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2020-21 East Texas 5A Sports Thread


Mavchamp

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Exactly what ANTI said.  Agree 100%.

Another thing to consider.....

Most of East Texas' 5A programs see their basketball athletes playing football in the fall and then running track/playing baseball in the spring.  Then 7 on 7 in the summer.

Most of the top athletes at the basketball elite schools are basketball specialists.... they aren't messing around with football or track or baseball.....and definitely not 7 on 7.  They are playing basketball ALL YEAR.  The workout and prep for basketball is different than it is for football and track, etc.....   they aren't bouncing back and fourth between different workouts and diets.  It's basketball 24/7/365.  

That makes a HUGE difference.  Being a multi-sport athlete Vs. a basketball specialist gives you a leg up.  Especially when you have a BENCH-FULL of those type of athletes.  

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100% agree with @Anti and @Mavchamp.  I’ve been saying this for a long time. Hard to name even 3 major D1 basketball players out of East Texas in last 20 years. Two of them from Nac about 15 or so years ago. By the way, I was still officiating high school and college basketball in 1992 when Longview won the state championship. I had Longview four times that year, they had Bobby Taylor, what a team coached by the late great Leroy Romines. 
 

I may get push back on this... but the same thing is really true about East Texas 5A football. Ennis won it in 2015 (2014?) if you call that East Texas. Anyone else recently — like last 15 years? Nope. With school districts like Frisco now with 10 high schools and a mandate to not build any high schools for more than 1800 to 1900 students— same thing in the Houston area— get ready, it isn’t going to happen here in football at 5A level. Hope I’m wrong. 

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I think East Texas can compete in football.... and even basketball.  

But there will likely be a sacrifice. 

Athletes will have to become specialists just like they do in those elite basketball schools, football schools, baseball schools, etc. 

That sacrifice of being a one sport athlete will hurt sports not chosen compared to the multi-sport athletes. 

This will result in schools becoming elite in one sport and likely struggle in others. 

One school becomes football elite.  Another becomes basketball elite.  Another baseball elite. 

Hope I’m wrong.... but if the specialist athlete becomes the norm.... and multi-sport athletes become less common.... each school will be affected differently.  

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5 hours ago, ANTI said:

 

So far, MP has beaten:

Lufkin (non metro), Waco University (non metro), and Huntsville (non metro). Let's see what they do against Lancaster. 

The only other decent/good big school basketball teams that were in ETX this year were SS and Longview.

Well, SS loss to Midlothian (metro) in the 2nd round...and Longview loss to Highland Park (metro) in the 2nd round....a game that I was just happy to see us keep close. 

If United can run the table, they'll be the first non burb/city state basketball champion, in the top two classifications, to win it in 20 years. Funny enough, the last one to do it was Beaumont Ozen in 2001. For those that don't know, Ozen and Central combined to create Beaumont United. East Texas hasn't seen a champion in the top two classifications since Longview won it in 1992, almost 30 years ago. That's how rare this stuff is. 

The landscape of basketball in the top two classes just doesn't favor non metro schools. It goes beyond population trends, growth, coaching or demo. The rise of AAU the past 15-20 years was a gut punch to the non metros. It allowed for a lot more training and reps for the metro school athletes, and dare I say it, it also allowed for a lot of undercover/loophole recruiting to go on too. I mean sure you may get a kid or two or three at Longview that does AAU over the summer, but meanwhile, over at Lancaster, Desoto, Duncanville or Yates, they have 8 or 9 that not only did AAU, they played on very good AAU teams and have been every summer since probably the age of 8-10. Then there's the undercover/loophole recruiting at AAU circuits. I'll use Yates as example because I'm pretty familiar with them (two of my best friends went to Yates and gave me the whole spill). You'd be shocked at the number of Yates players that don't actually come from 3rd Ward. Every HISD HS specializes in an area of education, math, science, something. Well, Yates specialization is communication (I believe). And as long as you go to Yates to specialize in communication, you can live anywhere and attend the school. Aha, loophole. So and so (could be a parent, volunteer coach...whoever) sees kid at AAU circuit, like what he sees, convinces his parent(s) to send him to Yates to do communications. 

