The 2019 Texas high school football season will draw to a close this week, as AT&T Stadium in Arlington began hosting the UIL football state championship games on Wednesday with the two Class 1A (i.e. six-man) divisions and Class 2A Division I, and will finish on Saturday night with the Class 6A Division II final. All of the state championship games will be broadcast on either Fox Sports Southwest or Fox Sports Southwest Plus, and you can follow the action there. (For those fortunate enough to not have Dish or SlingTV, that is. Sigh.)

Four Texas Longhorn commits saw their teams advance to the state championships with wins in last week’s semifinal round, though only two of those four will be suiting up and playing, as the other two are out with injuries.

Two other commits whose teams reached the state semifinals had their seasons come to an end last week. 2020 quarterback Hudson Card, playing in just his second game after suffering a foot injury on October 11, led a valiant Lake Travis offensive effort against the defending 6A Division I state champions from Galena Park North Shore, but that effort ended with a 49-38 defeat. Elsewhere, Lake Travis’s archrival, Austin Westlake, put an emphatic end to the season of 2021 offensive lineman Hayden Conner and his Katy Taylor team by a score of 63-3. Taylor had made a surprising run to the state semifinals after a 4th place finish in its district and a 5-5 regular season record.

Lake Travis’s loss denied fans a chance to see a Class 6A Division I final with two Longhorn QB commits facing off against each other, but it did set up a much-anticipated re-match of last year’s state championship pairing. 2020 QB Ja’Quinden Jackson and his top-ranked Duncanville team rolled to a 56-14 win over Rockwall and reached their second straight state championship, where they will get another shot at the North Shore team that beat them on a last-second Hail Mary in the 2018 state final. But that win over Rockwall came at a cost, as Jackson left the game after suffering a knee injury in the 2nd quarter with his team leading 35-0, and that injury was later determined to be a torn ACL.

The Class 5A Division I final will involve three Longhorn commits. 2021 teammates Billy Bowman and Ja’Tavion Sanders both had big contributions in Denton Ryan’s dominating 35-7 semifinal win over top-ranked Frisco Lone Star, while 2020 defensive back Xavion Alford saw his Alvin Shadow Creek team beat San Antonio Wagner 45-21 in that classification’s other semifinal and advance to its second straight state final. Alford has missed essentially all of the 2019 season due to injury and won’t get the chance to play against his future teammates tonight. Thus Bowman and Sanders are, at this point, the only Longhorn commits who will actually be suiting up and playing this week.

Still, that Denton Ryan-Shadow Creek final assures the continuation of a Longhorn-related state championship streak that I’ve written about in past posts. As far as I’ve been able to determine, 1995 was the last season in which none of the teams that won Texas state championships had a future Texas Longhorn on their roster. That streak was kept alive in 2018 by 2019 signee Jordan Whittington and his record-setting performance in leading Cuero to the Class 4A Division II state championship. And Texas later received commitments from 2020 recruits Prince Dorbah (Highland Park) and Sawyer Goram-Welch (Longview), whose teams also won state titles in 2018.

Speaking of Goram-Welch, the east Texas defensive lineman announced his commitment to Texas on Sunday, becoming the 17th member of the #cloUT2020 class, and the first recruit added to the program since 2020 athlete Dajon Harrison (Hutto) committed on November 5. He joins Vernon Broughton (Cypress Ridge) as the team’s current defensive line commits, and his pledge comes two weeks after the de-commitment of Utah defensive end Van Fillinger.

Sadly, the 2020 recruiting class went back to 16 members a day later when wide receiver Quentin Johnston (Temple), who had been committed to the Longhorns for four months, announced that he had flipped his commitment to TCU on virtually the eve of the first National Signing Day. This column had followed Johnston’s exploits for over a year, this season as a Longhorn commit, and in 2018 as the frequent receiving target of then-commit Jared Wiley, the Longhorn tight end who spent his senior season as Temple’s QB.

Then, in a surprising twist, the Longhorns flipped 2020 Utah LB commit Jaylan Ford (Frisco Lone Star), and he signed with the UT program on Thursday, just days after his future teammates Billy Bowman and Ja’Tavion Sanders of Denton Ryan helped to end his team’s season in the state semifinals. That brought the 2020 class back to 17 members with barely a month and a half left before the traditional February National Signing Day, or NSD2 as it is now known with the advent of the early signing day.

