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.

Road trips, blathering broadcasters, clueless band directors and more...

We got our first up-close-and-personal look at the No. 1 team in the Greater Houston area, The Woodlands Highlanders, last Friday night in Port Arthur against the Port Arthur Memorial Titans. The Highlanders looked solid, but not spectacular, in their 24-7 win over Memorial. They scored two touchdowns, kicked two field goals and posted two safeties in picking up their fifth win of the season.

But perhaps the most impressive thing about the victory was that it came on the road—again. The Highlanders have made more than token trips in their pre-district schedules. They’ve traveled to CFISD’s Pridgeon Stadium (25 miles from campus), Katy ISD’s Rhodes Stadium (55 miles) and Clear Creek ISD’s District Stadium (61 miles). But at 123 miles from their campus, Port Arthur Memorial Stadium was the granddaddy of their road trips—and potentially the one that will be most like any November playoff roadies they’ll have to make.

“We knew that what we did on the road might be the tale of the tape as far as how we would respond during the season,” head coach Mark Schmid told us before the Port Arthur game. “We’re really pleased with what we’ve done and how the kids have responded and it’s going to go a long way in helping us be successful this season.”

Translation: these pre-district road trips are going to be similar to what TWHS will face in the Region II playoffs, and Schmid thinks that his team has benefitted from traveling so much so early.

Port Arthur Memorial acquitted themselves very well against the Highlanders. The PAM defense will be the key to any success they have against North Shore in two weeks. The linebacking corps, anchored by Earl Hines and Ashland Wilson, is solid. The defensive ends, Stanton Smith and Treshod Lewis, are strong and quick off the ball. The secondary caused problems for The Woodlands’ passing game.

The problem with the Titans’ defense on Friday was twofold: they played most of the game on their side of the 50 yard line and they spent more than two-thirds of the game on the field. Memorial’s offense had trouble generating much at all against the Highlander defense.

And if there was one area where the Highlanders unexpectedly impressed, it was on the defensive side of the ball. DE Cody Davis and LB Perry Cooper especially stood out and, overall, the team swarms to the ball and hits hard on every play. They forced Memorial’s QB Corwin Keal to hurry throws and they basically shut down the rushing duo on Ronzell King and Daleon Stinette.

Looking ahead, the Lufkin game for The Woodlands will be interesting, especially since it involves another significant (110 mile) road trip to Abe Martin Stadium in Lufkin. But the Woodlands should cruise into the playoffs well-prepared for that ride. And we now believe that Port Arthur Memorial may actually be no worse than the third best team in District 21-5A.

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It was a weekend of upsets in the Houston area. Maybe none was more surprising than the Dekaney Wildcats’ pounding of the Westfield Mustangs in their District 13-5A opener and Dekaney’s homecoming game. Nobody in their right mind (who isn’t a parent of a Dekaney player) would have ever predicted that.

But thanks to a superb effort by a sophomore named Trey Williams, who rushed for—get this—375 yards in the game, the Wildcats pulled out a 47-39 stunner over a team that, in the pre-district season, looked potentially headed for an undefeated season and a deep playoff run.

The effort by Williams was so inspiring that it prompted one web media member to call in a report to one of the local postgame scoreboard shows on Friday and proclaim the sophomore to be the best running back ever. Ever.

The saddest part of that little episode was the hosts of that scoreboard show didn’t even question or challenge him on that statement.

Now, while we did not see the performance young Mr. Williams gave on Friday and will, from this point forward, watch his box scores with much more interest, we can’t help but think that one game does not a ‘Best-Ever’ tag earn.

Frankly, the statement sent us scurrying to high school record books to find out where Williams’ 375 ranks all-time and, while we have yet to determine the exact ranking, we can tell you it’s not even in the top 10 single-game rushing performances in the history of Texas high school football.

Texas is a state that has produced the likes of Earl Campbell, Eric Dickerson, Billy Sims, Ken ‘The Sugar Land Express’ Hall, Doak Walker, Cedric Benson and so many more great running backs. To suddenly pass the mantle to a high school sophomore seems unwise and unfair—to Williams.

Trey undoubtedly will be—and rightfully so—mentioned across the state as the offensive player of the week for Week 4 of the 2009 season. But let’s allow him to just be a tenth-grader who helped his underdog team to the biggest win in his school’s young football history, at least for now. Maybe in 2011, we can start comparing him to the Tyler Rose.

Until then, we say, 'Way to go, Trey Williams, for your outstanding performance!'

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Speaking of the greatest individual-game rushing performances by Texas high school players, how many of the names in the all-time top 10 would you recognize?

