Thirty-one years and The Tradition continues…This Thanksgiving Day Thursday started out as a wet day, and the skies were a bit gloomy, but that dramatic setting could not keep Turkey Bowl from happening this morning, at the Western Guilford Middle School…
Team Trogdon and Team Roche hooked up in a battle that was for the ages…All types of ages out there today…Teenagers, older sorts, and all kinds of age groups were represented there today…In the past we have had people as young as 9 years old, and others in their teens, 20s, 30s, 40s, 5Os, 60s, and not sure if anybody has hit the 70-plus mark yet…
The field was just a little wet, but the rain seemed to soften and loosen up the dry, hard field at WG Middle School, home of the Western Guilford Middle School Tigers…Played my last game there as Guilford Junior High School Tiger, back in 1971…And still going today right there on what has to called my, “Home Field”….
The score was tight….We had Team Trogdon, led by dad Justin Trogdon, and he had his sons and Nathan Hill with him and they are both juniors/eleventh graders at Uhwarrie Ridge High School/School…I joined in with the Trogdons today, and I should have changed my name to Robin, because I do remember a Robin Trogdon from the old Guilford Junior High School…But it was us four, and the numbers were limited today due to the weather, but man this turned out to be a great game…
On the opposing team, it was Bryant Roche, Enad Haddad, Grayson Holland, and Kevin Colvin..We/I dubbed them Team Roche, because Bryant who showed up today as questionable, well he ended up being one of the top talents from this game…He had a couple of lay-out catches/grabs/receptions, and I think he threw for a TD too…Got to give him a Zade Dog Bowl for his team-leading efforts…The Zade Dog Bowl reprsents greatness nearly beyond measure…
Some may ask if Zade played, to let you know the truth, Zade did not play today, but he did take three(3) victory laps around the Western Guilford Middle School property, after the game was over…The Zade game Dog Bowl, one of the most coveted awards in the hitory of sport…
(To be fully transparent, Zade is a dog, owned by long-time Turkey Bowl participant Enad Haddad.)
Maybe coming into today’s game, Zade never could have imagined how much impact he would have, but it is True, he paid his due, and now he has been immortalized, with the Zade Dog Bowl Award…
We may have put the cart before the horse, but in Zade’s case, we have have put The Dog Sled, before the Dog…But, we regress…Let’s step inside, and get back to the Turkey Bowl Football Game XXXI…Before we leave our focus on the Game Performances, let make sure to get things all cleared up, and make sure I get the Zade Dog Bowl Award annonced for the player from the winning team…
Team Trogdon, led Justin Trogdon won this game today, and the final score was 4-3, with Team Trogdon taking Turkey Bowl XXXI, and the Zade Dog Bowl Award for the top player from Team Trogdon, goes to the team leader, Justin Trogdon…He is a previous winner, and one of his sons has shared the award, and their neighbor Nathan Hill also won the award in a previous year, and you can tell, that this game means the World to the Trogdon Family, and we are Happy and Blessed to have them(plus Nathan Hill) with us every year…The older Trogdon brother couldn’t make it this year, because was up in a tree, deer hunting on this Thanksgiving Day…I would not want to be the deer that young man is pursuing, because that “Wild Man” always hits and gets his target…
So we had the 4-3 win by Team Trogdon over Team Roche…It was a great day…At daybreak, things did not look good for this game…Rain and wet grounds, all over town…But by gametime at 10am, were were all charged up and ready to fly….And speaking about flying, one of the family people, that were playing on the other side of the WG Middle School football field, was really shocked to see something today, that I guess they had not ever seen before…
The lady with her little kids, on the other end of the field, started yelling, and though she was not screaming or was she in fear, she was yelling loud, as she seemed to be shocked, and this is what I heard her saying…
“Look up in the Sky, it’s a Bird, It’s a Plane”, and then the ladies husband was heard to reply, “NO it’s a DOG”….A dog??? A dog up in the sky, and that is why I might just call this the pie in the sky…It was not Superman flying over the Western Guilford Middle School…It WAS a DOG…It was Zade, and that family on the other end of the field, was calling and referring to Zade, as SuperDog…But, I ran down there and told them no, this IS Zade, but he is UnderDog….
That dog is making quite the name for himself around these parts…
And in our game Justin Trogdon was out-shining/slinging Justin Herbert, and Grayson Holland was throwing passes like Glenn Holland, who is the brother of former Pittsburgh Pirate Al Holland, and Glenn played both football(QB) and baseball for the N.C. A&T Aggies…Bryant Roche(Valdosta State) looking like Dez Bryant in this game and maybe like a shot of John Roche too…Enad Haddad going for it like Dave Casper, Kellen Winslow, John Mackey, Tony Gonzalez, Rich McGeorge(Elon and Green Bay Pakers) and others…Kevin Colvin hitting/running those pass patterns like Lynn Swann, Big John Stallworth, Franco Harris and Rocky Blier…The younger Trogdon(Bryce) and Nathan Hill reminding us of Mark Duper and Mark Clayton, the Marx/Marks Brothers, from the old Miami Dolphins teams…And I will take on the persona of John Riggins today…Riggo, the one-time great for the NY Jets, and then later on, for the Washington Redskins…
We love this game, and I hope we can still be doing it in 2035…Today, we all walked off the field under our power, and since we left out of there, Safe and Sound, that is a real Good Thing…Everybody caught some passes, and we all got a chance to show what’s left of our stuff…But, there could only be Two Zade Dog Bowl winners from today’s Tukery Bowl XXXI/31….
Justin Trogdon and Bryant Roche took home those honors today, and they might just end up in Zade II’s DogHouse, if they don’t share these Bowl Honors with their families…..
Sure did miss a few of our regulars that could not be there today, and we were without Doug Brown(Coaches Decision), Joey Kirkman(On leave with another team, on a different planet), Eric Davidson(Coaching Football at Thanskgiving Day practice, at Mallard Creek High School), Scott Holland(Looking for Jeff Wicker’s car on the side of the road), Ron Davidson(Home on the Range, and warming up the Stove for Thanksgiving Turkey) Wild Man Trogdon(Drinking Deer Park water, and up in a Tree Stand looking to tackle another Deer), the New York Bunch(Got caught up in the Pomp and Circmstance of the Macy’s Day Parade), and Doug Cockman(Went to a Turkey Farm and ended up bringing home a chicken)….
(Also should drop in Rob Shelton, who has had some health issues recently, and we hope he is on the way, back up the ladder.)
That just about does it for this year and again another “Tip of the Cap”, for the group that showed up today, for without them, there would be NO Turkey Bowl XXXI/Turkey Bowl 31…
Kevin Colvin
Enad Haddad
Grayson Holland
Bryant Roche
Justin Trogdon
Bryce Trogdon
Nathan Hill
Yours Truly…The senior writer for GreensboroSports.com, where you can find exclusive and historical coverage of The Turkey Bowls….
Team photo is on the way….AD
Also makes me think Nathn Hill was Calvin Hill(with both Cowboys and Redskins) and Taysom Hill(Saints)…Also Tony “Thrill” Hill with the Dallas Cowboys…