Yes, it was the inaugural football Victory Bowl June 13 at Baylor's Floyd Casey Stadium for 47 Red Team members and 46 Blue Teamers, including Pirate graduate Will Samford. Despite the 29-24 loss, it was a wonderful experience for Will and for us as we served as a Host Home for six of the athletes. He also had an opportunity to stay at another host home and meet some great people during the week as he made some new friends and played in a one-of-a-kind football game. He only played defensive tackle in the game, but played very well with a couple of big tackles that had his name called over the loudspeaker.

    Several of the players will also be playing at UMHB in the fall with Will, so it was a good time to begin those friendships as well. It was a little hot on game day, but not completely unbearable.  It was a special time for Will that he will treasure forever. It was also great to see so much support from the La Vega family at the game, from Dr. Sharon Shields to Coach Willie Williams to many of Will's friends, classmates, and team members, including Ryan Lambert. It was a really amazing time for us all.

    As for the player selection, coaches nominated players from their schools for the Victory Bowl, and each coaching staff then selected the players from those nominations. Each school that submitted nominations was represented in an attempt to get as many schools as possible to be a part. Some schools in the area didn't have any seniors to nominate, and others had a bunch, so some schools had more than one player make the team. 

    The Victory Bowl coaches also had to choose players to fill positions, so if four quarterbacks were nominated and only two could be chosen, a player may not be selected unless he also played another position. Out of 85 area high schools, only 93 players were chosen, along with 10 cheerleaders on each squad.   

    As for Will’s summer, he will work fulltime at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church's The Center (day camp for school-aged children) and will also be the recreation leader for Vacation Bible School at our church this month. He then will attend church camp at the end of July before the big move to Belton and the start of football practice at UMHB. He will also be following a good workout schedule this summer in preparation for that.