They are Darryl Ellis (Somerville, 587 yards, 1998); Tyson Thompson (Irving, 525 yards, 1998); Ken Hall (Sugar Land, 520 yards, 1953); Cleon Williams (Boling, 517 yards, 1991); Phillip Graves (Hutto, 517 yards, 2001); Devin Thomas (San Antonio Madison, 483 yards, 2006); Larry Boyd (Union Hill, 481 yards, 1988); Ronnie Ashmore (San Antonio Edgewood, 476 yards, 1985); Eric Bizer (Centerville, 467 yards, 2003); Buddy Hanson (Tom Bean, 467 yards, 2002).

Thanks to the folks at TxPrepsFootball.com for the list.

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Back to the subject of Port Arthur, we are connoisseurs of fine press box cuisine, and the good people at Memorial Stadium—the new and improved Memorial Stadium—quickly put themselves at the top of our list.

Chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes, seasoned green beans and carrots was the fare for the night. And they had people come deliver the meals to us (and then check on us to make sure everything was satisfactory)! This wasn’t your average every-man-for-himself rush to the five Little Caesars’ pizzas on the counter.

Kudos to the folks in Port Arthur for approving some bonds that built a new high school campus for Memorial and funded some very nice improvements to the press box and scoreboard (i.e., video replay board) at the stadium. Their only regret may ultimately be that they didn’t funnel a few of the dollars into some field turf for the surface. But, hey, that’s what school district bond elections every two or three years are for, right?

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Being the complete source for all things related to high school athletics, we get tidbits of info from not only the teams, but also the bands, drill teams, cheerleaders and mascots for those teams.

Here’s one we have to share that proves the point that band directors just don’t get it…

In the first half of a Saturday night game in the Houston area (we won’t tell you which one), a band director was heard to chastise his band members for cheering too wildly and loudly for their football team in the first half of their game. His reasoning? The band needed to save their energy for the halftime show.

That led us to the question: how much energy does a halftime show require and how relevant to performing at halftime is screaming your lungs out for your team? We've never seen a marching choir at half...except maybe at that School for the Performing Arts game...

Now we have to watch these band shows with a little more intensity to see who is or isn’t leaving it all on the field at the half.

Still plenty of teams who haven't lost yet...

A little of this, a little of that as we get ready for Week 4…

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Thru Week 3, there are two area 5A teams that are averaging over 50 points per game—and they both reside in the same district.

District 13-5A’s Westfield Mustangs have scored 156 points in their three games for a 52-point average. The Klein Forest Golden Eagles have done just a little better, scoring 160 points in their first three contests (53.3 ppg average). Those two teams meet October 1 in what should be THE offensive shootout of the year.

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Before their matchup next week, Klein Forest and Westfield play Klein Oak and Dekaney, respectively, this week. If someone had told you before the season that one of those two teams would be 0-3 and the other would be 2-1, you’d have been hard pressed to get anyone to believe that Klein Oak would be winless.

And Dekaney, in their second varsity season, has been a pleasant surprise, with wins over Clear Springs and Willis. Bad news for the Wildcats? They open their district season this week against Westfield.

And unfortunately for the Panthers, they don’t have an opponent who will help them rebound from their tough pre-district schedule. And with Klein (3-0) and Klein Collins (3-0) also among their opponents in the first four district games, is it too much of a stretch to call Oak’s first 13-5A game a must-win?

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There are 16 undefeated Houston-area teams left in the 5A ranks. Four of those teams are 4-0: The Woodlands, Cinco Ranch, Atascocita and Chavez.

While The Woodlands and Cinco Ranch were expected to be this good before the season started, both teams have had to defeat opponents who were expected to give them a run for their money, and potentially hand them losses.

The Highlanders came up with a big 31-27 win over the Katy Tigers in Week 1 and the Cougars knocked off both the Reagan Rattlers out of San Antonio and the Cypress Ridge Rams, who have yet to find their stride without Russell Shepard.

Atascocita and Chavez are something more of unknown commodities. Atascocita’s toughest game to this point was a 38-35 overtime win over the Oak Ridge War Eagles in Week 2. Chavez, out of the HISD and District 20-5A, may be even more of a mystery.

The Lobos have played only one other 5A team in their first four games: New Caney (1-3). Two 4A teams (Jones, Sharpstown) and one 3A team (Splendora, who actually gave the Lobos their toughest contest) have been the other opponents.

Chavez has a QB, in Andre Kelly, who has thrown for almost 1,000 yards, a receiver with almost 400 yards and four TDs in Jafus Gaines, plus a 300-yard rusher in Tim Gay.

We may find out a lot about this Chavez team this week, as they open District 20-5A play against the Lamar Redskins, who are 3-0 to this point and heavy favorites to win the district, at Barnett Stadium on Thursday.

Besides Lamar, the other 3-0 teams are Westfield, Klein, Klein Collins, Klein Forest, Cy Woods, Cy Creek, Alief Taylor, Hightower, Clements, Elkins and Travis.

It’s interesting to note that 13-5A and 23-5A each still have four undefeated teams. Districts 21-5A, 22-5A and 24-5A have no undefeated teams left.