Last of the 2009 Football

C Milton Wright Mustangs end the 2009 football season with their final regular-season meeting with the Joppatowne Mariners.  It's been a rebuilding year.  Some signs of hope, some disappointment.  Looking forward to basketball season, should be much warmer and drier.

Mustangs Spoil Cougar Homecoming

Nobody was sure what to expect after the previous week's stunning upset at the hands of the Havre de Grace Warriors.   The C Milton Wright Mustang Varsity Football team showed no signs of uncertainty however, spoiling the Fallston Cougar homecoming game with a dominating 42-7 performance.

Mustang Football drops game three to visiting Kent Island

Oops, kinda spilt the beans right there in the headline.  I missed the game, so there's not much I can add.  Chris was out on account of injury, but he was also sick.  The team went up 13-0, and took a 13-9 lead into the 4th quarter, but couldn't hold on.  Kent Island rolled up three touchdowns in the quarter to end the game 29-13.  Don't quote me on the score, I wasn't there.  No word yet on when Chris will return to football.

Mustang Football hosts Delmar Game 2

9/11/09, C Milton Wright Varsity football defeats Delmar at home 16-7.  Chris is still out with shoulder injury.  Nasty wet game, but still have pictures.  Not good pictures, granted, but hey, I made the effort.

CMW Mustangs host Linganore for Game 1

Chris is out, still healing a separated shoulder.  Pics:

CM Wright Football Kicks off with Rising Sun Scrimmage

OK, saying the season has kicked off may be a bit of a stretch.  This was the season's first officiated live contact play against an opposing team, but there were no kick offs.  Also limited penalties and turnovers in a highly structured pre-season event.  I believe we outscored the Tigers, (either 3 touchdowns to 2 or maybe 2 to 2), but the focus was clearly on execution of the plays with a modest nod to the down and distance.  The first "half" didn't even have down and distance, just equal time on each side of the ball.

Chris handled long snapping and played one drive at center, which culminated in a touchdown.

Just a few pics:

CMW Football Conclusion

In the spirit of catching up, I post the CMW Mustang Varsity Football finale pics with limited commentary:

Well, here ends the season. It was taped for local cable broadcast. I saw it, but while it was interesting to see the game all over again, past the novelty it was just tough to watch.

All in all, a good season. Chris got a lot of playing time for a CMW Sophomore playing Varsity. New coach, a couple quality wins, a lot of growing. I hear that next year starts with Linganore at CMW.

Next few ball games

I'm a little behind putting up photos of the recent football games. I have been working on a site at http://robert.bupp.net based on WordPress. I don't know if I'll like it better than this site, which is based on Blogger.

I haven't posted how the Fallston game went. If you believe what you read in the papers, CMWright Mustangs weren't supposed to have a chance in this game. While it's true that the Mustangs lost the game, it's also true that with 4 minutes to go in the game, the Mustangs scored a touchdown, and if the next kickoff was a recovered on-sides kick, they would have been driving for the win. Well, instead of a successful on-sides kick, the Mustangs kicked deep, leaving the ball skidding around the three yard line. Which looked like a pretty good situation, except that the Fallston player finally scooped it up and ran 97 yards for a touchdown. That finally put the game out of reach. Up to that point, the opportunity was still there for another Mustang win.



Next, the Mustangs traveled to Elkton for their homegaming game. This game had the Mustangs up by 10 with six minutes to go in the game. Rising Sun then drove for a fairly quick TD. The CM Wright next offensive possession stalled, and they punted. The Rising Sun Golden Elks then drove systematically, using almost all of the clock, capping the drive with a go-ahead TD.



Sure wish I had a couple of pictures of things I saw in this game. Well I had a couple of pictures, some of them are above, but two things I'd want you to see. First, Chris long snaps for punts, and I have taken to geting pictures of the snap, to show Chris the quality of the snaps. But on punts, he also is the first lineman to release, and as is frequently the case, Chris was the first man down on coverage when Rising Sun number 5 first thought he'd let the ball be, then decided he'd be better to field it on a hop. Number 5 fielded the ball cleanly, and Chris stuck him. Really nice hit and tackle. Want to see the picture? I missed that one.

I also missed getting a picture of this one. CMW threating to score, a running play driving a mass of players toward the end zone. Somewhere (in my opinion, AFTER forward progress was stopped), the ball was ripped loose, and appeared in the hands of the defense with the Rising Sun starting running back carrying it in open field tearing down the sideline. Some CMW Mustangs gave chase, including a guard who closed on the runner and at about the 20 yard line was close to being able to make the tackle, except that another Rising Sun player was also there as a blocker. So the Mustang player, unable to get to the runner directly threw the blocker into the runner, effecting the tackle. And the picture for that one? I'd like to see it too...

