Trying to figure out entertaining 13-5A provides hours of fun!

Now that Week 8’s broadcast is in the rearview mirror, it’s time to focus on next Friday’s game: Klein Oak at Westfield. It’s a District 13-5A contest that will have some important ramifications on the district race…especially if the Panthers can defeat Westfield.

Let’s look at the 13-5A schedule for this week and play a game of ‘What If’:

• Thursday: Klein Collins at Dekaney
• Friday: Tomball at Klein Forest
• Friday: Klein Oak at Westfield
• Saturday: Spring at Klein

What if…Collins defeats Dekaney, Klein defeats Spring, and Klein Oak defeats Westfield?

It would mean that Dekaney, Westfield, Klein and Klein all have 3-3 district records (behind and would be fighting it out in Week 10 for two remaining playoff spots. If Tomball were to pull off a second consecutive upset—over Klein Forest—that would also drop the Golden Eagles to 3-3 and create a five-way tie for three playoff spots!

What if Dekaney defeats Collins on Thursday night (and Klein Forest and Klein win)? The Klein Oak-Westfield matchup is still extremely important, because it would create a three-way tie for the fourth and final playoff seed in the district between Oak, Westfield and Klein.

What makes this game of ‘What If’ in District 13-5A so much fun is that it is not far-fetched to think that the teams at the bottom of the district, Tomball and Spring, could win either or both of their remaining games. What if Spring defeats Klein? What if Tomball beats Klein Forest?

And what if Klein Oak loses to Westfield?  They're done, as far as playoff hopes go, but can still play spoiler to Dekaney in Week 10, if Dekaney doesn't beat Collins this week.

On our Friday broadcast, Jeremy Branham asked Brett Mills and I which district we thought was the best this year. For my money, District 13-5A is easily the most entertaining district this season.  It's providing me hours of fun even now!

Finally, another interesting note is that Dekaney’s loss to Tomball may take a significant toll on their playoff hopes. Now, with games remaining against Klein Collins and Klein Oak, they will need to at least pick up one win to even have a hope to make the playoffs.

The 13-5A playoff picture will come into focus a little more clearly by the time we wrap it up at George Stadium next Friday night. The question is, will it look anything like we thought it would a couple of weeks ago?

State's rich tradition is what makes the 'greatest' debate so great

I had seen a poll and story some time back and, when the Trey Williams hysteria broke out a few weeks back, went back to look for it again. It took a couple of weeks, but I’ve found it. Years ago, TexasHSFootball.com posted a poll asking their forum members to vote for the greatest Texas high school running back of all time.

In response, one reader posted a Houston Chronicle story by Mickey Herskowitz, the prolific sportswriter, who made a case for one Kenneth Hall from Sugar Land High in the 1950s. The story intrigued me then—as it still does—because I didn’t really know anything about Hall until I read Herskowitz’s story. And it’s legendary stuff.

According to the record books, Hall rushed for 11,232 yards between 1950 and 1953. No other high school back had ever reached 10,000 when the story was written (a couple have since then, but still not surpassed Hall's totals). And he was apparently the quintessential 1950s All-American boy, too.

According to the story, he once “rushed for 520 yards, scored seven touchdowns and kicked seven extra points. Then, with the game in the second quarter, he came out.”

That’s a movie waiting to be made! In fact, Hall, who is by all accounts alive and well in Fredericksburg, has a nice MySpace page that, among other things, has some clips of a documentary he has commissioned. If you love the history of Texas high school sports, you have to visit the site.

Hall Stadium in the Fort Bend ISD is named after him. There’s an annual award given out to the U.S. Army National Player of the Year named for him too. The statuette that accompanies the award bears the likeness of a youthful Hall, in his number 31 uniform.  Some folks remember.

He went to Texas A&M (which, naturally, increases my fondness for him) after his high school days, to play for another legend, Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant. Unfortunately, as all-too-often happens, the high school legend never became a college or pro legend.

Perhaps that contributes to the fact that Ken Hall slips from our consciousness as the greatest running back of all time. But a case can be made that there was never a greater high school running back than Ken Hall of Sugar Land, Texas. 

