Those five categories are calibrated to a 100-point scale. A perfect six-year stretch — 96-0 (or 90-0 in 6-man) with six state titles — earns a perfect 100. A perfectly miserable six-year slog at 0-96 (or 0-90) nets a zero. Everyone else lands somewhere in between.
This year’s rankings reflect the 2020 through 2025 seasons; last year’s edition covered 2019 through 2024. As always, a program must have competed in six varsity seasons to qualify. That means emerging powers that haven’t completed a full six-year run — like Richmond Randle, San Antonio Davenport and Canyon West Plains — won’t appear just yet.
That said, here are the five biggest risers in the TXHSFB Program Rankings from 2025 to 2026 (1 being highest).
2025 Rank: 816
2026 Rank: 427
The 2024 season was an inflection point for Frank Martinez’s tenure at El Paso El Dorado.
After inheriting a program in 2021 that had gone 4-22 in the previous three seasons, Martinez had more than doubled the win total in the next two years. But an injury-riddled 1-9 campaign in 2023 could have derailed the positive momentum.
Instead, the Aztecs put up back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time in program history. Martinez says the bounce-back is a testament to the blue-collar and numerous military families who feed into the school, like QB Brycen Booth and New Mexico State signee JaDarius Sanders.
“It’s a mix of different economic situations that we have here,” Martinez said. “But everybody is just hardworking individuals, from our booster club to freshman kids, and everyone in between. From Day One, when these guys come in, they’re already ‘Yes sir, no sir,’ guys because they were raised the right way.”
El Dorado’s hard-nosed style on the field represents the families in the area. The school has produced back-to-back Division I running backs in Isaiah Rudison (New Mexico State) and Ryan Estrada (Minnesota). Estrada racked up over 5,223 rushing yards the past two years combined.
Estrada may have graduated, but El Paso El Dorado returns Booth, a three-year starter and the reigning District 1-5A DII Offensive MVP.
2025 Rank: 900
2026 Rank: 492
Over 12 seasons as the head coach at Orangefield, Josh Smalley became the winningest coach in program history and made ten playoff appearances. He loved the kids and community. But his heartstrings tugged him home. Bridge City, his alma mater, had suffered through seven consecutive losing seasons.
“It was the last opportunity I was going to get to go back home and make a difference,” Smalley said. “My career is 30 years in now. I’ll be 50 years old in a week.”
When he got the Bridge City job two years ago, his first impression was how hungry the kids were to win. That spring, a freshman linebacker named Bryce Breeden told Smalley that he had two goals: to play major college football, and turn Bridge City into a football school. Breeden, now entering his senior season, is about to accomplish that first goal with over 30 scholarship offers. And Bridge City is well on its way to fulfilling the second goal after posting 8-3 and 11-2 records in the last two years, respectively.
Before Smalley, change was the only constant in Bridge City. The Cardinals had had four offensive coordinators in the last four years. Smalley still sends a monthly group text with his first group of seniors, Class of 2025 leaders like Hutch Bearden, Luke Williams, and Zach Dommert. Part of it is just checking in. Part of it is thanking them for setting the foundation of his tenure.
“The last time I was in Bridge City was 2012, and a lot of those guys were in first grade,” Smalley said. “They didn’t know me. All they knew was that I was a bald guy from Orangefield who ran the Slot-T. They could’ve been upset, mad, frustrated, and nobody would’ve blamed them. So I think most of the credit goes to that first group of seniors when we got there for taking care of business.”
Smalley thought about those graduated seniors throughout the spectacular 2025 run. Every week, he’d look at the stands, see they’d gotten a little fuller, and realize this was everything he came back for.
“This year was something I’ve never seen,” Smalley said. “Everybody in the school district was bought in and all in on all we were doing. Being able to host a playoff game in Round One against Chapel Hill and seeing the stands full, it was an exciting time.”
The exciting times figure to keep on rolling with Breeden and fellow linebacker Keagan Trahan back leading the defense. The offense returns quarterback Hudson Hoffman, who threw for 2,400 yards and 28 touchdowns. Now, the Cardinals will have to compete as the hunted instead of the hunters.
2025 Rank: 983
2026 Rank: 566
Stop us if you’ve heard this one: there’s a Rigdon making waves in six-man football.
The family patriarch, Jamie, a long-time coach, and son Grayson, arguably the greatest six-man football player of all time before winning a Class 3A DI State Championship with Columbus as a senior, have grabbed most of the headlines over the years. But Wesley Rigdon, Grayson’s older brother, is adding to the family name after taking over a winless Three Way program in 2024 and leading them to a 9-2 and 11-2 record over the last two seasons.
