Many students were ready for the football team to play against one of the best teams in the district. Mansfield came on to the field with a 7-0 record and Cedar Hill with a 5-2. Both teams were undefeated in district, and were ready to fight to keep their undefeated record.

The Tiger Band performed their show during the pregame performance which started off the game on a good note. Cedar Hill won the coin toss, but decided to decline, and gave the kick off over to Mansfield. A Cedar Hill player caught the ball at kick off and ran all the way to the goal line and scored a touchdown. After a few more minutes Cedar Hill made another touchdown. the score was 0-14 until the last few minutes of the 1st quarter when Mansfield scored a touchdown.

 ” I think were gonna come out, get after them be real agressive and play fast and hopefully that will get us the win,”  Head Coach, Jeff Hulme.

Coach Hulme had a lot of confidence in our team just like many of the fans.

 In the 2nd quarter Cedar Hill scored a touchdown and so did Mansfield 20-21. By the end of the second quarter the game was getting intense.

At half time, the gold dusters strutted on to the field, their uniforms sparkling in the lights; the band followed right behind them and played while the drill team danced.

After the performance, the 2011 homecoming court came on to the field. Under classmen royalty walked out first, then the senior nominee’s came out. Lugman Adeniyi and Mackenna Lytten were named Homecoming king and queen. After the king and queen were annouced the game started again. The band kept playing while the Gold Dusters did routines to the songs, and the cheerleaders kept the crowd going by cheering on our team.

 ”I think Cedar HIll will probably lose, because both freshman teams won, and only 1 JV team lost so the odds are pretty good for us winning.” Korey Caviness, Freshman Football player, said.

The score was 32-42 until the 4th quarter,  and within the last few minutes the game ended at 36-42. Mansfield lost the homecoming game, but the Tigers worked hard and will still be going to the playoffs, so far with a 7-1 record.

“Well it was a good game. Cedar Hill played kind of harsh, but other than one of our players getting hurt and us losing it was a really good game and over all a good homecoming,” Sami Entwisle, Gold Duster, said.

 Homecoming this year had a twist, but the team played well and fought hard to the end. Win or lose the tigers are still the best in Mansfield.

The Rangers have come a long way in the past year. Last year, the Texas Rangers made franchise history by not only making it to the ALCS, but by making it all the way to the World Series. This year, the Rangers are doing even better, and after Saturday night’s crushing 15-5 victory over the Tigers, they are making their second appearance in the World Series within two consecutive years. Over the past few years, the Rangers have shown a vast improvement in their gameplay, and will only continue to get better.

As with any team that has a sudden winning streak, the Rangers now have a bandwagon, and it is filled to the brim with new fans. People are suddenly wearing Rangers jerseys, watching all of their games, and not to mention driving the ticket prices up. People that do not even watch sports are suddenly big Rangers fans. But band-wagoners are not true Rangers fans, because as soon as the Rangers start playing like they did before 2010, all of this team spirit is suddenly going to vanish.

But the winning seasons are not going to stop anytime soon, with players like Kinsler, Napoli, Hamilton, Torrealba, and Young on the team. Yet, what really drove the Rangers to the World Series in back-to-back years is their powerhouse, Nelson Cruz. He has shattered so many franchise and MLB records in the past 2 years that it is nearly impossible to count them all. He is the first person ever to hit a walk-off grand slam in ALCS history, and he holds the record for the most home runs in a single post-season series. After Saturday’s game, he was chosen as the ALCS’s MVP, a position that he rightfully earned.

Last year, the Rangers came so close to the title of World Champions that they could taste it. But this year, they’re back, driven by the series they lost last year, and they won’t stop until that trophy is in their hands.

The Rangers will play the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday in St. Louis to kick off the first of seven games in the World Series.

“I know we’re going to do amazingly awesome, duh,” Sophomore, Allison Frizzel said.

On Tuesday night, as all the swimmers piled into the natatorium, spectators could clearly see by their faces that they were ready to beat Keller. The team knew that with their winning streak from last year, they were sure to win again this year. Last year, the swim team went to regionals, district, and state.

“We won so many meets last year, I was kind of expecting that we’d win. We have a lot of awesome swimmers,” Junior, Matti Konchalski said.

After the first couple of events, it was clear that the team was going to have yet another great season this year because they placed in every event.

“We were on fire [that] night; we were doing so good. There was no way Keller was going to beat us,” Sophomore, Raegan Rust said.

The team definitely proved that they were not all talk when the scores were announced at the end of the meet; revealing that Mansfield had beat Keller in their first meet of the season.

“When they announced the scores saying that we’d won, I was so excited, even though I already knew we’d win. Our swimmers are really good, and we hardly ever lose a meet like this,” Sophomore, Cameron Haggerty said.

Overall, it was a good night for the swim team; with their very first victory of the swim season, the team was very proud of their accomplishment.

“I was so happy we won,” Freshman, Johnathan Husch said.

The game against Timberview was one of the biggest games of the season for both the Tigers and the Wolves. The two teams competed for the number one title in the district, as the game could make or break either teams chances of making it to playoffs.