The TxHSF poll also listed a Who’s Who of Texas high school greats, some of whom may also slide from our ever-shrinking consciousness: Billy Sims, Robert Strait, Rodney Thomas, Steve Worster, Earl Campbell, Eric Dickerson, Ced Benson, David Overstreet, Warren McVea, Little Joe Washington, Doak Walker, Adrian Peterson.

I can think of another couple that could be thrown in as well.  Others could too.  In the thread, someone attempted to make a case for a running back from a Class 2A school—Bangs—that got little media attention. His name was Jacoby Jones. Not the Texans' Jacoby Jones (thanks, Bailey, for keeping me accurate!).

This Friday night, our crew will get another look at Daniel Lasco of The Woodlands, a very good running back who first drew a lot of attention as a freshman two seasons ago. He has the potential to be a great football player, as does Williams at Dekaney. And in Lasco or Williams, we may be seeing the next great Texas high school legend. Williams certainly is having a marvelous season.

But, even if neither of those young men ever achieves legendary status, what a great tradition they have the opportunity to be a part of.  And, when it's all said and done, it's the rich tradition of Texas high school football that makes these debates about who is the 'greatest' the great thing that it is.

A look ahead...the plots start to thicken...

Following Week 7, the upcoming schedule includes some very important games and entertaining matchups—

DISTRICT 13-5A
Westfield vs. Klein Collins (Thursday): Klein Collins, undefeated on the season (7-0, 4-0), faces a tough test in the Mustangs, who are one game behind Collins in the district at 3-1. If Westfield wins, it likely creates an interesting three-way at the top of 13-5A, which in turn makes the following week’s matchup between Klein Collins and Dekaney a critical game.

Klein Forest vs. Klein (Friday): these two teams are currently tied for fourth place in the district with a 2-2 record. Obviously, the winner of this one claims sole possession and would own the head-to-head tiebreaker, should that come into play down the road when playoff spots are determined.

DISTRICT 15-5A
Cypress Falls vs. Cypress Creek (Friday): Cy Falls got themselves back into the District 15-5A race with their win over Cy Ridge last Saturday; now they have a tough task ahead if they are to stay in that race. Cy Creek is currently in a three-way tie at the top of the district with Cy Springs and Cy Woods.

If—and it’s a BIG ‘if’—the Golden Eagles can defeat Cy Creek, they’d drop the Cougars to 3-2 and raise their own record to 3-2 in district. Plus, Falls would then hold three crucial head-to-head tiebreakers over Cy Creek, Langham Creek and Cy Ridge.

Cypress Springs vs. Langham Creek (Saturday): no team has been a bigger early district-season surprise than 3-1 Cy Springs, but the Panthers were brought back to earth a little bit last week by Cy Woods. Now, observers will be watching to see how that loss affects Cy Springs the rest of the way. Langham has a high-octane offense and is looking to move to 3-2 in the district race.

DISTRICT 19-5A
Aldine vs. Eisenhower (Saturday): this game may be Aldine’s last hope to stay in the playoff race in 19-5A. A loss drops the Mustangs to 1-3 and, coupled with their earlier loss to Humble, puts them at the mercy of other teams. Eisenhower has been winning but they have been having trouble getting the offense into high gear, averaging just over 19 points per game.

DISTRICT 20-5A
Madison vs. Chavez (Saturday): Madison is undefeated in 20-5A play at 2-0, but Chavez is 2-1 (7-1 overall) and has been the one of the highest-scoring team in the area. The Lobos average over 43 points per game, second only to Klein Forest’s 45.6 average.

DISTRICT 21-5A
Port Arthur Memorial vs. Beaumont West Brook (Friday): in ‘North Shore’s district’, no one would’ve predicted that this Golden Triangle matchup would be for the outright district lead. But Memorial’s upset win over North Shore in Week 6 sets up the showdown in Beaumont for first place.

DISTRICT 22-5A
Pasadena Memorial vs. La Porte (Friday): with Memorial’s convincing win over Pearland last week, this game can either practically solidify the Mavericks as the district champion if they win, or throw the race back into a big jumble if La Porte can win. Provided that Pearland defeats South Houston, a Bulldog victory would create a three-way tie for first place. La Porte would own the head-to-head over Memorial, Memorial would own the same over Pearland and the Oilers would have it over La Porte.