In both games, Chris contributed on special teams, hence the photos of the punts...

A Great Underdog Weekend, a Great Win for CMW

Oregon State drops #1 USC.  Michigan drops Wisconsin in the Big House (GO BLUE!).  Washington Redskins drop Dallas in Dallas.  And the CMW Mustangs Varsity football gets its first win of the season at home against Rising Sun on, of all things, a 27 yard field goal on third and two with 15 seconds in the game.





Go underdogs!

Chris made his contributions on special teams, including snapping for the game-winning field goal.

Mustang Game 3 at Havre de Grace

Chris started Game 2 due to an injury on the line. The player he stepped in for was healthy here at Game 3, so Chris was (unofficially) second on the depth chart at offensive tackle (either tackle I think), third at either offensive guard, and second at center. So if everyone plays well and stays healthy on the offensive line, Chris may see no action (save special teams work, including long snapping). We knew this going in. I have no insights into any injury situation, but Chris got in as center for the second half.

The team sported new away uniforms.  There were a few snags here also. While they look right from the stands, we're told that the color is more of a sea green than a Mustang powder blue.  You have to be close to know.  I hear rumor that they will restitch the numbers with the correct color.  Looks good to me.  Also, a few players are wearing different numbers than you would expect.  Notably for this post, Chris wears #59 this game, where he has been wearing #60 in the earlier games.  What number next?  I'll keep you posted...

The team as a whole seemed to play better, although it was ultimately a losing effort. We missed several opportunities for interceptions, and suffered a few blown plays on important downs. Still, you get the impression that the team is continuing to gel. A few pictures of the game.

Fallston Rec Football

We had the opportunity to take in a Fallston rec football game at Hereford. A bit of a drive, sure, but the weather was wonderful, and it was a great day to be at a ball game. If you have to ask why I would go to a Fallston Rec football game at Hereford, then you won't be interested in the pictures:

Mustang Football, Game 2 New Town

** Chris Bupp moves up the offensive depth chart to Starting Right Tackle **

A MUCH more competitive game 2 for the C Milton Wright Varsity football team, losing to New Town 12-6 on a 75 yard touchdown run with only 30 seconds left in regulation.



A remarkably warm Saturday afternoon game featured a Mustang team that was not yet hitting on all cylinders, or in their stride, depending on which Mustang analogy you prefer. It's early in this shake-up season, and the team still shows occasional confusion, and has not yet revealed any particular variety or breadth in the offensive, defensive, or special teams packages. But you get the sense that the team is starting to find itself, and as they do, the talent will start to shine through.

Chris started and played all game at offensive Right Tackle.  You don't exactly rack up statistics at that position, so I can only offer my opinion, which is that he had a very good game both run blocking and pass blocking.  The passing game generally enjoyed ample time to make the throws and had no sacks (unofficially).  The running game was basic, but effective.

The game goes in the loss column, there's no way around it, and whining won't help.  Still, there was at least one  officiating gaff (I would argue two) that directly affected the outcome of the game.  Most notably and obvious, occurred with time running out in a tie game and New Town deep in their own territory:  a short pass out into the flat was caught but the receiver was met quickly by a Mustang defender who jarred the ball loose.  Another defender picked up the ball and with no opponent in view ran unimpeded into the end zone.  (Sorry I missed the detail on the two Mustang defenders involved...)  I was standing about 10 yards from the play with an unimpeded view, as I was taking pictures from the sidelines.  As our defender cruised for the end zone, the official blew the play dead and signaled incomplete pass.  In my opinion, this was an incorrect call (and a call that shouldn't have been difficult to get right), and this officiating error stopped us from going up 12-6 or 13-6.  Would we have had such a poor call made in a home game?  Well, that's life.  A good game that came up a bit short, still a good game to build on.  Next week, Havre de Grace, Friday Night under lights.

CM Wright Varsity Football Game 1 Linganore

Game one for the Mustangs took them to the temporary home of the Linganore Lancers.  It also laid to rest any question about whether or not Chris was officially on the Varsity squad.  Ultimately, Linganore plays in a a higher-level program than the Mustangs enjoy.  Both the JV and Varsity squads lost 46-0, but it may be more telling of the mismatch that the score at the close of the first quarter of the Varsity game was 39-0.

