With his football program on the cusp of having its smallest senior class in recent memory, Spring Woods coach Dwayne Eggerman watched Monday night’s spring game be decided by a swift kick into the future. Freshman Sharlston Gonzalez booted a 52-yard field goal with room to spare with 1:28 left, giving the Black a 9-6 win against the Gold at Tully Stadium. “There wasn’t really much of a decision,” Eggerman said.

  EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the seventh in a series of 12 spring football previews. The Athlete’s Connection will run our “Spring Blitz” series each day through Friday. This spring has gone much as Ray Evans expected – football, peripheral distractions and all. Coming off an undefeated district championship and boasting no fewer than five bona fide big-school college football prospects, Eisenhower’s first-year head coach is relishing the atmosphere surrounding the Eagles. “I knew what I was getting into,” said Evans, the team’s former defensive coordinator who replaced now-Fort Bend Marshall coach Darryl Phipps last winter.

      Even though they haven’t played football since mid-November, quarterback Kolby Gray and the Cypress Falls Eagles still looked in regular-season form Saturday. Gray and the Eagles won their own 7-on-7 tournament, beating Klein Oak 31-26 in the final.

      MANVEL – Lamar started Saturday’s 7-on-7 state qualifying tournament at Manvel with three consecutive wins, then lost its fourth game in the final minutes and did not earn an automatic state tournament berth. The Redskins recorded victories of 24-13 against Texas City, 32-20 against Clear Lake and 41-25 against Brenham before losing 32-26 to Chavez.

        The run is alive and well at Memorial, as might be Davis Miller’s first full year as starting quarterback. The senior-to-be shined on both sides of the ball in Thursday night’s Red and White Game at Tully Stadium, showing effective running as a quarterback, strong coverage skills as a safety and kicking a 37-yard field goal into the wind in the White’s 10-3 win. “Our line did a great job of protecting the pocket and I was able to step up,” said Miller, who started the Stratford game at the end of 2007 after playing the part-time the second half of the season.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the sixth in a series of 12 spring football previews. The Athlete’s Connection will run our “Spring Blitz” series every weekday through May 23. In the past eight years, Fort Bend ISD has garnered state championship teams in baseball, basketball, softball, track and golf. But in Texas, where football is king, FBISD is often ignored in the conversation of local high school football.

    Houston Christian is a program on the rise. The school has already added a new weight room and gymnasium.

{mp3}080514-SBCyRidge{/mp3} EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fifth in a series of 12 spring football previews. The Athlete’s Connection will run our “Spring Blitz” series every weekday through May 23. Behind the much-heralded quarterback and running back, beyond the lofty expectations placed on the Cypress Ridge football program for next season, the Rams have a few issues. The smallest senior class in the program’s seven-year history has coach Gary Thiebaud and his staff trying not necessarily to answer more questions than ever, but new questions. “We graduated 49 seniors and this (2009) senior class (of 27) is the smallest ever,” Thiebaud said.

      That the Katy Red and White Game ended in a 10-10 tie Tuesday night, may indicate the coaches did a perfect job splitting the teams. It likely signals that a tough summer of competition lies ahead as the Tigers seek to defend their 5A state championship and win their sixth title. Many stood out in the game at Rhodes Stadium, but who managed to make a name for themselves and stand out in a game that was even well beyond the score only will be told later.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth in a series of 12 spring football previews. The Athlete’s Connection will run our “Spring Blitz” series every weekday through May 23. Will Memorial break out and have a great 2008 in a stacked district? Maybe. Maybe because the Mustangs have a lot of returning players back from last season.

  {mp3}080510-KatySB{/mp3} EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third in a series of 12 spring football previews.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a series of 12 spring football previews. The Athlete’s Connection will run our “Spring Blitz” series every weekday through May 23. The celebration parade is over.

      Madison head coach Ray Seals knows to take the good with the bad. While he was impressed with how his offense looked in the team’s spring game Thursday night at Butler Stadium, he knows his defense may need a lot more work before the season starts in late August. “The big guys need to spend more time in the weight room,” he said.

  James Scott, a senior-to-be and one of the Strake Jesuit football team's most promising athletes, officially committed to SMU on Thursday.   Scott, who played mostly free safety a year ago for the Crusaders, said he long had hoped to commit to SMU.

  EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a series of 12 spring football previews. The Athlete’s Connection will run our “Spring Blitz” series every weekday through May 23.   {mp3}080508-MortonRanch{/mp3}  Most of what earned the Morton Ranch football team its first victory last season is gone. Scott Svendsen hopes his hiring and the subsequent revamping of the program signals a new dawn for the Mavericks, who feel the sky is the limit for their progression in part because there’s nowhere to go but forward. “Our goal as a staff every day is to go in one direction and that’s forward, whether it’s in little steps or big steps,” said Svendsen, a former Katy assistant hired at Morton Ranch in January.