Crazy stuff...and why I'm never optimistic about non metro big schools winning titles. Longview has a ton of young upcoming talent, I think in 2022, it may be the best basketball team we've had in a while...but its only so far I'll expect them to go. Just the reality of the situation. Newton is a good coach, so coaching won't be the issue. The talent will be there....but the metro area is an entirely different animal. And they prove it every single year. 

All I know is that MP hasn't lost a game all yr and they are in they are deep in the playoffs.  SS has proven in the past 3 yrs that they are a very good program and MP beat them twice.  Huntsville was ranked in the top 20 of the TABC rankings, and MP beat them.   But if you look, MP has been slowly building a good program for the past several yrs.

I know the basketball situation favors the big schools.  Recruiting has been going on for yrs up that way in the high schools.  I'm not saying Big school East Texas have to win state every yr, I'm just saying there is no excuse why they can't be very competitive in basketball and make deep playoff runs on a consistent basis (like 3 or 4 rounds or better).  If MP and SS can do it, there is no excuse for Tyler, Legacy, Longview, or Lufkin. 

By the way, the last non metro big school to win state was Port Arthur Memorial in 2018..but don't forget that SS made it to the state tournament (semi-finals) last yr. 

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5 hours ago, Matt said:

100% agree with @Anti and @Mavchamp.  I’ve been saying this for a long time. Hard to name even 3 major D1 basketball players out of East Texas in last 20 years. Two of them from Nac about 15 or so years ago. By the way, I was still officiating high school and college basketball in 1992 when Longview won the state championship. I had Longview four times that year, they had Bobby Taylor, what a team coached by the late great Leroy Romines. 
 

I may get push back on this... but the same thing is really true about East Texas 5A football. Ennis won it in 2015 (2014?) if you call that East Texas. Anyone else recently — like last 15 years? Nope. With school districts like Frisco now with 10 high schools and a mandate to not build any high schools for more than 1800 to 1900 students— same thing in the Houston area— get ready, it isn’t going to happen here in football at 5A level. Hope I’m wrong. 

There are alot of good basketball players in East TX. The issue is that they play WR instead of Shooting Guard.  Tyus Bowser had an offer to a D-1 school in Basketball, but he chose football.  He was on the last JT team that made a deep playoff run, where they got beat by Jacksonville in the 4th round.  There have been more than 3 guys in the past 15 yrs in East TX to go major Div.1 in basketball, but probably not up to 10.  To be honest, it is really tough to go to any Div.1 school in basketball. Much tougher than football. 

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1 hour ago, JTFAN99 said:

 

By the way, the last non metro big school to win state was Port Arthur Memorial in 2018..but don't forget that SS made it to the state tournament (semi-finals) last yr. 

Yeah you're right....forgot PAM edged out a ship that year. But before that, Ozen in 2001.

Long time regardless.

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1 hour ago, JTFAN99 said:

There are alot of good basketball players in East TX. The issue is that they play WR instead of Shooting Guard.  Tyus Bowser had an offer to a D-1 school in Basketball, but he chose football.  He was on the last JT team that made a deep playoff run, where they got beat by Jacksonville in the 4th round.  There have been more than 3 guys in the past 15 yrs in East TX to go major Div.1 in basketball, but probably not up to 10.  To be honest, it is really tough to go to any Div.1 school in basketball. Much tougher than football. 

Yeah, Daimion Collins of Atlanta is headed to Kentucky... I’m sure I have missed a few D1s but you’re right, gotta be less than 10. Yep, Tyus was a grown man in 10th grade when I saw him for the first time in a BBall game at Jacksonville. Danny Long was still AD in Tyler and when we were taking before the game, I said “Good Lord, Danny, who is that freak?” He laughed and said that kid will play in the league some day. Correct on that call. 

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22 hours ago, ANTI said:

 

So far, MP has beaten:

Lufkin (non metro), Waco University (non metro), and Huntsville (non metro). Let's see what they do against Lancaster. 

