Jack Pardee, 1936-2013

» Daily Cougar: Legendary former coach dies at 76

Sad news for the day, but we knew the day was coming. It would probably be enough for me to look at Pardee’s track record at my alma mater and be proud enough to claim the Aggie as a sports hero. There were a number of great players developed by Pardee on the field around the time I went to school there. And while the team fared poorly after he left for the Oilers, there was still some great talent that he brought in. All good and well.

But what I remember most about Pardee’s time was the aftermath of the Jeff Alm suicide in 1993. By every account, that was a moment when Pardee’s character was needed most and by all the recollections that I have of the era, the players spoke highly of his handling at the time. That it came in the midst of a season with David Williams’ “Babygate” episode and the Ryan v Gilbride sideline boxing match during the same season should have been enough to phase most teams. But it’s hard to image many things that would phase Pardee. Texas lost a good one this week.

JerryWorld 2012: Belated Saturday Night Lights

Saturday went so well that I had a chance to get to the stadium before I even woke up … errr, collected my notes for the teams playing that day. So this’ll obviously serve as a recap for whoever spends their holiday free time reading blogs.

On the whole, the games this day were all entertaining from start to finish. I still get the most enjoyment from watching small schools play for a title, but the schools that look like a decent college program on the field didn’t disappoint this year. Each game had a lot to offer.

» Denton Guyer v Georgetown … I saw Guyer lose to Cibolo Steele last year. This time around, I had little idea what to expect from Georgetown, but their defense made for some great viewing early on. That was before 2014 UT commit Jerrod Heard blew things open. This was the only time I recall seeing a team change momentum in the game, still be behind by four points in the third quarter, but had a sense that the game was all but over because Guyer was beginning to get their offense in sync. UT could be scary whenever it’s Heard’s turn to be under center. Great two-way threat. The final was 48-37

DMN: Guyer QB Jerrod Heard accounts for 7 TDs; Wildcats erase 16-point deficit to win 4A-I title over Georgetown

» Katy v Cedar Hill … For me, it felt odd rooting for Katy since I’ve never been much of a fan of theirs. But they were definitely the favorite and the entire weekend was shaping up to be big for the extended Houston area with Navasota and East Bernard already winners. I’ll give Cedar Hill credit for proving me wrong to think that the real championship was played between Katy and Cibolo Steele the week before. The Tigers won their 7th title on more than the legwork of Adam Taylor, who should give some reason to take notice of Nebraska in the years ahead. Cedar Hill managed to put Katy in the rare position of trailing in the second half for a brief period of time. I think that speaks volumes for the quality of play Cedar Hill brought. In the end, it was 35-24 Katy and another trophy for the dynasty.

Chron: Katy runs through Cedar Hill for 5A Division II state title

» Houston Lamar v Allen … Pure underdog scenario for Lamar in this game. Yet they managed to acquit themselves nicely in front of 48,379 fans in the stadium (1,500 shy of the unofficial record set in 1977). In the end, the Allen buzzsaw won out 35-21 on the arm and legs of sophomore (read: 15 yr old) QB Kyler Murray.

As an indicator of how nuts high school football in Texas is, consider this …

FWIW, #Katy RB & #Huskers commit Adam Taylor was trending on Twitter. Not in Texas. Not nationally. Worldwide. es.pn/Tgzm5H

— Damon Sayles (@DamonSayles) December 23, 2012

Chron: Resilient Lamar sees title dream dashed by Allen

The DMN has some other choice nuggets from Day Three. I’ll definitely say that it was one of the better overall full days of football that I’ve seen in the three years I’ve done this marathon.

Next year’s tournament will not only have one extra game to fit in, but there’s a chance that it might take place in Houston. If nothing else, I truly hope they keep the single-site option for as long as I can keep up the habit of attending these. There’s not a better value for what you get to see and it’s well worth the vacation time. I just hope I get to see my alma mater back in a title game soon enough.

JerryWorld 2012: Friday Night Lights

The Dallas Morning News crew does a decent job of the one-stop overview of today’s games at JerryWorld. It seems to be a pattern that the smaller the schools, the more interesting the games based on my scan of the teams involved today. Today’s lineup offers a good contrast in school sizes as we get one game each from 2A, 3A, and 4A.

Yesterday’s 1A games definitely lived up to the billing and the handful of college recruited players on display showed they can own a game at the 1A level. Munday’s Dee Paul played injured. Stamford’s Hagen Hutchinson won the game MVP award for both offense and defense (announced as a first). The late game was more one-sided, with East Bernard leading Corsicana Mildred 28-0 at the half (which was my cue to leave). The final ended at 56-14 and was a good showcase opportunity for EB’s Troy Slanina (TCU) and Mildred’s Nic Shimonek (Iowa). Most of what I saw Shimonek do was run for his life in the backfield while Slanina ran a pretty disciplined old-school running offense.

I’m a few minutes away from heading out for Day 2 of some great football. And, again, I’ll be keeping tabs on twitter and facebook.

JerryWorld 2012: Thursday Night Lights

Below is my cheat sheet on today’s championship games on players to watch for. I’ll be tweeting at various points in the games and posting some pics on facebook as events amuse me. Feel free to check in if football means anything to you this weekend. I’ll likely update this as I get in more research right before the game.

