Smoaky's News & Notes

Mark Sartain is back as a head coach at the high school level after being approved by the Spring Hill I.S.D. school board on Monday as their new athletic director and head football coach.

This will be Sartain's fourth head coaching job at the high school level, including previous stops at Cross Roads (17-11), Eustace (6-23) and White Oak (43-41).

And, most recently the head football coach at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall from 2007 until resigning after the 2012 season after a 3-7 record.

Sartain told David Smoak, "It's just exciting to have this opportunity and be at a place I believe is a good fit, where the experience I have at both the high school and college level has prepared me to build on their tradition and what is obviously a strong school district and community driven by high expectations."

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Paris AD/Head Football Coach Barry Bowman has been offered and accepted the job at defensive coordinator at Pine Tree High School, per school board approval.

Bowman, 17-6 in two years at Paris was a college teammate of Pine Tree AD/Football Coach Derrick Fitzhenry at Louisiana Tech.


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Greg Tepper of TexasFootball.com wrote an article about consistent winning for Texas high school football programs throughout the state.

Here's the article In for the long haul.

I've copied and pasted the list of the most consistent winners below, and the programs in East and Central Texas are in bold and underlined.

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Keith Willis was once a star football player at University High, and now he's in charge of their football program. Willis was approved by Waco I.S.D. on Friday to replace Matt Carroll, who left to become head coach at San Antonio Roosevelt, "Once a Trojan, always a Trojan, this is such a great night for me and our family," Willis continued, "I think it's extraordinary what superintendent Dr. Bonny Cane and administration are trying to do with what is obviously a new commitment to this entire school district. They're trying to champion every single program and make those programs successful and I certainly want to be a part of that."

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Whitehouse quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Jr., knew going into his weekend visit to Lubbock he wanted to commit to the Texas Tech Red Raiders, but he still needed one more validation, from his mother, "She didn't make the last trip I took up here and I knew she would like it, but I needed her to be on board too, and she loved it, and I committed once she was committed."

Mahomes, who passed for 3,061-yards and 37-TD's as a junior likes what he sees with Red Raiders new coaching staff, "I loved the atmosphere Coach Kingsbury and Company have already created here, I know they already have everything going in the right direction and the coaches love it here as much as anyone else."

When asked what head coach Kliff Kingsbury told him once he committed, "He said I was the only quarterback they were recruiting for the Class of 2014 and he (Coach Kingsbury) handpicked me as their guy," Mahomes continued, "That meant a great deal to me, and knowing he's the best quarterbacks coach in the nation, he'll make me a better quarterback and I'll grow during my time here in Lubbock."

Mahomes was 193 of 340 passing for 3,061-yards, 37-TD’s, 2-2XP, 222-yards rushing and 6-TD’s in 2012 and returns for a senior season with what appears to be a loaded team for 2013 under first-year head coach Adam Cook.

Brad Wallace confirmed an earlier thread started by one of our members, TheWoodDogs, that his contract wasn't renewed despite the administration strongly recommending it should be to the school board.

Wallace told David Smoak, "The Cross Roads I.S.D. administration is livid, but this isn't the first time the school board has gone against the administrations recommendation, they did the same thing to the volleyball coach."

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