Kankakee Valley High School - Kougar Pride Yearbook (Wheatfield, IN)

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Tom Morris: Well, the field at DeMotte would probably have been a rather nice field if they had sloped the field just a little bit so the water would drain off, and the grass could stay green. The lighting is really good on the field. I believe it ' s one of the area’s best lit fields. We could probably have used a good scoreboard . We couldn’t use the one we had because no one could operate the numbered cards . Kougar Pride: Evaluate our competition this year, Tom. Tom Morris: We started off with South Newton . I really wanted to beat them . Our teamwasn ' t together yet, so early in the season, and we lost 7- -14. Anybody who faced Harrison on the playing field shuddered . But we went down to East Tipp to play them. Harrison is nothing but a meat-eating mammoth team. They are completely out of our class. I think Kankakee Valley will be ready to play them in, maybe , five years . When we went up to North Judson, we weren ' t ready. We know when we’re ready, and the coach knows . They played Easi Gary and stomped them. We. played East Gary and lost 14- -0, on our homecoming. East Gary had two lucky breaks and they took them. Otherwise we were even with East Gary for man - size and ability. When West Cen- tral came up to play us, they thought they could beat us with no trouble. They thought we could never beat them, so they’d just have some fun with us . But we cracked down after the first quar- ter and played football. They wanted more fights; we played more football . We beat them mis- erably. We got the traveling tro- phy and the conference . left: Coach Hamacher hangs loose during the football season. He really trusts us. below: The local savages take over the football field c to the strains of the school song before the game.

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Kougar Pride: Football practice is rough and tough and horrifying and every football player has to go through it . What do you think about it? Tom Morris: When we start out it ' s really rough because you’ve been kinda lazy all summer, you’re not really ready for it, but you start just where you are, running on the pads and jumping on the ground a lot, and starting to get used to getting hit a little bit. We sepa- rate the backs from the line, then the line starts to get their block- ing assignments down, and their blocking calls so they can function properly together . While this is going on, the backs are down get- ting used to handling the ball again. Then we start on the back- field and combine it with the line . And with this, we always have calisthenics, warm-up before practice, and a warm -down after practice, to get in condition for the games . Kougar Pride: What kind of relationship did Coach Hamacher strike up with the boys? Tom Morris: He had some different ideas on offense and defense which were quite new to everybody in the area, because he came from a different section of the state . But personally, we think he rode -jus a little too much . But since we came out with a winning season, five conference wins, no losses, we figure it was worth it . He made us work hard. There wasn ' t any horseplay at all on or off the field where football was concerned . He ' d tell us how he wanted it done, and we ' d do it that way. But al- together working with him was OK . We had gripes ; he had gripes . And we usually ironed them out his way. But that’s why he was coach and we weren ' t . Kougar Pride: Compare our home field with the other fields you played on this season .

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center: Healthy, but harsh, criticism keeps a football player on his toes. upper left: Coach Daigle pa- tiently awaits the outcome of a winning play. lower left: Half a football game is spent waiting, as Joe Doris and Butch Jungels can tell you. Kankakee Valley Football above: Strategy and teamwork — they learn both here, right: Howard Altman knows better than to be caught with the ball. So, he runs.