DISTRICT 23-5A
Travis vs. Willowridge (Friday): at the outset of the season, this would have seemed an unlikely candidate as an important game in 23-5A Zone B play. But, Willowridge has won their first two Zone B games and Travis, after their loss to Kempner, needs a win to avoid having to fight for an opportunity to just play for a playoff berth in Week 10.

Week 7 sees things start to heat up

With apologies for the absence of recent posts, I offer the tried-and-true excuse of problems this week with my trusty laptop…

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Okay…I know you always ask yourself which high school team is my favorite OUTSIDE the state of Texas. Well, the answer is John Glenn High School in Westland, Michigan. The reason? It’s my wife’s alma mater. The Rockets have a pretty good team this season, and they were aided by this strange ending in their Homecoming game…

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The Houston Chronicle’s Week 7 area rankings are out and you can see them here. The 5A Top Five—in order—are The Woodlands, Hightower, Katy, Cinco Ranch and Klein Collins.

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Dave Campbell's Texas Football also has their Week 7 statewide rankings posted and three area teams—The Woodlands (3), Katy (7) and Hightower (8) – occupy the Top 10.

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The deeper we go into the season, the more interesting things get around the Houston area.

Our Friday night radio crew will be in League City to watch Clear Brook and Clear Lake pound on each other for four quarters. These teams have similar offenses—Clear Brook head coach Phil Lanier is a former Lake assistant—and that means they both like to run the football a lot.

Lake is coming off a game against Alvin in which they didn’t even attempt a pass. 70 plays, 70 rushes. On the season the Falcons have only attempted 32 passes in six games. But that’s three more than Brook has thrown.

Both teams like to run from a modified version of the wishbone, a double-wingback type of formation. Fullback dives and power sweeps—the stuff that old-school football is made of!—should be the order of the evening. For Clear Brook, we expect to call Brandon Ellison’s name quite a bit. In six games, he’s already carried for 711 yards. Sean McCraney, with 590 yards, is the leading rusher for Clear Lake.

Ironically, because these two teams are so synonymous with a running attack, the game very easily could come down to whichever team manages to pass the ball better.

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On Saturday night, our crew heads to the Berry Center in Cypress. The Cypress Ridge Rams will take on the Cypress Falls Golden Eagles in what likely will be a crucial game in the Eagles’ season.

After starting their season with an impressive offensive performance, and win, against Bryan, Cy Falls lost four in a row—to Westfield, North Shore, Jersey Village and Cypress Springs—before holding on for a big win over neighborhood rival Langham Creek and their old offensive coordinator Todd Thompson, 29-28. Langham had a last-second 35-yard field goal attempt hit the crossbar in the loss.

So, at 1-2 in District 15-5A, if Cy Falls could pull off another upset, they move right back into the thick of the district’s playoff race. The Rams are coming into the game at 2-1 in district play following a closer-than-expected win over Cy-Fair, 39-36.

We expect to see a lot of offense and I think the team that wins the turnover battle will post the ‘W’.

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Our Dot-Com Game of the Week affords us another opportunity to see the area’s top-ranked team, the Woodlands Highlanders, as they host the Oak Ridge War Eagles in a District 14-5A matchup.

The Eagles are coming off a close loss, 22-21, to Conroe in their district opener last week. The Highlanders are still undefeated.

This much we know: The Woodlands’ Daniel Lasco is always impressive. At times this season, the Oak Ridge offense has been extremely impressive. But, the Highlander defense has been surprisingly impressive. If the War Eagles are to come away with an impressive victory, they’ll have to figure out how to negate Lasco and the TWHS defense.

How’s that for a creative use of the word ‘impressive’? Impressive, isn’t it?

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Our TAPPS game features Houston St. Thomas and Beaumont Kelly. With St. Pius, who has already defeated both teams, in the driver’s seat for the District 3 championship, these two teams will fight it out for the other automatic playoff bid from the district. They’ll meet for the first of two games this Friday night in Houston.

We also have some great District 20-4A matchups as the Vidor Pirates travel to Port Neches-Groves. The undefeated PN-G Indians (6-0) are currently 3-0 and tied with Beaumont Central for the district lead, but Vidor (5-1, 2-1) is just a game off the pace and will be looking to jumble up the district race. This one should be a big-time battle!

Meanwhile, Beaumont Central (5-1, 3-0) will be looking to avoid an upset at the hands of the Nederland Bulldogs.

