The Write Team Podcast

The Elysian Fields Yellow Jackets are back in the win column! And there's no better time to build momentum than the week of the annual rivalry showdown with the Waskom Wildcats. On this week's Coach Maines Show, host David Weaver visits with Elysian Fields Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Bo Maines following the Jackets' thrilling 29-27 Homecoming victory over Ore City. It was a game fill...

THE CHATHAM RAIL DISASTER | October 27, 1854 Baptiste Creek, Canada West In the early morning hours of October 27, 1854, a passenger express train traveled through thick fog near Chatham in what is now Ontario, Canada. Its passengers included German immigrants hoping to begin new lives in America. But the train was running hours behind schedule, and a deadly misunderstanding awaited them on the tr...

College football's wild 2026 season just delivered another weekend of upsets, controversy, and postseason uncertainty. The Big 12 race has been turned upside down, Texas is back in the College Football Playoff conversation, and Baylor is searching for its next head coach. On this week's college football edition of From The Press Box, David Weaver and Matt Paul break down the biggest stories in the...

😾🏈 THREE TEAMS. TWO PLAYOFF SPOTS. THIS IS GOING DOWN TO THE WIRE! The Hallsville Bobcats venture to Whitehouse this week to face the Wildcats in a massive District 6-5A showdown with playoff implications. At stake? With just two games left in the 2026 regular season, the Bobcats (4-4, 3-2) and Wildcats (4-4, 3-2) are tied with Mt. Pleasant for the two final playoff spots in the district. Simple...

THE GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL | October 26, 1881 Tombstone, Arizona Territory On October 26, 1881, four men walked down Fremont Street in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, toward a confrontation that would become the most famous gunfight in the history of the American West. In today's headline story on The Write Team Daily, we explore the real people behind the legend, the bitter rivalry between the...

THE FINAL FLIGHT | October 25, 1999 Mina, South Dakota On October 25, 1999, a private Learjet carrying reigning U.S. Open golf champion Payne Stewart and five others departed Orlando, Florida, bound for Dallas. It should have been a routine business trip. Instead, the aircraft became a silent mystery in the skies over America, continuing for hours without communication from anyone aboard. In today...

TERROR ALONG THE BELTWAY | October 24, 2002 Frederick County, Maryland In the early morning hours of October 24, 2002, police surrounded a dark blue Chevrolet Caprice parked at a highway rest area near Myersville, Maryland. Inside were two sleeping suspects whose names had become central to one of the largest manhunts in American history: John Allen Muhammad and 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo. Their a...

The Battlin' Buckaroo Band is making some noise again in Southwest Arkansas—and not just under the Friday night lights! On this episode of School House Rocks, host David Weaver welcomes Justin Burns, Director of Bands for Smackover-Norphlet School District, to discuss the program's recent success, its remarkable progress, and the work underway to build a stronger future for music education across...

On October 23, 1935, two gunmen entered the Palace Chop House in Newark, New Jersey, and opened fire on one of America's most notorious gangsters and three of his closest associates. Within days, Dutch Schultz, Abe Landau, Otto Berman, and Bernard “Lulu” Rosenkrantz were dead. In today's episode of The Write Team Daily, we revisit the rise and fall of Dutch Schultz, the criminal underworld's decis...

🏐😾 UNDEFEATED. UNBEATEN IN SETS. AND READY FOR THE PLAYOFFS! Eleven district matches. Eleven victories. Not a single set lost. The Hallsville Lady Cats have put together a remarkable district championship season, and head coach Andrew Harbison joins David Weaver on The Coach's Show to discuss what has made this team so successful — and what comes next. In his first season leading the Lady Cats,...

The passage reminds us that following Christ does not guarantee a life without hardship. Sometimes Jesus changes our circumstances. Other times, He sustains us through them. The message is simple: Our weakness is never greater than the power of Jesus Christ. 🎧 The Write Team Daily — Stories That Inform. Conversations That Matter. ✍️ The Write Team Podcast is a production of Write Team Services LL...

🏈 EAST TEXAS FOOTBALL WEEK 9 | HALLSVILLE-TEXAS HIGH, DISTRICT OF DOOM & PICK 'EM Three weeks remain in the 2026 Texas high school football regular season, and the playoff race is heating up across East Texas! On this week's From The Press Box, David Weaver and Matt Paul break down the biggest Week 9 matchups, review some surprising Week 8 results, and make their predictions in the season-lon...

On October 21, 1512, a 28-year-old German monk named Martin Luther joined the theological faculty at the University of Wittenberg. It was an ordinary academic appointment that would eventually help transform Christianity, challenge the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, and reshape the religious and political landscape of Europe. In today's headline story on The Write Team Daily, we revisit t...

