Official Visit

The weekend of December 19th-20th Mom, Marshall, and I took Marshall's Official Visit to OU. We didn't get to do this during the season because the Leopards went so far into the playoffs and it just never worked out. But after going last weekend we were glad we waited. Marshall was able to see so much more this time than he would have had we gone earlier in the year. He spent lots of time with the Offensive Coordinator, andhis recruiting coach, Coach Wilson. Coach Wilson always takes great care of us while we're there! Marshall was also able to spend some time with the guys that play TE and FB on the team now, which gave him the opportunity to ask questions and get to know the system a little better.

Mom and I even got to sit in on 2 practices with Marshall and the team! It's amazing to watch the same guys everyone sees on TV practice right in front of you! We had a fantastic time.

Everyone we were with--coaches and players included--were outstanding. Everyone is so laid-back and ready to welcome Marshall with open arms.

Future #2??? Probably not, but it was fun to try on an official OU jersey. Marshall's thoughts on this: "It's tight..."


Marshall and I got to pose with Sam Bradford's Heisman trophy! Also, I think you can see the Big 12 trophy in the background of Marshall's picture.



Marshall stopped Sam Bradford, who was walking out of practice with Coach Venables, and asked him if he would take a picture with me! Obviously, he said yes....

PSH (continued)

The Hays Daily News chose Marshall as the Offensive Player of the Year for the area. He was also awarded a spot on the Hays Daily News Super 11 Team. He earned this recognition last year also, the only junior.

Here is the link, but it's not the whole article:http://www.hdnews.net/SportsStory/musilcapsule122008
This was featured in the Sunday, December 20th issue.

Marshall was also chosen by the Hutchinson Area News as one of their Top 11 players. Coach C was chosen as Hutchinson's Coach of the Year, an honor we are very proud of. Coach C is integral to the boys' success and deserves so much for all the time and energy he puts into the team. Congratulations to Coach C as Coach of the Year!

Post-Season Honors (continued)

Coaches' All-Class Top 11

Marshall was chosen as a unanimous choice for Top 11 in the state at RB. He was also chosen for Class 2-1A at RB, along with Leopard teammates Jeremy Garcia (QB) and Lucas Ruff (OL). Congratulations to the Leopards on their post-season honors!

This list is voted on by the high school coaches within the state of Kansas.

Here's the link to the list: http://www.vype.com/centralkansas/general/5504

Post-Season Honors

The Wichita Eagle Picture


Wichita Eagle All-State Top 11

Link the Wichita article: http://www.kansas.com/266/story/622733.html

This link is also to a Wichita article. It lists all the players from every team in the state that have ever made the Top 11 team for the Wichita Eagle. If you scroll all the way down to the teams that have had 3 players, that's where you'll find LaCrosse and Marshall's name. Wow!
http://www.kansas.com/266/story/622785.html

Wichita Eagle Class 2-1A Teams:
http://www.kansas.com/266/story/622784.html


Topeka Journal All-State Top 11

Link:


The Topeka Journal and the Wichita Eagle are two separate Top 11 teams and usually they have separate banquets, etc. This year they tried it a little differently. Both sets of Top 11 players, which only differed in the coach and one player, were invited to Emporia on December 2nd for a photo shoot with both newspapers, followed by a banquet in honor of the players. Mom, Marshall, Coach C, and I all made the journey to Emporia. Most of the other players chosen were from larger schools, so it was an interesting atmosphere!



Marshall, Jaydan, and Blake hanging out before the photo shoot.






Marshall, Jaydan Bird-Conway Springs (the other Kansas OU Commit), and Blake Bell-Bishop Carrol

Visit to Felton Middle School

Marshall with 3 of the students in Heather's classroom.


November 25th Heather Musil asked Marshall to be a part of her Incentive Program for her 6th graders at Felton Middle School in Hays, KS. She was hosting a raffle for the students who had earned tickets for good behavior. The students were then able to put their tickets in drawings for different prizes. The big prize this month was a football signed by Marshall Musil! So, the day of the giveaway Marshall and I went to FMS to surprise the 6th graders....and boy, were they excited!
As the students filed into the cafeteria there were constant whispers of "Hey, that's Marshall Musil" followed by pointed fingers. A few brave souls even held out their hands to give Marshall a high-five.


