ViewFromTheBox

So Summit's run towards state came to an end Friday at the hands of College Station. I figured they probably would lose, but the game was tied at 14 going to the fourth quarter and somehow it stings a bit more than if they had just gotten blown out like everyone thought. But oh well. Allegedly the sophomore QB who will take over next year is better than the graduating senior QB (who was really good as well) and dropping to 5A DII with the proposed alignment makes me think deep playoff runs will continue to be a thing. Anyway, College Station and Katy Paetow is the night cap Friday night in the 5A DI. Also want to note that we will get Duncanville vs. Galena Park North Shore Part III again Saturday afternoon. You might remember North Shore won in 2018 on a last-play hail mary, which was insane. Really pulling for Duncanville HC Reginald Samples to get his elusive state title. Here's the schedule for the state championships, if anyone is head up here to Arlington this week: Wednesday 11am - 1A DI - May vs. Westbrook 2pm - 1A DII - Strawn vs. Motley County 7pm - 2A DI - Shiner vs. Hawley Thursday 11am - 2A DII - Falls City vs. Stratford 3pm - 3A DI - Lorena vs. Brock 7pm - 3A DII - Franklin vs. Gunter Friday 11am - 4A DI - Austin LBJ vs. Stephenville 3pm - 4A DII - China Spring vs. Gilmer 7pm 5A DI - College Station vs. Katy Paetow Saturday 11am - 5A DII - South Oak Cliff vs. Liberty Hill 3pm - 6A DI - Duncanville vs. Galena Park North Shore 7pm - 6A DII - Denton Guyer vs. Austin Westlake Finally, I do want to mention that Dave Campbell passed away Friday night at the age of 96. Dave started Dave Campbell's Texas Football in 1960, covering Texas football from the premier college schools al the way down to the little 1A towns you've probably never heard of. It revolutionized the Texas high school football media coverage, and he left an incredible mark on the sport. Honestly, TXHSFB might not be exactly what it is without him. The Bally Sports Southwest crew did a good job remembering him Saturday night.

Agreed. I like Stepp, but I hope his predictions are wrong. He also has Summit in a district that stretches down to Belton and Killeen as well plus Ennis and Corsicana. That's a no fun district. But at the same time, when you're the only school in the ISD in that division, you're at the mercy of UIL. There are a lot of different ways this can break in February. I don't envy the job the UIL has to do (especially across six classifications).

So Matt Stepp actually has Weiss going to District 12-6A (Region II) with Bryan, Copperas Cove, Template, Waco Midway, Hutto, and Killeen Harker Heights (although I want to note that the projection came out before today's numbers). He also has Dripping bunking with the Austin 6A schools plus Westlake and Lake Travis and Manor with Buda Johnson, Cibolo Steele, San Marcos and the like. That Weiss district would be a lot of travel though.

So based off of that numbers, here are a few key items to note: - Highland Park makes the jump up to 6A again (UIL confirming that there is, in fact, NOT a HP conspiracy). - Rouse and Mansfield Summit sneak into 5A DII by the skin of their teeth (Rouse 1923 and Summit 1922.5). - 5A DII loses perennial football power Aledo, but also gains Argyle, Melissa and Austin LBJ which will definitely shake things up. Other than that, I don't think there are too many surprises really. The next bit of fun will come on Feb. 1 when the districts are announced (and then of course there will be the TMEA region/area changes as well, I believe).

