February 4th! National Signing Day!

February 4th is quickly approaching and you all know what that means! Marshall will officially sign his Letter of Intent to play football at the University of Oklahoma!!!

LaCrosse High School will be holding a small ceremony in honor of the big event. All are welcome to attend!

Here's the info:

LaCrosse High School
Wednesday, February 4th
12:45 PM

Also, Leopards Jeremy Garcia and Lucas Ruff will be signing with Hutchinson Community College. What an honor for LaCrosse to be signing three amazing athletes in one year. Congratulations to each of you!

Don't worry, The Football Freelancer will not disappoint and an update will be made the night of the signing: pictures and a full account of the day's events included.

Shriners in LaCrosse

February 17th the Shriners will be in LaCrosse to honor Marshall for being chosen as a member of the 2009 West Team. This will take place between the varsity girls and varsity boys games.

Shrine Bowl

Marshall was informed this week that he had been chosen for 2009 Shrine Bowl West Team!
This year's Shrine Bowl will take place in Wichita at Cessna Stadium on July 25th.
Congratulations to Marshall on this honor!

As of now, he is unsure if he'll be able to accept his invitation to compete in the Shrine Bowl, since he'll be in Oklahoma as of the first week of June. I'll keep you posted!

For a complete roster of the 2009 Shrine Bowl follow the link: http://www.kansas.com/266/story/652510.html

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!