  The University Interscholastic League on Friday released the results of a study of a split conference alignment for football.   The proposal would divide each conference into two divisions for football only, theoretically creating a level playing field among schools of like size.

Yes, it’s May, but there’s never a bad time to talk about Texas high school football. The beginning of the month is usually the beginning of spring practices across the area, meaning almost all teams are putting on the pads and hitting the gridiron for the first time since the fall.

  Eisenhower safety Craig Loston, ranked the nation's best at that position by at least one recruiting service, has verbally committed to Clemson.   According to Scout.com, Loston called Tigers coaches with the news Wednesday night.

  Mike Gundy is a man. He’s 41 years old. He’s also hoping that his team continues to improve defensively. The Oklahoma State coach, whose infamous rant after a game last year became a YouTube classic, gave alumni and fans a good amount of optimism for the 2008 season at a luncheon Wednesday afternoon at the JW Marriott hosted by the Touchdown Club of Houston.

  Three area players have been selected to participated in the 2009 Under Armour All-Star game, scheduled for Jan. 4 in Orlando, Fla.   Cypress Ridge quarterback Russell Shepard, North Shore tight end Barrett Matthews and Eisenhower safety Craig Loston were chosen. Shepard, who verbally committed to Louisiana State in March, is listed as an athlete in many circles.

  IRVING, Texas – Even though the Dallas Cowboys facilities are primarily used as practice fields for America’s team, that wasn’t the case this past weekend.

The Katy football team clearly was a cut – or more – above the rest of the area in 2007. The Tigers recently received further validation of their 5A-Division II state championship when they were presented their title rings in a ceremony at Katy High School. Watch the ceremony here.

  Professional and college football highlight the Touchdown Club of Houston’s upcoming event schedule released this week. The schedule is as follows: * The Houston Texans Draft Luncheon, at noon April 29 at the Westin Galleria Hotel, 5060 W.

  He’s hard-pressed to find games every year, but Katy football coach Gary Joseph has resolved to not go just anywhere for the sake of playing. The Herbstreit Challenge called and wanted the Tigers to come to Ohio in September for the nationally-televised event.

  The first official football schedules for the 2008 season are starting to trickle out. The composite football schedule for Katy ISD is as follows. Some game times and sites are subject to change.

      All-star football games usually feature a slew of passing, but the first Space City Classic was won – and lost – by the run. Brazoswood’s Yobes Walker and Washington’s Joshua LaBum each scored a touchdown to pace the Red team’s ground game, and they hung on for a 14-13 win by stopping the White team’s 2-point conversion in the final seconds at Robertson Stadium. Walker scored from five yards late in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead, and his long kickoff return to open the second half set up LaBum’s score, a 1-yard run, for a 14-0 lead. But White quarterback Xavier Webb (Montgomery H.S./Rice) passed for one touchdown and ran for another in the final 7 minutes, 58 seconds to shave the lead to 14-13.

  The Katy ISD’s reputation in football is so good that it’s drawing coaches from the collegiate ranks. Former SMU assistant coach Flint Risien was named last week as Katy Taylor’s new football coach and campus athletic coordinator, replacing John Campbell. Risien's first day at Taylor was Feb.

  Call him the anti-Terrelle Pryor. The race to snag talented Cypress Ridge quarterback Russell Shepard apparently ended Monday night when the junior verbally committed to LSU, 11 months before Signing Day 2009. “It was a gut feeling,” Shepard told the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

  AUSTIN – Stratford High School is staying home. Spring Branch ISD successfully appealed the University Interscholastic League’s original realignment Thursday, winning its case to keep Stratford in 5A with the district’s other three high schools rather than drop it to 4A with several rural schools west of Houston.   “We were prepared either way but we’re excited to be reunited,” said Eliot Allen, Stratford’s head football coach and campus athletic coordinator.   The UIL's District Assignment Appeals Committee approved the appeal unanimously, as did schools from both 18-5A and 24-4A to keep Stratford with Spring Branch ISD.

  From an outside perspective (the uninitiated), football recruiting may seem to be as simple as performing in the classroom and on the field, taking official visits and signing on the dotted line.

  I guess I realized the world of recruiting was bordering on insane about 3 1/2 years ago. Sometime in the fall of 2004, a basketball player who grew up just down the road from me in Ohio committed to play for Ohio State about a month before his first varsity basketball game. Put in more shocking terms, Buckeyes coach Thad Matta wouldn’t be able to say B.J.