Will any more commits be added between this writing and next week, when this column puts a bow on the 2019 high school season? Stay tuned.

State championship week annually brings the announcement of the all-state teams voted on by the Texas AP Sports Editors, and a number of future Longhorns were named to one team or another.

On the Class 5A all-state team, newly-minted 2020 signee Jaylan Ford (Frisco Lone Star) earned 2nd team honors at linebacker, while 2021 athlete Billy Bowman (Denton Ryan) was a 2nd team defensive back. Cornerback signee Kitan Crawford (Tyler John Tyler) made honorable mention all-state at both running back and defensive back, 2020 signee Prince Dorbah (Highland Park) and 2021 commit Ja’Tavion Sanders (Denton Ryan) were both honorable mention defensive linemen, and 2020 signee Jerrin Thompson (Lufkin) was an honorable mention defensive back.

On the Class 6A all-state list, 2020 offensive line signees Jake Majors (Prosper) and Logan Parr (San Antonio O’Connor) were both 2nd team honorees, while 2020 QB signee Ja’Quinden Jackson (Duncanville) was named to the honorable mention at his position.

Below I’ll have notes on each of the four commits whose teams will play for a state championship this weekend, including the two injured ones who will not play. Then I’ll have brief notes on each of the commits whose seasons have already ended.

———

Longhorn commits in the 2019 Texas state championships

2020 QB Ja’Quinden Jackson (Duncanville) - injured

Last week: Completed 3 of 5 passes for 87 yards and 1 TD, and had 5 carries for 90 yards and 1 TD in a 56-14 win over Rockwall in the semifinal round of the Class 6A Division I playoffs.
This week: Saturday, December 21 at 3:00, vs. Galena Park North Shore (at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium) in the Class 6A Division I state championship.
Notes: Duncanville and Galena Park North Shore were thought to be on a collision course since their memorable meeting in the 2018 6A Division I championship. The two programs both returned loads of talent in 2019 and began this season ranked #1 and #2 in Texas, and the USA Today Super 25 Expert rankings had North Shore at #2 and Duncanville at #8 in the nation.

North Shore was defeated by then-#5 Katy in the season’s opening week, and Duncanville took over the state’s top ranking for the remainder of the season. North Shore rebounded from that loss to win its next 14 straight games, including a playoff re-match with Katy. Going into their state championship rematch Duncanville is ranked #2 nationally by USA Today, while North Shore is #7.

To get to the state final once again Duncanville had to knock off Rockwall and its prolific offense in last week’s semifinals, and the Panthers did just that. Senior RB and Central Arkansas commit Trysten Smith ran for a 74-yard TD on the game’s second offensive play, Then on Rockwall’s first drive Duncanville got a 68-yard pick-six. After forcing a Rockwall punt from its own 40-yard line, the Panthers needed just two plays to get into the end zone again, this time on a 72-yard run by WR Roderick Daniels that made the score 21-0 less than four full minutes into the game.

Rockwall went three-and-out on its next two drives, while Duncanville turned the ball over on downs after reaching the red zone on one possession, but its offense redeemed itself on its next possession when Ja’Quinden Jackson scored on a 59-yard run with 50 seconds left in the opening quarter, which made the score 28-0.

Rockwall’s offense converted just one first down in the 1st quarter, but went on a long drive early in the 2nd quarter that had a 1st down at the Duncanville 26-yard line. But after being pushed back by a penalty and getting minimal gains on two runs, the Yellowjackets gave back the ball following an incomplete pass on 4th-and-7. Two plays later, Jackson connected with receiver Marquelan Crowell for an 81-yard TD pass that put the Panthers ahead 35-0 with 7:41 left in the 2nd quarter.

Two possessions later came the play that may end up being the definitive one of Duncanville’s 2019 season. On a first down at his team’s 17-yard line, Jackson ran for five yards and took a hit to his left knee as he was planting on that leg, and he was reportedly down for several minutes before being helped off the field. You can watch a video of the hit in question here, if you have the stomach for such things.

Jackson’s injury was later reported to be a torn ACL, which will force him to sit out Saturday’s state championship game. Taking his place as Duncanville’s starting QB will be freshman Chris Parson. Parson has gotten some varsity run this season in some blowout wins, but hasn’t seen the field in a situation when the outcome of a game was in question.