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Here are some of the best-of-the-rest matchups this week—

Cypress Woods and Cypress Springs meet Friday night at Pridgeon Stadium. Springs (surprisingly?) sit atop the District 15-5A race, but they have some tough matchups still to come, starting with this one against 2-1 Cy Woods.

Spring Branch Memorial will travel to Crump Stadium to take on the Elsik Rams. Both teams are currently 3-0 in District 18-5A and this one will be for outright control of the district. If Memorial wins, they will have already beaten Strake Jesuit, Stratford and Elsik.

Pearland and Pasadena Memorial find themselves tied atop the District 22-5A race and they’ll faceoff against each other on Friday in Pasadena.

Hightower and Elkins will meet to determine who stays undefeated and on top of District 23-5A/Zone A.

Week 6 rankings, mid-season review continues...

The new DCTF state-wide football polls are out for Week 6. Houston-area 5A districts are home to five of the Top 10 teams in this week’s poll. Cypress Creek also enters the Top 25 this week. In 4A rankings, Angleton—coming off a big win over Friendswood—jumps into the Top 10, and Brenham moves up a couple of notches as well.

The Houston Chronicle has also posted their Houston-area polls for Week 6. Check them out, along with Sam Khan’s ever-informative blog, here.

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Check out this Oklahoma high school coach’s unusual disciplinary action.

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This week’s midseason review continues as we look at the remaining undefeated teams…

There are still eight undefeated teams in Class 5A in the Houston area: Klein Collins, The Woodlands, Cypress Creek, Cinco Ranch, Atascocita, Hightower, Clements and Elkins. Most amazing is that three of those teams (Hightower, Clements and Elkins) reside not only in the same district (23-5A), but also the same zone (A) within that district!

At first glance, it would appear that there is a relatively good chance that no one has a guarantee of running the table without a loss and the Houston area may wind up with no undefeated teams by season’s end.

Klein Collins plays in arguably the toughest district in the area. The Tigers have yet to play strong district foes Westfield and Klein Forest, not to mention surprising Dekaney, who is undefeated in district play through two games, and disappointing Klein Oak, who many still think are on the verge of putting a few wins together. If Collins were to finish their season undefeated, they would have to be considered a powerhouse team in the Region II playoffs.

The Woodlands will get a strong contest in Week 9 from the Lufkin Panthers. That game will be played at Abe Martin Stadium in Lufkin on October 30 and you can expect the place to be packed to the rafters—if they have any rafters.

Cypress Creek still has to face Cypress Woods, who figure to give the Cougars the biggest challenge to an undefeated season. But, in District 15-5A, you can also never count out an upset on any given week.

Cinco Ranch is expected to successfully navigate the District 17-5A schedule until the final weekend of the regular season, when the annual grudge match with the Katy Tigers takes place. Last year, the Cougars defeated Katy for the first time in their school’s history. The Tigers most definitely will have payback on their minds when the two teams meet at high noon on November 7 at Rhodes Stadium. And Katy Taylor, who has played well in pre-district, would like to rise up this Saturday against Cinco and make that last game anti-climactic.

Atascocita, in District 19-5A, is the first team in 5A to win six games, yet are getting no serious respect in the area or the state as one of the top teams. The Eagles still have to play Eisenhower on October 30 and, while Ike has already suffered a pair of defeats, most acknowledge that their pre-district schedule was more difficult to navigate than Atascocita’s. It could be that the winner of that game will be the District 19-5A champion.

At least two of the three 23-5A teams will absorb a loss before the season ends, and it’s not impossible that they could take turns knocking off each other and all three wind up with a loss. Elkins and Clements play this Thursday night; Hightower and Elkins meet on October 16; Clements and Hightower will face off on October 30.

Across the state in Class 5A, there are 26 undefeated teams left after six weeks of play. By region, the breakdown is as follows:

• Region I (5): El Paso Coronado, El Paso El Dorado, Abilene, Coppell and Cedar Hill
• Region II (9): Dallas Skyline, Mesquite Horn, Tyler John Tyler, Belton, Copperas Cove, Klein Collins, The Woodlands, Cypress Creek and Round Rock Stony Point
• Region III (5): Cinco Ranch, Atascocita, Hightower, Elkins and Clements
• Region IV (6): Bastrop, San Antonio Clark, San Antonio Southwest, Mission Sharyland, PSJA North and Harlingen

Does that mean that Region II is the best in 2009? Or is there just a greater disparity between the best and the worst in that region? That is the stuff that great message board discussions are made of.

