Who is the 'class' of the Houston-area teams? Okay, who is second...

As we make the turn in the basketball district season, it's time to start focusing on how the district races are starting to shape up.

Let's go ahead and begin in Class 4A, District 21.  In fact, let's go ahead and overview Region III.  Okay, okay--the entire state.  Jack Yates Lions. Period.  (We'll come back to them.)

In Class 5A Region II, who is the 'class' of the Houston-area teams and how do they stack up with the rest of the region? 

Would you make an argument for Spring, who are 22-6 after Tuesday's games but fresh off a loss to Klein Forest in a game that could have really given them a cushion over the rest of 13-5A.  Because of the loss, the hang on to a one-game lead over Klein and Westfield, who are both solid, but not spectacular, teams.

In 14-5A, College Park had to be considered the district favorite, but they've already dropped two district games in the first half of the season.  New Caney shocked the Cavs last week and current district leader, The Woodlands, also defeated them on January 15 in the district opener.  The Highlanders are 4-0 in district and 20-4 overall.  Their losses have been close and to good teams (Bryan, Elkins, Tomball and Seven Lakes).  Wes Cole (JR) and Davis Tucker (SR) have turned out to be a pretty good tandem in the backcourt. We'll watch that team closely down the stretch.

No matter what sport it is, District 15-5A will usually wind up as a jumbled mess.  That's true in basketball this season, although Cy Woods (17-5, 6-1) has risen to the top of the heap. But close on their heels are both Langham Creek and Cy Creek, one game back. 

Woods was a TABC Pre-Season Top 20 team (ranked #18). But, they've lost some games you might expect an elite team to win.  They have good size up front, but would they have enough athleticism to keep pace with an athletic opponent?

Suffice it to say that in Region II, at least to this point, no Houston-area team could be considered favorites over De Soto (24-3, 3-0 in District 11-5A and defending state champs), Lakeview Centennial (21-3, 6-0 in 10-5A) or possibly even Richardson Berkner (22-4, 7-0 in 9-5A).

In Class 5A Region III, Bellaire would easily be considered the class of the area.  Currently ranked No. 1 in the TABC Class 5A poll, Bruce Glover's Cardinals are 24-1 and 6-0 in 20-5A,  and coming off a convincing 81-54 win over second-place Madison.  They are going to be tough to beat.

Perhaps La Porte might have been given the best preseason shot at hanging with Bellaire in the regional playoffs, but as of this writing, the Bulldogs aren't even leading their district.  That honor belongs to Louie Means' Deer Park Deer.  The Deer (17-9) are now 7-0 in 22-5A and have one-game lead over La Porte, by virtue of their upset win over the Bulldogs early in the district season.  They struggled early in the tournament season, but have now won 12 of their last 13 games.

Not to be ignored are Kingwood (22-4), Elsik (19-9), and three teams from Fort Bend ISD and three teams from District 23-5A. Bush (22-4), Dulles (23-5) and Elkins (21-7) have each won at least three-fourths of their games this year.  The question may be who survives the tough district beating to make a deep run in the playoffs.

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I love a good practical joke.  I love it even more when it backfires, like this one did.

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Finishing the thought on Class 4A and Yates: if they are to be challenged in the regional playoffs, I believe that La Marque (24-2) will be the team to do it.  As of this week, Yates is the top-ranked 4A team in the state; La Marque is No. 3.  That would be an impressive matchup.  And it would be played to a packed-out house, too.

Jim Hicks of RCS Sports has seen Brenham firsthand and gives the Cubs a glowing review, so they could be a team to watch in 4A Region III.

And you read it here first:  the Houston area will be well-represented in Austin in March out of both Class 3A and Class 2A.  I think Hardin-Jefferson (3A) and New Waverly (2A) will both play in the state tournament, and New Waverly may very well bring home a state championship trophy.

White works and waits to see what the future holds

Took a week off to recharge...did you miss me?

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With National Signing Day looming in a couple of weeks, stories of commitments and re-commitments are becoming more and more commonplace.  It makes a story like Stephen White's a little bit poignant.

White is a senior on St. Thomas' basketball team (no need to clarify with 'boys'; STHS is an all-male parochial school run by the Basilian Fathers) and aspires to continue to play beyond his high school days.  This would have been his third varsity season as an Eagle.  Would have been.

White suffered a knee injury last year that required surgery during the summer and, while healing nicely, has cost him his senior year on the varsity squad.  In the process it may have cost him, or at least detoured, his hopes of playing basketball in college.

White, a 6'3" swing man in high school, had committed to West Point, the Army academy, and had planned to play basketball there.  It's hard enough for a completely healthy high school student to get accepted at West Point, much less one whose surgically-repaired knee creates questions for a governing body who, frankly, are concerned with much more about White's future endeavors on their behalf than basketball. 