But Rigdon insists the story of Three Way’s turnaround is not about him. This program is created in the players’ image.
“It’s very much their program,” Rigdon said. “I know James Rigdon is the head coach. But it has been molded exactly how they want to see things. These kids very much run the program and make decisions. They built this from scratch by buying in and backing up what they say.”
When Rigdon took the job in April 2024, he started his first team meeting by asking his players how they wanted to be coached instead of laying down the law of how they would be coached. That was the first moment the players sensed he’d be different. They found out how different he actually was once Rigdon implemented the changes they wanted to see in the program, such as shorter Wednesday practices and new uniforms.
That difference in strategy has led to different results on the field and a rise of 417 spots in the TXHSFB program rankings.
2025 Rank: 919
2026 Rank: 481
Teams like Denton Ryan, Denton Guyer, and Argyle take up a lot of the oxygen in Denton, America. But the Krum Bobcats are an under-the-radar ascending program just nine miles to the northwest. In 2024, the Bobcats won their first playoff game in seven years, finishing 9-3. Last season, the first after promoting offensive coordinator Chris Taber to head coach, Krum earned the first undefeated district championship in program history.
“We talk about the power of the tongue,” Taber said. “We don’t use words like ‘hope’ and ‘wish.’ The expectation is that ‘we will.’ That’s been our motto for the last four years. Now, we kind of step off the bus with a little bit of confidence that we’re going to win instead of hoping to win.”
Before former head coach Chuck Caniford and Taber came to Krum in 2022, the Bobcats had gone 8-41 combined in the last five years. But players like three-year starting quarterback Ty Taber (Chris’s son) and lineman Ethan Bard (now at Hardin-Simmons) were able to send Caniford off into retirement on a high note following the 2025 season — and set the table for the Chris Taber era.
With 2,100-yard rusher and District 4-5A DII MVP Will Holland at the head of Taber’s power spread offense and First Team All-District linebacker Mateo Gonzalez at the heartbeat of the defense, Krum knocked off rival Van Alstyne for the first time since pre-2018.
Holland (Navarro College) and Gonzalez (graduation) may be gone, but the cupboard is far from bare. Class of 2028 wide receiver AJ Criss is a matchup nightmare at 6-foot-7 who earned Denton Record Chronicle’s Newcomer of the Year honors. The Bobcats also bring back District Defensive MVP Connor Griffin and District Utility Player of the Year Hudson James.
2025 Rank: 891
2026 Rank: 449
After a 12-1 season, Marvin Sedberry Jr. has been invited to an offseason tour of Texas coaching clinics to share insight on how he coached Terrell to the highest win total since 1997. What these coaches don’t know is that Sedberry is spending just as much time examining the other teams. His biggest takeaway: a lot of programs are doing the same thing.
“From a 5A and 6A level, I think there’s only like two or three programs running our (Wing-T) offense,” Sedberry said. “Now, 4A and down, there’s a whole lot more. But everybody is so cookie-cutter and spread happy.”
Sedberry believes his ground-and-pound attack gives his team an edge. For starters, his players are tougher because they have to defend it every day in practice. The defense did not allow more than 14 points in a game until Week 7. But come late October and early November, when the weather dips, the stakes rise, and the bumps and bruises pile up, no defense wants the headache the Terrell Tigers bring.
“We have formations where we have one split receiver,” Sedberry said. “What is that corner on the other side doing? All of a sudden, he has to become a force player. If you play us Week 7 or Week 8, and all that kid has done is cover, cover, cover, he has to come down into the box. Is he really prepared to do that?”
Judging by the 12 wins, which propelled Terrell to the fastest climb up the TXHSFB program rankings, they weren’t.
Last year’s team was a testament to the Sedberry system. The class of 2026 seniors were in sixth grade when Sedberry took over in 2019. It was the first group that had come through the middle school and high school ranks, only knowing one way — competition.
“We make everything a competition, whether it’s attendance or who gets dressed the fastest,” Sedberry said. “You’re accountable for everything that you do. So it’s a competition.”
The Tigers will have an uphill climb to match their 2025 win total next season. Terrell graduated all five offensive linemen and was thrown into a new East Texas-centric District 6-5A DII with increased travel. But Sedberry is confident that his staff’s development and retention of players means the 2026 season won’t be the climax of his tenure. When he got the job in 2019, Terrell had 50 kids in the entire program. Next year’s senior class is projected to have 33 athletes.
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