At long last

The season is over. I love covering high school football - it's by far the most popular thing we cover and with all due respect to other sports, it's our favorite. But that doesn't mean that come the end of the state title games, we're not ready for the season to end.
It started way back in the spring with our "Spring Blitz" previews, continued through our extensive 7-on-7 coverage and pretty much nonstop from July 25 through next week. Yes, that's right, we'll have a few more football-related stories in the next couple days, but for the most part the season is done.
I don't think anyone can be surprised at Katy's state title. I hadn't seen them in person since the North Shore game in Week Zero and they were a pleasure to watch today. I feel bad for Hightower, though, having come all this way and run into an absolute buzzsaw.
Chad and I will have a season-ending podcast Monday with thoughts on this weekend and a few lookbacks at the season.
Until then, I'm gonna head home, have a beer and take a few deep breaths.

With all precincts reporting ...

Here are the final results of our poll on who would win the state championship games:

Hightower and Katy
70.2%

Just Katy
13.7%

Just Hightower
13%

Allen and Wylie ... DFW gets two up on Houston
3.1%
***
We're having problems with our photo upload system from here in the Reliant Stadium press box, so Article Slideshow and Photo Connect will be up as soon as possible.
Season-ending blog coming shortly.

Come on now ...

Can't say I'm terribly surprised at hearing the Allen and Wylie coaches are unhappy (mostly Allen) that they'll be playing road games Saturday at Reliant Stadium. I'm just surprised it took this long.

The game sites were determined in June!! For my part, I think all postseason sites should be determined in advance.

Northbrook's Rainey headed to Arizona

Read about the Raider WR/S' commitment here.

In case you can't pull the story up, the gist of it is he chose Arizona over Iowa State (the only school I'd ever heard about with him), TCU and Baylor.
"I'd like to play wide receiver or running back because I haven't played too much defense," he said. "I really like to be on the offensive side of the ball."

When you have a Wikipedia entry ...

... you've made it to the big time.
Googling my brains out for a Thursday "Alumni Watch" feature, I noticed Cy-Fair-ex Nneka Ogwumike has her own Wikipedia page. So does future UT quarterback Garrett Gilbert. I'm sure other former area athletes have some, but I haven't found them yet.
One of my buddies from back home once created a page for himself, but it was quickly deleted. Maybe he just needs to try harder.

Quick basketball poll update

While we wait for the big state championship football games this weekend, some interesting things went down in basketball, and it reflects in the latest poll by the Texas Basketball Coaches Association.
Dulles, who had both its boy's and girl's teams ranked in the top 10 in the respective polls, both saw its teams lose in tournament play. The boy's team fell to Bush in the Outback tournament finals, while the girls fell in the Clear Creek semifinals to Cy-Fair. Those losses dropped the boy's team to No. 14 from No. 6 and the Lady Vikings to No. 5 from the top spot a week ago.
Kingwood (No. 4) and Strake Jesuit (No. 5) are now the top two Houston-area teams in the boy's rankings, with Bush getting a big jump to No. 13, just ahead of Dulles. Bellaire is right behind at No. 16.
In girl's, Nimitz took advantage of Dulles' loss and moved to No. 1, with College Park at No. 2. Cy-Fair jumped to No. 4, and Dulles lands at No. 5. Rounding out the Houston-area teams are Bellaire at No. 6, North Shore at No. 12 and Hightower at No. 17.
It's shaping up to be an interesting next four months of basketball. A lot of great teams are battling and shaping themselves for what should be a fantastic finish to the basketball season.

Another Houston-area position opens

Just read on The Old Coach.com that Willowridge head coach Darrell Scurlock will not return as head coach next season.
Scurlock became head coach in 2001 after being a long-time assistant. This was back when the Eagles started its decent from being an area power to a cellar-dweller. But Scurlock, who had a record of 26-46 at the school, worked well with what he had, leading Willowridge to two playoff appearances and a district championship in 2004. The 2004 team was his best team with a 9-3 record and a playoff win over Alief Taylor.
But the attendance at the school has dropped year after year. Now, at 1,520 students, the Eagles are struggling to find players. With the times I talked with Scurlock about his team in the preseason, he was more concerned in filling out his roster instead of whether his team can compete or not. That has been the norm there the last five years, and it's not getting any easier.
After going 0-8 this season, you can sense the frustration on Scurlock and the program. I just hope the next head coach can turn the program around and bring the winning tradition back to the 'Ridge.

