Lake Travis moving to 5A

Its not like anyone was really surprised in the move but Lake Travis High School has moved to 5A.  They have won the last five 4A State Championships so no one was really in all that much shock when it was announced a couple of weeks ago.  Lake Travis will be in the same district as Westlake High School (Austin, Tx), Austin Bowie High School, and some other big time programs with lots of history.  The big question now is whether or not they are able to sustain the wave of momentum that has been the last 5 seasons.  Considering they beat Westlake High School on a regular basis the past few years, something tells me they will not be having that many problems.

2011 Texas High School Football State Champions

So I have been getting quite a few emails for lists of all the Texas High School State Champions this past year.  I personally watched both Lake Travis and Aledo win their state championships this season.  For Lake Travis I believe they beat a national record for 5 straight State Championships.  For Aledo it meant Jonathan Gray breaking the national record for number of rushing touchdowns in a high school career. I never thought I would say that Jonathan Gray was a disappointment but he only had 1 touchdown (which was consequently all he needed to break the record).  Aledo, however, was not a disappointment throwing all over the Alvin Manvel secondary.  As for the others, here is a list of all the State Champions from this past season of High School football in the State of Texas.

5A Division 1 – Southlake Carroll High School
5A Division 2 – Spring DeKaney High School

4A Divsion 1 – Lake Travis High School
4A Division 2 – Aledo High School

3A Division 1 – Tyler Chapel Hill High School
3A Division 2 - Wimberley High School

2A Division 1 – Melissa High School
2A Division 2 – Refugio High School

1A Division 1 – Mason High School
1A Division 2 – Tenaha High School

6Man Division 1 – Throckmorton High School
6Man Division 2 – Richland Springs High School

Dripping Springs 7-2 with one Conference Game Left.

With just one game left in the season, the Dripping Springs Tigers are living large.  The only losses they have for the season have come at the hands of two very good undefeated football teams.  Considering Lake Travis is considered the 5th best team in the entire nation (#1 in all levels in the State of Texas) that really says a lot about the level of competition that the Tigers have had to deal with this season.  Wimberley is technically 3A but still a top 25 overall team in the state of Texas which means they could beat most 5A schools in the state.  While Dripping Springs is almost certainly making the playoffs this season their last game of the season comes against a 7-1 hungry and powerful Cedar Park squad.  You can bet they are not going to want to give anything up with how large they are sitting right now in the district.  If the Tigers can pull off a win this would be the best possible scenerio going into the playoffs.  They have always played Lake Travis at the very end of the season in the past which has almost always been a dejecting loss.  Getting a win tonight would more than likely be the kind of confidence a team needs when going into the Texas High School Football Playoffs. 

“I can’t wait to see Gray”

Those are the words spoken by Dave Brown several months in an audio clip.  The full quote was, “”We’re going to follow the great players in the state. Obviously a kid like Johnathan Gray. I know people [Longhorn Network subscribers] are going to want to see Johnathan Gray, I can’t wait to see Johnathan Gray.”  Jonathan Gray is the senior running back for the Aledo High School Bearcats and so far this season has almost 600 yards in rushing with nine touchdowns.  He is also the kid that’s literally in the center of this whole (College Football Conferences completely shifting) debacle.  Ok, let me try to explain to you why this high school senior, in this writers opinion, has unknowingly sparked a forest fire that will change the face of College Football for the lifespan of the sport. 

Dave Brown is actually the Vice President of the Longhorn Network.  This prompted an NCAA investigation which led to them ruling that “School Networks” could not play high school games on them.  By the time the ruling came down (August 11, 2011) Texas A&M had already gone ballistic over everything because they felt that Texas was getting multiple unfair advantages by not only having their own TV network but they were going to be able to play Texas High School football games.  Once A&M overreacted to the situation and they had let it slip they had wanted to move away from Texas for a while now (August 10^th, 2011).  With A&M leaving the conference other Big 12 schools have been looking at moving out of the conference.  This is potentially dangerous for the rest of football…or really cool depending on whom you ask.  It looks like we will be headed towards super conferences light years before expected.