No matter what, those ranks will shrink by at least two teams this week. Regions II and III will definitely lose one team. Besides the aforementioned Elkins-Clements match-up on Thursday, Mesquite Horn and Tyler John Tyler square off in District 11-5A this Friday in Mesquite.

And then there were 24...or fewer...

TOMORROW: we look at the teams who are really good at scoring points, as well as the ones who have the greatest point differentials. Scintillating stuff!

Nobody knows the struggles I've seen...

We are just past the halfway point in the 2009 regular season and it is time for some Class 5A midseason assessments…and that is what we’ll try to do each day this week.

Let’s start with some teams who have struggled mightily this season.

There are still nine winless 5A teams in the Greater Houston area. The biggest shocker—one that keeps getting bigger each week they don’t win—would have to be the Klein Oak Panthers. Now 0-5, last season’s Region II Division 2 finalists have struggled to find their way in 2009. Moreover, in District 13-5A, which has five teams (Klein Collins, Klein Forest, Westfield, Dekaney and Klein) that are a combined 21-4, it appears that the Panthers may now have an insurmountable hill to climb to even grab a fourth place finish in the district.

Among their remaining five games, Klein Oak has to face Klein Collins, Westfield and Dekaney. Assuming they’d have to win at least two of those three to have a shot, it doesn’t look good for them. But head coach David Smith, a veteran of several campaigns now, told the Klein Sun following last week’s loss to the Klein Bearkats:

“We are going to do like we do every week, win or lose. We’re going to get ready for next week’s ball game.”

Sometimes, that's all you can do. The Panthers travel to Tomball this Friday.

There are five 5A teams in the Houston area (Milby, Fort Bend Austin, South Houston, Cy-Fair and MacArthur) who are averaging fewer than 10 points per game. Not surprisingly, those five teams have two combined wins among them—and those two wins both belong to the Milby Buffaloes. The other four schools are a combined 0-19.

Milby actually started the season 2-0, after wins over Reagan (14-8) and Northbrook (21-20), before losing four in a row, including two shutouts in their last two games, against Bellaire and Madison. Those two shutouts have contributed to the Buffs’ 9.2 points-per-game average.

Fort Bend Austin (8.8 ppg), South Houston (7.6) and Cy-Fair (6.8) all average about a touchdown per game, but the MacArthur Generals have had the roughest go of it in the area of scoring this season. Through six games, Mac has scored just 13 total points. That’s two TDs—one against Conroe and another against Galveston Ball—or an average of 2.2 points per game.

Unfortunately for first-year head coach Bernie Mulvaney, they don’t appear to get any relief in the weeks ahead. Kingwood, Humble, Nimitz and Aldine are the Generals’ final four opponents this season.

It’s always hard to pinpoint one thing that contributes to a struggling program, but for Milby, Austin, South Houston and MacArthur, student body demographics seem to contribute to the problems, in that the football programs just don’t draw enough students who culturally have grown up around the game—which means it could be a systemic problem that could take years to fix—or might never be fixed at all.

Cy-Fair is a little different. That part of the city has been, and still is, a hotbed of youth football activity and, demographically, should supply a steady stream of football talent for the foreseeable future. But, with all that young football-playing talent comes the need for more schools to put them in. And that growth in the number of campuses in the Cy-Fair ISD seems to be the biggest single contributing factor to the Bobcats’ struggles since the 2007 class (Sam McGuffie included) graduated.

It’s not a coincidence that, following the 2007 season, Cypress Woods—whose opening siphoned off a large number of students (and student-athletes) from the Cy-Fair campus—began playing varsity football and were immediate contenders in both District 15-5A and Region II. That football talent would have otherwise been playing for Ed Pustejovsky.

One school’s loss is another’s gain, and growth in Cole’s Crossing and Fairfield demanded a need for a high school to support the families moving into those areas, so perhaps the Cy-Fair coaches can take some solace in the Wildcats’ successes. Or maybe not.

Tomorrow, we'll look at some teams with huge point differentials through the first six weeks.