1A-D2

» Munday Moguls
(averaging 58 points and 467 total yards per game)

QB/DB Dee Paul – headed to SMU. Rushed for over 2,000 yards as a junior. Paul is the AP Defensive Player of the year.
DL Lawrence Collier
RB Roddrick Taylor – rushed for 1497 yards and 25 TDs this season.

» Tenaha Tigers
(defeated Stamford 34-27 in regular season)

RB Chavis Gregory – Junior player who has 1465 rushing yards, 22 TDs this season.
LB DeAaron Roland

1A-D1

» Stamford Bulldogs

QB/FS Hagen Hutchinson – dual threat QB who played in last year’s championship game, throwing for 353 yards after being unable to throw due to an injury the week before. This season’s passing yardage is 2,153 with 33 TDs. On the ground, he gained 994 yards with 13 TDs. His dad is the head coach for Stamford. No scholarship info that I’ve run across, but there’s a report that he’s interested in Brigham Young.
LB Ty McLemore

» Mart Panthers
(coach’s name is Rusty Nail … seriously, how cool is that?)

QB NeNerian Thomas – only a sophomore.
WR/DB/K Quentin Bryant
LB Collin Nail – coach’s kid, won All-State honors last season as a Freshman.

2A-D2

» Corsicana Mildred

RB/DB Draylon Sterling
DB Jeremy Ballard
QB Nic Shimonek – Iowa commit, has over 2500 passing yards this season and 842 on the ground.

» East Bernard
QB/DB Ty Slanina – headed to TCU next season, where he’ll play slot receiver.
LB Trevor Long
DB Grant Aschenbeck

Return to JerryWorld

Later today, I’m off for what seems like a new annual tradition of catching the High School Football championship games in Arlington. Oh, and there are also parents to visit and catch up with for a portion of the holidays.

For the sportier option, here’s what’s on tap …

Thursday – December 20th
————————-
1A-D2 – 12pm – Munday vs Tenaha
1A-D1 – 4pm – Stamford vs Mart
2A-D2 – 8pm – Corsicana Mildred vs East Bernard

The small schools were the most fun to watch last year and I expect them to be as entertaining this year. If you’re any kind of football fan and you’re not up for the full marathon like me, I’d easily recommend the Thursday batch of games. The 1A-D2 game is a rematch of last year’s game won by Teneha. This year, Munday is the team returning a lot of seniors and possibly the favorite. Stamford is a repeat appearance from last year, when they lost to Mason. Along the way to last year’s appearance, however, Stamford beat Mart in the semi-final game. And the 2011 championship game was between these same two schools. So there should be plenty of familiarity and bad blood to go around. I have no idea what to expect this time, but I’ll be shocked if the 4pm game is a disappointment. I know absolutely nothing of the 2A-D2 schools and that’s my homework for the vacation.

Friday – December 21st
———————-
2A-D1 – 12pm – Daingerfield vs Cameron Yoe
3A-D2 – 4pm – Gilmer vs Navasoto
4A-D2 – 8pm – Lancaster vs Cedar Park

This will be the first chance I’ve had to see either of the 2A-D1 teams, but both have been mainstays of the top teams at that level in the past. Ditto for the 3A-D2 schools. I’m only vaguely familiar with the 4A-D2 schools, which takes some doing since I tend to at least have some familiarity with the better programs at that level. That entire field didn’t strike me as particularly strong once it was set. But a large part of that is due to a number of programs moving up to 5A and even a few notables moving down to 3A. One of those – Stephenville – won their 3A championship game last week. It’s definitely a new decade in 4A football. Hopefully, next year won’t see me lose out on free time for following Friday night action.

Saturday – December 22nd
————————
4A-D1 – 12pm – Denton Guyer vs Georgetown
5A-D2 – 4pm – Cedar Hill vs Katy
5A-D1 – 8pm – Allen vs Houston Lamar

This is just going to be a great day of football. Obviously, the Houston area is well represented here. I suspect that Lamar is a sacrificial lamb in the big game. Katy should be favored, but just as last week’s big game against former State Champs Cibolo Steele showed, the level of competition is enough to make the game interesting. Denter Guyer is a repeat appearance from last season and arrives this year after a shootout against Tyler John Tyler High. I’m a little disappointed that I don’t get to see the UH QB commit from Tyler, but I’ll live.

All in all, not a great deal of major rooting interests. Manvel lost a heartbreaker to a subpar team and Euless Trinity failed to make it through the buzzsaw of great Region 1 teams in their bracket. Finally seeing Gilmer in action is a bit of a treat.

It’s not lost on me that the folks at Reliant Stadium have purchased a new carpet to try and compete for these games in the years ahead. I’d obviously love to see that, but I’ll have to get a little creative about finding some time to trek back up to DFW for some family time.

Linkage …

» Chron: Story lines to follow at high school football title games
» DMN: What you need to know: UIL 5A, 4A, 2A state football championships
» KTXS: Stamford ready for bright lights of Jerry World this time around
» WF Times Record: Tenaha took its lumps early on
» WF Times Record: AP picks Paul as Defensive MVP in Class A
» Star-Telegram: Texas APSE Class 2A and 1A all-state football teams

What’s Left of High School Football Playoffs

Euless Trinity. Out. Manvel High. Out. I’m not sure that I have much of a rooting interest left in anyone for the remainder of the high school football playoffs. I’m starting to scope out what I might have to look forward to at the JerryWorld High School Football Woodstockapalooza later this month. For a day, though, I’m greiving the loss of the two schools I wanted to see play there.