After Jackson was sidelined, Duncanville went three-and-out and punted, and its next two possessions ended with a turnover on downs and a missed field goal. But the Panthers got back on track in the 3rd quarter, as Parson led three straight scoring drives that put them ahead 56-7 going into the 4th. Parson completed 1 of 2 passes for a 36-yard TD, and had 4 carries for 14 yards and 1 TD. Three of his carries went for negative yards, and the first (which came on a 3rd-and-6 play two snaps after Jackson’s injury) was likely a sack, as it resulted in a loss of 19 yards. But his final carry of the game was a 38-yard TD run with 27 seconds left in the 3rd quarter that capped off Duncanville’s scoring for the game.

Duncanville forced three turnovers, outgained Rockwall 448-229, gained 365 rushing yards, and perhaps most impressively, its defense held Rockwall’s extremely prolific five-star wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba (an Ohio State commit who came into the game with over 2,100 yards and 35 TDs receiving for the season) to 5 catches for just 37 yards and no TDs on the day.

Jackson’s absence certainly changes the complexion of the much-anticipated rematch with North Shore on Saturday. The Duncanville offense has been dominant on the ground during the postseason, averaging 377.6 rushing yards in its first five playoff games, and the Panthers committed no turnovers in four of those five games. With a freshman under center getting his first career start in the state championship against an experienced defense boasting several future D1 athletes, the conservative strategy would be to rely on the ground game and not dial up a great number of passes, so the Panthers’ attack could be even more run-centric than it has been with Jackson healthy.

But Chris Parson is far from a scrub backup. For a freshman skill position player to be getting varsity playing time at one of the ten largest high schools in the state and on one of the top-ranked teams in the nation is a notable accomplishment in itself. Parson has only attempted 28 passes and had 28 carries this season, but just hours after Duncanville’s semifinal win over Rockwall he reported via his Twitter account that he’d received his first offer from Kansas. It will likely be the first of many offers.

Both Duncanville and North Shore have faced and beaten solid opponents on their road through the playoffs.

Duncanville’s last three playoff wins were against teams that were ranked at the end of the regular season — #22 Rockwall, #6 Southlake Carroll, and #10 Arlington Martin — and those games were decided by an average margin of 28 points.

North Shore has also beaten three straight ranked playoff foes — #11 Lake Travis, #9 Humble Atascocita, and #2 Katy — and the Mustangs’ wins in the first two rounds came against a pair of unranked teams that went 9-1 in the regular season. North Shore has won its five playoff games by an average margin of 27 points, and its explosive offense — led by five-star running back Zachary Evans, three-star running back and Utah commit John Gentry, and four-star junior quarterback and Virginia Tech commit Dematrius Davis — has averaged 412 rushing yards per game in the postseason.

The Mustangs are more than capable of passing the ball as well. Their receiving corps is led by junior four-star prospect and Texas A&M commit Shadrach Banks, but he has missed time due to injury this season and hasn’t played since North Shore’s first playoff game. In his stead, the trio of seniors Ismael Fuller (a Houston Baptist commit) and Zorhan Rideaux and junior Charles King have combined to make 29 catches for 613 yards and 8 TDs in five playoff games.

A lot more could be said about this game, but I’ll just add one more observation on special teams play. In last year’s state championship Duncanville had four drives that stalled in the red zone, and kicker Victor Escalona made three of four field goal attempts. This season, Duncanville has two kickers who have made a field goal from 40 yards or further.

Senior Ulises Lara has been the primary placekicker and he has made two of his three attempts during the playoffs. His season-long is a 46-yarder that he made in Duncanville’s area round win over Flower Mound. Junior Eduardo Galvan filled in for Lara during the Panthers’ wins over Martin and Carroll, and in the former he made a 41-yard field goal in the final seconds of the first half to put Duncanville ahead 17-7 going into the 3rd quarter of a game they would ultimately win 45-17.

I don’t know how strong North Shore is as the kicker position, but if the game were to come down to a field goal attempt from 45 yards and in, I suspect Duncanville would feel good about its chances of making it.

A Panther win on Saturday would give Duncanville its second football state title and first since 1998. A North Shore win would give the Mustangs their fourth state championship overall, and their third in the span of five seasons.

——

2020 DB Xavion Alford (Alvin Shadow Creek) - injured

Last week: Team beat San Antonio Wagner 45-21 in the semifinal round of the Class 5A Division I playoffs.

