This Week in Texas High School Football: Major moves in the Metroplex, Allen upgrades the schedule and some 7-on-7 news

Photo by Gary Sanderson

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Aledo makes a big change
Aledo ISD on Thursday announced a bombshell with the announcement of a restructuring of its athletic department. Head coach Steve Wood, who has posted an incredible 75-4 record with three state titles in just five years at the helm, will move into the role of Aledo ISD Athletic Director. Wood was promoted to the head coaching spot in 2014 after Tim Buchanan moved into the role of athletic director after a wildly successful 21-year run in Aledo winning 227 games and taking home five state titles. Buchanan, during his tenure as athletic director, never closed the door on returning to the sidelines one day, and honestly knowing Coach Buchanan, administration isn’t something he particularly enjoyed. He knows his place is on the sidelines and was thrilled to be offered the chance to do it at the same spot where he had so much success. Don’t expect much to change around the Aledo program, similar to how nothing really changed in 2014 when Wood took the reins of the program from Buchanan. Also of note, Monterrin “Money” Parks, a three-star WR recruit who is committed to the University of Utah transferred back to Aledo on Tuesday from Fort Worth All Saints. Parks, a First-Team TAPPS All-State WR, was a starting WR at Aledo as a sophomore and will add to an already explosive offense that features Oklahoma commit RB Jase McClellan and talented 2021 ATH JoJo Earle.

Claude Mathis is back in DeSoto
Four years after departing DeSoto to take a job on Chad Morris’ staff at SMU, Claude Mathis is back home in DeSoto, where he led the Eagles to an impressive 74-18 record and a pair of state semifinal runs in seven seasons from 2008-2014. Mathis, who had spent the last two years at Marshall, kept many ties to the DeSoto community during his absence from the sidelines. He’ll look to restore stability to a program that has been on a roller coaster ride for the past four years. A disasterous 6-6 season in 2015, an incredible 16-0 state title run in 2016 under Todd Peterman, then issues with the school board and Peterman that hovered over the program for a full year before Peterman’s resignation in January 2018. DeSoto’s, much-publicized coaching search in 2018 that ended in the hiring of Mike Robinson who lasted eight months before being reassigned to a role in the athletic department in December. This is a school and community that’s been through quite a bit recently. The Eagles have been solid the last two seasons with a combined 19-5 record, but in DeSoto the bar is much higher than that and Mathis will look to get the Eagles back among the elite programs in the state. The challenge is a different one now, as before it was DeSoto and Cedar Hill battling it out for bragging rights in the Southwest Dallas County corridor, with Duncanville being nothing more than an after-thought. The landscape has changed, Duncanville is now the power in the area with DeSoto and Cedar Hill scrambling to play catch up, while private school power Bishop Dunne is also siphoning talent away from the area. It’s an ultra-competitive landscape and Mathis will need to hire a quality staff and hit the ground running to keep up in one of the country’s most talent-rich areas.

Thiebaud retires at Cypress Ridge
Cypress Ridge for the first time in school history will have someone other than Gary Thiebaud leading its program. Thiebaud had led the Rams since 2004 and posted an 82-80 overall record. His best year was 2016 when Cy Ridge posted an 11-3 mark and advanced to the 6A Division II Regional Finals. The Cy Ridge job is posted and with Cy-Fair ISD being an attractive place to live and work. There’s no doubt this one will receive plenty of interest statewide.

Fort Bend Hightower names Joseph Sam
Fort Bend Hightower on Friday announced the hiring of Mansfield Legacy defensive coordinator Joseph Sam as its next head football coach. Sam, who also served as recruiting coordinator for the Broncos, spearheaded one of the top defensive units in the state at the 5A level at Legacy and helped the Broncos to the 5A Division II semifinals in 2017. Legacy was among the favorites in 5A Division I in 2018, before injuries decimated ranks for the Broncos. Sam, who is a Lancaster graduate, is one of the more highly regarded young coaching talents in the area, before his stint at Mansfield Legacy he was an assistant coach at Mesquite Poteet with Randy Jackson.

Aaron Price returns to the college ranks
After taking over a team that went 0-10 in 2016, Aaron Price needed just two seasons to turn things around at El Paso Hanks and get the Knights back into the playoffs, which he did in 2018 with a squad that went 6-5. Price, however decided last week to head back to the college coaching ranks, where he’s spent much of his time learning under his dad Mike Price as he accepted the special teams coordinator role at Northern Arizona University.

Lubbock Cooper as expected promotes from within
After its best season in school history, fast-growing Lubbock Cooper ISD decided to have a full-time athletic director and split duties from the head football coach position. Max Kattwinkel, who had served in both roles, moved into the athletic director chair shortly before the holiday break. On Tuesday night to no one’s surprise, the district stayed in-house and promoted offensive coordinator Chip Darden to the role of head football coach. He’ll have some big shoes to fill as Kattwinkel posted an impressive 57-18 record in six seasons, including 2018’s 13-1 campaign.

Hal Wasson returns home
After a controversial and much publicized departure from Southlake Carroll last off-season, Hal Wasson will be back on the sidelines in 2019 leading the Corsicana Tigers. Wasson was named Irving ISD Athletic Director last spring, returns to his roots in a lot of ways as he’s a native of nearby Kerens. Coach Wasson as a young assistant coach in the mid 1980’s spent some time at Corsicana High so he’s obviously familiar with the community and the hire from all indications seems to be well received in Navarro County. Wasson also has ties to the current Corsicana superintendent from her time spent at Carroll ISD.