“I feel confident; I feel like we’ve got the talent [to beat Timberview] it’s just a matter of execution,” Coach, Daniel Maberry said.

Timberview won the coin toss, and began the game very strong.

Timberview scored two touchdowns in the first quarter; Mansfield scored one touchdown at the end of the first quarter. The crowd was growing increasingly anxious to see if the Tigers could keep up with Timberview. As soon as halftime rolled around, the score was 10-Mansfield 21-Timberview. The halftime performance consisted of the Gold Dusters and the band. After their performance, the THS band performed with their drill team.

After half time, Mansfield stepped up their game by scoring a touchdown in the third quarter, raising the score 17 to 21; from then on Mansfield was unstoppable.

The fourth quarter was intense, both crowds watched closely to see which team would earn the top spot in the district. In the final 40 seconds of the game, Mansfield scored another touchdown. Both sides of the stadium thought the game was over, but Timberview assured them it was not; they scored a touchdown, and made the score 23 to 27. The Mansfield side fell silent with anger; they didn’t want to lose hope. With 30 seconds left in the game, Mansfield tried multiple times to score one last touchdown.

Yet, in those final 10 seconds, Timberview tried to hold them back. The quarter back threw the ball one last time, which seemed to go in slow motion as the ball finally reached #4, Lance Evans hands. A Timberview player raced along side Evans, hoping to keep him from scoring. However, Lance Evans made the touchdown, and Mansfield’s side roared with excitement. Mansfield won the number one in the district, and beat Timberview on their homecoming night.

The final score was 29-27 . Mansfield remains undefeated at 4-0.

 With only 45 minutes until the game, the stands on the Mansfield and Summit side filled. Both of the football teams were on the field stretching for what was known through town as Blackout. Two of the biggest rivals in Mansfield stood before the audience, ready to prove who could show the other one up. Everyone in the stands seemed ready for a good game. Head coach, Jeff Hulme believed in the Tigers just as much as their fans did.

“I think it is going to be a close game, both teams have prepared. I think it’ll be a 6 to 7 point difference and hopefully the tigers will be on the winning side of that [outcome],” Hulme said.

What Coach Hulme did not know was that Mansfield would have a 31 point difference on the score board by the end of the night.

The game opened up with a special presentation in honor of America’s loss during the 9/11 attacks. The crowd stood in silence, respecting those who had fallen on that day. Afterwards, the bell rang and fog came out of the tiger head, along with the yells of “we eat nation” from the football players. The band began to play, and the Bell guard ran right past Summit’s formations with the football team behind them.

Then the game began, the tigers had an 11 point lead in the first quarter of the game; the Jaguars scored their first touch down with only seconds left in the quarter.

In the second quarter, the band kept playing their usual songs, along with a  few new ones. The Gold dusters did their stand routines to the music with smiles on their faces, and the cheerleaders kept the crowd cheering for the tigers with their school spirit. The fight song for Mansfield played so many times in the first half, that Summit probably wished it was their fight song playing again and again.

Finally it was half time, and both teams made their way to the locker rooms.

“During half time the team goes in to hydrate, relax, make adjustments and find what worked in the first half and what didn’t,” Hulme said. ”Hopefully, we have enough time to make a second half game plan.”

After the crowd watched the drill team perform, and the Band perform their show “Dante’s Journey”, the football teams came out again for the second half of the game. During that half, Summit only scored 1 touch down, making their total from then to the end of the game 15. Summit just could not keep up with Mansfield this time, and Mansfield scored another victory.

The tigers won 46 to 15, which was way more than the 6 or 7 points difference that Coach Hulme predicted. The tigers are now 3-0 this season.

The marching band goes to work everyday after school in intense heat, practicing from 3:30 to 6:30 during the week and it’s all done in the unforgiving weather. The band members also perform in the stands, along with Color Guard and Drill Team. Each section of band practices everyday in class to perfect their music before every Friday football game. On top of practicing for the football games they are also practicing for band competitions.

“It’s really hot outside and it takes a lot of effort and hard work to get through it, but it’s worth it in the end,” Annette Kirk, color guard member, said.

As the band prepares for the football games in the extreme heat, the band members understand that it is part of the rigor of being in a marching band.

“Band practice is not the only thing the heat affects, it also affects our schedule…but I’m telling you right now that the way we practice is hardcore no matter what the weather,” Austin Payne, sophomore, said. “The heat doesn’t affect our performance but our rehearsals are harder to manage.”

Other members of the band share the same opinion on the heat situation. The help of their directors moving practices and giving longer water breaks, helps push them to do their best at practice, and performance.

“It’s not that bad really. You get use to it after the first few days, and the directors do what they can to help us by moving the practice time to later hours, and giving us long water breaks,” Reagan Moore, junior, said.

Only a few more seconds until the first football game of the season would begin. The band stood in the stands waiting for their cue to play and the Gold Dusters stood with smiles on their faces, waiting for the Bell Guard and the football team to come running through them. The crowd could hear from the Mansfield side was the football players chanting, “We eat nation…nation…nation.” Then, the horn sounded off for the game to begin. Suddenly, the crowds roared from both sides of the stadium as they watched their schools run off to the field, waiting to see which team could show their skills on the gridiron.

