The Most Improved TXHSFB Teams of 2025
Mission Veterans Memorial Patriots, Sheldon C.E. King Panthers and Mansfield Lake Ridge Eagles headline the most improved TXHSFB teams of 2025.
2025 Season: 10-2
2024 Season: 2-9
Mission Veterans Memorial is the DCTX winner of ‘Most Improved Team’ in 2025. By and large, the same group of athletes, playing the exact same schedule, went from 2-9 to 10-2, the program’s first double-digit win season since 2018. The one regular-season loss was by one point.
Coach David Gilpin told his players and parents all offseason that last year was an aberration. The Patriots were 0-5 in games within 10 points and were -19 in the turnover battle. Gilpin’s staff has been at Mission Veterans Memorial for 17 seasons. While the Patriots are known for their flashy, spread offense, the program prides itself on a blue-collar work ethic, which they returned to in 2025.
Sophomore QB Roman Reyna won District 15-5A DII Overall MVP at the helm of that offense. Reyna started the final five games of the season as a freshman and totaled 65 rushing yards. But this year, he blossomed into the dual-threat playmaker who could thrive in the organized chaos of the scramble drill. Reyna led the Patriots with 929 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns.
“Kid is a stud,” Gilpin said. “This is an extremely talented young man. He can spin it with anyone in the state.”
The defense had massive question marks entering the 2025 season. The Patriots had lost the program’s all-time tackles leader, Aiden Uribe, and had one defensive lineman on the roster before spring ball. But senior linebacker Cuauhtemoc Labastida earned the district’s Defensive MVP honors with 124 tackles, 17 tackles for loss and nine sacks. Guillermo Garcia, the district’s Defensive Lineman of the Year, was nearly unblockable with 19 tackles for loss and seven sacks.
Gilpin’s staff won the district’s Coaching Staff of the Year, but he measures the season based on how many gold balls they collect. So mwhether you look at the district awards, the district championship or the bi-district playoff win, 2025 was a resounding success.
“If we can call ourselves a championship team at the end of the year, whether it’s a district championship or a bi-district championship or a playoff run, then it was a successful year,” Gilpin said. “That’s the way we measure ourselves. To be able to do so with two Gold Balls last year, coming off of a rough year, we felt really good.”
Crawford. 3-9 to 10-2
Stinnett West Texas, 7-4 to 14-1
Fort Bend Crawford, 5-6 to 12-2
Merkel. 0-10 to 7-5
Chilton, 3-7 to 10-2
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