Everything was set for an epic rivalry clash between the Wimberley Texans and the Fredericksburg Battlin Billies.
Texan Stadium was packed to the brim with both sides filled up with their respective fan bases.
It was sure to be a great game under the Friday Night Lights.
But no one came out to the field.
By the time 7:30 had hit, neither team had shown their faces and the football field remained football-less.
Something had gone seriously wrong.
The culprit? “We just didn’t have officials show up,” Head Football Coach Doug Warren said. “We tried to get them (officials) out here, but most of them were scheduled that night. That’s what we tried first and it didn’t work out.”
As the miscommunication bungled everybody’s plans, both schools worked in tandem to figure out the next plan of action.
After failing to nab another official crew after their original group did not show, everyone started to think of ideas.
Then perhaps one of the most unconventional ideas was hatched.
Breakout volunteer of
ficials.
Though it was certainly unorthodox, the plan was set in motion to have both sides of Wimberley and Fredericksburg come together to form a referee crew.
“We are able to grab a couple of guys from Fredericksburg and a couple of guys from Wimberley that know football,” Warren said. “Some were retired coaches who were willing to do it so that was going to be our plan moving forward.”
With the makeshift crew decked out in gray Wimberley football shirts, shorts, and whistles, the game was scheduled back on.
Until the UIL came around.
“We called in the UIL,” Warren said. “Unfortunately to play a varsity football game, you need the use of sanctioned officials through the UIL and TASO. Since our volunteers were not sanctioned by TASO, the UIL said no.”
Now back at square one, both teams look to advance themselves.
The only move now was to play a rare Saturday morning game against Fredericksburg, “It was not an ideal situation,” Warren said. “But sometimes you have to deal with situations like these that throw a curveball at you. This was definitely one of them.”
Playing in a rare Saturday morning game, Wimberley finally squared off with Fredericksburg after an eventful evening. Despite trailing the Billies 14-10, it was Cody Stoever finding Chase Carson for a 38 yard touchdown pass to put the Texans over Fredericksburg 17-14 late in the quarter deep their undefeated strike The Fredericksburg defense stood strong allowing only 222 yards of total offense from the Texans. Stoever led the team in rushing with 82 yards on the ground and one touchdown as well as his 141 yards passing with one touchdown. Gage Tumlinson added one field goal from 21 yards out.
Wimberley improves to 4-0 overall.
Up next for the Texans is a road trip to Lampasas as Wimberley battles the Badgers.