That said, the games left in 5A-D1 to settle on half of the bracket are each marvels in scheduling. Allen vs Dallas Skyline and Southlake Carroll vs Desoto will only end up with one team in the championship game. With apologies to HISD’s Lamar High, I’d expect Galena Park’s North Shore to be on the other side of the field for that last game. Even if they manage to get upset, I think there’s going to be a good team from the DFW area crowned for this title. All along, this was a tough bracket for Euless Trinity to get to JerryWorld from in a year when they didn’t have as solid of an offense to go any deeper. My standard M.O. is to root against whoever’s playing against Southlake Carroll. And for the record, the only loss on SLC this season was at the hands of Allen High. If there’s a rematch of that game, I’m hunting down an internet radio feed. And rooting for Allen.

In 5A-D2, Katy is the 800-pound gorilla. They’ll likely face Cibolo Steele the week after next. That’s essentially a title game for all intents and purposes. I’d love to see that scheduled at Reliant, but it probably won’t happen. Austin Westlake is likely coming out of the other side of the bracket. That should make for another great title game, if it pans out that way.

The entire 4A field in both divisions strikes me as far more of an unknown this year. In large part, that’s because so many of the interesting teams in years past have either moved up to 5A (Manvel) or down to 3A (Stephenville, La Marque). Nederland pulled off a nice upset of Pearland Dawson at Reliant this weekend, so maybe they’re playing a hot hand. We’ll see who makes it to Arlington. Sometimes the games you know the least about end up being among the more entertaining.

The 3A fields will end up with championship games on two separate weekends. That means I’ll miss out on the D1 game, which is likely to have a better matchup. I’ll pick this as ending up with Carthage vs Stephenville. Two great football towns that will miss out on playing in front of 30-40,000 people. But they’re at least more proximate to Arlington, so they should travel well and maybe play in front of 10-12,000. Division 2 has a few solid programs still in the hunt. No chance of seeing La Marque play for a championship again, though.

For the smaller school brackets, it’s a study in contrasts. 2A has a lot of programs left playing that I’m not terribly studied up on. But both 1A brackets still have potential for a rematch of both games played last year. As much as I like to see new schools from time to time, I think I’d find a complete 1A rematch setup pretty interesting for once.

In memoriam, here’s the profile KHOU ran on Manvel High. I’m not ready to call it a jinx, but I’m not over the narrow loss they suffered Saturday, either.

In better news, there seems to be a fair chance of Baylor being offered an invite to the Meineke Bowl here in Houston. One of the other predictions out there seems to suggest West Virginia as a possibility, instead. Either way, I think Art Briles or Dana Holgorsen coming back to Houston for a game would be some fun football to watch.

2012 HS Weekly: Week One

Another week … and a turnaround of fortunes for Trinity High.

 1.  Dallas Skyline      Arlington Martin   W 37-34   2-0
 2.  Lake Travis         NB Canyon          W 49-7    2-0
 3.  Allen               Cedar Hill         W 37-20   2-0
 4.  Katy                Alief Taylor       W 23-9    2-0
 5.  Cibolo Steele       Converse Judson    W 42-35   2-0
 6.  DeSoto              Jenks (OK)         W 46-27   2-0
 7.  Southlake Carroll   Midland            W 63-3    1-1
 8.  Euless Trinity      Union (OK)         W 21-18   1-1
 9.  Manvel              North Shore        L 28-56   1-1
10.  Abilene             Duncanville        W 26-8    2-0
11.  Hewitt Midway       A&M Consolidated   W 34-27   2-0
12.  Arlington Martin    @ Dallas Skyline   L 34-37   0-2
13.  Pearland            @ FB Kempner       W 24-0    2-0
14.  Cedar Hill          @ Allen            L 20-37   1-1
15.  The Woodlands       FB Hightower       W 30-7    1-1
16.  Spring Dekaney      ## bye ##                    1-0
17.  GP North Shore      @ Manvel           W 56-28   2-0
18.  Longview            ## bye ##                    0-1
19.  SA Reagan           @ SA O'Connor      W 49-42   2-0
20.  Austin Westlake     @ Temple           L 42-49   1-1

The two Texas teams managed to hold court over Oklahoma during Saturday’s festivities at Pennington Field. I seem to recall that next year will have the same four teams, but with the interstate matchups flipped. The top-tier upset, however, involved the other team I’m pulling for this year – Manvel. Unfortunately, the defense coughed up 49 unanswered points. I guess North Shore’s back. There likely won’t be a ton of movement in the Top 10, but it’ll be curious to see how many first place votes Allen gets since they’ve managed to pour it on two good teams in their new stadium.

 1.  Tyler John Tyler   @ Lancaster         L 21-26   1-1
 2.  Aledo              @ Stephenville      L 28-41   1-1
 3.  Leander            @ Hendrickson       W 35-0    2-0
 4.  Pearland Dawson    Montgomery          W 28-7    1-0
 5.  CC Calallen        Weslaco East        W 21-7    2-0
 6.  Denton Guyer       @ C'ville Heritage  L 38-54   0-2
 7.  Cedar Park         Abilene Cooper      L 14-17   0-2
 8.  Highland Park      Monterrey Tech      W 34-23   1-1
 9.  Angleton           Brazoswood          W 69-28   2-0
10.  Kerrville Tivy     @ SA Madison        L 14-44   1-1

When we last checked, three of the top four teams in 4A lost in Week Zero. Now, the top two teams lose. I seriously have a hard time thinking of Leander as the best that 4A has to offer. Dawson & Callallen are a bit more believable.

