2003 Year in Review

Back to Sports: Football Listing | Back to Year in Review Index

The Varsity game between Chicago Charter and Morrison

Morrison Defeats Chicago Charter

With this game being the second game ever played by the newly formed Chicago Charter Panther Football Team, nobody quite knew what to expect. The end result showed that they had a lot of heart, but more practice and experience was needed for them. The fact that they have a football team is accomplishment enough, and they have an excellent fan base of support

In the Sophomore game, the Mustangs took the lead early and dominated the line both ways, not allowing the Panthers to score. They were able to establish a crushing 46-0 lead by the half, and when play started again, they continued with much more of the same strategy, and giving the whole team a lot of playing time. By the end of the Sophomore game the Chicago Panthers were still unable to score, and the Mustangs were able to post another 10 points to win the game 54-0.

In the Varsity game, the Mustangs followed suit of the previous game, taking the lead early and not allowing the Panthers to score. At half time the score was 35-0, Mustangs lead. In the second half, the Panthers didn't get down on themselves and played hard, but to no avail. By the end of the game, the Mustangs were able to win, 49-0.

With the team being so new, with so little experience, many predected the outcome of the game, but many didn't consider how much pride and joy the Panthers played with. When the Panther program started back in October of 2002, with the hiring of coach Bill Ham, the school knew that it would be a long struggle to get a football program started. With 210 students enrolled in the high school, their first concern was getting enough dedicated players. To the administration's surprise, an overwhelming amount of kids went out and not a single one quit. Finding a place to practice was another challenge, but that was solved by driving the 42-man varsity team and Frosh/Soph team six blocks away to a softball recreation center. They were able to practice between the infields, and if a game was going on, the team would have to move.

The head coach, Bill Ham, said that he came out of retirement in Kansas to come up to coach the team, because he has never seen a bunch of kids with more pride and eagerness to learn than the Chicago Charter Team. When he first arrived, he had to make up a schedule of games for them, which would prove very tideous and require over 20 hours of phone calls to make up an eight game schedule. The team travels all over the place, sometimes going as far as Wisconsin and St. Louis just to play a game. Morrison was the closest game at about 3 hours away, and the team brought with them a fan base of about 150 parents and students.

Coach Ham stated that he has seen the group of kids become transformed by the football program, because it has gotten them out of a rough neighborhood after school, and given the school something to take pride in. He has taken kids that have never seen a football game before, and turned them into a football team with a will to win.

To see photos from the game, please wisit the football photo album, where you can find pistures of both the Frosh/Soph and Varsity game.

by larryg
2003-09-07 00:03:54