WAKE UP! ON ETBLITZ | We actually RELEASED the nominees for player of the year? You BET we did; It’s a classic 80’s Saturday, too!
EDITOR’S NOTE: WAKE UP! It’s Saturday! What’s the MATTER with you?!! Well, I guess you could be a normal person, and sleep in a little bit on Saturdays. I do normally try to get to 8 a.m. on Saturdays. I never, ever achieve it, unless it’s in football season, when my head hits the pillow around 3 a.m. or so after getting ETBlitz’s Friday night football coverage done. And that won’t be long from now, by the way. Go by Cozy Coffee Station, chill out, grab something cold, or if you’re a hot coffee / hot beverage person, they can hook you up there, too. See what they’ve got that you’d like at their menu right here, right now: Home | Cozy Coffee Station, and then get there at their Gilmer location, at 755 Highway 271 North, or in Kilgore at 110 Midtown Plaza.
Something unprecedented
I was making the list of nominees to send to the panel for voting on the boys and girls Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Players of the Year for the 2024-25 school year, and I was thinking about a couple of things.
Number one, for years, I was part of an establishment that releases a player of the year at the end of a calendar year.
What sense does that make?
In regard to the school year, absolutely zero. A football season is in a SCHOOL YEAR. A basketball season, girls or boys, is in a SCHOOL YEAR. Soccer, baseball, cross country, track, wrestling-grizzly-bears-by-the-side-of-the-road-wearing-a-tutu season – they’re all in a SCHOOL YEAR.
ETBlitz.com operates by the school year, too.
So why in the world would we announce our boys and girls players of the year award-winners, or our team of the year award-winner at the end of the calendar year? What sense on God’s green earth would that make?
That’s why we (mostly me) decided we would be announcing the Goudarzi & Young, LLP / ETBlitz.com Team of the Year last weekend, and the Whataburger / ETB Players of the Year this weekend.
Tatum High School boys basketball, who won the UIL Class 3A, Division I state title, won the G&Y / ETB Team of the Year award (GOUDARZI & YOUNG / ETBLITZ TEAM OF THE YEAR | Tatum High School boys basketball!).
Who’ll take the Whataburger / ETB awards this weekend?
With our readership growing – we’ve had our three biggest months since December, after launching this site in October, 2023 – to be named the Whataburger / ETB Player of the Year, I think, is quite an honor. To be named the Whataburger ANYTHING is quite an honor. Whataburger does NOT put their name, that brand, on anything that they don’t trust. You feel me?
So back to my story.
I was putting together our list of nominees, getting statistics together, etc., when I realized something else: I had already decided we would tell you guys at least the top five boys vote-getters, and the top five girls vote-getters.
I thought about it, and I said, ‘Self,’ – I literally said, ‘Self,’ to myself, like that old comedy routine. And I continued. ‘Self, why don’t you just tell everybody AHEAD of time who the nominees will be? Just TELL them, just put it on ETBlitz.com.’
And Self said, ‘Well, that’s crazy. Then everybody will know who the nominees are.’
And I said, ‘Yeah, they will.’
And Self said, ‘Well, we can’t do that.’
And I said, ‘Just why can we NOT do that?’
And Self didn’t have an answer.
Here’s the answer: We do not have to live by the old newspaper code of, oh, don’t tell them this or that. We can do WHATEVER WE WANT TO DO HERE. This is not a newspaper, anyway. This is 2025. And if we want to tell you who the nominees are, by gosh, we will, and we did.
Here’s the link to the list of boys nominees for the Whataburger / ETB Player of the Year for the ’24-25 school year: YOU’RE GONNA DO WHAT?! | Nominees for boys Whataburger / ETB Player of the Year Award.
Now, does that open me up for criticism: Heck yeah.
But I’d rather be forthright, forthcoming with you guys, let you know what we do, than to make you feel like you’re being kept in the dark. And I hope you can respect that.
We don’t have a paywall, either. You can go anywhere on this site and read anything for FREE. And as long as I own this sucker, it’ll STAY that way.
Oh, by the way, this is important: the list of nominees for the girls Whataburger / ETB Player of the Year award will be released later today, and the winners of those two awards will be announced on Sunday simultaneously at 3 p.m.
Camp Central
Going to call your attention one more time to our youth sports camps round-up, which can be found here: CAMP CENTRAL, presented by ENERGY WELDFAB | Upcoming youth sports camps, updated June 12. Another round of camps will begin next week, in case you have any kids who’d like to get to them.
It’s Classic ‘80s Saturday!
It sure is. And we’re leaving out of here with Bryan Adams. Don’t dare not play this! This is one of his best songs, and he had a BUNCH of ‘em. “Cuts Like a Knife”!