 1.  La Marque              @ Texas City     W 34-21   2-0
 2.  Coldspring-Oakhurst    @ Navasota       L 8-36    1-1
 3.  Navasota               C'spring-O'hurst W 36-8    2-0
 4.  Wimberley              Giddings         L 26-31   1-1
 5.  Waco La Vega           @ Hutto          W 35-9    2-0
 6.  Carthage               Lindale          W 38-21   1-1
 7.  Stephenville           Aledo            W 41-28   1-1
 8.  Gilmer                 Prestonwood      L 12-42   1-1
 9.  Abiline Wylie          Bridgeport       W 42-0    2-0
10.  Argyle                 @ FW Nolan       W 28-7    1-1

So far, so good for La Marque. Gilmer’s loss seems a bit unexpected, but I can’t say I’ve spent enough time digging up info on this year’s team. Since only four of these teams are likely to make it to the championship games, I might need to rectify that soon.

2012 HS Weekly: Week Zero

Tis the season. And once more, I’m going to try my darndest to keep tabs on just enough football to skate by until the playoffs are upon us. Here’s what the first week of games looks like for the teams ranked by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.

 1.	Dallas Skyline       The Woodlands      W 42-28   1-0
 2.	Lake Travis          @ Converse Judson  W 47-13   1-0
 3.	Southlake Carroll    @ Allen            L 0-24    0-1
 4.	Katy                 Klein              W 48-7    1-0
 5.	Euless Trinity       @ Bellevue (WA)    L 24-31ot 0-1
 6.	Allen                Southlake Carroll  W 24-0    1-0
 7.	Cibolo Steele        @ SA Madison       W 41-21   1-0
 8.	DeSoto               @ Arlington Martin W 47-13   1-0
 9.	Longview             Coppell            L 8-41    0-1
10.	Arlington Martin     DeSoto             L 13-47   0-1
11.	Manvel               @ Spring           W 35-21   1-0
12.	The Woodlands        @ Dallas Skyline   L 28-42   0-1
13.	Hewitt Midway        @ Bryan            W 34-7    1-0
14.	Abilene              @ Hebron           W 13-10   1-0
15.	Pearland             @ Houston Madison  W 33-3    1-0
16.	Spring Dekaney       Strake Jesuit      W 41-0    1-0
17.	SA Madison           Cibolo Steele      L 21-41   0-1
18.	Cedar Hill           @ Denton Guyer     W 54-28   1-0
19.	Converse Judson      Lake Travis        L 13-47   0-1
20.	Mansfield            @ Arlington Bowie  L 43-59   0-1

I watched most of the Trinity-Bellevue game online. The Trojans definitely seem a bit thinner behind the lines than they have in years past. And this loss essentially came due to the starting QB getting his bell rung on a sack near the end of regulation, forcing the backup to come in for OT. Said backup then threw an INT that ended the game. Ah well. I didn’t expect Trinity to be 3-0 after a tough opening schedule. Hopefully, they can finish in the plus during non-district games.

Allen’s opening game in their new stadium was impressive. We’ll see next week whether they were really that good or if the adrenaline was carrying them over the defending champs. Either way, I’ll go out on a fairly sturdy limb and suggest that Region One could simply come down to an Allen vs Skyline game in the playoffs.

The other big game this week included an impressive 4th quarter comeback by Skyline against The Woodlands. Looks like those kids from Dallas are for real this season. For all my quibbles with DCTF’s rankings, I had no problem viewing Skyline as the best team going into this season vs the AP’s choice of Southlake Carroll.

And for all of the big-ticket games on tap for Week Zero, I find the Cedar Hill win over the #1 4A school to be pretty impressive among the down-ballot teams. It still feels like Region One isn’t quite the beast it’s been in the past. But there are still some beastly teams from Region One still capable of ending the season with a championship. I wouldn’t be shocked to see Cedar Hill ranked above Trinity next week with a win like the one they opened with and I still expect to see some great matchups in that bracket by the time the playoffs start.

Cibolo Steele is, once again, the only bright spot in San Antonio-area football. Expect them to be the only team from the region in the Top 20 next week. If any other SA-area school creeps back in, expect another tirade about how skewed the DCTF staff are in trying to keep each part of the state happy enough for magazine sales.

As for the Houston area, I could get real accustomed to Manvel showing as the second-best Houston school going into the playoffs. Let’s face it, nobody would rank Katy outside of the Top 5 unless they lost a third game.

 1.	Denton Guyer         Cedar Hill         L 28-54   0-1
 2.	Cedar Park           @ Westlake         L 7-21    0-1
 3.	Tyler John Tyler     Lufkin             W 35-21   1-0
 4.	Highland Park        Aledo              L 12-31   0-1
 5.	Pearland Dawson      --- bye ---
 6.	Leander              @ Connally         W 35-7    1-0
 7.	Wichita Falls Rider  @ Abilene Cooper   L 36-43   0-1
 8.	Aledo                Highland Park      W 31-12   1-0
 9.	CC Calallen          @ Mercedes         W 40-13   1-0
10.	Angleton             @ Montgomery       W 28-18   1-0

Tough opening week when three of the top 4 teams fall. Looks like the smart ones here were the Dawson High schedule-makers. Denton Guyer took a punch to the gut with their loss, but the program should be strong enough to rebound. I’d still rank them in the Top 5.