Rivalries ain't what they used to be...

Before we get to anything important, I love Detroit girls like this SO MUCH that I married one! Well…mine isn’t quite this spirited, but…

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Rivalry games abound this week! And Legacy Sports Network will be there for them!

High school rivalries used to be a little different than rivalries at other levels of football. In the ‘good old days’, the strength of the rivalry was usually dependent on the proximity of the ‘rival’ school. That was about it.

Years ago, when the earth was young and I was in high school, my alma mater—G.C. Scarborough High School (Spartans fight!)—had an intense rivalry with Waltrip High School. Why? Primarily because the two schools are about 10 minutes apart.

There certainly was no history of great games between the two, nor were those schools two Houston-area football powerhouses. Neither school even had the talent or depth to stand toe-to-toe with district powers like Kashmere and Booker T. Washington.

Reagan and Sam Houston were also in our district, but those schools didn’t inspire the dread that Kashmere or Washington did, and didn’t offer the intimacy that Waltrip did. So, Waltrip was Scarborough’s archrival. And Scarborough was Waltrip’s, too.

The Waltrip game was ALWAYS the final game of the regular season. In what would be considered an inconceivable move these days, the game was also ALWAYS the Homecoming game for both schools, no matter which team was designated the home team. All the games were at Delmar Stadium, which is about 5 minutes from either school, so it really didn’t matter who was on the press box side.

The Waltrip kids were kids that you knew from elementary school or junior high. Maybe they went to your church. Some of them were even related to you. So they were easy to hate! And, it was easy to get to their neighborhoods to ‘wrap’ their houses in toilet paper or do some egging of their cars.

But it was easy for them to get to us too. The only time I’ve ever been genuinely fearful for my life was on a 1978 fall evening trying to outrun a truckload of Waltrip rednecks in my 1969 Buick LeSabre after my little brother screamed a couple of choice phrases at them outside the Pizza Inn on 34th Street. We managed to somehow leave them in our dust. To this day, I believe it was because of my incredible driving abilities.

It’s a different world today. We got an automated phone message at the house this week from the principal at my kids’ high school, which is celebrating Homecoming this week. The purpose of the message was to let parents know that the school and school district would not tolerate any pranks by the Homecoming celebrants in our neighborhoods.

What is this world coming to when—on Homecoming week—you tear up your own neighborhood rather than the other school’s?

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We wrote about Dekaney’s Trey Williams’ impressive performance last week and some of the awe he inspired. Click here to see some video evidence of his prowess. We will admit that he looks like a very elusive runner.

Dude has his own website too. How strong is that?

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We’ll be at the Stratford-Memorial rivalry game at Tully Stadium. This is one of those rivalries based on some good football. But the two schools are also relatively close in proximity to each other. Similar talent on the field; similar demographics in the stands. All the elements are there for a ‘throw-out-the-record-when-these-two-get-together’ game.

I wonder if it’s Homecoming for either one?

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LSN will also be at the Deer Park-La Porte game. That one will be interesting and the outcome should carry some weight in the district race and those two schools, along with Pearland and possibly Pasadena Memorial, figure to fight it out for the District 22-5A championship.

Then Saturday night, our KSEV crew heads out to the Berry Center for a District 15-5A rivalry game between Cypress Ridge and Cypress Creek. These two teams met last season in the second week of district play and both were coming off wins.

Cy Ridge had Mr. Everything, Russell Shepard, and were seen as heavy favorites over Greg McCaig’s Cougars going in—because Cy Creek was coming off a poor 2007 season and were an unknown commodity at the time. But the Cougars shut down Shepard and Company and came out with a 31-21 win that helped propel them to a district championship.

This time the tables are turned, as Cy Creek would have to be considered the favorite. Shepard has taken his talents to LSU, Hassan Lipscomb is now at Minnesota and the 2009 Rams are the unknown commodity. A Cy Ridge win on Saturday night would raise eyebrows the same way the Cy Creek win last year did.

The Rams are coming off a bit of a surprise win over Cypress Woods last week, so it’ll be interesting to see if they’re still riding the crest of that win, or will be jolted back to earth by Jermichael Selders, Chuck Keeton and the rest of the Cougars.

That kind of plot on the field makes for almost as good a rivalry as any egg-throwing spite off the field.