Marshall should consider itself damn lucky that coach Paul Thomas heads up the high school program here..

No one is perfect but his program has integrity and he and his staff spend countless hours doing whatever it takes to make the program and thet team better..

The comment about his son and going to the "spread offense" is BS.. If you knew anything about putting an offense together you fit the offense to the personnel..in otherwords it makes little sense to try and put a square peg in a round hole..

This year's club is more suited to smash mouth football with the strong side of your line going 345 and 315 respectively..and the OLine as a whole arguably the strongest part of your football team..

If you got a burr in your bonnett about the coach maybe you should talk to him instead of spreading falsehoods on a public message board..believe me enough of that stuff goes around in town as it is.

I will try this again. I am responding to Como's

remark about the Coach and his son. Como, my first blog was removed guess it wasn't as tasteful as yours so I will try to put this as nice as I can. You are only hurting this family with your snide remarks. Coach Thomas is a fine coach and Marshall should feel priveledged to have him. My kids both played for him and mentioned they would like to one day go back and coach with him or for him. As for his son, great kid and studied this game of football harder than I have ever seen any kid do. My oldest son told me he would study film during his lunch time just to make sure he and his team were ready. We don't have many if any kids that want to study film or plays and to run the spread your QB needs to know what he is doing. Coach Thomas is a competitor and loves to win but he will always remind his players what is important in life, not just football. I hope Coach Thomas stays with us here in Marshall because we are not giving he and his family too many reasons to stay.

This is as positive as I can do on this board of blogs. I agree with a couple of others on here is you don't have something nice to say DON't say it.

Hey dddc15,

You have a way of beating around the bush. Say what you really mean. If you are going to call someone out then do it. Were you not happy with the football coach or the basketball coach or both? I have to agree with the others, looks like you may have a bias in this matter.

It's my understanding that Thompson had to be disciplined several times during the basketball season. Dusenberry for fighting. One that he instigated. Over a girl no less. Does this make them part of the FBI's most wanted? NO. But let's not paint them to be model citizens. If your kid has facebook or myspace you might have had a chance to spot some of our "model citizens" doing what kids do over the past two years.

As for playing for someone you respect, try playing for the love of the game. Try playing for your teammates. Try playing for your school. As some former players have noted, things didn't always seem "peachy" when Naylor was in charge. Show me someone who "loves" someone making them run gassers every day and I'll show you a liar. Same way in the real world. The employee doesn't love the boss. They say they do so as to look good.

And I cannot be more emphatic about this: IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE COACH, QUIT! It's a privalege to play a sport and if you don't respect all that it entails, the sport doesn't need you.

Coaches make mistakes. Coaches make bad decisions. It happens. And they need to learn from that. And if they don't, they will be replaced in due time. But when parents continually attack coaching staffs, it's sending a wrong message to their kids. Especially parents who have "zero" knowledge of the games they are talking about. Just because you have the Sunday Ticket or play fantasy football, doesn't make you a expert all of a sudden. And just because you coached midget ball, optimist baseball/softball or middle school ball doesn't mean you are either.

If you ever took the time to talk to Coach Thomas, I think you would find that he is as interested in "helping" mold a boy into a man as he it about making a football player. (Notice I said "helping.") For every college bound player he may get to coach, he's got 15 who will be slamming beers at the fraternity next year or out looking for a job in the real world. And he will have kids quit because they don't like him. All coaches do. And those kids will regret it. Most do.

The reason the Barton's and the er's of the world still get it now after all these years is, like myself, they didn't have a parent in their ear complaining about what the coach was doing or have them showing up at practice and following the coach around questioning everything they do. Or in the stands taking notes. You will find that the parents with the most knowledge of a sport will stand back and let things happen and if ever called on to be an asset to the program, they will do so. If you aren't part of the solution, then YOU are part of the problem.

I played football at MHS during the late 70's under the guidance of Coach Naylor (as well as Coaches O'Neal, Guthrey, and Hieronymus). At the time, particularly as I was running "Think" laps, doing "up/downs", running the hills next to 65 Highway, hitting in the cage, etc., I did not fully appreciate what I was doing and what the great coaching staff was doing for me. I am the first to admit that I was not an outstanding football player...probably not even average. BUT, these coaches demanded 100% from you, on the practice and playing field and did so in a manner that you then demanded 100% from yourself. In my day, no parent would complain to Coach Naylor about the play calling or the positions that their son played! As a man, I now understand and appreciate that the time I spent practicing and playing football for these GREAT coaches, made me a better person and taught me things that I apply even today, nearly 30 years after I played my last football game as an Owl. Every Fall, when high school teams begin football practice, I feel the urge to cut my hair over my ears and off my collar and I think of fondly Coach Naylor. I'm so fired up now, I think I may head out and run a "Think" lap or two. Heaven knows I know the route! GO OWLS!

i was mistaken i played 75-77 if you pushed me around i would have remembered.after graduating i went into the 82nd airborne and learned how real leaders lead by example not intimidation and dislike because of who your parents were and i see why you think going both ways is so great i remember the STARS were always so tired they could never finish.also most of those guys were on some kind of steriod were you?

...one last thing. I played with 2 guys from Kirksville in college. They informed me then that their team was intimidated as soon as Marshall came on the field. One guy was an all state nose guard that said Marshall hit harder than any team they played- every year. Sometimes, we had teams beat before kickoff just from our presence during warmups. That is the kind of culture, respect, and legacy our program had throughout the state. We knew we had a great chance of winning every game we played. Now, it seems that's how Marshall's team looks at others.

Oh, by the way ER............I'll go to the "cage" with you anytime,,,,just for fun though! It gets my blood pressure up just thinking about that dang thing.

