By STEPHEN MONAHAN

Register Staff Writer



CALLISBURG — The Callisburg Wildcats have thrived in the playoffs playing the role of spoiler.

Last weekend in Midlothian, the Wildcats upended previously undefeated McGregor 21-13 and have picked up wins against Caddo Mills and Melissa, two games many might believe the Wildcats went into as underdogs.

Now another undefeated stands in their way.

The Wildcats take on the Bushland Falcons 6 p.m. Saturday at Wichita Falls’ Memorial Stadium in the Class 2A Division II state semifinals.

Bushland sports a lofty 14-0 record, but Callisburg coach Jerry Bomar and his team are unfazed by the Falcons undefeated streak.

“We haven’t been intimidated all year,” Bomar said. “It’s one thing we instill in these kids when they’re younger: We’re not going to be intimidated by anybody, but we respect them. But if you’re intimidated, you wouldn’t be playing where we are right now.”

Bomar and the Callisburg Wildcats have put this season into perspective.

A perspective that includes the realization that maybe the Wildcats are not the biggest or fastest team on the planet, and maybe they don’t match up well on paper with their opponents every week.

But that hasn’t stopped the Wildcats from winning. In fact, the team has thrived thus far playing as the underdog, quarterback Bobby Dorman said.

“I think some teams may overlook us slightly,” the senior said, “but we go into each week respecting the team we play and we know we might be outmatched physically, but we think we can compete with every team we play.”

This team’s perspective also includes having fun, but maintaining focus, and while there is a lot more attention on Callisburg now because of their success, Bomar said he does not want his team to lose sight of enjoying that success.

“It’s like a hurricane and we’re in the middle,” he said, “and everybody on the outside’s having a great time with it, and we are too. But we’re so driven trying to worry about this week’s game and then you go to the next game, it’s hard to take it in, and so I’m telling the kids week after week: ‘Enjoy it. These times don’t come around all the time, so take all this in and just have fun with it.’”

Callisburg finished District 10-2A in third place behind second-place Aubrey and district champ Pilot Point — who is playing for the Division I championship Saturday afternoon against Kirbyville.

Callisburg lost to Aubrey 34-14 on Oct. 9, but held tough in a 30-20 loss against the Bearcats on Oct. 30.

It was after the Pilot Point game that the Wildcats knew they have potential to do something special in the postseason.

It was then that perspective was instilled.

“You don’t realize it while it’s happening, but it helps you,” Bomar said of the team’s run through one of the toughest district’s in the state. “It helps you play harder, helps you play at a higher level. The Pilot Point game helped us a lot. In fact I sat the kids down after that and really stressed to them that ‘Pilot Point’s going to win the state championship, or play for it, but if you played like that with them, then you can play with any of these other teams. Let’s talk about it here, let’s put it into perspective.’ So, that’s helped us a lot.”

To coach Bomar, Bushland reminds him a lot of Pilot Point — big, strong and athletic.

But he doesn’t want his players dwelling in the past and in the ‘what could have beens’ because that Pilot Point game is now just lost in a newspaper box score.

Bushland is all that matters now.

“They may be the best offensive team we’ve played this year outside of Pilot Point,” Bomar said. “(They) throw it well, spread you out, (have a) good quarterback, big receiver — they’ve got a 6-6 guy — got some other fast guys, big line, run the ball well, very balanced. They will be very difficult for us.

“Defensively, they’re big, they’re athletic. I think they’re susceptible to some things maybe if we execute and we can maybe hang in the game with them on. “

Callisburg had to hang on and win in the fourth quarter against Melissa back on Nov. 21 and scored late in the game against McGregor.

Dorman said playing near-flawless and keeping this week’s game close in the fourth quarter will be key in pulling off another upset.

“We know Bushland is a good team on both sides of the ball,” he said. “They’ve got athletes, they’ve got size, but we’re just going to go into the game with confidence, knowing we have to play a mistake-free, near-perfect game, and we think we can do it.”

Callisburg is averaging 31 points per game in the playoffs while allowing just 16.

Dorman has rushed for 674 yards while scoring 11 touchdowns. He also has passed for 3 more.

But that is not all the Wildcats throw at their opponents on offense. Running back Langston Jones also has punched his ticket into the end zone frequently in the postseason. Jones has rushed for 463 yards of his own and has accounted for 6 scores, including 4 against Caddo Mills (2 receiving, 2 rushing and 1 passing). On the receiving end, Kevin Bartley has accounted for 4 reception touchdowns in the playoffs, adding him to the list of offensive weapons for Callisburg.

But a lot of Callisburg’s success in the playoffs has been playing mistake-free football while causing miscues against the other team.

They’ve rarely turned the ball over and have not accounted for many drive-killing penalties.

Against the Falcons this week, Bomar knocks on wood that this trend will remain constant.

“We have not done the bad things so far, knock on wood,” Bomar said, knocking on wood after the fact. “We haven’t turned the ball over and gotten a lot of penalties or done stupid things that cost us games. If we can play a near-perfect type game and we can get to the fourth quarter, we’ve got a shot.”

The Callisburg coach also knows his team’s tank is not on empty and some fight remains to claw their way into the state championship game against either Daingerfield or Refugio.

“ What wins is between the ears,” Bomar said. Seventy-five to 80 percent in high school is between the ears. Teenagers don’t have a clue what their limits are. How do they know? They’re 16, 17, 18...they have no clue. They think they know. I’ve told them ‘You’ve got more down in your gut left than you think, and if you reach down and pull some more out of there.’ We did against Caddo Mills, we did against McGregor and now we’re going to have to reach down against Bushland, but we can do it if we don’t make any silly mistakes in the game. If things keep going the way they’re going, I like our chances.”