Twenty Points in Waco, and Leo Reyes Wants to Coach
Cleveland State41
Baylor21
- Game
- 2030 Week 4
- Site
- Away
- Result
- Win
- Record
- 4-0
Vikings 41, Baylor 21, in Waco. Four and oh!
Twenty points of daylight on the road against a Big 12 team. After the last three weeks, folks, a twenty-point win almost felt quiet. That’s how spoiled I’ve gotten. I’m working on it. Donna says I should “learn to love a normal win.” I’m learning. I love this one. It’s a beautiful normal win.
Big news from next door. Leo Reyes is twelve now, too old for my Lakers. He aged out last fall, and I thought that was the end of it. But two weeks ago he showed up at practice at Our Lady of the Lake in a whistle he’d bought with his own money and said, “Coach Mickey, I’d like to be your assistant.” I said, “Leo, you’re twelve.” He said, “Coach, you said you were nine when you started yelling at football.” That’s true. I did say that.
So Leo is my assistant coach. He handles the water, the cones and “morale.” On Saturday he gave a halftime speech to a team of nine-year-olds that included the phrase “keep showing up,” which he got from Danny, who got it from me, which means it’s now in its third generation. And Sofia, ten, is on the team this year. She’s our quarterback. She keeps her own stats.
Four pierogi. One for the new coach.
A twenty-point road win at Baylor, after a fifty-five to fourteen win there last year. It was closer. The Vikings were still never in danger. For a team that’s scored in the eighties, forty-one is a reminder that the Big 12 is a real conference with real teams.
The quarterback question I raised in week one has, so far, not come up, because Dave Shelley hasn’t given anyone a reason to ask it. Four starts, four wins. Greg Price has been seen on the sideline with a headset, helping. That’s either a mature young man or a very patient one. Both are good signs.
Trivia this week: we finished second. Second! The Lantern Room has never seen Regression to the Mean finish higher than fourth. The round that saved us was “Beards Throughout History.” I knew every answer. Nadia said, “That’s not knowledge, Ken, that’s research.” I said, “It’s my research.” She rang the bell anyway.
Teresa and I have graduated from the box step to the waltz. I’ve stepped on her foot only four times. Progress is progress.
Back and forth
Leo’s my assistant coach now.
Leo told me. He said his job is “morale.” That’s the most important job on any staff.
Second place at trivia!
Thanks to beards. I grew one for gravitas and it gave me trivia instead. Life’s funny.
A normal twenty-point win in Waco, a twelve-year-old assistant coach in charge of morale, and Ken’s beard finally paying for itself on a Tuesday.
Split Decision is fiction. Mickey Bridges, Ken Hogmanes and The Lakefront Ledger are invented; the games and scores are not.