S. Walker Year Quotations

Last year was huge for us. I think it has put a little pressure on this year's team. But that's all right. We had our first winning season last year and it was just a great year.

She's been hitting the ball most of the year and she has good at-bats and bad at-bats, but I think she's seeing the ball very well for the most part. Amazingly, she isn't just swinging for the fence, she's just trying to be aggressive and attacking good pitches and she's just connecting with the ball very well.

Baron went (to state) last year. As he said all year it'd be a lot more fun if he had people going with him. So put the pressure on him. He's got to qualify in the 100 and get some relays qualified with him also.

We told him a long time ago that the building had to be torn down and he'd get a minimum of three years' notice. He actually got an extra year out of it.

I said it is going to be a crazy year and there are a lot of football teams that could win this league. I don't think that's changed. A lot of people can win the Big Ten, including the team we're playing this week and including us. Maybe I'm nuts, but I believe it.

Pay issues can cost up to about $8 million a year and that would leave very little, if any, for incentive programs and educational programs. The mistake we made was on the benefits.

Last year I missed a free throw in a game against East. Just one, but we were down by two. So every single game now, I practice my free throws. I shot about 100 free throws this morning so just in case a situation like that came up in this game, I could knock them down.

It felt like the monkey is off my back. When I hit that ball, it was a great feeling. Coach Butler (hitting coach Todd Butler) told me, 'You can't go 0- for-the-rest-of-your-life.' I know that. I experienced it last year. I was 0 for awhile then finished the year strong.

I think you will find we will have to repay the debt and before the election next year a special rate will have been imposed.

We can plan what we'll change this year but it's done on a continual basis.

We have grown from a company that did $5 (million) to $7 million a year 18 years ago to one that now does in excess of $60 million a year.

We would have loved to move to the bigger arena, simply to accommodate hopefully more people so we don't have to turn anyone away at a high-profile game. The cost is just prohibitive. Based on the income that we've derived each year from ticket sales, it wouldn't be enough to cover the rent. It wouldn't even be close. . . . I thought (the estimate) might be somewhere where we could meet and negotiate, but it wasn't even in the ballpark.

The only statement we've made this year is it's anybody's state championship to win.

Some stocks are now reaching full value or becoming overpriced. We've seen the returns for the year already.

Russell is one of the most mature, thoughtful, giving teenagers I have ever met. In my 6 1/2 years here, nominating and selecting the individuals, he has to be the most outstanding youth of the year we have selected.

We are so proud of our Eagle Award winners and our championship teams. All of the GBA players worked extremely hard this year on their community service projects and on the court. We thank our sponsors for giving these kids a positive summer activity.

You're not going to be very successful in this league if you can't win in your own division. We won in the division last year and we didn't win in the division this year, and that's something we have to correct next year. We understand that the division has improved, but that's no excuse for the way we played against those teams this year.

I personally didn't overlook them, because we overlooked a game last year and we ended up losing. I don't think the rest of the team did because they understand that this is our last game to get to Peoria. I thought we came out and played hard.

If you can beat the Steelers, you know you've beaten the best. Year in and year out, they're the most physical team in football. They play the game the way it's meant to be played.

I'm glad we had a year of experience, so we could come back and show we could do it.

Hopefully everyone has the same mindset. Hopefully we can get this thing turned around. We're in the fourth year of this franchise, and we've got the best team we've had since we started. So I tell you, I feel good about our team and our season. And I feel good about playing this week and going up to Buffalo.

He threw better, but he's still trying to do too much. He needs to just let it go and let things happen like he did at the end of last year and he started to do a little bit of that (Wednesday).

As far as the standings go, this game didn't mean much. But it meant a lot to us, just to prove to ourselves and to everyone else that we could beat them. They beat us this year, last year and ended our season in the playoffs last year. So we were starting to wonder when we were going to catch a break against those guys. That's why this game is so big for us.

There were a couple of men in town who had extensive records, Roger Jarvais and Joe Penley. People would see a year was missing and send me newspaper clippings or some information.

I couldn't ask for more from our defense. They scored a couple more touchdowns, they forced them to kick and gave us the ball back. Fifty points looks bad and they got some yards, but we've been in that game all year and we were today.