Marshall helped Heather give away all the items in the raffle--leaving the football for last. Marshall signed the football as the lucky winner watched--which is how Heather intended it. So cool!


After the football was given away and the program was over all the kids rushed to front wanting autographs from Marshall. The kids were just so excited to have Marshall there, you could tell their appreciation was genuine--which made the whole experience worth-while!

Guy's Weekend

The weekend of November 22nd Jerry and Chris accompanied Marshall to OU's last home game of the 2008 season--which just happened to be the OU vs. Texas Tech game!

The boys had a great time during their Guys Weekend and Marshall enjoyed showing Jerry and Chris all facilities at OU. They made it back to the plains of Kansas on Sunday, droopy-eyed, but glad they made the trip.

Marshall's only comment about the game was:
"It was LOUD!"


Getting these 3 to take a decent picture is almost worthless....





All 3 looking at the camera!

The End

I waited a long time to actually make this post, mainly because I never wanted this day to come. After defeating St. Francis, LaCrosse moved on to the Sectional round of playoffs, where they faced Smith Center. It was a match-up we'd dreamed about since Marshall's sophomore year--our last meeting with the powerhouse of 2A. Unfortunately, Marshall's senior year ended on a loss 32-14, Smith Center.


LaCrosse vs. Smith Center was the game of the State that week. In reality, it should have been the State Championship. But as it was, we had thousands of football fans in LaCrosse for the battle on the gridiron.

Grant Meech and Catch It Kansas did 2 spots on the game. The link is posted here:

http://catchitkansas.com/Global/category.asp?C=107685

The videos are titled: Streak Still Alive as Smith Center Beats LaCrosse
and Football Highlights Smith Center 32, LaCrosse 12

Enjoy these videos as the last high school highlights of Marshall's Leopard career.

Next update,
Guy's weekend and a trip to the OU/Texas Tech game!

You Want Me to Sign What??

The next round of playoffs put the Leopards on the road to St. Francis for the Regional Championship where they again pulled off a victory.


Again, after this game Marshall was approached for signatures. It was less surprising this time, but I was still in awe watching fans come up to him with pens and programs. My little brother…signing autographs! I guess sometimes we just don't realize how many people from across the state follow news of the Oklahoma signee from LaCrosse, KS.

Here’s one pictures I snapped—I was trying not to be too obvious. The boy in the green had his shirt signed and all the other young man had was his shoe!



Congratulations to the Leopards on this win and thanks to all the fans who drove hours to be there and support the boys!

May I Have Your Autograph, Please?

The Leopards 1st game of the playoffs featured Stanton County and LaCrosse at our home field. The Leopards prevailed as Bi-District Champs and advanced to the Regional round.



After the game a group of Stanton County fans (mainly young men) gathered around Marshall and asked for autographs. This was probably the most surreal experience any of us had encountered during this recruiting process. At first, Marshall was a bit baffled. He even told us afterward that he messed up his signature on one boy’s program and flipped it over to redo it. He’s definitely going to have to work on the “messy signature” thing.


It’s hard to describe the experience of watching your little brother give autographs during his senior year of high school football, but I hope it’s something we have to get used to as he continues his career!



This is little Leopard fan Mollie Jo. She loves her cousin Marshall and always wants pictures with him after the game. She's too cute not to show off!

Reminder

Just a small reminder as we all continue with Marshall on his amazing journey. I mainly created this blog to follow Marshall’s recruiting news. Of course, during football season that meant that sometimes the news of the Leopards overlapped with what I would consider “recruiting news.” It would be near impossible for me to keep a running tally of both. Although, if that were a real job (Meredith Musil—publicist for Marshall Musil) I would take it.

So, for those of you who were looking for more news on the football team, I’m sorry. My main purpose here is recruiting news. Enjoy!!

Catch It Kansas in LaCrosse for the District Championship!

Grant Meech with KWCH journeyed to LaCrosse again Thursday night for the District Championship battle against Meade. As always, Grant did a fantastic job and his footage was shown on the news that night.

