The Washington times., 1907-12-29
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL.

SNiNSS ~ NFfH~~a
Never before. since the time when
! Central High School was the whole
thing, when Eastern and Western were
mere suburban branches Of the home
office and Tech wasn't. has the inter
( high school football series produced such
a decided and Undisputed championship
| aggregation as was turned out by the
Manual Trainers this fall.
Incidentally this team, besides walk
I ing away with tae high scnool title,
/ turned the remarkable trick OF captur-
/ ing the scholastic supremacy Of the
! District by taking the scalp of the
| Georgetown PrepS, as thoroughly train
/ ed and well drilled an eleven as the
/ Preps have ever produced.
! And thirdly. the Tectites distinguish
! ed themselves by rolling UP the high
! est score in the annals Of higA school
football when they hustled the Eastern
/ ers up and down the gridiron in two
short halves for sixty-one points.
Tech in First Class.
| Little can be said Of the other teams
! Tech held the field alone More than
one critic has come out with the state
ment that the Manual Trainers were in
! a. class with Georgetown and George
] Washington. While this may be open
/ to reasonable doubt II Is certain that
not within the memory Of the majority
Of local football followers has a high
/ school turned out a team which COM
bined in such a great degree the three
elements Of weight, brains, an balance
Neither Benson. Brewster. or ! 'Irall can
be said 70 be the stars Of Technical,
although either OF them would be the
main support Of a weaker team One
large element in the Manual Trainers
strength was the fact that their eleven
was so equally balanced and that X
! held good men in reserve 10 put on the
against the Preps on Georgetown Field,
and against Western. Whether Tech
I was a master OF new football 70 any
nppreciable extent Is a question. be-
cause it invariably found its line buck
l ing tactics effective except III a single
I instance the final game with WOOdbeTry
/ Forest, and then the players mad bad
! off day, something that occasionally
I happens on the best regulated teams.
/ On the defense Technical was master
Of any kind Of football which came
| along. Perhaps X could have used the
forward pass and maybe n could not
I but II certainly had some deeply and
/ Craftily laid schemes TO keep others
I from employing that means Of ground
gaining. There is little doubt Western
was thoroughly grounded In the for
+, " ard pass Of the 1907 game. but IL ran
/ against a snaE when IL attempted 70
use the pass against Tech Western
was soon forced 70 resort TO line pung-
I ing tactics, and the inevitable result
soon followed The only hope Of stay
I ing Techs march was dissipated when
l Western lost by = IL O. Technical was
! coached. by Mr.. HecOx. who has long
i been Interested in all branches OF ath-
} letics ard has been an ardent supporter
! OF football.
Central Vets Disqualified.
I Central opened its season with a rush.
/ but sustained an awful jolt when ali
! the veterans on the team. FIVE in num-
I Der, were disqualified for disciplinary
purposes. The rest Of the men seemed
/ TO lose heart Central. Eastern, and
/ Western tied for second place. and the
/ ithree-cornered draw remained unbroken.
as no post-seasOn games were PLAYED
/ Western promised much at the opening
but after Its defeat by the champs It
/ went farther TO the bad than Central
and allowed the o street school to win
Z a game that, by the relative merits OF
/ the teams, II did not deserve
! Business was handicapped by the fact
/ that the faculty pulled OF it's annual
/ stunt Of voting 10 abandon athletics and
I later reCeding from its position when II
\ was too late for the teams 20 get in
sufficient prCNtice. In spite Of this the
I school whipp "a together a fast little
I team which made good whenever Il
| appeared with teams OF its own weight
Jimmy Kerr. at Eastern. could do lit
tie with the scant material he had TO
work on. The Capitol HiN aggregation
! distinguished itself in the same way
s that Tech did on the high-scOre Quss-
/ tiOn-Only IL was at the wrong end OF
/ the tally in both Instances. It lost to
/ Tech by the siXty-one points mentioned
above. then went 10 New York 10 give
/ Erasmus Hall a chance TO run up the
FovNn gah ~o1 gaF he
| season-eighty-eigh points.
| Long before the close of the high
school season the chief interest was
| centered in the game between the schol
astic champs and Georgetown Preps-
/ For a while 1t seemed as II the game
would not be played owing TO a hitch
/ In the negotiations, but the matter was
! finally Strengthened out and the two
/ teams met on November o.
Preps Made Good.
The Preps lacked few OF all the good
points attributed TO Tech, and had some
/ thing on the downtown school in that
/ they were known TO be well coached in
! 1907 football. Although # had played
/ but four games. Tom Kirby took hold
! of the Prep squad about two weeks
before the contest 20 decide the Dis
] Cellent material he had. whipped the
squad into a fast eleven with a roper
/ toire of trick plays. Unfortunately on
( the day set for the game the field was
/ so muddy that little but straight foot
( bah was possible.
: Technical refused TO postpone the
l game. It had a tremendous advantage
l in weight, but even at that the George
] town team held the high school team
at a safe distance from its goal by the
| use of such strategic plays as were pos
sible on the Shiny field til in at
| tempting to execute forward pass the
\ ball was lost and Benson, Tech's left
| end. recovered the pigslOin and ran half
/ the length of the field for a touch
/ down. Technical failed 10 lick goal
and the District scholastic t'tlt went TO
! the high school team by to O.
PIGEON FLYING.