Phone: 317-846-6601 Fax: 317-575-4244 Website: www.ihsaa.org
____________________________________________________________________
November 26, 2004
SEEGER WINS SCHOOL’S FIRST STATE
CHAMPIONSHIP IN ANY SPORT
Seeger’s Joel
Clem scored on a quarterback sneak with
Set up by
Eli Cook’s 31 yard punt return to the Ritter 34 with
The win
capped a perfect 15-0 season for the Patriots of 12th year coach
Brian Moore. Over the last four years, Seeger has
amassed a 51-3 record. Interestingly, it’s the fourth time in state finals
history that a rematch from the previous year has occurred and each time the
runner-up one year returned to win it the following year.
Seeger
entered the game averaging 292.7 yards rushing and that’s where the Patriots
kept it today running 47 of their 54 plays on the ground picking up 153 yards.
Cook led the way with 24 carries and 119 yards and one touchdown,
a three yard carry on his team’s opening drive of the game. The ensuing two
point conversion failed.
Seeger
led the state allowing only 6.0 points per game and Ritter hurt its cause with
four turnovers including three fumbles in Seeger
territory. The one that hurt most came in the first quarter on Ritter’s second
possession of the game when David Evans was hit and fumbled at the one yard
line and the ball rolled through the back of the endzone
for a Seeger touchback.
Ritter got
on the board at
Seeger
scored again with
Ritter quarterback
Alex Byrnes led the Raiders with 172 yards on 11 of 14 passing but was
intercepted once and sacked three times. Coached by Jim Boswell, the Raiders ended
the 2004 campaign at 10-5.
Cardinal Ritter’s Spencer King Named
Eskew Mental Attitude Award Winner
Spencer
King of Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter High School was named winner of the 2004 Phil
N. Eskew Mental Attitude Award in Class A Football.
At
the conclusion of each state championship game, the IHSAA Executive Committee
presents the award to an outstanding senior participant in the football state
tournament. The recipient of the award,
who was nominated by his principal and coach, must excel in mental attitude,
scholarship, leadership and athletic ability. The award is named in honor of
the third commissioner of the IHSAA who served from 1962 to 1976 and oversaw
the beginning of the state football tournament.
Academically,
King ranked seventh in his class of 76 and is President of the National Honor
Society, as well as President of his Senior Class. He was a member of the school High Honor Roll
every quarter of his high school career.
He also was a Wendy’s High School Heisman
Nominee. He will attend
Athletically,
he also earned three varsity letters in wrestling and two varsity letters in
baseball. He was a co-captain of the
football, wrestling and baseball teams for the Raiders.
Spencer
is the son of Brenda and Phil King of Brownsburg.
He
becomes the second Cardinal Ritter player to earn the Eskew
Mental Attitude Award, joining Mark Franco, who captured the honor in 1991.
Farm
Bureau Insurance, the IHSAA corporate partner, presented a $1,000.00
scholarship to
Team Posters And
Individual Action Photographs Available
Visit 20-20 Photographic, the IHSAA’s photographer and the
For
t-shirts and other merchandise commemorating this year’s tournament or for any
of our events, visit our friends at Morris, Inc.
State Finals Programs Available
Couldn’t be
in Indy for the state finals? You can still purchase a copy of the official
souvenir program while supplies last! Programs are $3.00 if you purchase in
person at the IHSAA Office (
Class A
Game Quotes
Seeger Coach Brian Moore
“A year ago
following the game against Ritter, Eli Cook (#2) commented that we would never
lose again. The kids made it a
goal…nothing less than a state title.
Nothing less is acceptable. Now
we have it and it is a great feeling. I’m just so proud of all of our kids. This championship is for all the players we
have in the past and present.”
“We play a
very aggressive style of defense and today we made some plays.”
“I am
pretty proud of our players. They made
the plays when they had to. I’m so very proud of our defense. Today we got some turnovers, something we
haven’t been able to do in other big games, but we were today and were able to
score off a couple of them.”
“The
opening drive of the game was the key. I
said the #1 key to this game was the start, and our start, we drove it down the
field and punched it in. You don’t know how big of load it was off our
shoulders. Last year we got a goose egg
on the first drive and I felt it hurt us a bit.
Today, to get a touchdown on the first drive was huge.”
“They’ve
got a great quarterback, a great power game, and to only give up seven points
to them is a big deal. I couldn’t be
prouder of our defense.”
Cardinal Ritter Coach Jim Boswell
“This game
came down to a couple of key plays. This was a very competitive game. I give
all the credit to Seeger. We made some mistakes, but Seeger forced us to make those mistakes. We fumbled and
they didn’t.”
“What we
tried to do is what they did to us. We wanted to control the clock in order to
keep their offense off the field. Unfortunately, it went the other way around.
But Seeger did some pretty good hitting on both sides
of the ball.”
“(Seeger) Coach
(On Seeger running back Eli Cook) “He’s a tough runner. He
doesn’t go down easily. We made some hits on him but he’d run through our
tackles.”
“The sweeps
they did all year long were effective. We just didn’t get enough guys around
the ball. Our defense did a fine job all year long. They bent a little but didn’t
break.”
“Our boys
gave everything they had. We played football the way it’s supposed to be
played.”
(On Spencer
King winning Mental Attitude Award) “Spencer King is one of those kids that is the first to practice and last to leave. He’s played with
injury and didn’t ever wanted to tell us he was hurt
because he didn’t want to come off the field. He’s a tremendous leader in the
classroom and on the field.”