2021 ATH Billy Bowman (Denton Ryan)
2021 ATH Ja’Tavion Sanders (Denton Ryan)

Last week: Bowman caught 4 passes for 24 yards and 1 TD, returned an interception for a TD, and forced a fumble; and Sanders caught 5 passes for 92 yards in a 35-7 win over Frisco Lone Star.

This week: Friday, December 20 at 7:00 pm, Denton Ryan vs. Alvin Shadow Creek (at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium) in the Class 5A Division I state championship.
Notes: Since their teams are playing each other I’ll combine the notes for Alford, Bowman, and Sanders.

Shadow Creek, a program playing just its second season of varsity football, advanced to the 5A Division I state final for a second straight year with a semifinal win over San Antonio Wagner. Shadow Creek had ended Wagner’s 2018 season in the semifinals with a 41-24 win, and Wagner was aiming for revenge when the teams met again last week.

Shadow Creek led 17-13 late in the 2nd quarter, then scored on a 55-yard TD pass with four seconds left in the half to go ahead 24-13. It appeared the Sharks would have a two-possession lead going into the second half with them due to receive the 3rd quarter kickoff, but Wagner had other ideas and returned the ensuing kickoff 75 yards for a TD as time expired on the first half, and Shadow Creek led 24-21 at halftime.

However, Shadow Creek returned the opening kickoff of the 3rd quarter 85 yards for a TD to extend its lead to 31-21, and the Sharks would score 21 unanswered points in the second half to win going away. Wagner’s strength had been in its flexbone option running game, and the Thunderbirds compiled 273 rushing yards (100 yards below their season average), but sophomore QB Isaiah Williams was 0 for 13 on his pass attempts and was intercepted twice.

Shadow Creek, which was ranked #2 in Class 5A Division I at the conclusion of the regular season, goes into the state championship with a 15-0 record. Their only close games were a district tilt and playoff rematch with Richmond Foster, who the Sharks beat twice by a combined margin of 12 points. They won their other 13 games by an average of 44 points.

Denton Ryan, as has been documented in this column, has outscored its 2019 opponents by almost as much in just the first half. After losing to eventual state champion Highland Park in the state semifinals in each of the previous three seasons, the Ryan Raiders punched their ticket to the state championship last week with an impressive 35-7 semifinal win over previously unbeaten Frisco Lone Star, which has held the #1 ranking in Class 5A Division I for most of this season.

Both of Ryan’s Longhorn commits made some big plays that contributed to the team’s dominating win. Billy Bowman scored the game’s first points on a 20-yard TD catch on the first play of the 2nd quarter. With Ryan leading 21-0 early in the 3rd quarter, Bowman had a 19-yard pick-six on Lone Star’s first possession of the second half to give Ryan a 28-0 lead.

In the 4th quarter with Ryan leading 35-0, Lone Star got into the red zone for the first time, but Bowman stripped the ball from Lone Star receiver Brandon Spencer inside the 5-yard line, and Ryan recovered it to end that threat. Lone Star’s only points came on a 5-yard TD pass to Oklahoma commit Marvin Mims with just 4 seconds left in regulation.

Ja’Tavion Sanders also made an impact on both sides of the ball. He helped set up Ryan’s first score with a 10-yard reception on a 4th-and-6 play at the Lone Star 33-yard line late in the 1st quarter. In the 2nd quarter he made a great catch on a 34-yard pass that set Ryan up with a 1st down at the 2-yard line, and Louisiana-Lafayette signee Emani Bailey ran it in three plays later to give Ryan a 14-0 lead. Late in the 3rd quarter he caught a 19-yard pass to convert on a 3rd-and-7 play, and Ryan scored three plays later to take a 35-0 lead.

When he wasn’t making drive-extending catches on offense, Sanders was doing things like this on defense.

Between Bowman, Sanders, and senior five-star athlete and Alabama signee Drew Sanders (no relation to Ja’Tavion), the Ryan Raiders likely boast the state’s best trio of two-way playmakers. They are Ryan’s three leading receivers and have combined to make 128 receptions for 2,216 yards and 35 TDs. All three have made an impact on defense, Bowman is a special teams highlight waiting to happen, and Drew Sanders has rushed for 11 TDs and passed for 6 more (he began his high school career as a QB as a freshman at Lake Dallas, where he was a teammate of Longhorn CB Kobe Boyce). As productive as they are on offense, it wouldn’t be a surprise if all three end up playing on defense in college.