            It appears that the 2007-08 year has been a good one for the Katy football team.

      HISD & Strake Jesuit Signing Days     Stratford Signing Day      Last-minute changes are nothing new for verbal commitments. But they don’t always happen on Signing Day - nor do they stick.

  This is a list of local high school football players expected to sign letters of intent Wednesday to attend Football Bowl Subdivision schools. Because of the fluid nature of verbal commitments, the list is subject to change.

              Arguably the biggest weekend of the high school football offseason concluded Saturday at the Merrell Center with the Greater Houston Regional Coaches Clinic, presented by CollegeBallorBust.com.   One day after the University Interscholastic League announced its realignment for the next two years, nearly 1,000 coaches gathered in the arena for the Region III coaches meeting.

  As far as Eliot Allen is concerned, the only difference between 5A and 4A is one number. Stratford’s head football coach and athletic coordinator wasn’t overly surprised Friday morning when the University Interscholastic League’s realignment dropped the Spartans one conference, and while he admitted it might be tough to not be grouped with Spring Branch ISD’s three other high schools, Allen already was looking forward to new challenges in District 23-4A, the biggest of which might be contending with defending football champion Lamar Consolidated. “The thing that makes Stratford special is the community support and the quality of our programs,” Allen said.

  Pearland defensive back Nick Saenz admitted having his share of anxiety when former University of Houston coach Art Briles left for Baylor in November and took practically his entire staff. Saenz, who committed to Houston in the spring of 2007, suddenly found himself without certainties – at least temporarily. “It took a toll on me,” Saenz said.

  The Cinco Ranch football program recently announced several award winners for the 2007 season.

    The ‘Top Ballers’ series is back again to bring you our take on the city’s top players at different positions.

        The Touchdown Club of Houston’s Sterling Bank High School Sportsmanship Award was presented to Chris Massey from Deer Park for their exceptional performance in 2007.

  Strake Jesuit quarterback Jeff McVaney has committed to play football and baseball at Texas State, Crusaders coach Ron Counter confirmed to the Athlete’s Connection Tuesday afternoon. McVaney, one of the area’s most versatile quarterbacks who earned all-district honors at linebacker as a junior, rushed for 914 yards and 11 touchdowns and threw for 1,735 yards and 2 touchdowns. Strake Jesuit went 8-3 in 2007, losing to eventual state champion Katy in the first round of the 5A-Division II playoffs. “I think (scholarship offers in two sports) was important to him,” Counter said.

    The ‘Top Ballers’ series is back again to bring you our take on the city’s top players at different positions.

  Photo courtesy of the TCU Athletic Department Some may say it would only be fitting for a Katy graduate to return home the week of Katy High School’s championship and end up being named MVP at the Texas Bowl.

Monroe's solid game paces Houston in U.S. Army bowl SAN ANTONIO – An out-of-town reporter seemed flabbergasted Saturday that Angleton cornerback D.J.

    The ‘Top Ballers’ series is back again to bring you our take on the city’s top players at different positions.

      SAN ANTONIO – An out-of-town reporter seemed flabbergasted Saturday that Angleton cornerback D.J.

{mp3}080104-ArmyBowlpreview{/mp3}     SAN ANTONIO – At every turn, it appears the East team has a distinct advantage against the West entering Saturday’s U.S.

  SAN ANTONIO – Kickoff for the U.S. Army All-American Bowl isn’t until noon Saturday, but the East team Thursday got yet another leg up on the West. Already boasting the nation’s top-rated quarterback among other distinctions, nine East team players won the Maxwell Award for their respective positions, the Army announced Thursday. Winners of the award, which is well-known for being given to the College Player of the Year, included Terrelle Pryor, the aforementioned touted quarterback from Jeannette, Pa. The West team’s lone honoree was running back Darrell Scott, from Ventura, Calif. The other winners were wide receiver DeVier Posey (Cincinnati), tight end Kyle Rudolph (Cincinnati), offensive lineman Michael Brewster (Orlando, Fla.), defensive lineman Marcus Forston (Miami), linebacker Arthur Brown (Wichita, Kan.), defensive back Patrick Johnson (Pompano Beach, Fla.), punter Ben Buchanan (Westerville, Ohio) and kicker Blair Walsh (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.). Wednesday, the East soundly defeated the West 6-2 in the Army’s Skills Challenge at the Alamodome. No corporate synergy? ESPN spurred the creation of the UnderArmour/ESPN All-Star Game to compete with the U.S.

       SAN ANTONIO – Playing in the U.S.

          SAN ANTONIO – He saw it last year as an assistant coach, but Bob Jones marveled Wednesday how easy his U.S.