 1.	Stephenville         Monterrey Tech     L 17-27   0-1
 2.	La Marque            Galveston Ball     W 35-12   1-0
 3.	Carthage             Jacksonville       L 30-34   0-1
 4.	Coldspring-Oakhurst  @ CE King          W 21-13   1-0
 5.	Navasota             @ Willis           W 42-0    1-0
 6.	Argyle               Wylie              L 14-31   0-1
 7.	Wimberly             @ Llano            W 27-26   1-0
 8.	Henderson            Prestonwood        L 21-56   0-1
 9.	Waco La Vega         @ Palestine        W 24-23ot 1-0
10.	Celina               Melissa            L 13-18   0-1

The only thing more surprising than seeing two of the top three teams fall in the first week of play is seeing a Texas HS powerhouse program lose to Monterrey Tech. I remember hearing for years about how MT was supposed to be the Southlake or Katy of Mexico. But every result I’ve ever seen against top-tier talent made them look more like the Washington Generals of HS football. Beating a team like Stephenville is huge. I still say that 3A football in Texas may be one of the more exciting levels of play with the teams that have moved up and down from their division last season. The Carthage-Jacksonville and Celina-Melissa games are early indicators that there are some great matchups on the schedule. Here’s hoping that a few of them have an internet audio feed in the weeks ahead.

Prep Season Prep ’12

High school football is gearing up with the recent 7-on-7 tourney leading to some early rumor-milling about “Who’s hot that maybe we didn’t think was as hot as THIS, but ….” and so forth. Aside from my annual ritual of reviewing the latest issue of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, I’m feeling like this season is a bit different. At least in terms of the type of things I normally like to watch for.

For starters, my alma mater returns as few starters as I think they ever have (3 on each side). Normally, that’d be considered a “rebuilding” year. But when your old school is now considered an annual powerhouse, they simply “reload”. Except that, this season, there doesn’t appear to be a standout offense leading the way. It’ll all happen in the trenches, it seems. Three yards, two black eyes, a few hundred divots, and a cloud of dust. The historical pattern for similar teams of ours has been to start off very undisciplined, pile up a bunch of penalties in early games, smooth out the rough patches and get better in time for a deep run into the playoffs. Hopefully that last part happens … again.

But the district games against LD Bell and Colleyville Heritage might be a bit more interesting than in years past. And the non-district games look as tough as can possibly be: a Washington State powerhouse, an Oklahoma powerhouse, and a tough DeSoto team on 4 days rest. I’m not putting any money on an undefeated season.

Elsewhere, it looks like a much thinner year for Region 1 schools on offense. There’s still some talent: Southlake Carroll’s Kenny Hill was impressive in the championship game last season. But it just seems that there are fewer and fewer automatic D-1 offensive stars to point to this time. We’ll see how that pans out by season’s end.

Closer to home, the next two football seasons will be “All About the Klinglers” for me. Cory playing offensive line at Manvel, and Luke looking to get more time at QB at Cinco Ranch. Manvel moves up to 5A and is coming off a healthy showing at the 7-on-7 tourney in College Station. They’ll have a big district showdown with another quality Pearland team. If there’s one game I’d look to head to Pearland for, that’d be one. Lacking that, the news reports and social media updates will have to suffice. Here’s a small sampler of what’s out there …

» TX Monthly: The Negotiation

» Chron: For seniors, high school football season starts now

» YHN: Bellaire football passes the Trey, hoping to continue success

Among the games of interest for me …

8/30 – Euless Trinity vs Bellevue, WA (Memorial Stadium)
This’ll have to caught on TV or radio since its taking place in Washington State.

8/31 – St. Pius X vs Kincaid (Parsley Field)
I haven’t paid much attention to the small privates around town before. Aside from mocking the alumni friends from them, that is. But Kincaid is supposed to be pretty good with a decent QB. And SPX is worth a preview because …

9/6 – St. Pius X vs Sealy (Parsley Field)
Sealy’s QB is supposed to be damn good. And this is a nice chance to catch him in the Houston area.

9/8 – DeSoto vs Jenks, OK (Pennington Field)
9/8 – Euless Trinity vs Union, OK (Pennington Field)
Contemplating a trip up to DFW for this double-header.

9/13 – Euless Trinity vs DeSoto (Kincaide Stadium)
Should be interesting to see how well these two teams respond on short rest. Not sure that I’ll make it up for back-to-back games, but this one should say the most about how good Trinity is this season. Coaching trivia: The DeSoto coach left to take a gig at Univ. of Houston, but returned to DeSoto. Not sure what that says about DeSoto or UH. But it’s interesting, at least.

9/14 – Manvel vs Bellaire (Butler Stadium)
One and only chance to catch Manvel in the nearer-Houston area. I’ll be there for this one.

11/2 – Manvel vs Pearland (The Rig)
Ought to be a great game that tells the story of where Manvel is in terms of 5A rankings.

11/9 – St. Pius X vs St. Thomas (Granger Field)
Not sure that I’ll really want to see SPX three times a year unless they’re really impressive to watch. But since the HISD schools are really lacking in football sightseeing, this may be one of the few decent games to see late in the season.