The only other decent/good big school basketball teams that were in ETX this year were SS and Longview.

Well, SS loss to Midlothian (metro) in the 2nd round...and Longview loss to Highland Park (metro) in the 2nd round....a game that I was just happy to see us keep close. 

If United can run the table, they'll be the first non burb/city state basketball champion, in the top two classifications, to win it in 20 years. Funny enough, the last one to do it was Beaumont Ozen in 2001. For those that don't know, Ozen and Central combined to create Beaumont United. East Texas hasn't seen a champion in the top two classifications since Longview won it in 1992, almost 30 years ago. That's how rare this stuff is. 

The landscape of basketball in the top two classes just doesn't favor non metro schools. It goes beyond population trends, growth, coaching or demo. The rise of AAU the past 15-20 years was a gut punch to the non metros. It allowed for a lot more training and reps for the metro school athletes, and dare I say it, it also allowed for a lot of undercover/loophole recruiting to go on too. I mean sure you may get a kid or two or three at Longview that does AAU over the summer, but meanwhile, over at Lancaster, Desoto, Duncanville or Yates, they have 8 or 9 that not only did AAU, they played on very good AAU teams and have been every summer since probably the age of 8-10. Then there's the undercover/loophole recruiting at AAU circuits. I'll use Yates as example because I'm pretty familiar with them (two of my best friends went to Yates and gave me the whole spill). You'd be shocked at the number of Yates players that don't actually come from 3rd Ward. Every HISD HS specializes in an area of education, math, science, something. Well, Yates specialization is communication (I believe). And as long as you go to Yates to specialize in communication, you can live anywhere and attend the school. Aha, loophole. So and so (could be a parent, volunteer coach...whoever) sees kid at AAU circuit, like what he sees, convinces his parent(s) to send him to Yates to do communications. 

Crazy stuff...and why I'm never optimistic about non metro big schools winning titles. Longview has a ton of young upcoming talent, I think in 2022, it may be the best basketball team we've had in a while...but its only so far I'll expect them to go. Just the reality of the situation. Newton is a good coach, so coaching won't be the issue. The talent will be there....but the metro area is an entirely different animal. And they prove it every single year. 

Actually MP has 2 or 3 players that played AAU in Dallas this year. All are basketball specialists. One is a senior, one is a junior and one is a sophmore. The sophmore is Peyton Chism, he is the son of the coach. The senior is his cousin. Both are very good. Dont count MP out versus Lancaster this week. Its gonna be a heck of a game. MP will have to bring their A+ game but I believe they can get it done. I know they believe they can win as well.

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17 hours ago, ANTI said:

Yeah you're right....forgot PAM edged out a ship that year. But before that, Ozen in 2001.

Long time regardless.

well 3 yrs ago isn't a long time....but If yea, between 2001 and 2018 that is a long time. But between that time, there have been a few non-metro area teams make it to the state tournament (semi-finals), including SS last yr.

The odds are stacked against the non-metro schools...really any school outside of Houston area or DFW simply because there are alot more metro area 5a/6a schools. These are the same odds in the other sports too.  I'm not expecting championships every yr. But deep playoff runs every 2 or 3 yrs is a goal that can be met.  These schools got to take basketball more serious and hire good coaches.  Just look at SS and MP.  

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16 hours ago, Matt said:

Yeah, Daimion Collins of Atlanta is headed to Kentucky... I’m sure I have missed a few D1s but you’re right, gotta be less than 10. Yep, Tyus was a grown man in 10th grade when I saw him for the first time in a BBall game at Jacksonville. Danny Long was still AD in Tyler and when we were taking before the game, I said “Good Lord, Danny, who is that freak?” He laughed and said that kid will play in the league some day. Correct on that call. 

Oh yea. Tyus was part of a special class at JT.  Many people had high expectations on this kid, and he lived up to them. 