Last week's poll results

Good call:

Hightower and Katy
68.7%

Just Hightower
14.2%

Just Katy
12.9%

Neither ... it's not in the cards for Houston this year
4.3%

Thoughts from Don Coleman Coliseum

There's little a sportswriter loves more than a media-friendly facility. Even more so, we love media-friendly athletic departments and fast, fun games.
The Spring Branch ISD girls basketball tournament, and the boys tourney last weekend, have offered all three. I can't recall another set of tournaments where everything has run on time, mostly because the games have been clean so not many fouls have been called. Not one game has started late. Let me repeat that: Not one game has started late. That's a sportswriter's dream, especially on days like yesterday when I had plans with my girlfriend and our friends in the evening.
A big thank you goes out to L.P. Jones and the entire SBISD athletic department for putting on these great events. And thank you for the wireless Internet at Don Coleman!!! You have no idea how much easier our jobs are when we're constantly connected.
(And I can follow today's football games too.)
I might steal all our assignments at this place this year. :)

Post-Touchdown Club musings

Yeah this is off my day, but I have to get my mind off Christmas shopping. Boy I hate going to the mall.
I'm still wondering exactly what separated Russell Shepard from Jacob Karam in winning Offensive Player of the Year at the Touchdown Club banquet last night. I know my cousin, a Friendswood grad, will ask me my opinion tonight when we get together to watch the Bears-Saints game. The two things I believe went to Shepard's advantage were that he's a 5A quarterback and he has more total yards in his career (8,100 to around 7,300). When you get two players of that equal ability up for the same awards, those are the things that decide the difference.
I never saw Karam play, though I wanted to.
Can't quibble with the winners of any of the three winners. All of them were deserving.

Musings on winter

Houston, this is winter.
It definitely feels like winter, but moreover it smells and looks like it too. I swore I caught a faint whiff of a woodburning stove when I stepped out for lunch, which is something of a rarity in this office-dominated area. I've definitely smelled them the past few nights in my neighborhood.
Funny how it was 75 and rather balmy 24 hours ago at this time before the storms rolled in. There was an impressive cloud bank to the south of our office around 5 last night, down in the direction of 59 the Southwest Freeway, but as I was getting ready to head to my basketball game I neglected to snap a picture.
Only twice in my life can I remember a temperature change this drastic:
- Back in October 2001, I covered a volleyball playoff game in suburban Columbus, Ohio on a Wednesday night before heading to visit my grandmother on my Thursday off. A hellacious cold front was steaming toward Columbus and I was going to be driving right through it on the northwesterly trip. I left my game at around 8:30 and it was 75, give or take.
Eighty-five miles later, I pulled into St. Marys, Ohio and it was about 40. By later that night, it was around 35.
My other memory of that night comes from my sister, who happened to be watching the Ohio News Network's coverage of the storm and still laughs recalling the plethora of live callers asking "I live in (insert town here). When will the storm hit us?"
- Last December I went up to Dallas for my cousin's wedding (actually their anniversary was Monday and someone forgot to send a card!). A front came through after midnight after the wedding and dropped the temp to around 35. The wind chill was probably about 25.
My girlfriend and I tracked the temp on the way back to Houston, and somewhere north of Madisonville it went from about 46 to upwards of 70 within 5 miles. I was sweating later that day when I took the dogs for a walk.
Tomorrow, the high's gonna be around 60. Relief is on the way. So is Christmas, which is how today feels.

Check the main site tonight for our complete coverage of the Touchdown Club of Houston Player of the Year banquet. We'll have video interviews of nearly every nominee (we try to get everyone!) and the winners. Afterwards, it's a pretty good bet your AC coverage team will be across the street at Fox Sports Grill unwinding as the traffic clears. Traffic. Yeah, that's why we're going over there. :)

Shepard wins Honda Player of the Year Award

Here's the release from Cypress-Fairbanks ISD:

The Texas Gulf Coast Honda Dealers presented the Honda Player of the Year award to Cypress Ridge High School senior quarterback Russell Shepard on Tuesday during a special presentation.

Honda representatives gave Shepard a trophy for his achievement and presented the Cypress Ridge High School athletics program with a $3,000 check.

“This is our second year to present this award. We enjoy doing this because we are all about the local community and we are very involved with Cy-Fair ISD,” said Mac DeLaup, president of John Eagle Honda and the Texas Gulf Coast Honda Dealers. “We’ve all been following Russell throughout his high school career and recognize that he is truly a special athlete. We can’t wait to watch him play at LSU.”

