I should point out that Whiteford head coach Jack Luettke didn’t complain about the field conditions until asked by reporters about those conditions. He started the post-game interview by discussing how his Bobcats played hard, never gave up and he was proud of them.
On the field after the game he quipped to the kids, “I’m awfully proud of you. You’re awfully dirty, but I’m awfully proud of you.”
Luettke only began talking about the field conditions after asked.
And, as far as those conditions, if you weren’t there on the sidelines its hard to imagine how bad they were. The players on the sidelines were standing in three-inch deep water. At halftime, Bobcat offensive coordinator Dean Lennard was on the sidelines trying to build a tiny dam to keep the water from flowing directly in a path — like a small stream — onto the sidelines. It was bad. Very bad. I’ve never seen anything like it.
When I got to the middle of the field after the game to interview the coaches is when I realized just how bad the playing field itself was. The mud was several inches deep — and that may not even explain how bad it was.
And, the fact that Reading moved its game the week before shows they are fully aware of how bad it was.
That’s not saying anything about the field itself. In the south end zone, the field actually rises about four feet — there’s a valley there.
True, both teams had to play in those conditions. And, obviously Reading did a better job of executing — which is why they won. Luettke’s point was if the conditions were different, it could have been a different game. I didn’t take his comments about the conditions as an excuse — he’s too good of a coach and has been at it far too long — 29 years — to blame the result of one game on the weather.
