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SECTION B • PAGE 1
TX RTS .COM JULY 14, 2016 THE ADVOCATE
It’s Football Magazine Season
East View receiver Mason Klinger and his Patriot teammates are a consensus eighth place choice in 19-5A. Photo: Russell Rinn
GHS linebacker Matt May and his Eagles are a consensus runner-up pick in the 19-5A race. Photo: Russell Rinn
Texas Football, The Old Coach Have Their Say Lapping The Field
Galen Wellnicki
Football predictions can be a lot like the elegantly wrapped presents under the tree as the calendar counts down to December 25th. They build anticipation. Will they be the greatest thing since toilet paper, or will they simply be a source of toilet paper? Will that beautiful box of moderate size hold the keys to a fully equipped BMW or your 87th tie with color stripes created by a hungover third-world fabric dye maker or the third copy of that Justin Bieber album that was in your two previous packages — each with a life-sized poster? There are no guarantees. That’s why they play the games, so says the television color commentator who gets a six-figure salary for saying things like that, along with, the team with the most points, runs or goals seems to always win. Both of the state’s primary high school football magazines are on the shelves in retail establishments — Dave Campbell’s Texas Football and The Old Coach Friday Night Football Texas. Texas Football has been around since 1960 when Longhorns running back Jack Collins graced the cover, 574 high school teams were previewed, and the price tag was a then momentous
“I’m excited about our 2016 team. The kids have had a great off-season and expect to be in the playoff hunt this year. As for preseason predictions, it’s not where you start, but where you finish. We have some great kids that are going to compete every week and at the end we will see where we are.” Rob Davies, Head coach East View High School
50 cents — basically the cost of three chili dogs and a Pepsi. In that first 96-page magazine, Port Arthur Jefferson, Sweetwater, Olney and Stinnett were picked to win the state championships in then Classes 4A-A. Bellville’s Ednie Koy Jr., older brother of Georgetown’s Ted Koy was on the first
Super Team, along with a Williamson County running back from Taylor named Budgie Ford. By the way, none of the four championship picks even made the title games in 1960 that were won by Corpus Christi Miller, Brownwood, Denver City and Albany. The Old Coach FNF Texas is in its seventh season and is totally devoted to all things high school football, while Texas Football also does both the pros and the state’s colleges — with a major exception in Georgetown. There’s no mention of Southwestern University’s four-year-old program. No blurb in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference preview and no schedule. It jumps from Austin College, Texas Lutheran and Trinity to Southwestern Assemblies of God, a small college in Waxahachie, if you don’t follow the sport on a sub-Division I level. Where was the ball fumbled? It seems that a school such as SU would want to be in a magazine that previews more than 1,400 Texas high schools, and is at least glanced at by a majority of the players on those teams and the parents and guardians who are looking for quality educational providers for their non-Division I or Division II athletes. Next year, SU takes a major step up the competitive ladder when it joins the American Southwest Conference with the likes of Mary Hardin-Baylor and Hardin-Simmons where a hyphen in the name seems to guarantee a successful season.
“We do not pay a whole lot attention to preseason magazines predictions. I am pretty sure that those predications are never accurate. Our team is concentrating on week one and opening up to play Fort Worth Brewer at Baylor University… We are excited about our team and the 2016 football season, and are working hard these last few weeks of summer to make sure we are ready to go on Aug. 8.” Jason Dean, Head Coach Georgetown High School But let’s get back to our thesis subject — high school football projections, especially those effecting Georgetown, East View and their fellow District 19-5A schools. Football Magazines cont. on B2
The excitement is beginning to build for another season of GISD football as exhibited by students during last season’s annual battle between the East View Patriots and Georgetown Eagles.
Photo: Russell Rinn