Lake Travis “Drive for Five” State Championships

Lake Travis takes on Aledo High School this Friday in a clash of the titans according to yours truly.  They may have lost a close one against Stephenville (lost 48-47), but I feel as if their early rankings were worth the fuss because they just punished Weatherford like there was no tomorrow.  Aledo has won two straight 4A Division II championships while Lake Travis is looking for their fifth straight 4A title (the past three being in Division I) .  These two champions meet tomorrow night at Aledo which SidelineBlog will have people in attendance.  We will try to get as many pictures and videos as we can for you.  With both on championship runs this season, this should make for one of the most interesting games in the nation this weekend.  We could not pass up on an attempt to see two great teams grit it out. 

With Texas almost completely on fire, this will be a great release for some of the anger, sadness, and stress.  Our thoughts and prayers are obviously on the residents of Central Texas today.  Aledo’s first test was Stephenville first game of the season and while they might not have come out with a victory, they certainly came out with some experience.  Aledo’s senior quarterback was interviewed by the Dallas Star-Telegram and was quoted as saying, “We’ve been practicing all summer for this. After losing to Stephenville, I can’t wait to play them again.  I’m sure Lake Travis is feeling the same way against us.”  He is going to have his hands full with a Lake Travis team that is coming off a 43-14 win over Pflugerville Hendrickson even with 4 starters out with injuries. While some would argue that Westlake was Lake Travis’ first test this season, I would argue that Westlake is not the Westlake (Austin) of old and their program has really slipped lately.  Aledo’s Running Back Jonathan Gray comes into the game with over 550 yards of rushing and 9 touchdowns and Lake Travis’ Quarterback Matthew Bishop comes in with 142 yards on the ground and 531 yards passing with 9 touchdowns.  Watching these two players go head to head will be something to watch if you ask me.  Our prediction is that Lake Travis comes out with the win 35-28.  Hope to see you at the game!

Here are some clips of the recent rivalry:

6th Football Related Death in the Past Week

Its not just Texas that is hot hot hot!  Apparently Arkansas is too right now as another student has died on the football field.  KATV in Arkansas is reporting that Montel Williams (15 years old of Gurdon, Arkansas) collapsed and died after practicing less than an hour.  Practice was started at 7:30PM to battle the hot temperatures in the past week.  They only practiced for about an hour and an ambulance was called at 8:40PM.  Being from Texas, I fully understand how bad the heat has been lately.  The average temperature in Fort Worth for the past week has been about 107 with 40 days in a row now of over 100 degrees.  Monday it becomes a record since the beginning of records.  There is no end in sight for us and you need to make sure that you are hydrated at all times.  The cause of death is still unknown for Montel Williams but I imagine the heat had something to do with it.  That marks the 6th player in the past week to die in the Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas area.

Lake Travis Ranked #8 in the Nation!

Yes, you saw that right.  Lake Travis high school in Lakeway, Tx (my biggest rival growing up in high school) is ranked in the Top 10 in both the Xcellent 25 (sports writers poll) and the Freeman Computer Rankings.  To be completely honest with you, I have never understood how the high school rankings really worked.  Last year they we never even close to the Top 25 but because they have won 3 State Championships in a row (07′, 08′ and 09′) they are now ranked in the Top 25.  What scares me though is that I really don’t think they have what it takes this season to win another Championship.  The one time they finally skirt the Top 25, they may not even stay there but for a few weeks.  If they can make it to District play undefeated, you can pretty much sew up the rest of the regular season because the only team I see stepping in there way might be Dripping Springs.  I will be reporting all future rankings through SidelineBlog if you are interesting in seeing what the future holds for these high school teams. Well, here you go with your rankings for the week.  This is a nationwide computer ranking system so if you do not see your school up there, its really not my fault.  I am open to ideas for my own High School poll if you guys want.