If you're wondering LaCrosse prevailed against Meade 51-7 and will meet Stanton County on Tuesday for the first round of playoffs!

Here's the link to the video: http://catchitkansas.com/Global/category.asp?C=107685

If you have scroll through existing videos the title of the one you should be looking for is "LaCrosse Pounds Meade to Take District 13 Championship."




If you're wondering why I'm adding this to the recruiting blog it's because Grant always mentions Marshall as an Oklahoma commitment. Plus, the videos are awesome. Enjoy!






It was also Parent's Night Thursday. What a bittersweet moment for all of us, but we couldn't be more proud of Marshall. I think all three of us are going to miss Friday nights with the Leopards next season.

Goodland News

Thank you to Aunt Dawn and Uncle Stan in Goodland for putting together information on Marshall's recruiting and having the Goodland newspaper run a story! The article was great and we thank you very much for the time you spent.

Here's a photo of the article. There isn't a link to the article, but we have a copy of it that will eventually go in the scrapbook so hopefully everyone can see it then!

Sooners vs. Jayhawks

October 18th:
Oklahoma vs. KU in Norman. Our 2nd trip to OU on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and we were rewarded with an exciting battle between two Big 12 teams.
While the teams warmed up we hung out on the sidelines. I don't think that will ever get old. Too bad they won't let me do that when Marshall is actually playing.....I rather enjoy being so close to lots of big, muscular football players. At one point Marshall was standing next to a scout from the St. Louis Rams! It's still eye-opening to be in the presence of so many "big time" people. Not sure we'll ever get used to it.
When we finally made it to the section reserved for recruits we realized that no one was actually sitting in their assigned, ticketed seats. This posed a bit of a problem for us, since there was NOWHERE left to sit. At least together. We spent the first half spread out among the other recruits/commits and their families. Luckily, I got squished between a not-so-shy momma and a hick from hickville, so I felt right at home. Not so sure that Mom and Marsh were as lucky.
The second half was much better. We found each other and sat our butts down in three seats next to each other and didn't move the rest of the game. Go us.
After the game Marshall went to the locker room again with the other players and recruits/commits. This is probably one of the most valuable experiences he'll have while going on these trips because each time he's introduced to the players, especially the ones he'll be closest to next year, the more they remember his face with his name.

On a side note that has absolutely nothing to do with Marshall:

Matt Clapp is the current fullback for the Sooners. Essentially, he plays the position that Marshall will be learning and eventually taking over when Matt is gone. Well, I got to meet him after the game as he came out of the locker room. Fans usually line up to have memoraiblia signed by the players. I happened to be standing next to The Cook (or the man that feeds all the student athletes!) I guess I must have been a little vocal about my excitment to see Matt Clapp walking down the line, because Cook asked if I wanted Matt to sign something. I was like, "Uh...yeah!!!" So he called Matt over like they were the best of friends, which they probably are. If I were a big, bad football player my favorite person would probably be the person that fed me. Makes sense. Anyway, he signed my program and even let me take a picture with him (which you see below!) I told him about my brother and he totally knew who I was talking about. I love how I've taken to introducing myself as "Hi, I'm Meredith, Marshall Musil's sister!" But hey, whatever works....At least I wasn't just some random fan. I had some sort of connection! Very nice guy. So, like I said, nothing to do with Marshall, but a notable story nonetheless!

Wichita Family

October 17th found the Leopards in Maize for a showdown against Sedan. Since the game was in the Wichita area some of the Bieberle side of the family that doesn't normally get to see Marshall play was able to come! The game wasn't a nail-biter, but having a game in Wichita gave everyone a great excuse to see each other. Thanks to all our Wichita family for venturing out to support Leopard football!

The OU Atmosphere

Backtracking to September 27th:

Mom, Marshall, and I took our first trip to Norman to see an OU game! Since Marshall is officially a commit we get free tickets to the home games and our seats aren't too shabby either ;)
After being at one OU game I decided I can definitely get used to the whole college football atmosphere. We had an AMAZING time!
Before the game all of us got to stand on the sidelines and watch the team warm-up. We were very close to some very important athletes (one of which Mr. Marshall will be someday!) Then we were ushered into our front row seats to watch OU blow by TCU 35-10. Even though it wasn't a tough match-up it felt like a personal game for us, since we had also visited TCU in the summer. We sat behind the TCU bench and it was fun to see their head coach, Gary Patterson, and Marshall's recruiting coach, Coach Fuentz, on the sidelines.
Marsh even got to be in the locker room after the game! It was quite the eye-opening experience, I think....as girls, Mom and I were not allowed to be in the locker room full of sweaty, half-naked boys. Darn.