So the realignment cutoff numbers are now out: http://www.uiltexas.org/files/alignments/Conference_Cutoffs_2022-24_Alignment.pdf Class 6A: 2225+ Class 5A: 1300-2224 Class 4A: 545-1299 Class 3A: 250-544 Class 2A: 105-249 Class 1A: 104.9 and below Division cutoff numbers for football (5A and below) for anyone interested in those numbers as well: 5A DI: 1925-2224 5A DII: 1300-1924 4A DI: 880-1299 4A DII: 545-879 3A DI: 360-544 3A DII: 250-359 2A DI: 164.5-249 2A DII: 105-165.4 1A DI: 59.5-104.9 1A DII: 59.4 and below

So we are all set now for the state semifinal rounds, except for 1A which saw four tickets punched for Arlington (Motley County vs. Strawn and Westbrook vs. May). The Summit offense seems to be doing the thing were you do just enough to pass the class as the Jags raced out to a 14-3 lead on Colleyville Heritage and then held on for dear life for a 21-9 win and their second straight 5A DI Region 1 title. They'll face off against College Station who took down defending champ Denton Ryan in a 26-21 thriller (and we have lost 7 defending state champs so far). Katy Paetow advanced to the state semifinals in the fourth year of that school's existence. They'll face Corpus Christi Flour Bluff who is looking to get to their first ever state title game. (And astute readers will now realize that I missed all four region champs in my predictions, which is why I don't do any of this predicting stuff.) There are some great games elsewhere in the state. You've got Southlake Carrol vs. Duncanville up in the Metroplex. Houston vs. Austin bragging rights are on the line with Katy vs. Lake Travis and Galena Park North Shore vs. Westlake. South Oak Cliff's Cinderella run continues with a match up against Lubbock Cooper. And I know I'm missing a lot more. If you've still got a team in the battle, it's going to be an intense game this week. One more win and you've got a spot here at AT&T Stadium next week. Best of luck to all 44 teams still playing football in December!

Oh hey, here's the official enrollment numbers from the UIL that they will use for realignment. https://www.uiltexas.org/files/alignments/Enrollment_10_29_post.pdf

So Matt Stepp of DCTF is going through class/district alignments for the upcoming realignment for DCTF subscribers. For Summit, he has the Jags in district 4-5A DII along with Belton, Burleson, Corsicana, Ennis, Joshua, Killeen Chaparral, Midlothian Heritage and Waco University. Hard pass on that district. Just so much not to like about that pairing. Nothing against any particular school, but it feels like a bunch of random leftovers. Football wise, it's not a bad district for Summit. Them and Ennis will be the class of the district with the John Kitna-led Burleson Elks right behind and a wild card with Midlo Heritage. But the travel in this district is just nuts. Having to drive to Waco, Belton and Killeen is killer, especially during contest season. Plus with a nine team district, there's only room for two non-district games and one of those has to be Mansfield. But looking at the rest of the realignment projections for 5A DII, I don't know where else any of these schools go to. Bleh.

So uh, yeah, let's talk about that regional semifinal round we just had. We lost SIX defending state champions in the span of roughly seven hours on Friday. South Oak Cliff knocked off Aledo, and that was no fluke. The Golden Bears took it to the Bearcats, who fail to advance to the state semifinal round for the first time since 2012. Then hours later on that same field (Newsom Stadium) in 4A DI, Stephenville knocked out Argyle. Up in Prosper (?), China Spring sprung the upset on Carthage who was the consensus landslide pick to win 4A DII. In 3A DI, Brock avenged last year's loss to Jim Ned in the same round with a 70-25 (!!!) win. Then in 3A DII, Abernathy upended Canadian. And finally in the six man ranks, Westbrook knocked out 1A DI defending champ Sterling City. So now we will have at least 8 brackets with a new champion (Westlake won 6A DI last year but is in the DII bracket this year and Balmorhea (1A DII) lost the week before). I'm not sure we've had a round like that before. Thankfully, Summit held off a really good Midlothian squad in one of the most electric playoff football atmospheres I've been at. The Gopher-Warrior Bowl is very underrated in the DFW area. They get another rematch with Colleyville Heritage on Friday night at Birdville Fine Arts and Athletic Complex (the first football game I'll get to see at that stadium). If you're in the DFW area looking for a Friday night game, that's the one to go to. Other notable games this coming weekend, we've got Allen vs. Southlake Carroll (when was the last time Allen was an underdog in a playoff game), Duncanville vs. Desoto, GP North Shore vs. Atascocita, Vandegrift vs. Westlake, Denton Ryan vs. College Park and so many more. As DCTF's Greg Tepper says, this is where the fireworks factory begins. Best of luck to those with teams still in the playoffs!