Oklahoma Invades Euless

» FW Star-Telegram: Trinity to play Oklahoma football powerhouses

Already planning a trip to Euless in September …

Officials with the Hurst-Euless-Bedford and Carroll school districts said Friday they have joined forces to schedule some of the Lone Star state’s best football programs against Oklahoma’s elite for eight games over the next two seasons.

The yet-to-be-named slate of games consists of Southlake Carroll, Euless Trinity, Hurst L.D. Bell, DeSoto, Tulsa (Okla.) Union, Jenks (Okla.), Midland and Midland Lee.

….

On Sept. 8 at Pennington, DeSoto takes on Jenks, a 12-time Oklahoma 6A state champion, and Trinity will host four-time defending 6A champ Tulsa Union. Trinity and DeSoto switch Oklahoma opponents in 2013 and play at Dragon Stadium.

Back-to-back games with two of the best programs out of Oklahoma. A chance to watch a frequently great DeSoto program. And, the penultimate excuse … another opportunity to see the Trojans in a big game. Oh, and I’ve never actually been to a game at Pennington. Back in my day, Pennington was a much smaller facility between an apartment complex and Central Jr. High. Now it a 1987-era palace a few miles down the highway.

Interesting that these games aren’t part of the Herbstreit Classic at Cowboy Stadium. That’s usually a series that locks in a handful of the best DFW teams and with Trinity, DeSoto, and Carroll otherwise committed, what’s left to draw the crowds at Cowboy Stadium?

Championship Weekend Recap

Well, football season is officially done for the mass majority of Texans, as every last high school championship has been played. It certainly seems as if the real troopers for the weekend were the media people who had to cover all nine games at JerryWorld.

The final day was certainly the toughest, as Manvel lost to three-peat champs Aledo for the 4A-2 title. After seeing Aledo roll over La Marque last year, it was refreshing to see a real contest play out on the scoreboard this year. Especially due to the fact that Manvel has a good UH tie in Jimmy Klingler being the QB coach and his son Cory being a sophomore offensive lineman for the team. They had a pretty good ride this season, though.

I stuck around for the Southlake Carroll vs Hightower game and left that one disappointed as well. Great game by Hightower as SLC had to come back and win it in the fourth quarter.

The one bright spot for the Houston area was Spring Dekaney knocking off defending champs Cibolo Steele in the 5A-2 game. But even that one ended with a runaway cart running over the winning coach. Tough day for Houston-area football.

Seeing the 1A and 2A teams was definitely a plus for the trip this year. As odd as it may seem for a trek to a canyon of a stadium, seeing the smaller schools with a bit more legroom and no loss for enthusiasm by the travelling natives is a bit more enjoyable than packing yourself in with fellow sardines to see the schools that already get national publicity in some cases. Barring UH-connected or alma mater rooting interests, at least. Who knows. Maybe next time around, I’ll skip the 5A games if there’s no clear rooting interest that compels me to attend.

As things stand, we don’t know until this summer whether the JerryWorld routine for football championships will get a third year. In the meantime, national letter of intent day is in February. On that note, it seems that the biggest name in the state not committed anywhere is Euless Trinity LB, Brian Nance. Naturally, several major programs in the nation are offering a scholarship to the kid. I’m sure that I’ll see him on my TV during the occasional lazy Saturdays.

With that, vacation weekend draws to a close. If the UIL is going to do these games over three days in the future, I definitely need to add another day or two to the vacation schedule. I took Friday off from the games to accomodate. But instead of any spending any quality time with the parental units, I think I slept most of the day. So it pretty much still feels as if all I did was land in DFW and just start getting over to JerryWorld for games. Not a great deal got accomplished, but there was definitely some good football viewing along the way. The Kindle Fire did get something of a workout over this time. So I guess I’m due for a followup review now that I’ve spent some quality time with it over the past month.

Texas High School Football Championships: Friday

I opted to take one day off of the 9-pack of games being played at JerryWorld. My punishment was to miss what seems like a pretty exciting 2A-2 championship and Lake Travis winning their fifth straight championship. Good stuff, but I’ll survive. The day of rest and relaxation and more rest did the body some good. So here’s the linkage and nickel version of yesterday’s fun …

The lineup:
» 2A-2 – 12pm – Cisco vs Refugio
Refugio wins a nailbiter, 36-35. I’m nearly certain that some hearts skipped a beat when Refugio took a fourth quarter safety rather than punt out of their endzone, leaving it the defense to stop a potential game-winning field goal. And I thought Trinity’s Steve Lineweaver was known as the Riverboat Gambler.

» 3A-2 – 4pm – Argyle vs Wimberley
This one concludes 21-14 Wimberley. But it took a late one-handed INT by Wimberley to preserve the win.

» 4A-1 – 8pm – Hewitt Midway vs Lake Travis
I’m not aware of Pat Riley having a trademark on “five-peat”, but that’s a little bit of history that LT wrote for themselves after a 22-7 win. The only two oddities about this game were that it got as close as 10-7 despite LT seeming to have Midway’s offense in lockdown, and the DFW-area Fox Sports Network opted to air a freakin’ hockey game instead of this one. Unforgivable.

Texas High School Football Championships: Saturday

Big day today. Every one of these games has a player or two that’s worth taking note of for future Saturday and Sunday football viewing. As previously warned, I’m all about Manvel winning against the team that I’m sure all the so-called experts are wanting to see tear it up. Hey, I’m a Cougar … I’m used to being the underdog. Whatever. Play the game and we’ll sort it out at the end.

