Commentary: Balmorhea at Klondike

I must confess. I’ve wanted to see Balmorhea play all season. When I saw they would play in Klondike, my mind was made up. I would be there. With bells on.
 
What’s so special about Balmorhea? Let’s start with their head coach, Vance Jones. He’s been in the coaching business for a very long time, but more importantly, I have heard endless stories about his love of the game and especially for his players. I had to meet him.
 
I finally got that chance last night. It was definitely an honor. I introduced myself and shook his hand. He greeted me with a great big smile and welcomed me like he had known me for a long time. We talked about the Balmorhea area, the weather, and finally about the Balmorhea Bears. The pride in his voice and the look in his eyes when he looked over at his players proved all the stories were true.
 
He also has an underlying level of grit. As we were talking about last week’s game against Garden City, he said that when the Bears let the Bearkats in the game, he told them, “If you think you’re so good, then go out there and prove it.” The bears responded and did just that.
 
By the time we finished our conversation, I wanted to hug him. Maybe that’s a female thing, but he’s just the type of person that makes you feel happy when you talk to him.
 
I was pretty focused on Balmorhea, but have been watching the Klondike Cougars scores since August. They seemed to be doing some pretty good things on the field. I went in search of their coach. Dalton DeGraffenreid landed the Klondike position just this year. He’s a young guy with a lot of energy. He grabbed my hand and welcomed me to Klondike. He was very personable!  He had good things to say about his players and the future of the program. I enjoyed our conversation and wished him luck.
 
I came away from the game feeling grateful for having met Coach Jones, the legend, and feeling very optimistic about the Cougar’s future with Coach DeGraffenreid. I also left with a ringing sound in my ears from the extremely loud Balmorhea horn!
 
Some observations from my trip to Klondike:

• A Balmorhea dad drove his Big Rig right up to the fence surrounding the football field. I’m convinced that a Big Rig is the way to go! If you can’t see the action on the field, just climb up into that bad boy and problem solved!
• The homemade ice cream at Klondike is THE BEST! You have to get over there and get you some. Just FYI… they run out of it fast.
• The Klondike men who ran the chains kept me laughing all night long. Many one-liners and funny comments from the three of them. Keep it up, guys!
• Mary Garcia from Balmorhea was taking pictures on the sidelines and was so very nice! She got a kick out of the chain crew and laughed right along with me.
• Balmorhea players are FAST. They also have a pretty darned good swarming defense. I hope to see them in Arlington in December. They are a lot of fun to watch.
• Klondike will continue to improve and be a force in the next few years (go ahead and write that down… I already told Leman).