Last thing on this: Dave Campbell's Texas Football had someone out there for Monday's game, and they produced this short feature video. Thought it was wonderfully done.

Finally on this topic, I found a link to give monetary donations on the Andrews ISD website, if you feel so inclined to do so: https://andrewsisd.revtrak.net/donations/#/v/Bus-Accident-Donations

If anyone is interested, unfortunately the playoff road came to an end today for Andrews. Despite leading roughly 3/4 of the game, Springtown rattled off 17-straight points to take a 43-33 win. But the Mustangs certainly played with fight. And the images coming out of Sweetwater were certainly moving. A reminder what the Texas high school band and football communities are about. I recommend taking a stroll through the #AndrewsStrong hashtag on Twitter.

If anyone is in the area, they will play the playoff game Monday at 2 pm at the Mustang Bowl in Sweetwater (where the game was originally set to take place). It sounds like the Sweetwater band and Big Spring band will be in attendance for Andrews.

DPS has released the identities of those killed in the crash. It includes the driver of the truck, the driver of the bus and the Andrews head band director, Darin Johns. My heart breaks for the Andrews band. https://www.newswest9.com/article/news/local/three-victims-identified-in-andrews-isd-bus-crash/513-5cd87078-39ca-4669-a98b-17a6bef99d98

I saw this earlier this evening, but was waiting until we got more information before posting. Unfortunately, DPS has now confirmed another adult on the bus has passed away, bringing the total to three. Just terrible, terrible stuff. https://www.cbs7.com/2021/11/19/andrews-isd-bus-involved-major-accident-i-20/ If you are driving, both in general and with the long distances with playoffs, please, please be careful.

Hey, it's Area Round time, which means the start of long travel season (especially for those DFW vs. West Texas match ups). Summit travels out to Grande Communications Stadium in Midland to face El Paso Chapin. Hope the football teams has as much success as the band has had at that stadium. Won't be able to make the trip out there (I'm crazy, but not that crazy). If anyone's looking for a game to watch tonight, the DCTF is doing their last watch along tonight with the El Campo vs. Lindale game. Ought to be a good game. So who still has their team in the hunt and who is free for their first Friday night in who knows how long?

District 4-5A DI got a clean sweep of District 3. Summit essentially controlled every part of its game against Azle. They now face El Paso Chapin, who came back after Amarillo Caprock led 28-21 and had the ball at the Chapin goal line. But a fumble and long Chapin TD drive and 2 point conversion gave the Huskies the win. Also, shout out to Stanton in 3A DII for knocking off #3 Childress after entering the game as 47 point underdogs according to DCTF. Lot of upsets in the first round this year. Love to see it. Finally, an interesting stat for Grand Nationals. Schools with bands at GN finished 0-6 last night (Vista Ridge did not make the playoffs).

To throw a bit of a more interesting twist into this, apparently at the October UIL Legislative Council meeting, the Music standing committee at least started to look into creating a Division I and II for marching band similar to how it is with football. I will be honest and I have no idea if it will advance past a "just look into it" stage and if it will even be voted on, but that might be a tool in the tool belt to relieve some of the pressure as so many bands become more and more competitive, especially in the DFW and Austin regions. https://www.uiltexas.org/files/policy/Music_October_2021_Agenda.pdf Just to state the obvious and that we're all on the same page, this won't happen until the 2024-2026 cycle at the earliest and there's still a long way to go. Still, it's something interesting to think about for the future.