Here's a small (and I mean small....) sampling of the pictures I took on our adventure:

Catch It Kansas Comes to LaCrosse!

October 10th Grant Meech and the KWCH Crew visited LaCrosse again for the Leopard/Ness City Football Game. Grant spent most of the game on the sidelines with his camera gear getting great shots of the boys. Later, on the Catch It Kansas portion of the news, they ran some clips from our game!

Here's the link the the website: http://catchitkansas.com/Global/category.asp?C=107685

You might have to scroll through the videos to find the right one. The video you're looking for is titled "LaCrosse Leopards Whip Ness City"

More great coverage for the Leopards as they continue in their search for a State Title!

Faces in the Crowd

This summer Dad's best friend Kelly Johnson nominated Marshall for Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd section. The Faces in the Crowd highlights prestigious high school athletes who have proved themselves amazing people and competitors. Marshall was finally featured in this week's Faces in the Crowd section!!! Just think, our Marshall--in Sports Illustrated!!!! He's already had people here in LaCrosse ask him to sign their copies. So unreal....

Here's the link to the Sports Illustrated Faces in the Crowd online: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/scorecard/faces/2008/09/22/
If you click on the red you'll be able to view a short video also. Very cool!!




Or you can go out and buy your own copy and hope for a Musil signature when you see him next! The edition with Marshall has Babe Ruth on the front and states in white letters across the front "It's Gone!"

TV Star

September 9th proved to be very exciting as well. The Monday after the first football game KWCH's Grant Meech shows up at the LaCrosse practice to interview Marshall and take some footage of the boys in their element. Marshall called mom to let her know this was going to happen and nosy Mom showed up to watch the interview process. Good thing she did! The next thing she knows the camera guy and Grant are in our house in LaCrosse interviewing Mom and taking footage of Marshall's scholarship letters! The news story ran on the KWCH news that same week!

Here's the link to the story: http://catchitkansas.com/Global/story.asp?s=8981803
When you get the article, click the blue lettering in the top left corner by the video camera. That will bring up the video! Enjoy!

Man or Machine?

In the Hays Daily News Football Preview that comes out the day before football season starts (Sept. 4th) Marshall was again featured in a full-page color picture with the heading: Man or Machine?
There was also another awesome profile shot of him by the article and, of course, the article itself. I have a link here to the article, but without the pictures it's just not the same! It was breathtaking to open the paper that day and see my brother, full page, full body, in color, and know that everybody in the area was going to see it too! It brought tears to mom's eyes. I saw it at work for the first time, and jumped up and down suppressing screams of joy while my co-worker (and best friend) stared at me like I'd gone crazy, but it was ok. It was very exciting!! I hope you all get to see it in its entirety someday!

Here's the link to the actual article: http://www.hdnews.net/Story/lacrosse083008w.hdnews.net/Story/lacrosse083008





Ok, so now that my cousin Julie is following my blog I read some of hers and found that she had taken pictures of this article and posted them! So I saved the images and I'm going to post them here too.....in a sense I'm stealing. I hope you're not mad Julie!
Cool, huh?

Kansas Pregame

The next things I'm going to post might eventually end up out of order, but I'll do my best. If I had started this blog way back when I should have, this wouldn't be a problem--but bear with me! I'll do the best I can to get you what you need!

For the last 3 years the state of Kansas has put out the Kansas Pregame Magazine at the beginning of the football season. This magazine focuses on the outlook for the upcoming season for the 254 high school teams covered and most of the college teams. There are little capsules that highlight each high school team, but at the beginning of the magazine there are two or three articles on certain players in the state. Marshall was one of the few chosen this year! He had his very own article at the beginning of the Pregame magazine this year. It was very exciting! I looked online for a link, but there isn't one.
Here's a picture of what the front of the magazine looks like! That's the best I can do for now! This came out before football season, I think the last week in August!

