KILGORE’S WILLIAMS, PT’S CHADWICK | Whataburger / ETB Players of the Week for Sept. 8-13!
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Players of the Week are normally announced on Monday. We simply got behind this week. These are the award-winners for last week, Sept. 8-13.
There is a panel, an odd-numbered panel of the ETBlitz.com staff, that chooses the players of the week each week.
There are ALWAYS kids for both the girls and the boys awards that are deserving – far more times than not, there are too many who are deserving, and we have to pick only one boy and one girl. It’s often not easy.
This time, choosing last week’s award-winners wasn’t all that hard.
The Whataburger / ETBlitz Players of the Week for the week of Sept. 8-13: Kilgore running back Rayshaun Williams and Carly Chadwick of Pine Tree volleyball!
And here’s the thing: Carly and the Lady Pirates actually lost on Friday night, but her performance was so fantastic, she’s getting the award – and the T-shirt. Whataburger / ETB award-winners receive a gift package from the World’s Greatest Restaurant, and a special player of the week shirt from ETBlitz.
Let’s get to it.
The whole week last week, the build-up to Kilgore hosting Gilmer in football couldn’t be avoided. The Bulldogs and Buckeyes normally do play each year, and the last two years, the games couldn’t have been closer: 24-23 in 2023, a last-second field goal by Leo Yzaguirre, and then last year’s rematch in which Isaiah Watters appeared to go down in plenty of time for Kilgore to have another play from inside Gilmer’s 10-yard-line – but the clock ran out, and the Buckeyes won, 24-22, at home.
They say elephants never forget. Apparently, bulldogs have that same trait.
Williams and his teammates made sure this year’s rubber match was not even close: Kilgore led 38-0 (!!) at halftime, and won, 66-6.
Several Bulldogs had big games, but Williams really shined: he finished with 181 yards rushing and three rushing touchdowns, and then had a 70-yard kick return for a score.
And by the way: Williams is a JUNIOR. So Kilgore will get him back next year.
Now, to Miss Chadwick.
Pine Tree had won three of its last four before playing to a five-set marathon at home against Gilmer last week.
On Tuesday night, PT beat Kilgore in Kilgore in four sets: 25-19, 21-25, 25-21, 25-20. In that win, Chadwick had four kills, 30 assists, 18 digs and eight aces.
And on Friday, in that 25-15, 18-25, 25-18, 18-25, 10-15 loss at home to the Lady Buckeyes.
Chadwick had 10 kills, 22 assists, seven digs and three aces, giving her for the week: 14 kills, 52 assists, 25 digs and 11 aces.
Congratulations to Rayshaun and to Carly for being last week’s players of the week, and here are a few other performances of note:
Girls
- White Oak’s Andee Bridges had 12 kills, six aces and 10 digs in a 19-25, 17-25, 17-25 loss to Bullard last Tuesday, and had 18 kills, five aces, and three digs in a 25-7, 25-17, 25-23 sweep of Sabine on Friday.
- Kaysen Foster of Tatum had 26 kills and 16 digs in a 25-15, 25-15, 25-20 sweep of West Rusk on Friday, and just before that, six kills and 14 digs in a 25-15, 25-9, 25-14 sweep of Gladewater.
Boys
- Pine Tree quarterback Colton Croft went 13-of-21 for 242 yards and four touchdown passes in a homecoming win over Dallas Carter.
- White Oak’s Tysen McClain had a ridiculous 202 yards and four touchdowns on five catches in the Roughnecks’ road win at Quitman.
- West Rusk’s Hunter McCandless had 17 tackles, one for loss, and a forced fumble in the Raiders’ nail-biting 15-14 win at Gladewater last Thursday.
When you want a win – and you want great food – don’t ever settle for second place.
And if you go anywhere other than Whataburger to get a great burger, fries, or even a great spicy chicken sandwich, you’re not a top dog. You’re barking up the wrong tree.
Whataburger has been doing burgers (and tons more) better than anyone else for 75 years.
They have fantastic menu items for all three meals, snacks if you want them (what’s better than a Whataburger apple pie?!) and if you use their app on your smartphone, you can build up points for free items.
They serve breakfast beginning every night at 11 p.m., through 11 a.m., and they can do that because they’re open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and probably not far away from you if you’re in East Texas.
Check out their locations, and their menu, right here: Whataburger | Order Online with Curbside and Delivery. And go by now, for a limited time, and enjoy the bacon Wrangler double (see a commercial below, if you want to get hungry).
Thanks to Whataburger for being one of the very first advertising partners of ETBlitz when we launched this site two years ago.
Thanks to all our ad partners, in fact, and congratulations to both Carly Chadwick of Pine Tree, and to Kilgore’s Rayshaun Williams, for being the Whataburger / ETBlitz Players of the Week for Sept. 8-13!