Former Owl Benchwarmer- To answer your question, I not only started both ways my junior and senior year (and was one of 3 sophmores to letter), I played college football. That is where we had 4 a days and 2 film sessions each day. I said I didn't know Coach Naylor BEFORE football. I obviously knew him well from high school until his death. If you read, I devoted a section of my rant to the kids you talked about that don't play. I was basically saying that they can stop complaining and work hard enough to where the coaches HAVE to play you. When the WHOLE team does this, you win! My father was an over the road truck driver and was gone for weeks at a time. I did not have pull around Marshall and was still all-conference, all-district, captain, and played college football. Have these kids been playing since middle school? Have they worked all summer, at least 5 days a week to play? Probably not. When they do, they get noticed, just like I was. You claim to be a 'former owl benchwarmer' which means I probably used to push you around in the cage. You then probably wondered why you didn't get to play but didn't spend the time in the weight room, running the stairs every night at Mo. Valley, and instead were home eating twinkies or whatever. That's not what gets you on the football field. If you lay around all summer, those 2 a days you talk about do get hard. If you prepared yourself, 2 a days really weren't that bad. It was just like the rest of the summer that you had been training. You probably don't understand what I'm saying because you are still making excuses. Which brings me to IPOH's response about the kids not being the same. Go talk to Webb City's kids or Camdenton's kids or Blue Spring's kids and they are the same as we were. Any state champion team worked hard, it didn't come naturally. If you're not putting the effort in, forget about winning. The guy across from you did work all summer to get the advantage on the kid that didn't. This used to be Mexico and Fulton. They had no discipline, fought with each other, sucking air after the first quarter. And guess what, their coaches allowed that to happen. Kids are kids and unless they are taught work ethic and discipline, and made to practice properly, they're going to do what they want. It's the adults (parents and coaches) place to show them how to win at games and life-winners don't just 'figure it out' as they go. They are instructed and taught to practice it. As I mentioned, "This is the difference between champions (even conference champs are a welcome accomplishment) and losers that complain about everyone else." Also, wasn't Anthony Thompson hurt most of his senior year and came back toward the end of the year? Wasn't this why he only went one way those few games? And I thought Dusenberry got suspended from either football or basketball to miss a few games? Not a real good recipe for any winning team if that's your leadership.

First off Guys, lets not argue about little things like that. The best players should play regardless. I mean if you put in the effort and you are the best you deserve to go both ways. The real concern would be our head coach. Everyone in this town knows we changed the offense to the spread 2 years ago for his son. Which explains why we finally switched it back. Ever since the end of the 2006 season where we were conference champs and district champs our head coach has had a different focus that isnt marshall owl football, that would be his son, and about the playing time he is not receiving at the college he is attending. Now back in that 2006 season, we had a lot of seniors and juniors playing both ways. Now, the year after (last year) there were hardly any players going both ways. For example, 3 time ALL-STATE football player Anthony Thompson only starts on offence because we need to rest him considering he played the year before both ways and did just fine and receievd All state honors as a CB. Others also include Brigdes who started offence junior year and then couldnt his senior. Dusenberry also started off the season not being able to go both ways until game 4 in the season, and he recieved All conference honors on BOTH OFFENSE and DEFENSE. it seems like the coach really isnt to concerned about winning if he isnt playing his best players in big time situations. he is now currently .500 or one game under .500 at marshall and for being the coach here for 7 years i find that mildly upsetting. Marshall is a football town and he better stop worrying about his son and start focusing again on the importance of winning.

Let me guess, former owl benchwarmer, you didn't get to play much. On one level, I agree with you. When you've had little success the past several years, yes, you should begin playing other kids and see what else you have. You don't continue to use the same game plan that got you nowhere. Marshall is not the only school, however, where kids play both ways. Most in 4A-1A do. The problem is preparation and play selection. There are more gimmick plays in their playbook than 'bread and butter- line 'em up and play football'. If you can't get the basics down, forget about the gadget plays. Also, I hope I misread your evaluation about Marshall's state title. Marshall was in another one that was held at the old Busch stadium. Some schools have never even been to a state championship game in ANY sport. We've been to 2 in just football.Yes, we tied one, and yes, the call at the end was BS- but it was a huge accomplishment (that hasn't even been close to being replicated). Camdenton ended up winning the next year's title with their team that was, that good! Their team had 10 guys go on to play college football. That's alot.

As far as politics, I am not convinced that this is our problem. Sure, there are probably a few that fall under this catagory and do in every single town under 20,000 people (and many with populations over that). I never knew Coach Naylor personally before football. My outlook was "make them have to play you". I wonder how many cry babies (and their parents who make the excuse for them) have this same outlook. If you have trained all summer for football by running, lifting weights, staying out of trouble, catching passes, STAYED OUT OF TROUBLE, etc.- it's going to be hard for a coach to keep you off the field. There are not 22 kids on that team that play because their parents know someone. If you lift weights 3 times a week, run on occassion, drink beer every night, worry about what you're girlfriend's doing, then you're going to have problems convincing a coach that you're ready to play. This is the difference between champions (even conference champs are a welcome accomplishment) and losers that complain about everyone else.

Who cares about a track team on the football field? We used to face many teams faster than we were, but they still couldn't beat us. Let's get back to where Marshall football once was- winning every single year! For those of you around during those 34 years, you may remember how much fun each fall was. There was pride that every Marshall student had each Friday night. From the team, to the band, to the flag corps, to the batons, to the cheerleaders, to the pep club, to the volunteers serving hot chocolate, etc. Winning isn't everything, but losing doesn't help you attain what you worked for all summer long. It's OK to work hard and accomplish goals no matter what it takes. Losing is a part of life but it doesn't have to be accepted because then it becomes a habit more than an accident.