethic is, but having to run bleachers because your teammate was caught drunk at a party and taken to the county drunk tank will help you figure out what being a team really means, and at much quicker pace.

[1AllenFan]

Great stuff svhorns. Well done sir...

[Farmer]

Thanks for sharing, svhorns. That was a fantastic read and I really enjoyed it

[JagFan]

Good stuff SV.