So Stephen White waits and works to rehab.  He'll need a medical waiver from the US Department of Defense to still be accepted.  And though he comes from celebrated political stock (his dad is former Houston mayor Bill White), that may not carry enough influence to earn the necessary paperwork.

So he mulls his options, most of which are either a secret he keeps or unknown to even himself, and turns his focus to trying to help his current teammates from the sidelines. 

St Thomas' 2009-2010 squad has turned out to be a fairly good one, in spite of being incredibly young and under the direction of a new head coach.  Danny Evans replaced Neil Laminack before the season began and has led the Eagles to a 21-12 record with four games remaining. 

Led by sophomore Christian Sanders and senior Chase Kammerer (an Air Force commit), they lead District 3-6A in TAPPS.  In their classification, they could potentially make a deep run in the playoffs.  The shadow Prestonwood Christian looms on the far horizon, but the Eagles would have the size, if not the experience, to match up with the Lions.

White just hopes that his team gets to play long enough to think about facing PCA, because that may be his only opportunity to actually play this season.  His doctor has told him that, if the healing progress continues, there is an outside chance he could be released to play in late February.  That would coincide with a state semifinal or championship game.

Everything hangs in suspended animation for the time being for Stephen White.  And while we celebrate those athletes who are solidifying their plans for the future, we also should be reminded of the ones who can't do it...at least not quite yet.

ISHL gives Houstonians a high school hockey fix

It's cold outside!  And when it gets this cold outside, one thing pops into the minds of Houston's high school sports fans: high school hockey.

No, really!  There is a high school hockey league in the Houston area: the Interscholastic Hockey League. 

While I love the game, I'm not going to try to make anyone believe I am the fount of all hockey knowledge.  In fact, I wasn't aware of the ISHL, as it is known, until Legacy Sports Network began broadcasting an ISHL Game of the Week last year.  Michael Silvers handled the play-by-play and did a great job.

This year, LSN is again broadcasting a GOTW.  Silvers has been joined in the booth by David Feliciano, who ably adds analysis.  (Give them a listen; they make a great broadcast team!)  This Sunday night, they will be at Toyota Center to call a doubleheader featuring Cinco Ranch vs. Seven Lakes followed by The Woodlands vs. College Park. (Do those rivalries sound familiar?)

Those are just four of 15 teams participating this season.  Teams are split into two divisions (North and South) in what is known as the Justice Varsity League. 

The ISHL has existed in some form or fashion since the 1998-1999 school year and several high schools around the area field teams.  Those that can't come up with a full squad generally band together with one or two other schools to form teams.

Besides the four previously mentioned, other teams this season represent Cypress Woods, Klein, Katy Taylor, Clear Lake, Fort Bend Austin and Clements.  Consolidated teams include Memorial West, Brazos Valley, Fair/Creek (from the CFISD area), Brook/Creek/Springs (CCISD area) and Pearland/Friendswood.

While it isn't a UIL-sanctioned sport, it is becoming extremely popular in suburban Houston.  And because it isn't under the UIL's banner, the league can be co-ed and has several girls dotting the rosters of the squads. 

This is Week 11 of the season and Fair/Creek (6-0-3, 15 points) is atop the North Division standings.  They have a three-point lead over both The Woodlands and Cy Woods. 

The Cinco Ranch Cougars (8-1-1, 17 points) are leading the South Divison, two points ahead of Taylor. 

Last year's league champions, the Austin Bulldogs, are currently in seventh place in the eight-team South, but they are the top scoring team in the league and boast the two leading individual scorers.  Senior Arron Slaten is the league scoring leader with 30 points, including a staggering 21 goals in nine games.  His teammate, junior Cody Gamble, is second in the league with 24 points (12 goals/12 assists).

Fair/Creek senior Tyler Bradford is the leading goalie in the league, with a goals-against average of 1.40.

League continues through the end of February and the City Final (this one is valid!) wraps up a playoff round-robin at the end of the year.

Besides the Sundays at Toyota Center, the league plays at many of the ice rinks around town.  But if you can't get out to one of the rinks any time soon, or just want a taste of what the league is about, check out the Legacy ISHL Game of the Week.

It won't take long to get hooked, especially if the weather keeps reminding us it's hockey season.

Yates: Don't hate...congratulate!

Ring out the old; ring in the new! Happy 2010, everyone!

By the way, I’m on a personal crusade to have everyone start describing this year as “twenty-ten”. I was willing to give the world a pass in the initial decade of the Twenty-first Century, but now it’s time for the world to get on board with my program. Welcome to the year twenty-ten.

And, as sure as I was born in the year one thousand, nine hundred sixty-one, I will surely prevail in this endeavor.