Christopher's contribution was limited to punt squad and some miscellaneous fourth-quarter plays.  It was not an evening that inspired a lot of photography. Still, a few pictures:

A Quick Change of Seasons

In the blink of an eye, Corinne left Hershey Park Ice Breakers for Shenandoah; auditioned, and was given a role in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, a main stage play at Shenandoah. Yay Corinne!!!

Thursday, September 18, 2008 -through- Sunday, September 21, 2008
The play “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” is presented at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday in the Ohrstrom-Bryant Theatre. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for children. FREE for SU students and employees with I.D. Call the box office at 540/665-4569.

Football season started a few weeks ago, but we just hosted the 15U Maryland Elite Basketball end-of-season party. The party primarily featured volleyball and cheeseburgers.




Meanwhile, since the first scrimmage Chris has been practicing with the C. Milton Wright varsity football team. I am not privy to who made that decision and why, but C. Milton Wright is not a small school, enrolling 1746 in grades 9-12, and historically they don't make a habit of bringing Sophomores onto Varsity. Yay Chris!!!

And today we got confirmation that Laura is fully recovered, ahead of schedule and is doing very well. Yay Laura!!!

As a PS: Super Bowl Champ, 4-time NFL Pro-Bowler, Washington Redskin legend Joe Jacoby joins Shenandoah University Football Staff. No lie.

First Football Scrimmage

CMW High School JV and Varsity Mustangs traveled to Northwestern High for the first scrimmage of the year. Win or tie, it's hard to say for sure since it's a scrimmage format, but the JV squad performed well. It's a little tough to put together names and numbers, but Chris is 38. These are all practice jerseys, so there's no published list of who's who as the numbers will all be different for the game jerseys.

C Milton Wright High School Mustang Football

This is not the official or unofficial site for C Milton Wright Football, but if you got to this site looking for football information, let me help.

First, I will be updating this site with as much C Milton Wright JV football news/photos/stories as I can manage. It will very likely have a noticeable bias toward the Bupp contribution, but still should be worthwhile :). There won't ONLY be football posts on this site, so you may have to wade through the occasional posts related to other Bupp family members and doings. If this is too much to manage, you can shortcut to "just the football posts" by clicking the "Football Posts" link over the links section on the sidebar to the right: this is just the posts from this site related to football.

Now, if you really just wanted to get to the official C Milton Wright Football site, you want CMWFootball.org. Mad props to the Monroes for pulling this one off. If you like the site (and you will) and you appreciate the fact that the site exists at all, you might consider seeking out Mark Monroe and telling him so, it's more effort than you might think. He puts a great deal of effort into it, and gets nothing out of it. For my two cents, Mark, great job, thanks for taking it upon yourself to set up such a fine, useful, important site for the footballers at C Milton Wright.

On this site, there are a few other tidbits that may be interesting to the football gang: the running "countdown to kickoff" clock on the right sidebar, and the calendar of games at the very bottom of the page. Note that the calendar displays the current month, but you can advance to future months. It's as complete as I want it be, but not NEARLY as complete as the official data kept on CMWFootball.org.

I expect to post a lot of pictures. If you see something you like (such as a good photo of your kid) you can take it. It may not be obvious at first how to do it, but I'll put a link somewhere that describes how when I put up pictures from the first game/scrimmage.

Finally, if you have a site of interest to C Milton Wright Football, let me know and I will add a link to it from this site.

Looking forward to an interesting year of football. GO Mustangs!!

My Final Hershey Pics Summer 2008

This is my last Hershey trip before Corinne goes back to school. Weather forecast was for scattered thunderstorms throughout the morning, 70% chance; Thundershowers throughout the afternoon, 70% chance; Thundershowers in the evening, 80% chance. Not great odds, but we didn't have more than a sprinkle, and that didn't slow things down at all, let alone close any rides.

We caught up with Mom and Steph and Laurie and boys (T and J), who had been up for a three day trip. We brought along Andrew, a neighbor who has played travel basketball and football with Chris in recent years. Andrew did not go to C Milton Wright High School with Chris for their Freshman year, opting for John Carroll's superior baseball program. He will return to C Milton Wright High with Chris for their Sophomore year. Andrew would be a dominant force playing JV football with Chris, but will instead play a fall baseball league. We'll look forward to seeing him play for the high school in basketball season.