Freeman Computer Rankings

Ranking	School	City/State	Record
1	Shiloh Christian	Springdale, AR	1-0
2	Trinity	Euless, Tx	1-0
3	Westlake	Westlake Village, CA	0-0
4	South Panola	Batesville, MS	3-0
5	Abilene	Abilene, TX	1-0
6	Bingham	South Jordan, UT	3-0
7	Dwyer	Palm Beach Gardens, FL	0-0
8	Lake Travis	Austin, TX	2-0
9	DeMatha	Hyattsville, MD	0-0
10	Dorman	Roebuck, SC	2-0
11	Colerain	Cincinnati, OH	2-0
12	Hamilton	Chandler, AZ	3-0
13	West Monroe	West Monroe, LA	1-0
14	Grant	Sacramento, CA	1-0
15	Mullen	Denver, CO	1-0
16	Our Lady of Good Counsel	Olney, MD	1-0
17	Glenville	Cleveland, OH	1-0
18	Sierra	Gadena, CA	1-0
19	Servite	Anaheim, CA	1-0
20	North Gwinnett	Suwanee, GA	3-0
21	Highlands	Fort Thomas, KY	3-0
22	Rockhurst	Kansas City, MO	2-0
23	Catholic Central	Novi, MI	2-0
24	De La Salle	Concord, CA	0-0
25	St. Xavier	Louisville, KY	2-0

MaxPreps Computer Nationwide Top 25 Poll

Stony Point ranked higher than Lake Travis?

Depending on who you talk to and where you look, you will see Stony Point High School in Round Rock is ranked higher (6th in the State of Texas) than Lake Travis High School (ranked 7th).  This makes absolutely no sense to me only because Stony Point has lost 2 games this season and Lake Travis is currently undefeated playing in the Texas 4A State Championship.  Stony Point can only go down from here though I would think.  They are out of the playoffs already and their season is through.  I am seriously contemplating going to the Lake Travis game tomorrow.  I havent figured out if thats what I want to do yet or not.  I will more than likely be going to the game though even though it means missing the Division 3 National Championship and the Montana game.   I am doing this only because I really want to see Garrett Gilbert play.  If he ever reads this, I hope he realizes that he has a huge fan in SideLineBlog.  We do sports the right way, and I want to officially make this statement, “Sidelineblog.com believes that Lake Travis High School should be ranked #1 in the nation.”  This is true because they have not lost this season, outside of the first game of the season, their closest game has been 15 points.  They beat Killeen on a neutral field 71-9 in the Area playoffs.  I don’t think they are playing around.

Lake Travis breaks Top 25 in Nation

With a 42-3 victory over 9-1 Dripping Springs, a 54-14 win over Marble Falls, Lake Travis was the leading District 25 4A team going into playoffs.  They started out this past week where they left off in the regular season beating Johnson High School (Austin, Tx) 55-14.  They look good in the Division 1 bracket but I can only thank god that Dripping Springs will more than likely never have to face them.  Dripping Springs’ stiffest competition will come this weekend with Kerrville Tivy.  The Tivy Antlers, a lot like the Lake Travis Caviliers has been up against multiple 5A schools this season as they are expecting to move up at some point.  I think the Tivy – Drip game will decide most of their bracket whereas Lake Travis has a pretty rough schedule ahead of them.

Dripping Springs gets owned in 2nd half against Lake Travis.

The score after the first quarter was 3-0 Dripping Springs.  You have never seen a happier boy than I was at that moment.  Here I was having predicted my favorite teams to win this weekend in big games:  Texas at Texas Tech, Dripping Springs at Lake Travis and the Dallas Cowboys at the New York Giants.  Then the second quarter rolled around.  By halftime I knew it was over and the final score was 42-3 so you tell me.  I thought Mitch Lawson would bring the thunder but he only had a few big hits and its apparent that he cant win the game for Dripping Springs by himself.  Jeff Tuck and Jacob Moore have got to light it up if they are going to have any chance in the playoffs.  Yes boys and girls…your Dripping Springs Tigers are going to the playoffs!!! This is probably the most exciting thing since chocolate.  My man Garrett Gilbert looked as good as I thought he would in the game thank goodness.  That was the only great thing I got out of that game is the future lifetime longhorn Garrett Gilbert looked good.