Here’s a quick snapshot with linkage to get going on the games. It looks like it should be wall-to-wall with great games. As was the case Thursday, I’ll be doing the tweeting and the facebooking during my time at the stadium. I suspect that a weekend-long recap is due after the last trophy has been handed out.

The lineup:
» 4A-2 – 12pm – Aledo vs Manvel
Aledo is a win away from their third title. Johnathan Gray has some national records within his sight after being named AP’s state and national player of the year. They’ll be the media darling, I’m sure. For what its worth, Manvel is probably the best matchup Aledo has had since some early-season matchups against Lake Travis and Stephenville. And for whatever more its worth, Aledo lost to both of them in the regular season while avenging their loss to Stephenville in a playoff matchup. Just sayin’.

» 5A-1 – 4pm – Southlake Carroll vs Fort Bend Hightower
This game is the inverse of the above for me. While Manvel is very much an affirmative rooting interest, Southlake Carroll is very much not. I’d root for whoever played them even if it meant cheering on the second-worst arch-rivals that Trinity High ever had. Still, it should be a great one to watch for future scouting. The battle of the quarterbacks should be big enough: SLC’s Kenny Hill and Hightower’s Bralon Addison have put up a combined 84 TDs between them.

» 5A-2 – 8pm – Spring Dekaney vs Cibolo Steele
Steele seems to have reloaded at running back after sending Malcolm Brown to Texas. Meanwhile Dekaney’s dual-threat QB Trey Williams seems to be another future college star to watch.

Texas High School Football Championships: Thursday

I’ll be doing the twitter thing for much of the game, with some pics probably landing on the personal facebook page. If time and interest warrant on my part, I may do some post-game takes here. So pick and choose where to follow/ignore as your interest warrants. I’ll be here for all three games today, soaking up my share of small-town culture and two-way football talent.

That said, here are the capsules.

The Lineup:
» 1A-1 – 12pm – Stamford Bulldogs vs Mason Punchers
Small towns equal proud towns when it comes time to send their schools to state. This will be the first experiment of having 1A and 2A schools play on the same stage as the big schools, so it should be interesting to see what the turnout looks like. The two teams will be bringing very different offenses to the game. I’m guessing that the upper levels of Cowboy Stadium might not fill up for these games, but it doesn’t sound like it’ll be due to a shortage of fun football here.

» 1A-2 – 4pm – Munday Moguls vs Tenaha Tigers
Teneha QB Reginald Davis sounds like the one to watch, but it certainly seems that there’s ample talent around him. It could be worth noting a number of names for kids who may be playing Saturdays at the next level. The Moguls, on the other hand, have a lot of talent that looks to be returning next year. I’m sure they don’t intend to be chum for the Tigers, but the game certainly seems to have a certain script pre-written for it.

» 2A-1 – 8pm – Hempstead Bobcats vs Melissa Cardinals
Hempstead is one of four schools representing the greater Houston area this weekend. And RB Archie Taylor is the feelgood storyline of the day, having battled a lymphoma diagnosis. Hope has a good game. There should be a whole lotta running by both teams in this game. One interesting prospect for Hempstead is All-State WR Trent Momon. Two things you need to know about him: (#1) he’s headed to A&M where I’m sure Kevin Sumlin will make good use of his (#2) 6’6 frame. Seriously looking forward to seeing how he’s utilized in the game. One negative I have to note for Melissa is that they ended Muleshoe’s season to get to this game. I really wanted to see the Mules, so I’m really hoping that Hempstead puts up a good showing today.

The Contested Outcomes of High School Football

You know Texas High School Football is pretty big in the state when lawsuits are threatened …

For the record, I can’t bring myself to even remotely show a preference for Southlake Carroll in anything. I’m also no fan of the rally fox. It’s tough enough on me knowing that UH QB (and likely starter next year) David Piland is a former Dragon. But the video looks fairly clear. So I’ll leave it to Fort Bend Hightower to end Carroll’s season.

Tomorrow’s a travel day. It can’t come soon enough.

The JerryWorld Lineup

I know that right about now, Bucky Richardson has nothing on TJ Yates and all that. Believe me, I’m on the bandwagon. But here’s the play that sent Manvel to State, with no time left on the clock and the score tied 28-28:

As luck would have it, I’m listening to the game online on the way to church Saturday afternoon, bargaining all the way with God that if Manvel pulls off a win, I’ll volunteer the entire following day if need be. As even more luck would have it, I was only needed for one additional Sunday service. By the time I was enjoying my post-church BBQ, the Texans were deep in the fourth quarter.

And with that, the JerryWorld lineup for this weekend is as follows …

Thursday:
1A-1 – 12pm – Stamford vs Mason
1A-2 – 4pm – Munday vs Tenaha
2A-1 – 8pm – Hempstead vs Melissa

There’s plenty to like about this lineup and seeing smaller schools hit the big stage is usually pretty interesting to see. Last year, the lineup started at 3A, so seeing some 1A teams line up at Cowboy Stadium isn’t something I’m inclined to miss out on.