In the regular season Lone Star averaged just under 38 points in the first half, though in the playoffs the Rangers’ average dropped to 15 points through their first four games. Ryan led Lone Star 14-0 at halftime and came within five seconds of shutting them out altogether.

Through 15 games Ryan has outscored its opponents 573-43 in the first half, meaning their average halftime score has been about 38-3. Even in their five playoff games the average halftime score has been 34-5. The last team to score more than 7 points in the first half against Ryan was Highland Park in last season’s state semifinal round. Not much drama to be had when you go into halftime with a four-possession lead more often than not.

Will the Raiders be able to continue that dominance against a Shadow Creek team that has averaged 50 points per game in the playoffs? That’s the challenge. To win, Ryan will have to maintain and finish drives against a defense that has averaged over 8 tackles for loss and 2 sacks per game, and which has recorded 21 interceptions and 37 fumble recoveries, according to Shadow Creek’s MaxPreps page.

Ryan has also been opportunistic with forcing turnovers on defense, and that could be a factor tonight when it battles a Shadow Creek offense that has lost 17 fumbles and thrown 9 interceptions on the season.

It should be a great game, and it will be one of just two state finals this week that features two unbeaten teams (the 2A Division I final, in which Refugio beat Post on Thursday, was the other). A win by Ryan would give the Raiders their third state championship and first since 2002.

———

other Longhorn commits

2020 QB Hudson Card (Lake Travis)
2021 TE Lake McRee (Lake Travis) - injured, missed 2019 season

Last week: Card completed 16 of 31 passes for 286 yards, 2 TDs and 2 INTs; and had 11 carries for 65 yards and 1 TD in a 49-38 loss to Galena Park North Shore in the semifinal round of the Class 6A Division I playoffs.
Notes: Lake Travis’s season ended in the state semifinals in a loss to North Shore for a second straight year. North Shore led 28-3 at halftime, then Lake Travis scored 21 points in the 3rd quarter and managed to cut the deficit to 35-24. But they got no closer than that, as two North Shore TDs in the 4th quarter extended the lead to 49-24 with 6:45 left in the game and pretty much put it out of reach for the Cavaliers.

Hudson Card finished his high school career with over 6,400 yards passing with 80 TDs and 12 INTs (in two seasons as a starting QB), nearly 1,400 yards and 20 TDs rushing, and over 1,100 yards and 13 TDs receiving (he played WR as a sophomore).

2021 QB Jalen Milroe (Katy Tompkins)

Team lost 42-24 to Humble Atascocita in the regional round of the Class 6A Division I playoffs. Milroe was voted the MVP of District 19-6A.

2020 RB Bijan Robinson (Salpointe Catholic - Tucson, Arizona)

Team lost 24-16 to Chandler in the semifinal round of the AIA Open Division playoffs. Arizona’s all-state teams have not yet been announced, but Robinson has been named the state’s Gatorade Football Player of the Year, becoming the second straight Longhorn recruit to earn that honor after 2019 signee Jake Smith not only won that award but also was Gatorade National Football Player of the Year for 2018.

2020 WR Dajon Harrison (Hutto)

Team lost 63-14 to Alvin Shadow Creek in the area round of the Class 5A Division I playoffs. Harrison was named the co-Utility Player of the Year for District 11-5A Division I.

2020 WR Troy Omeire (Fort Bend Austin)

Team did not qualify for the Class 6A playoffs. Omeire was voted the Offensive MVP of District 20-6A.

2021 OL Hayden Conner (Katy Taylor)

Last week: Team lost to Austin Westlake 63-3 in the semifinal round of the Class 6A Division II playoffs.
Notes: Having followed Katy Taylor’s weekly results this season they were not a team I would have put money on to last more than a round or two in the playoffs, as the Mustangs had finished 5-5 in the regular season, and in four games against ranked opponents they had lost by a combined score of 213-25. But since Taylor’s enrollment was smaller than those of their district’s top two teams — Katy and Tompkins — that put them in the 6A Division II playoff bracket in a season in which practically all of Region 3’s good teams in Class 6A had ended up in the Division I bracket.

I pointed this out as early as my post previewing the first round of the playoffs five weeks ago, in which I stated, “it wouldn’t be surprising if the Mustangs extended their season by a few weeks in the playoffs, because while Region 3 in the 6A Division I bracket is one of the deepest in the state, the same region in the 6A Division II bracket is comparatively weak and does not include any ranked teams.”