Spring '08

Since I don't really know who will all read this yet, I'll start at the beginning of our recruitment journey. I'm sure many of you are at differnet stages in what you actually know about what's been going on. And I'm not going to go into too much detail, because who really wants to hear it from me anyway? Marshall is the real authority on these stories! Plus Tina and I have started and are working on a Recruiting Scrapbook that will follow us around so hopefully all of you will get to see that someday as well.
So here goes:
Last spring we started visting colleges. Let's just say when we started we were a little inexperienced about how the whole “getting recruited by D-1 colleges” thing is supposed to work. Well, we learned fast.

The first visit Marsh and Mom took was to Tulsa at the end of March. Unfortunately, I was in a wedding that day and missed the visit so there are no pictures and none of my amazing firsthand account information to share. You’ll have to contact the other 2 members of my family for information on this visit. All I gathered from it was that Tulsa University is a private college so everything they have is fancy and new, of course. But mom did enjoy the coaches.

The second visit we took (which I was actually at!) was to a spring practice at KU (on my birthday!!) We arrived at the field and they had to let us in the locked gates—I guess practice is top-secret at KU or something, but we felt pretty special. There was only one other boy there wandering around with his dad, so we definitely stuck out like a sore thumb. We had probably only been there 15-20 minutes when Coach Mangino approached us, shock our hands, and personally offered Marshall his first D-1 full-ride scholarship. This moment was one that all three of us will probably never forget. The rest of the day we spent touring the facilities, meeting tons of coaches and players, and just getting acquainted with KU in general. Marshall’s recruiting coach, Coach Blaney, was so friendly and answered all our questions. All-in-all the day turned into more than any of us had ever hoped for. We went home with a D-1 player in the back of the tahoe. Crazy.

Next we traveled to K-State for a quick in-and-out visit. We were there on a Friday, but we had to hurry because Marsh had a track meet in St. John that afternoon and then after the track meet we drove to Olathe because we were headed to Columbia the next day…..it was a LONG 24 hours…

Anyway, K-State was interesting. I think they had already offered (don’t quote me on that) so we were just meeting more coaches and players and seeing more facilities. The best part of this visit was meeting Coach Prince and visiting with him in his office. What an intelligent man!

Mizzou was next. We attended Junior Day there which included a Spring Game (even though it was probably 30 degrees…Ok not that cold, but still cold..) and meeting more people. The coaching staff there was SO amazing. Marshall had the best time with his recruiting coach, Coach Hill and the LB coach, Coach Steck--such fun people that were excited about Marshall. It always filled me with pride to see college coaches gushing over my brother. Of course I knew he was amazing, but I’m a little biased, being the big sister and all....

Camps started next. We did camps at Mizzou, TCU, KU, and of course: OU!

The OU visit and camp all happened in one outing to Norman, and what an experience that was. OU is a place you just have to experience for yourself, and hopefully many of you will get that chance in the upcoming years! To see Marshall compete with 400 hundred other athletes at such a prestigious camp was breathtaking. We met Bob Stoops more than once over our stay there, and got to know Marshall’s recruiting coach, Coach Wilson, quite well. Getting offered by Oklahoma, in Coach Stoops’ office, by Coach Stoops himself = WOW!! I can’t explain it any better. By this time too Marshall had gotten to know some of the other boys being recruited by these schools and had made friends with them. It was cool to see the friendships and connections happening.

Oh, we visited TCU too! TCU is in Fort Worth so we were able to see some Texas family and Dad’s best friend, and our good friends the Johnson’s were able to come with us! It was an amazing day. Not just because Marshall rocked at the camp, but because we got to spend time with some amazing people that we don’t get to see near enough.

June 19^th! Marshall officially committed to OU!

Welcome!

Welcome to the busy lives of the Musil's! So many new and exciting things have been happening for our family, mainly for Marshall, lately that I decided to start blogging about it to keep everyone informed! I hope this helps. It's so hard to keep everyone in the loop all the time. This way, you guys can check back here frequently and I'll keep it up to date when something new happens! It's a great theory, we'll see how it works.