Members of the Houston-area media voted on the award, giving the nod to the Rams’ dual-threat quarterback. Shepard accounted for 1,843 passing yards, 20 passing touchdowns, 1,946 rushing yards and 28 rushing touchdowns during the 2008 season. He was unanimously named the District 15-5A Offensive MVP and is a finalist for the Touchdown Club of Houston Offensive Player of the Year. He was selected to play in the 2009 Under Armour All-America Game on Jan. 4 before enrolling at Louisiana State University in the spring.

Joining DeLaup in presenting the award were Mark Rehkopf and Rod Hall, vice president and treasurer of Texas Gulf Coast Honda Dealers, respectively, and Fox 26 sports director Mark Berman.

Volleyball postseason honors

Four Cypress-Fairbanks ISD volleyball players were named to the Texas Girls Coaches Association (TGCA) Class 5A All-State Volleyball Team and three players were named to the TGCA Academic All-State Team.

CFISD’s All-State representatives are Ashley Vrana, junior, Cypress Creek; Chiney Ogwumike, junior, Cy-Fair; Kendall Cleveland, senior, Cypress Falls; and Desiree Elliott, junior, Cypress Woods.

CFISD’s Academic All-State representatives are Cypress Woods seniors Leah Whitney, Cristina Arenas and Caleigh McCorquodale.

Olin (reportedly) headed to Lewisville, and other coaching changes

Got word from our good friend Carl Theiss that longtime Baytown Lee coach Dick Olin more than likely is headed to Lewisville, in suburban Dallas. Read the story here.
Olin told The Baytown Sun Friday that nothing is confirmed.
Other coaching changes already made include Aldine, MacArthur and Nimitz. Aldine's Bob Jones and MacArthur's Jerry Drones reportedly have been reassigned within the district. The Aldine and MacArthur jobs have already been posted.
What that means, of course, is all four Aldine ISD high schools have had head coaching changes within the past 12 months, dating to when Darryl Phipps was let go at Eisenhower shortly after the 2007 season.
Chad and I are keeping our eyes on the coaching changes and searches; we expect things to fire up big-time after Christmas. I'm sure he will add some thoughts later today.

Run first!

Interesting story in the Houston Chronicle this morning about how mostly running teams are still in the playoffs.
I love it. To me, true football is good old smashmouth, knock your opponent into your submission - not the 40 to 50 passing attempts we see in many games. Give me three run plays to every pass play every time. Yes it makes games go quicker (which is one reason writers love covering running teams), but moreso it separates the men from the boys.
Don't get me wrong - I really don't have much against the spread offense. It's just at the end of the day, teams who have two dimensions on offense and pride themselves in strong defense usually will be the teams left standing.

Plays of the Week results

Cy Ridge: Shepard runs 76 yards to tie game
37.3%

Hightower: Woodson's INT return for TD
28.9%

Copperas Cove: Greene to Boyce for game-winning TD
16.9%

Pearland: Allen's TD run on game's first play
10.8%

Brenham: Fake field goal goes for TD
6%

Cy-Fair to host Australian touring team

We'd known about this and had it on our schedule; we plan to cover this Tuesday night. Here's the official release from Cy-Fair ISD's PR office and Joel Weckerly:
***
Cy-Fair girls host Australian basketball team

December 3, 2008—The Cy-Fair High School girls’ basketball team will host an Australian touring basketball team, the Craigieburn Eagles, on Tuesday, Dec. 9. Cy-Fair’s junior varsity team will face Craigieburn’s JV at 4 p.m. and Cy-Fair’s varsity will face Craigieburn’s varsity at 7 p.m.

Craigieburn’s meeting with Cy-Fair is part of a 21-day United States tour for the Australian team, which will face opponents in Dallas, Houston and Oklahoma before visiting Los Angeles to close out the visit.

Cy-Fair head coach Ann Roubique said the team contacted her in the spring about a potential matchup.

“I think it’s an honor. I’m not sure how or why they picked us, but when I got the e-mail I was honestly taken aback that we would be considered in the conversation,” Roubique said. “It’s a good opportunity for the coaches and the kids and the entire district. It should be a good chance for our players to make some friends abroad.”

Following the game, nine Cy-Fair players will host the 19 Craigieburn players at their homes on Tuesday night, and the players will visit the school on Wednesday morning.