And extend their season, they did! After reaching the playoffs for a school-record fourth consecutive season, the Mustangs won four games to advance out of Region 3 and into the semifinal round for the first time in school history. They faced off against traditional powerhouse Austin Westlake — which was making its 32nd consecutive postseason appearance — in the 6A Division II semifinals last week, and, as had happened in their four previous games this season in which they faced a ranked team, the Mustangs were beaten soundly.

Taylor’s only points came on a field goal with 8:10 left in the 2nd quarter that made the score 7-3. Westlake poured on 28 points in the final seven minutes of the half to take a 35-3 lead into halftime, and the rout was on. The score became 56-3 by the time the second half was four minutes old. Westlake forced four Taylor turnovers and limited the Mustangs to just 92 total yards in the game. Westlake will face Denton Guyer in the Class 6A Division II state championship on Saturday night, while Taylor finished its season with a 9-6 record and tied its school record for wins in a season.

Hayden Conner was named an All-District first team offensive lineman out of District 19-6A. He’s already huge and only a junior. He might end up being the biggest player to sign with Texas since Leonard Davis in 1997, or perhaps William Winston in 2001. Are there even any other contenders for that distinction?

2020 OL Jaylen Garth (Port Neches-Groves) - injured, missed 2019 season

Team lost 48-14 to Fort Bend Marshall in the bi-district round of the Class 5A Division II playoffs.

2020 OL Andrej Karic (Southlake Carroll)

Team lost to Southlake Carroll 49-35 in the quarterfinal round of the Class 6A Division I playoffs. Carroll finished the season 13-1 overall.

2020 OL Jake Majors (Prosper)

Team lost 59-42 to Rockwall in the quarterfinal round of the Class 6A Division I playoffs. Prosper had an overall record of 11-3, and Jake Majors was unanimously voted to the All-District first team on the offensive line for District 9-6A.

2020 OL Logan Parr (San Antonio O’Connor)

Team lost 23-20 to San Antonio Reagan in the bi-district round of the Class 6A Division I playoffs. Parr was voted an All-District first team offensive lineman for District 28-6A.

2020 DT Vernon Broughton (Cypress Ridge)

Team did not qualify for the Class 6A playoffs. Broughton was named an All-District second team defensive lineman in District 17-6A.

2020 LB Prince Dorbah (Highland Park)

Team lost to top-ranked Frisco Lone Star 33-27 (in overtime) in the regional round of the Class 5A Division I playoffs. Dorbah was unanimously named the Defensive MVP of District 6-5A Division I.

2020 LB Jaylan Ford (Frisco Lone Star)

Team lost to Denton Ryan 35-7 in the semifinal round of the Class 5A Division I playoffs. I already went over that game, so here I’ll merely add that Ford measured 6’2.5” and 205 pounds at The Opening Dallas this past March, and that before his seemingly out-of-nowhere signing with Texas this week he had been committed to Utah since October 8. He was his district’s Defensive MVP as a junior, and this fall was a key member of a Lone Star defense that allowed just under 16 points per game, and for a team that spent much of this season ranked atop Class 5A Division I. Frisco has grown exponentially in the past 30 years and has produced many quality athletes in recent memory, but Ford and 2018 signee Rafiti Ghirmai (Frisco Wakeland) are the only two Frisco ISD products to sign with Texas in the current century.

2021 LB Derrick Harris (New Caney)

Team lost 31-21 to Richmond Foster in the bi-district round of the Class 5A Division I playoffs. Derrick Harris was voted the Defensive MVP of District 9-5A Division I.

2020 DB Kitan Crawford (Tyler John Tyler)

Team lost 40-21 to College Station in the bi-district round of the Class 5A Division I playoffs. Crawford was voted to the All-District first team at both running back and cornerback in District 7-5A Division I.

2020 DB Jerrin Thompson (Lufkin)

Team lost 41-35 in double overtime to Texarkana Texas in the bi-district round of the Class 5A Division I playoffs. Thompson was voted the District MVP of District 8-5A Division I.

2021 ATH Juan Davis (Everman)

Team lost 55-24 to Red Oak in the bi-district round of the Class 5A Division II playoffs.

2020 ATH Jaden Hullaby (Mansfield Timberview)

Team lost 43-28 to Frisco Independence in the bi-district round of the Class 5A Division I playoffs. Hullaby was named to the All-District first team at QB for District 6-5A Division I.