This is a very poor quality recording. It was recorded with a camera. Not a video camera, just a camera. There's not much to see, not much to hear. It was recorded to capture a defect in the audio system. It's there, but it's hard to tell because this is a poor quality recording. I just don't want you to think that either a) this is the best recording I can make, or b) this is how the group sounded. The group, if I haven't mentioned, is the Ice Breakers, performing at Hershey Park. They have an exceptional a capella mix and a wonderfully clean balance of tones. None of this comes through in the video. Oh well.

Just the audio: Hint: hit the power button to turn the player on :)

Pigskin Preview Promised

Time for a Pigskin Preview? Not yet, but offseason conditioning continues for the C. Milton Wright Mustangs. A JV and Varsity football schedule will appear on the calendar at the bottom of the page shortly, but for those who can't stand to miss a beat, check out http://www.cmwfootball.org/. It's a nice site chock full of information and pictures, but it's not my doing, so I don't want to hear that you don't like the "Danger Zone" background music :) .

The team has a new Head Coach and promises to turn around a somewhat lackluster Varsity program while continuing to improve the JV program as well. Already in a matter of months we have had fundraisers that have raised enough money to redo the weight room (considered by the incoming coach as an embarrassment for a school of this size and caliber) and have other evolutionary and revolutionary improvements to come. It should certainly be a very exciting year for the program.

At the end of July, C. Milton Wright Mustangs will attend a week-long Option Camp to learn the offense that will be installed this season. Two-a-days start mid August, and first scrimmages on Saturday August 23 versus Northwestern. The season opener (I believe) is Friday September 5 at Linganore (2003 and 2004 3A State Champs) with JV playing at 5pm and Varsity at 7pm.

JV Football doing well

Chris won the battle, but this game was the JV's only loss of the season so far. Today, they defeated Aberdeen on the frozen tundra 27-6. Unlike the previous game, I had a camera for this one, but it was too cold for me to take pictures. Where did fall ever go? Did we just go from summer to winter?



Chris has started at center since the third game. I love the picture, it's taken from the CMW web site. I'd give credit if I knew who took it. As you can see, unlike Rec League, high school is not height or weight restricted, and Chris sees some big boys at nose tackle.

Keep up the great work Chris!!

Chris Starts, Wins 14-7

I got word less than 24 hours before gametime that Chris would start as center. Fortunately, it was a home game and I was able to get off work in time to see the entire 3:30 ballgame.

The opponent Patterson Mill is the new school in the county, and they only have grades 9 and 10 this year. Chris knew quite a few of the PM players, including the QB Adam LeFleur (we knew when he was 7 years old that the kid was going places--mark the name) and another kid that played QB in rec ball Michael Karousos.

Patterson Mill scored on their second offensive play, getting off to a quick 7-0 lead. CMW worked hard, mostly pounding the running game with short gains to ultimately win 14-7. PM was at all times considered an imminent threat to score on a breakaway run or a long pass. It was a VERY exciting game to watch. Particularly exciting for those of us watching Chris!! [#50]

Good times!!

Chris says:

It was cool, and a good game. It was fun to get a lot of playing time again just like rec football. However the kids were much bigger but it was cool. We won in the 4th quarter so that was cool.

Poolesville Day

This year, Poolesville Day was mostly an excuse to catch up with Corinne. With a little more warning, we're thinking Chris and I might run the race next year. But it was a record setting celebration of the town, and we had a grand time while we were there.



This was Saturday Sept 8. Sunday the 9th we went to the Redskins game. Go Skins!

CMW JV Football goes 2-0

Chris pulls a fever of 103, but recovers enough to dress for the game. CMW defeats New Town 15-0. The game was scheduled for 4pm, but was late starting as we had to wait for the opponent to arrive. The decision was made to shorten the quarters, so that the varsity game that followed wouldn't be delayed.

Chris did all the long snapping (punts and extra points). First TD was folled by a successful extra point kick. The second TD was followed by what looked to be a successful kick, but a penalty was called for false start. The ball was backed up to the 8 yard line, and we lined up for a slightly longer kick, but we ran a fake, and had an excellent throw to a wide open receiver. Chris got a few plays on defense also, and on one play had penetration to the QB and was wrapping him up as the ball was being thrown. I came from work, and didn't have a camera with me.

CMW JV Football

Team [#50]:

Schedule available from
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Chris played Thursday and won. They were short one of the coaches, and unfortunately, it was the coach that rotated him in on defense. His only playing time was long snapping punts and PAT. So we can chalk up the victory to the team and hope to see Chris in action for the next game.