Roubique said she wasn’t entirely familiar with their international visitors and the challenge they will present. Even the differences in the metric system and U.S. customary units have made preparing for Craigieburn a challenge.

“We got their roster the other day, and their heights are listed in centimeters, so we don’t really know what we’re going up against,” Roubique said jokingly. “So I don’t know if they have more of an advantage or not. We’re looking forward to it.”

Taking a peek in boy's hoops so far...

In the midst of the wild and wooly time that is the football playoffs, we have neglected to talk about the other popular sport going on right now, and that is how the boy’s basketball picture is shaping up. The season is only a few weeks old, and there’s already a lot of activity from some area teams.

Taking a look at the latest Texas Association of Basketball Coaches’ poll, I see that Hightower, who was ranked No. 2 in the preseason poll, has fallen completely out of the poll. The Hurricanes have dragged out to a 2-5 start to the season Tough losses to Madison, Kingwood, Atascocita and Seven Lakes have hurt the Hurricanes so far this season, not to mention that a couple of players are still playing on the football squad. But it’s just the beginning of December, and there’s still a lot of talent on the team, and there’s loads of time for them to turn things around. But they better hurry up before District 23-5A play starts up, which is always tough year-in and year-out.

Staying in 23-5A, the Dulles Vikings have stormed out of the gates again, winning its first four games of the year in dominant fashion. Wins over Pasadena Memorial, Beaumont West Brook, Dickinson and Lamar Consolidated have put last year’s state finalists at 4-0 to start the season. What’s surprising is the early scoring output from junior forward Bryant Mbamalu, who is averaging 20.8 points and is shooting an unbelievable 91.4 percent from the field (32-of-35). But No. 5 Dulles will be tested in the upcoming Outback tournament, with tough teams like Elkins, Hightower, Hastings and Elsik also in the tourney.

One team that has made a resurgence to the top is Kingwood, who is one year removed from making state in 2006. The Mustangs are 6-1 to start the season thanks to big wins over quality teams like Elkins, Hightower, De Soto and a 58-42 win over defending state champ North Crowley in the McDonald’s Texas Invitational’s third-place game. And their only loss is to state powerhouse Duncanville.
Coach Royce Huseman has created a tradition of winning at Kingwood, and after falling to Dulles in the second round last year, the No. 6 Mustangs are looking to make another deep run in the postseason this year.

Three other area teams – No. 4 Bellaire, No. 10 Madison and No. 14 Strake Jesuit – are still ranked high in the TABC poll, with Chavez ranked No. 18.

No "no respect" card here

Just arrived at my home office from a visit to Pearland High School for a feature on the Oilers defense I'm writing for later this week.
So often in high school sports you get the "no respect" card dragged out before any game, let alone a regional final, in which Pearland plays Hightower at 2 p.m. Saturday at Tully Stadium. I did chat with one player (I'd say who but my recorder was off) about why so many seem to be picking Hightower and why Pearland hasn't created a huge buzz, and I really couldn't say exactly why.
I myself have picked against them (Hightower) the past two weeks and have come up short each week.
But here's the bottom line: No one's really talking about Hightower either. Among the 5A-Division I teams, all year the chatter's been about North Shore and Cinco Ranch; North Shore because of its lengthy regular-season winning streak (which has no bearing in the playoffs) and Cinco because everyone thought this was the year they dethroned Katy (done) and made a deep playoff run (not done). Well, both those teams are done. That's not to mention The Woodlands, which lasted just two rounds into the Region II playoffs.
Hightower's behind a Berlin Wall of sorts out in Fort Bend County because all it gets is one non-district game, then it's all-FBISD sorting things among itself until the playoffs. I can't come up with nearly as good a reason why Pearland isn't talked about more. Really, the best I can come up with is that members of the local media tend to forget there's good ball played down south of I-10 (which is where I live). Other than Hurricane Ike-related stories, I'd love to know how many stories were devoted to Clear Creek, Pearland, etc. as opposed to the Kleins, Cy-Fairs, Katys and North Shores.
I won't make any picks here for Saturday's game, partly because I'll be covering it, but suffice it to say whoever wins this game will be a team not many expected to be in a state semifinal.

Poll results

As to whether this area would get a state champ from Region III, II, both or neither, your vote was as follows:

Region III (Katy, Cinco Ranch, Hightower, Madison, etc.)
81.5%

Region II (Cy Woods, Cy Ridge, Klein Oak)
13.8%

Neither
3.5%

Both
1.2%