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Focus has shifted away from football to basketball…specifically, Yates basketball.  Wow! Thanks, Greg Wise, for giving us something to discuss!

On Tuesday night, the Yates Lions blasted the Lee Corporals (previously known as the Generals, but who were stripped of their rank following the game) by a score of…wait for it…oh, who doesn’t already know this? 170-35.

Since the final buzzer sounded that evening, the earth has begun to first quiver slightly, then shake violently, until now erupting into a national controversy. It’s 2012 (twenty-twelve…see above) two years too soon!

Everyone wants to talk about it, from Houston-area sports talkers on the radio, to the PTI guys on ESPN. And it apparently matters very little how much or little you know about the team or it's opponent that night. Outrage is the order of the day in several quarters.

Most of you won’t be happy with it, but here’s my take on The Blowout—and this opinion belongs exclusively to Lonnie King…not sponsors, not employers, not associates, and not even my wife (‘The Bleeding Heart’) either:

I am not offended or outraged in any way at the final score OR the way that Yates arrived at that final score.

And, let me tell you, I’ve spent the last 24 hours trying to build up some sense of outrage over this, just to be able to go along with the majority. But I can’t do it. I just am not incensed over this game.

It boils down to this: Yates is a very good basketball team, arguably the best high school team in the nation. Lee offers basketball to its student body as an afterthought and they aren't very good at all.  BUT, they are required to play each other; they're in the same district. 

To me, there are many aspects of this whole story that are impressive, or at least very fascinating. Here are just a couple:

First of all, if you look at Yates' body of work through the early part of their schedule, you’ll see that they’ve put up some gaudy numbers against much better competition than Lee. Yates, because of their weak district competition, goes out of their way to schedule tough pre-district opponents. They’ve traveled the nation in November and December and still managed to win impressively.

Also, there are just eight-minute quarters in a high school basketball game. Thirty-two total minutes. There are several NBA teams that cannot scratch 90 points in a 48-minute game on a regular basis and here’s a high school team that can do it routinely in 32.

Most fascinating is the fact that Yates is fortunate to have so much basketball talent that resides within its school attendance boundaries! (I know, I know…leave it alone…) 

By the way, Yates has HISD's magnet program for communications (Broadcast TV, Radio, Print, and Photography).   Budding journalists love basketball.

Wise, the head man at Yates, coaches his team to play full-court pressure defense and run the floor in transition on offense. They have been coached so well at that style of play that they are able to put up large numbers on the scoreboard. The defensive pressure creates offensive opportunities and Yates capitalizes on those offensive opportunities.

By the way, there are coaches all over the area, state and nation who coach with that same philosophy, but while their stifling defense may frustrate opponents, they generally do not have the talent that the Lions have and don’t capitalize AS OFTEN on the offensive end of the floor.

I saw Yates post 94 points last year in the Class 4A state championship against Dallas Kimball. Think about that for a minute: 94 points in 32 minutes against the next-best team in the state. That, to me, is impressive. So, it should be no surprise that, against lesser competition, the Lions could put up gaudy-looking numbers.

And, to get to the point that you are able to score 94 points in a state championship, you have to work on it consistently during the regular season.

A couple of weeks ago, the Indianapolis Colts created a buzz when their coach Jim Caldwell basically quit in the middle of a game against the New York Jets—while his team had a lead. The stated purpose was that the Colts, though still pursuing a perfect season record, already had clinched everything they could conceivably need to give themselves a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. There was nothing to be gained in pushing hard and going all out just to pursue a ‘meaningless’ goal.

The Colts went on to lose the game, which cost them a chance at an undefeated season and also noticeably affected the demeanor of the team. Last weekend (the game that followed the Jets loss), the Colts laid another egg, with starters on the bench resting up for the playoffs, and lost at Buffalo, 30-7. Now they will sit for another week awaiting the outcome of the wild card round games.

Is there anyone out there right now who wouldn’t be surprised if the Colts cannot turn the competitiveness back on in the second round and lose? The Indy starters, who will not have had meaningful competition in more than three weeks, may not be as sharp as if they had played to win throughout their schedule.

I think Greg Wise probably understands this: if you want your sword to be sharp in the playoffs, you have to hone it to precision in the regular season, no matter who the competition may be.

Sure, it turns out 37 points would’ve been enough against Lee. But it would’ve sent up a red flag about the Yates program. And it would’ve been unfair to the athletes under Wise’s command to ask them to not go out and give their best effort on the court.

Yates cannot control who their district opponents are. They have to play the other teams that the UIL has included with them in 21-4A. If those schools decide to field a basketball team, they should be prepared to see a dominant squad.

I’m going to copyright a slogan and mass-produce t-shirts right now: “Jack Yates! Don’t hate! Congratulate!”