🏐🐝 1,200 DIGS. NO. 1 IN HER CLASS. ONE REMARKABLE SENIOR SEASON! She's a four-year varsity starter, a two-year team captain, a district Defensive MVP, and one of East Texas' outstanding student-athletes. And she's just as impressive in the classroom. On this special edition of From The Press Box, David Weaver welcomes Elysian Fields Lady Jackets senior volleyball standout Taylor Youngblood and h...

🏈🐝 WORK. FIGHT. FINISH. BUILDING THE FUTURE AT ELYSIAN FIELDS! Winning doesn't happen overnight. And sometimes, the most important progress doesn't show up on the scoreboard. On this week's Coach Maines Show, Elysian Fields athletic director and head football coach Bo Maines joins David Weaver for a conversation about perseverance, accountability, and building a football program designed for lon...

THE BOY WHO POISONED HIS GRANDFATHER | October 20, 1847 Hackney, England On October 20, 1847, a 12-year-old boy named William Newton Allnutt placed arsenic into his family's sugar bowl in Hackney, England. His intended victim was his 74-year-old grandfather, Samuel Nelme. Five days later, Nelme was dead, and a disturbing family crime was about to become a major test of Victorian England's criminal...

🏈 Is anybody safe in the SEC? And can Texas save its season? College football delivered another weekend of chaos, and David Weaver and Matt Paul are joined by returning guest Andrew Paul to sort through the fallout on From The Press Box, part of The Write Team Podcast. Auburn shocks Georgia. Tennessee takes down Alabama. Florida leaves Austin with a win over Texas. And suddenly, the SEC champions...

😾🏈 THREE GAMES. ONE PLAYOFF PUSH. HALLSVILLE HEADS TO TEXAS HIGH! The Hallsville Bobcats are riding a two-game winning streak after defeating Nacogdoches, 21-8, and now find themselves tied for second place in District 6-5A with just three weeks remaining in the regular season. On this week's Coach Strickland Show, head coach Josh Strickland joins David Weaver to revisit the victory over Nacogdo...

THE BRITISH LAY DOWN THEIR WEAPONS | October 19, 1781 Yorktown, Virginia On October 19, 1781, thousands of British soldiers marched out of their defenses at Yorktown, Virginia, and laid down their weapons before the combined American and French armies. The surrender of British General Charles Cornwallis's forces marked the decisive military victory of the American Revolution and brought the thirte...

THE SACRIFICIAL RETURN | October 18, 1646 Ossernenon, Mohawk Valley, New York On October 18, 1646, French Jesuit missionary Isaac Jogues was killed in a Mohawk village in present-day New York. His death ended an extraordinary journey of faith, suffering, captivity, and sacrifice. What makes his story especially remarkable is that Jogues had already escaped the same region after enduring more than...

WASHED AWAY WITH THE ALE | October 17, 1814 London, England On October 17, 1814, an enormous wooden vat burst inside London's Horse Shoe Brewery, sending a devastating wave of porter beer into the surrounding streets. What sounds like an almost unbelievable historical curiosity was actually a deadly industrial disaster that claimed eight lives and destroyed homes in one of the city's poorest neigh...

58 HOURS TO SAVE THE BABY | October 16, 1987 Midland, Texas On October 16, 1987, millions of Americans watched as rescue workers finally brought 18-month-old Jessica McClure to safety after she spent more than two days trapped inside an abandoned water well in Midland, Texas. The dramatic rescue became one of the most memorable television news events of the decade and an extraordinary example of a...

🏈 OVERTIME THRILLERS, DISTRICT SHOWDOWNS & PLAYOFF PRESSURE! The Hallsville Bobcats and Marshall Mavericks delivered one of the most exciting games of the 2026 East Texas high school football season, with Hallsville escaping Maverick Stadium with a 34-27 overtime victory. But it wasn't over until the Bobcats stopped Marshall's fourth-down quarterback sneak just inches short! On this week's hi...

THE SPY, THE SCANDAL & THE FIRING SQUAD | October 15, 1917 Vincennes, France On October 15, 1917, the woman known throughout Europe as Mata Hari was executed by a French firing squad after being convicted of spying for Germany during World War I. Her death cemented her reputation as one of history's most notorious secret agents. But more than a century later, historians continue to question wh...

ELECTION DAY TURNS DEADLY | October 14, 1834 Moyamensing Township, Pennsylvania On October 14, 1834, an election in a township just outside Philadelphia erupted into a violent confrontation between supporters of President Andrew Jackson and members of the emerging Whig Party. What began as political intimidation near a polling place escalated into a deadly riot that left one person dead, several o...