Hey y'all, it's playoff time! Now the marbles are all on the line as 64 teams in each bracket (or 32 in the case of the 1A brackets) square off to the right to hoist the trophy at AT&T Stadium in December. My primary focus is on the Class 5A Division I bracket where it feels like just about anything can happen. On the Region I side of the bracket, things got blown wide open this past Friday as Amarillo Tascosa QB BT Daniels suffered a broken leg against Lubbock Coronado. The Rebels entered the game as the favorites to get to the state semis, but this injury changes everything. The favorite status now transfers to Colleyville Heritage. But Tascosa's got a great defense, Coronado's got momentum on their side after the big win against Tascosa and Summit is just lurking and ready for another run to the fifth round. (Also for the band nerds, Azle and Summit face off on Friday at Newsom Stadium in the bi-district round.) Region II is going to be a knock-down drag-out battle to get to the state semis. This region features the No. 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 teams in the state rankings, plus a great Magnolia West team. There will be several match ups in this part of the bracket that should be state championship games, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. Denton Ryan ought to be the favorite, but HP wants revenge for last year and College Station might break up the DFW party. Region III appears to be a two-horse race between Manvel and Katy Paetow. Manvel took down Paetow a couple of weeks ago in district play, although it was close. A good dark horse candidate is Dripping Springs, who checks in at No. 6 in the DCTF state rankings. (Also for the band nerds, Buda Johnson and Cedar Park match up in the first round at Shelton Stadium.) Finally, Region IV is a struggle to predict. The early season favorites in CC Vets Memorial have struggled throughout this season, which might open the door to an RGV team like McAllen Memorial to finally get to the state semis. Or CC Flour Bluff might sneak through. I've got Colleyville Heritage, Denton Ryan, Manvel and McAllen Memorial advancing to the state semis with Ryan winning over Manvel to go back-to-back. In the other classifications, I have GP North Shore (6A DI), Westlake (6A DII), Aledo (5A DII), Stephenville (4A DI), Carthage (4A DII), West (3A DI), Franklin (3A DII), Refugio (2A DI), Mart (2A DII), Abbott (1A DI) and Motley County (1A DII).

Recaps are up here: https://smbc.uiltexas.org/

Finally Summit and Lake Ridge's numbers have been added to that list. Summit turns in 1923.5 which is a half a student more than Rouse (please don't ask me how you can have half a student). It might be close between the 5A DI and DII cutoff. Lake Ridge turns in 2607, which is tops in MISD. Also, Allen's number of 7102 would rank as the 184-most populated county in Texas, coming in between Dallam and Brooks County (bonus points if you know where those counties are without looking it up). The more I look at these numbers, the more I'm convinced we'll see a 7A next realignment cycle. By my count there are 50 schools with enrollments over 3,000, and I'm not sure that list is complete.

If anyone here didn't get the Box 5 subscription for prelims, Box 5 is showing the retreat on YouTube.

Legacy will get back to the state contest, I'm sure of it. The jump y'all made between 2019 and 2021 was incredible. I see a lot of where Summit was in 2017-2018 in y'all's program. Another year or two with your director, and y'all will be a force to be reckoned with. You were much better than your 10th place showing at Area F. The only thing that will hold you back is that the realignment numbers will likely push you to 6A, which will make the road to San Antonio really hard. But I think y'all can hold your own. The race to be the first MISD school to get to state a second time will be a fun one.

Agreed. Wakeland was definitely the top group of that block. I'm not entirely sure where Summit fits into that block (really hard to set my bias aside). El Paso Hanks and Rio Grande City were absolutely wonderful too. Loved seeing McCallum, Fulshear and A&M Consolidated for the first time. On another note, it's really making it hard to focus on work with so many great programs (WFH for the win).

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the UIL doesn't like that info getting out until after the contest is done. I mean, there's a reason that they (and also BOA for that matter) don't post the full recaps until after finals is finished. Also, I think another reason is that they don't want to chance the finals judges from seeing those results and possibly allowing them to form an opinion before the first band of finals even takes the field. Whether that would actually happen, I don't know. But why even take that risk with so much on the line. I think we can just chill and wait an extra day before pouring over the results. And also, it just adds to the suspense of finals retreat.