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2 hours ago, budmanmpfan said:

Actually MP has 2 or 3 players that played AAU in Dallas this year. All are basketball specialists. One is a senior, one is a junior and one is a sophmore. The sophmore is Peyton Chism, he is the son of the coach. The senior is his cousin. Both are very good. Dont count MP out versus Lancaster this week. Its gonna be a heck of a game. MP will have to bring their A+ game but I believe they can get it done. I know they believe they can win as well.

Yep, there are several east TX kids playing AAU in DFW.  Pretty much have too if you want great competition.

Win or lose, doesn't mean MP wasn't very good this yr.  Lancaster is a top program in the state and would beat 95% or more of schools in Texas. 

The DFW and Houston area schools are tough in Basketball like Anti said. The recruiting is on another level. Kids are playing at schools 30 miles away. Heck they even got private and charter schools that are great in basketball like Plano John Paul who beat Lancaster this yr.  You can look at the rosters and see the kids they recruited to their schools. 

Regardless, pulling for MP for the upset.  

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2 hours ago, budmanmpfan said:

Actually MP has 2 or 3 players that played AAU in Dallas this year. 

I'm pretty sure most big school ETX teams have 1-3 boys playing AAU over the summer, I used Longview as example.....never said MP or anyone else didn't have AAU participants.

Point remains that at those good metro schools, they have 8-9 guys not only participating in AAU....but heavily contributing to really good AAU teams. And they've probably been doing it every summer since youth. Then there's the recruiting...no comment.

But good luck to you all.

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WOW...MP had a chance at potential game winning shot.  58-56 Lancaster.

MP missed a ton of free throws but they played with heart tonight.  A team with no one over 6'4 vs a team with several guys over 6'5 and 3 Div.1 signees. 

 

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12 minutes ago, JTFAN99 said:

 

MP missed a ton of free throws but they played with heart tonight. 

Same thing happened when Longview played MP. Longview beats them by a few points if we dont go below 30% at the free throw line.

Ah well.

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EAST TEXAS 5A BOYS REGION SEMIFINAL
Lancaster beat Mount Pleasant 58-56

WOW! Congrats on a great season to the MP Tigers.  Took #1 to the brink!

------------------------------------------------

DISTRICT 15-5A BOYS SOCCER
Longview 6-0-1
Mount Pleasant 6-1
Pine Tree 3-3-1
Sulphur Springs 3-4
Hallsville 3-3
Marshall 2-5
Texas High 0-7

Game 8 Sat Feb 27
Longview beat Sulphur Springs 1-0
Mt. Pleasant beat Pine Tree  4-0
Marshall beat Texas High 2-1
Hallsville- OFF

Game 9- Tuesday
Longview Vs. Hallsville
Pine Tree Vs. Texas High
Mount Pleasant Vs. Sulphur Springs
Marshall- OFF

-----------------------------------------------------

DISTRICT 16-5A BOYS SOCCER
Lufkin 5-1
Whitehouse 4-2
Tyler 2-1-2
Nacogdoches 2-2-3
Jacksonville 1-4-1
Huntsville 0-4-2


Game 7
Nacogdoches and Huntsville tied 1-1
Whitehouse beat Lufkin 3-1
Jacksonville Vs. Tyler ????

-----------------------------------------------------
DISTRICT 15-5A GIRLS SOCCER
Longview 7-0
Hallsville 4-1-1
Mount Pleasant 3-2-2
Pine Tree 3-4
Texas High 3-4
Sulphur Springs 2-4-1
Marshall 0-7

Game 8- SATURDAY
Longview beat Sulphur Springs 3-1
Texas High beat Marshall 5-1
Pine Tree beat Mount Pleasant 1-0
Hallsville- OFF

Game 9- Tuesday
Longview Vs. Hallsville
Pine Tree Vs. Texas High
Mount Pleasant Vs. Sulphur Springs
Marshall- OFF

-----------------------------------------------------

DISTRICT 16-5A GIRLS SOCCER
Jacksonville 6-0-1
Lufkin 2-2-2
Huntsville 2-2-3
Nacogdoches 3-3-1
Whitehouse 2-4
Tyler 1-5-1

Game 7
Nacogdoches tied Huntsville 4-4, won in shootout 5-4
Whitehouse beat Lufkin 2-0
Jacksonville beat Tyler FINAL SCORE? 

