Fifth-Year Bearkat leadership
12/10/2011 6:00:00 AM | Football
It's taken quite an effort and an awful lot of patience but the Bearkats are starting to see all of the work pay off.
"It's exciting, being to play this far into the season. There's only eight teams left, so it's pretty special to be this far," Sam Houston center Travis Watson said Friday night.
Following a runner-up finish in the Southland Conference race in 2007- when now fifth-year seniors Chris Crockett, Kash David, Eddie Decambre, Randy Stewart and Watson were freshmen - the Bearkats had a few lean years.
In 2008 and '09, Sam Houston finished near the bottom of the league. The Kats were 9-12 overall during those two seasons and 5-10 in conference play.
With an injection of new energy and an overhaul of the coaching staff, the Bearkats began to turn things around.
Following a pair of blowout losses to Baylor and Western Illinois to open the 2010 campaign, Sam Houston went on a tear, winning six of its final nine games. The Kats lost three consecutive games by a combined total of 11 points, including one in overtime.
This fall, the Bearkats picked up where they left off and have won every time out this season, including last week's 34-27 come-from-behind victory over Stony Brook in the second round of the FCS playoffs.
Now, the Kats are playing to advance to the semifinals and are just two victories away from the national championship game.
"Really after it all, we always knew we had talent on this team. No matter what we did, we couldn't fight that," Decambre said. "We needed an X-factor to change things up. We got that in coach (Willie) Fritz.
"Going through those hard times really helps us appreciate what we're blessed with right now. We've just got a great team, great coaching staff, great fan base and we're just ready to play."
Entering the spring, the Bearkats, on the heels of a successful 2010 season, had a good notion that they would again be competitive and could contend for the Southland Conference championship. That's a prize they ended up taking home rather easily.
To get to this point, the national quarterfinals, the veteran Bearkats had an inkling this was possible, too.
"I knew we could," Crockett said. "I knew we could definitely win conference. Last year, we came so close to winning it and we didn't even know how to play with each other.
"I think this year, the way we jelled through the spring and summer, I think we really came together and it's showing right now. I think we're going to feed off of that in this game and the games remaining. We've been playing for 13 weeks coming this Saturday and it's been getting stronger every week."
With so many young players on the team, including eight underclassman starters, Fritz relied on his five fifth-year seniors to keep everything clicking and keep the younger players focused throughout the postseason.
"These guys have kept them on point," the coach said. "Probably about five or six times this season, I've kept the seniors after practice and visited with them. The main message I was conveying to them was that it's easy to lose. People are inherently lazy and you can find ways to take shortcuts. To win week after week after week after week after week is difficult to do. We've got to be tough-minded. We have to be physically tough.
"Some of them have had to sacrifice. Some of them want to play more. There's been no complaining. They've accepted their role and done it to the best of their ability and have been enthusiastic. They've been true teammates to everybody on the team. That's being a leader. You don't have to be an All-American to be a leader."
For Stewart, who has dealt with recurring injuries throughout the past few years that have kept him on the sidelines, not being a part of the Bearkats has never been an issue. Rather, he has taken his reduced role in stride and helped out however he could behind the scenes and during practices.
"It was really tough for me. I didn't get redshirted my true freshman year. I got to play that year and my sophomore year. I ended up tearing my hamstring and that was a huge setback and I was really disappointed," Stewart said. "Just trying to come back, I kept battling back, trying to do everything I can. I ended up retearing it again. After that, I knew that it wasn't going to be the exact same.
"I just wanted to help the team out and do everything I could. I'll do anything they need, like if they need help with me running routes or giving them a certain look. I watch a lot of film with the team, so I know what they kind of need. On special teams, I try to help out as much as I can there."
What also has tied the five hard-nosed seniors together and to the success of the Sam Houston football program is that they've all had to overcome devastating injuries.
"All five of us have been through a bunch of stuff before we got here. Every single one of us had a season-ending injury," Crockett said. "To be where we are now, we're very thankful. I know I've cherished this year probably more than I have a football season in my life."
As the Bearkats look forward to today's playoff contest against Montana State, they know they've got an opportunity that doesn't come around often. As much as the Kats have turned things around, they certainly don't want to squander this chance now, not at home in a stadium that is expected to be packed from top to bottom.
"I think I can speak for the five of us (fifth-year seniors) when I say we can all appreciate this opportunity because we've all been here this whole summer," David said. "We've always worked hard and really committed ourselves. Before that, we didn't even have an opportunity to do any of this.
"Even if you work hard, you're not always guaranteed this opportunity. It really is a blessing that we actually get an opportunity to go do these things. We want to make the most out of these opportunities and just win it all."
General admission tickets priced at $15 each remain for Saturday's NCAA Division I Football Quarterfinal matchup between Sam Houston and Montana State.
Pre-purchased tickets also may be picked up at the "Will Call" tent in front of the West Side Bowers Stadium Ticket Office (under the press box on the campus side of the stadium). The ticket office at Bowers Stadium opens at 8 a.m.
Fans are advised to arrive early to beat long lines expected. The Bearkat Alley "Tailgate" begins at 9 a.m.
