It’s the unofficial beginning of high school football in Texas.
That’s right, Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine has hit the newsstands.
The release of the annual magazine that previews the NFL, college and more than 1,400 high school teams in Texas is like the announcer at Daytona shouting, “Gentlemen, start your engines.”
Football season will be here before you know it. Honest. There’s only 26 days left before the start of high-school two-a-days.
The magazine, which looks at every high school district race in the state picked Corsicana’s Tigers, who have high expectations for the upcoming season, to finish second in the District 17-5A race behind Ennis.
It’s a new district and a new region for the Tigers as the move from Region II, 16-5A to Region III, 17-5A, but all the teams are familiar. The big change is that John Tyler and Lufkin moved back up to Class 6A after playing against the smaller schools in 16-5A in recent years.
The magazine picked Ennis at the top spot and the Tigers to finish second. Nacogdoches was the third pick followed by Lindale, Jacksonville and Whitehouse, which has dropped dramatically in the past two years after Pat Mahomes graduated. Mahomes is on the cover with Texas Tech Coach Kliff Kingsbury.
The Tigers have plans of winning the district title, and the magazine realizes there’s a ton of talent returning to newly revamped Tiger Stadium.
In its preseason all-state selections, the magazine chose Corsicana senior Trevor Denbow as a preseason all-state punter. Denbow won all-state honors at punter last year, making the Texas Sports Writers Class 5A All-State first-team. He also made the all-state team at safety, where he was listed as an honorable mention.
Corsicana Coach Steve Hoffman plans to use his defensive leader Denbow more and more at receiver this season with hopes that Denbow and junior Ike Hargrave can help ignite the Tigers’ passing game.
Texas Football thinks a lot of Tigers quarterback Kishawn Kelley, and chose Kelley as the District 17-5A preseason Offensive Player of the Year. If Kelley emerges and has that kind of season the Tigers could not only win the district title but make strong run in the playoffs.
Over the past three years Texas Football’s preseason Top 25 has shown just how difficult life was for the Tigers, because Ennis, Tyler and Lufkin were always ranked in the top 10, and Whitehouse has been ranked in the Top 15 in recent years.
No one in District 17-5A is ranked this year. The top Class 5A teams in the state are Denton Ryan and Aledo.
Texas Football wasn’t very kind to Mildred, Rice and Blooming Grove as those three teams were picked out of the first-place picture in the District 10-3A DII race.
Rice was picked fourth, Blooming Grove, which won a district title a year ago, was picked fifth and Mildred, which returns one of the most dynamic players in the Golden Circle in quarterback Wesley Huitt, was picked sixth in the seven-team district.
Clifton is picked to win the district title and Dallas Triple A Academy, a private school that can bring in players, was picked to finish second. Rio Vista, which finished second to Blooming Grove a year ago, was picked third ahead of the three GC schools.
Kerens was picked to finish second in District 10-2A DI behind Big Sandy as the Bobcats find themselves in a brand new district this season. Only rival Cayuga and Cross Roads made the move with Kerens to the new alignment.
Not only are the Bobcats picked to have a big year, but linebacker C.J. Bivens was chosen as the District 10-2A DI Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.
Frost and Dawson are still n the same district, but those teams will have to cope with defending Class 2A DII state champ Bremond in District 10-2A DII this season. Bremond is picked to win the district while Frost, an improving team that will be led by Kobe Hailey, an electric two-way player, is picked fourth.
Dawson’s new Coach William Braswell’s Bulldogs were picked to finish sixth by the magazine, which should give Braswell another motivational tool to help ignite his kids.
It’s just the beginning, but football is on its way.