-----------------------------------------------------

DISTRICT 15-5A SOFTBALL

Marshall 1-0
Hallsville 1-0
Mount Pleasant 1-0
Sulphur Springs 0-0
Longview 0-1
Pine Tree 1-0
Mount Pleasant 0-0

Game 1
Marshall beat Longview 4-1
Hallsville beat Pine Tree 1-0
Mount Pleasant beat Texas High 11-1
Sulphur Springs- OFF

--------

District 16-5A softball starts district play on March 19
--------

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Longview boys defeat Hallsville, 2-1. They’re 7-0-1 on district.

Huge match up with MP on Saturday in MP.

Longview girls defeat Hallsville, 2-0. Theyre 8-0-0 in district.

Lady Lobos can all but lock up the district title on Friday night.

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DISTRICT 15-5A BOYS SOCCER
Longview 7-0-1
Mount Pleasant 7-1
Pine Tree 4-3-1
Hallsville 3-4
Sulphur Springs 3-5
Marshall 2-5
Texas High 0-8

Game 9- Tuesday
Longview  beat Hallsville 2-1
Pine Tree beat Texas High 3-1
Mount Pleasant beat Sulphur Springs 1-0
Marshall- OFF

Longview remains on top of the standings, but MP is lurking just a half game behind the Lobos.  They have a huge rematch coming on Saturday.  Pine Tree is all alone in third place, but Hallsville is lurking just behind them and Sulphur Springs continues to stay in the race as well. 

-----------------------------------------------------

DISTRICT 16-5A BOYS SOCCER
Whitehouse 5-2
Lufkin 5-2
Tyler 2-1-3
Nacogdoches 2-2-3
Jacksonville 1-4-2
Huntsville 0-4-2


Game 7
Nacogdoches and Huntsville tied 1-1
Whitehouse beat Lufkin 3-1
Jacksonville and Tyler tied 1-1

Whitehouse's win over LP on Tuesday has given the Wildcats the inside track for the district title with the sweep of the Panthers in district.  Tyler is in the thick of the race with a make-up game with Huntsville pending.  Nacogdoches continues to struggle with consistency with their tie of last place Huntsville.  Jacksonville had a minor upset of Tyler on Tuesday.

-----------------------------------------------------
DISTRICT 15-5A GIRLS SOCCER
Longview 8-0
Hallsville 4-2-1
Mount Pleasant 3-3-2
Pine Tree 4-4
Sulphur Springs 3-4-1
Texas High 3-5
Marshall 0-7


Game 9- Tuesday
Longview beat Hallsville 2-0
Pine Tree beat Texas High 3-0
Sulphur Springs beat Mt. Pleasant 4-2
Marshall- OFF

Longview has all but clinched the district title with the huge cushion they have over Hallsville.  MP is in third place with PT in fourth.... but SS is lurking.

-----------------------------------------------------

DISTRICT 16-5A GIRLS SOCCER
Jacksonville 6-0-1
Huntsville 2-2-3
Lufkin 2-3-2
Whitehouse 3-4
Nacogdoches 2-4-1
Tyler 1-5-1

Game 7
Nacogdoches tied Huntsville 4-4, won in shootout 5-4
Whitehouse beat Lufkin 2-0
Jacksonville beat Tyler 4-1


Jacksonville remains on top of the district standings with a big lead over Huntsville and LP.  Things get murky after that with multiple teams with ties and win/losses all within one game of each other. Should be a good race to the end.

-----------------------------------------------------

DISTRICT 15-5A SOFTBALL

Marshall 1-0
Hallsville 1-0
Mount Pleasant 1-0
Sulphur Springs 0-0
Longview 0-1
Pine Tree 1-0
Mount Pleasant 0-0

Game 1
Marshall beat Longview 4-1
Hallsville beat Pine Tree 1-0
Mount Pleasant beat Texas High 11-1
Sulphur Springs- OFF

--------

District 16-5A softball starts district play on March 19
--------

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