Marshall expects to move quickly
Don’t look for the Marshall Mavericks to be without a HFC/AD for long as most expect MISD to move very quickly in replacing Claude Mathis who departed after a 10-3 season to take over at DeSoto. The big question for Marshall ISD administration is do they try and keep staff continuity with an inside hire as there’s plenty of talent in place for a big 2019 season, or do they look outside as there’s no doubt the job will draw some major attention?

Hillsboro starting interviews
Hillsboro, which is recombining the athletic director/head football coach position, should begin interviews for the vacant spot next week. Interestingly, current head football coach Joey Moss did not apply for the position and from all indications will not return to Hillsboro next season. Leading candidates include a current Central Texas head coach with extensive ties to the community and a current Big Country assistant coach. Reports are both of these coaches have been seen on campus at least informally checking out the facilities during the holiday break.

Scott Ponder returns to his roots
Bells head coach Scott Ponder announced to his team Tuesday afternoon that he had accepted the HFC/AD position at Center High School in East Texas. Ponder, a native of nearby Tenaha, had spent the past five years at BHS compiling a 32-24 record. Ponder has 18-years of head coaching experience with stops at Petrolia, Wichita Falls Rider and Iowa Park before his time at Bells. He led Petrolia to a state title in 2002 and led Wichita Falls Rider to the regional finals in 2004, 2006 and 2007. His overall record as a head coach is 127-86.

Petrolia update
I received an update from Petrolia CISD David Hedges that the district received 61 applications for the job and an interview committee would be formed sometime next week to begin going through the applications and to narrow the field. Expect six to 10 candidates to be called in for interviews starting up in early February. The district would prefer to have a hire done by the end of the month, but a more realistic timeline appears to be early March.

Lovelady stays in-house
Lovelady decided to stay inside with the promotion of offensive coordinator Will Kirchhoff to AD/HFC, effective at the end of the school year. Kirchhoff replaces Jon Lowrey who announced his retirement after the Lions had been eliminated from the Class 2A Division II playoffs. Lowrey is remaining on as the athletic director through the end of the school year as he’s been serving as the boys basketball head coach as well.

Allen Changes Up the Non-District Schedule
It’s not often we see major schedule adjustments during a non-realignment year, but Allen is certainly making some adjustments. The Eagles, who last year opened the season with Mesquite Horn and then played Salt Lake City East (UT) will have two brand new non-district opponents. Allen will open the season at home against Cedar Hill and then in Week 2 they’ll host Houston area powerhouse Dickinson in a fascinating cross-regional matchup. These two games will certainly be an upgrade in schedule for the Eagles from last year. Mesquite Horn, who played Allen last year in Week 1 will now travel to Tyler to visit John Tyler for the opening of the 2019 season. John Tyler visited Cedar Hill in Week 1 last year. Pasadena Memorial played Dickinson in Week 2 last year and now the Mavericks will play Conroe Grand Oaks in Week 2. Grand Oaks is a new varsity program that will enter a UIL district in 2020 realignment.

Possible expansion of Division III in 7-on-7 play
Last summer, the Texas 7-on-7 board introduced the Division III group as a pilot for the 2018 State Tournament. The division split off from Division II and includes 3A Division II and below schools and from all indications was a massive success for the smaller schools and allowed for more equitable competition. There were eight qualifying tournaments across the state last year as 16 teams advanced to the State 7-on-7 Tournament in College Station, with Gunter taking home the title last summer. With that success, I expect the Texas 7-on-7 board In their annual meeting in February to expand the Division III field from 16 teams to 32 teams. The big question, is what happens in the Division II bracket, which was reduced from 64 to 48 teams last year. Does Division II drop to 32 teams to even the brackets out?

It’s officially clinic season in the state of Texas and if you have coaching clinic information that we are missing below by all means send it our way! You can e-mail it to me at matt.stepp@texasfootball.com or reach out to me on twitter @Matt_Stepp817.

January 18-19: Alamo City Clinic, San Antonio

January 18-19: Piney Woods Clinic, Longview

January 25-26: DFW Clinic, Grapevine

January 25-26: City of Palms Clinic, McAllen

January 26: Texan Drive Clinic, Porter

February 6: THSCA FAST Tackling Clinic, Lubbock

February 8-10: Lone Star Clinic, College Station

February 13: THSCA FAST Tackling Clinic, McAllen

February 15-16: Hill Country Clinic, Fredericksburg

February 15-16: South Plains Clinic, Lubbock

February 16: Farmersville Clinic, Farmersville

February 20: THSCA FAST Tackling Clinic, Longview

March 6: THSCA FAST Tackling Clinic, El Paso

May 3-4: I-45 Clinic, The Woodlands

May 3-4: El Paso Football Clinic, El Paso

June 11-13: Angelo Football Clinic, San Angelo

July 21-23: 2017 THSCA Coaches Convention & Coaching School, Houston

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Matt Stepp is the Texas High School Football Inside for Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. Find him on Twitter: @Matt_Stepp817.

 

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