If ever a community needed to win a high school football game, Somerset did.
If ever a family needed a win, it was the Detmer family.
It happened Friday, October 2, 2020, when Chase Denton took a screen pass from Koal Detmer and barreled 12 yards to the end zone with 36 seconds left to give Somerset a 30-26 victory at Tuloso-Midway’s Warrior Stadium.
The Somerset football season has been battle just to get practice started, nevermind play games. The coronavirus measures left the Bulldogs in a bewildering limbo of mixed messages.
During the summer, Bexar County had ordered that schools limit themselves to online learning, which in turn suspended extracurricular activities such as football.
Then, the UIL, which administers extracurricular activities for public schools in Texas, staggered the starting schedules of its divisions. The four divisions with the smallest enrollments would begin in August as scheduled. The two divisions with the largest enrollments, 6A and 5A, would wait one month.
For most of the high schools in San Antonio, there was no conflict. For a handful, including Somerset, a 4A school, there was a problem. The county was saying to stay cautious and wait to start. The UIL was saying full speed ahead.
Somerset’s competitors, all of them outside of Bexar County and few of them facing conflicting signals, started up their activities. The Bulldogs were being left behind.
When the Texas Education Agency announced that the counties had no authority to suspend school activities and their mandates should be treated only as recommendations. Somerset ISD realized they had to look to themselves for a decision.
By the time they could begin their football season, several of their competitors had already played two games. Their first three originally scheduled games were canceled. Games against Sealy and Tuloso-Midway were added. It would have been a challenging situation under the best of circumstances.
As many of you know, even absent the pandemic and its related complications, Somerset was not facing the best of circumstances.
The Bulldogs’ legendary coach, Sonny Detmer, had been battling illnesses for almost a year. He missed part of the 2019 season due to pneumonia, and was sick at the start of the 2020 season. Rick Molina worked as the acting head coach while a town held its breath.
Then, two games into the improvised season, on Tuesday, September 22nd, Sonny Detmer passed away at age 76. The following day, strength coach Marvin Allen also died.
The Detmer tragedy was felt throughout football, where his innovations in the passing game were admired to the point that they overshadowed Detmer’s versatility and willingness to adapt his offense to the players on hand. The tragedy was felt in the Somerset community, where his legendary status was disguised by his kindly ability to make new acquaintances like fellow church members, or a buddy from bowling night.
Of course, the loss was felt most acutely by the Detmer family. Which brings us the subject of Koal Detmer.
After coaching Somerset in the 1970s, Sonny coached his son Ty at Southwest High School in San Antonio. He then coached his son Koy at Mission High School. After retiring for a while, he returned to Somerset, inspired by the opportunity to coach his grandsons. He started with Steven Dorman, then continued with Koy Detmer, Jr, and Zadock Dinkelmann. In 2019, he was coaching Koal Detmer, Koy Sr’s younger son, when he became ill in the middle of the season.
Now, Koal has lost the opportunity his brother and cousins had – to play football for his grandfather.
It becomes even more unfortunate when you consider that when Koy Jr was the quarterback at Somerset, not only was Sonny his head coach, but his father Koy Sr was his offensive coordinator.
In 2020, Koy Sr is in his fourth season as the head coach at Mission, following his father’s legacy. With Sonny’s passing, now Koal will be able to play for neither his grandfather nor his father this season.
Of course, this is no one’s fault. Each survivor of Sonny feels their own loss. At the same time, any younger family member can relate to Koal. So many watch older siblings form relationships with a cherished family member, then see a death cut short their own bond with that person.
Again, it’s nobody’s fault. Koal lost out on time with his grandfather due to an accident of birth order. It has happened many times before, and will happen again. But we can all feel for Koal.
On the gridiron, Koal was showing signs of improvement. In early games, Koal’s completion percentage suffered not because of accuracy problems, but because his less experienced teammates were having trouble separating from defenders. When Koal threw a pass the defender couldn’t catch, his teammate sometimes had trouble catching it too.
But when the 0-3 Somerset Bulldogs went to Tuloso-Midway, in the west Corpus Christi area, the offense started to click. Somerset, who had scored 19 points all season, pulled out to 14-0 lead. The first touchdown was a 4th-and-18 conversation of 35 yard bomb from Detmer to Jacob Alcorta. The second was another bomb, this one a 31 yard pass to Christian Salinas on 3rd and 4.
Tuloso-Midway does have their own story. Since opening in 1948, they’ve only made the playoffs three times. Head Coach Wade Miller has steadily improved the team, though, and at 3-1, they went into the game with a chance to match last season’s four wins.
One of T-M’s best players, Christian Benavides, could not play; he was on the sideline wearing his jersey, but not his shoulder pads or helmet. Despite that, Tuloso-Midway closed the gap with a 60-yard touchdown run by Tyler Marquez and a 25 yard TD pass from Juan Moreno to Sebastian Paiz. Both conversations failed, so Somerset held the lead, but only at 14-12.
During the third quarter, Somerset added to their lead with an 18 yard TD pass from Detmer to Tyler Denton; the extra point was blocked, so Somerset lead 20-12.
T-M responded with an 11-play, 6:21 drive. An inadvertent whistle controversially cut one play short, but the Warriors still finished with a one-yard TD run by Moreno to pull within 20-18 with 6:11 left. (The two point conversion attempt failed.)
Detmer led the Bulldogs on a drive that consumed 4:22 of the remaining time, completing three passes and mixing in runs by Alcorta and Steven Menchaca. Somerset settled for a 23 yard field goal from Justin Valenzuela, and led 23-18 with 1:49 left.
The Warriors did not quit. Jaidan Jasso, who’d excelled in the kick return game all night, returned the ensuing kickoff 90 yard for a touchdown. Marquez ran for the two-point conversion, and Tuloso-Midway had the lead for the first time at 26-23.
But there was 1:34 left in the game. One could help wondering if Tuloso-Midway had left Somerset too much time.
Starting from their own 29, Somerset advanced with a 28 yard completion to Tyler Denton, a T-M pass interference penalty, and a 22 yard reception by Alcorta. Somerset overcame a penalty and four incompletions along the way, and found themselves facing a 3rd and 10 at the T-M 12.
Chase Denton, at 6’1 and 245, had served as a blocking back throughout the game. He hadn’t touched the ball all night. But at this critical juncture, Koal threw Chase a screen pass, and Denton rumbled toward the end zone.
The ball came loose and appeared to be live. From the press box, it was impossible to tell if Denton recovered the fumble. The signal in the end zone, Touchdown Somerset, said what matter – a Somerset player recovered the ball with 36 seconds left. Valenzuela’s extra point made in Somerset 30, Tuloso-Midway 26.
For the record, the report to mysantonio.com credited Chase Denton with the winning touchdown reception.
Koal Detmer, leading a team dispirited by losses on the field by over 100 points and losses of the field impossible to measure, completed 15 of 24 passes for 271 yards and 4 touchdowns. He was not sacked and never turned the ball over. He completed his touchdown passes to four different receivers in the process of leading the comeback victory.
That night, a Somerset community aching for good news had cause to rejoice.
And many of us believe somewhere, invisibility, a legendary football coach was looking on, smiling and beaming with pride in his grandson.
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