Friday:
2A-2 – 12pm – Cisco vs Refugio
3A-2 – 4pm – Argyle vs Wimberley
4A-1 – 8pm – Hewitt Midway vs Lake Travis

Lake Travis is the only school on this list that I got to see last year. Refugio strikes me as worthwhile to see among the teams I haven’t seen before. But since the format expands from two days until three, I may have to think about cutting some or all of one day out of the mix. And as entertaining as Lake Travis’ offense is to see, this might be a good candidate.

Saturday:
4A-2 – 12pm – Aledo vs Manvel
5A-1 – 4pm – Southlake Carroll vs Fort Bend Hightower
5A-2 – 8pm – Spring Dekaney vs Cibolo Steele

Big day here. There’s an opportunity for the Houston area to come away with three championships. But I’m fairly certain that each will be an underdog this day. Aledo and Cibolo Steele make repeat performances from last year and Southlake Carroll is no stranger to playing at Cowboy Stadium. I’ve got the Klingler connection at Manvel to root for and family that went to Hightower. So it looks like the late game is the only neutral endeavor for me.

Now to find out if the Kindle Fire is able to make its way into the stadium. Last year was done entirely with my old G1 phone and battery management isn’t terribly fun for a nearly 12-hour outing. Dividing it over two devices holds a lot of promise.

What Rising Population Means to High School Football

» Chron: Dekaney, Dawson, Manvel find success in short order

Dekaney’s Willie Amendola is one of three coaches in the Houston area who has built a program from scratch in the last five years and is now playing in the state semifinals.

Dawson coach Eric Wells and his team will face Lake Travis at 8 p.m. Friday at the Alamodome in the 4A Division I semis, and Manvel coach Kirk Martin is taking his squad to play Calallen at noon Saturday at the Alamodome in the 4A Division II semifinals.

Adding a bit more context to this, last year’s 5A-2 championship game was between two schools that were pretty green. Denton Guyer made it to the game after starting up in 2004. Cibolo Steele won the championship last season and is in the semis this weekend after opening their doors in 2005 and starting varsity play in 2006.

Lewisville’s Hebron high school won a 4A-2 championship in 2005, the school’s 6th year of existence and 5th year of varsity play. Beaumont Westbrook holds the crown for fastest championship, though, winning the 1982 5A championship in its first year of play and existence.

You can judge for yourself whether Westbrook counts the same, though. Westbrook was essentially two schools consolidating into one, whereas the typical pattern of the more recent new schools is to be a genuinely new school with no dissolution of other schools. Denton ISD went through a rather tumultuous expansion period when they opened Guyer, with a transfer policy that’s credited for the boom, as well as the bust (and accompanying move to 4A ball) at the older Denton High School.

All this, of course, does not mean that an automatic path toward top-tier high school football is a population boom that leads to new schools being required. Certainly, a quickly growing population base doesn’t hurt – you get more kids to skim the cream of the crop from, your rosters are deeper, and replenishing talent is generally less of a concern. But there is more than one way for a school district to expand. Katy High School, for instance, hasn’t shown much letdown despite Katy ISD’s expansion over the past decade.

And newness itself isn’t the only path forward. Euless Trinity started up in 1968 and has had a pretty good run this past decade. I’m not even sure how old John Tyler High School is, but Earl Campbell won a Heisman after playing there and they’re in the semis this weekend. And one to chalk up however you see fit is Southlake Carroll, which opened up in 1961, but nobody ever heard of until the town underwent a population boom in the past decade-plus and started winning football games. Likewise, I’m sure that Aledo High School’s 1978 1A golf championship made a fraction of the news that their recent 4A football championships have made. But I’m pretty sure that nobody cared much until that side of Fort Worth started booming in adolescent high school kids.

I’m not going to say that population growth means more than good coaching. But obviously there’s something to say for a fast-growing area’s ability to put together a good football team. Allen High School is probably the poster child for this in the DFW area and Plano’s ascendance in the 1980s also had its roots in the population boom at the time.

Whether it makes a difference this year, or in a slower growth decade ahead, time’ll tell. I’m guessing that there are no MacArthur Foundation grants for exploring the correlation. Otherwise, I’d be all over that. So draw your own conclusions in the meantime. For starters, Cibolo Steele (2005) and Port Arthur Memorial (2002) play this Saturday at Reliant. Call it the Startup Bowl if you see fit.

Football Overload

All of the following will be going on or starting during what is supposed to be a very serene, contemplative, quiet time of trying to corral random media elements as part of the church AV squad. Its why this is the worst time of the world for me.

2:00pm – Euless Trinity (11-0) vs. Allen (11-0)
2:30pm – University of Houston (10-0) vs SMU (6-4)

and just for a little added emphasis, there’s this …

5:00pm – Dallas Skyline (11-0) vs. DeSoto (10-1)

I can’t not watch or pay attention to how at least the first two games are going during service. The 5pm game may not involve an alma mater. But, like the Trinity-Allen game, it may send the winner to State. And I’m planning the second annual pilgrimage to JerryWorld for some High School Championship games before Christmas. I hate to arrive in a stadium seat unprepared for what I’m about to see.

This will also be the initial test of some heavy-duty, emergency usage of my new Kindle Fire. So there’s that.

My gig at church usually starts around 3pm and service itself doesn’t get going until 5pm. I’ve been in this situation before and in no prior case, have important games such as these been something like 56-0 late into the game. If anything, I think the timing of all this is a strong indicator that something will go into overtime. Then again, my teams usually win when this scheduling conflict occurs.