The first quarter of the game began with Mansfield scoring two touchdowns. However, by the end of the quarter Burleson scored their first touchdown; and at the beginning of the second, Burleson scored their second touchdown.

Yet, Mansfield was able to make a come back by scoring a touchdown. The team’s confidence spread not only to the other students performing in the game, but also to the crowd. It was as if they were trying to prove that this year was going to be Mansfield’s year. With only seconds left until half time, Burleson scored their third touchdown. However, they were unaware that it would be their last touchdown during the game.

Mansfield and Burleson’s football teams exited to the locker rooms to discuss their plans for the second half of the game.

After performances made by the band and drill team, the football team returned to the field once more. The plans they discussed in the locker rooms were put the test in the final two quarters. In the 3rd quarter, Mansfield brought up the heat; by the final quarter, the game became nerve-racking. Mansfield scored their final touchdown, making the score 40-21. With six seconds left in the game, the crowd watched impatiently as Burleson came close to scoring another touchdown. Thankfully, Mansfield’s defense prevented the Burleson offense from scoring. The Mansfield side roared with excitement for winning the first game of the season. The band celebrated the victory with the fight song one last time, and then played the alma mater to close off the end to the terrific game.

Maurer competed in discus and Feazell competed in pole vaulting.  Maurer finished 7th with a throw of 162 ‘ 9 and Feazell finished 5th with a jump of 15 ‘ 6.

To make it to the state competition, the seniors had to first qualify at the district meet. After that, the top two students in each sport at regionals move on to the state competition. At the state competition, the goal is to be among the top 9 participants in one’s sport.

Maurer, who made it to state last year, has come a long ways since freshman year.

“In ninth grade,  I could throw the discuss about 112 feet, now I average around 170 feet,” said Maurer.

Discus is very much an individual sport, Maurer says. So, it is completely up to the competitor to determine how to develop their skills.

“When someone is throwing [the discus] farther than me,” said Maurer, ” it makes me want to be better, it makes me want to thrown farther.”

After four years of competing in the sport, Maurer is satisfied with the progress he has made. He used to get nervous when he stepped into the discus ring but now he is comfortable with it.

“Most of all, I’m really going to miss the competition, ” said Maurer.

“I wanted to attempt to beat the seniors, but it was awful; we didn’t know what we were doing,” junior Shay Williams said.

On the Thursday before the game, the seniors were confident in their talent and their organization.

“The juniors aren’t as organized. We actually know what we are doing,” senior Matt Hardy said.

The energy was high on Friday afternoon and the participants were ready for the competition.

“[I wanted to participate] because it’s fun and aggressive, I like how competitive it is,” senior Jacki Escalante said.

Although the juniors did face a pretty harsh loss, some agreed that they would try again net year.

“I have to play, or else I would be breaking a tradition. It’s such a great feeling, it’s an honor to be a Tiger,” Williams said.

Carver was one of many with somber feelings towards their final game.

“[It was] heartbreaking.  I felt like I had done so much hard work for four years and came out with nothing.  I hit the glass with my hand as hard as I could and it didn’t hurt one bit.  I kind of felt like I failed at leading the team because I knew we could have won that game and now that it’s all over, it hurts to think about it,” senior captain Andrew Rodrigues said.

Some players have found relief in knowing they will play in college.

“It was depressing to know we lost our last game playing for Mansfield, but I plan on playing at UT so it’s not as bad for me as much as the other guys,” senior Hunter Woody said.

Being a part of the Mansfield tigers, despite this devastating loss, had many victories and lasting memories too.

“For me, the best part of the season was when we beat Martin 6-1.  They’re our rivals, which made winning even sweeter,”  Woody said.

Carver and Rodrigues shared a different, but just as monumental accomplishment.

“The highlight of the season was the Minnesota trip.  We went 2-1 against kids who skate in their backyards and that was a huge statement for Texas and for us as a team,”  Rodrigues said.

Rodrigues views the Minnesota win, not only as a great victory, but also as a reminder to his younger teammates.

“I’d tell them not to give up on their dreams because they can play hockey anywhere they want to; our trip to Minnesota was proof of that,”  Rodrigues said.

Woody also has advice for next year’s hockey team.

“Keep working hard and have fun.  Cherish all your games because you never know when you’ll be done,”  Woody said.

Being a part of the Mansfield team not only taught the players to live in the moment but also many lessons that will last a lifetime.

“I got stronger than I have ever been… I learned to not be afraid to get hit, no matter how big or small the person hitting me was,” Rodrigues said.

Carver’s lessons seemed to mirror the Rodrigues’ message.

“It taught me to work as a team and to worry about something bigger than myself.  The only way you can win is to go all out,”  Carver said.

Captain Rodrigues finds comfort in knowing that his team went all out on their last game, even if that didn’t mean a victory.

“I think the most important thing is that we came together when the odds were against us.  Yeah, we might not have beaten Midlothian, but each and every one of us gave every last breath to try and win.  Sad ending, but I will always consider each and every one of these guys on that team as my brother,”  Rodrigues said.