Feature Article: The Chasing Pack
Setting the stage for the season ahead...
The Dallas area swept the 6A Division 1 and 2 championships in 2022 with Duncanville and DeSoto claiming the gold trophies. It was the first Dallas-Fort Worth area sweep of the top classification since 2014 and 2013 when Allen and Cedar Hill took down the brackets in back-to-back seasons.
Also, Duncanville and DeSoto became just the second pair in big school history from the same district to win state in the same year after Converse Judson and San Antonio Roosevelt did in 1995. Duncanville finally avenged three state championship losses to North Shore in 2018, 2019, and 2021 with the well-earned 2022 triumph over the Mustangs.
Alarmingly for the rest of Texas in the coming season, none of Duncanville, North Shore, or DeSoto are expected to drop off at all in 2023 after stellar 2022 seasons. In fact, they all have a chance to be better. Duncanville returns 8 all-district players including all-state stars Caden Durham (RB) and Collin Simmons (LB). DeSoto returns a whopping 13 all-district selections from its state-winning 2022 team including DJ Bailey (QB) and Tiger Riden (RB) among many others. North Shore’s 2023 effort is led by 11 all-district returners. This list does not include star quarterback Kaleb Bailey, who missed most of his sophomore season after being injured early in the 2022 season, and he returns for his junior season this fall. Bailey won state as a freshman in 2021. North Shore will be managing a head coaching change from Jon Kay to Willy Gaston in 2023. Gaston is a North Shore football alum and long-time assistant coach.
Only Austin Westlake has kept up with Duncanville and North Shore’s blistering pace in the last 5 seasons, and the Chaps navigated a head coaching change last season with Tony Salazar before falling to North Shore in the state semi-finals. Westlake ranks #4 at the starting gate, and their ability to challenge the Panthers and Mustangs will depend heavily on Paxton Land’s continued development as a senior QB next to three-year starter Jack Kayser (RB).
There are certain programs around the 6A landscape with ceilings not many others in Texas can match, and the four programs perched atop the 2023 rankings are arguably the highest potential outliers the state has to offer in this modern era. North Shore and Duncanville are examples of what happens when the ideal talent environment meets the perfect coaching match. Jon Kay was the man to take North Shore to the top of the mountain just as Reginald Samples has done for Duncanville. Todd Dodge transformed Westlake in a similar manner. All three of these programs have shown signs of their potential throughout the past 2 to 3 decades, but they’d never won state multiple years in a row or been in the mix to do so until recently.
In 2022, DeSoto confirmed its arrival as a state powerhouse by winning its second state championship. The Eagles captured their first in 2016. Just like three programs above, DeSoto is not new to the scene. For over two decades, this program has shown flashes of what its capable of and is well known for the talented football players it has sent to the college and NFL ranks. They were the ultimate “what if” program throughout most of the 2000s and 2010s. Claude Mathis, now in his second stint as head coach and freshly minted with a state ring, has been the one to send the Eagles to new heights.
Peak potential is produced from ideal environments, and with outlier programs like the ones mentioned above operating at such a high level the prospects appear quite difficult for the chasing pack. However, the best programs also serve as a measuring stick for everyone else to either rise along with the tide or get left behind.
There is an intriguing mix of established and up-and-coming programs in the chasing pack. The Austin Vandegrift Vipers check in at #5 after breaking through to the program’s first state championship appearance in 2022. Senior quarterback Deuce Adams transferred in from New Braunfels Canyon and is committed to Louisville. Seniors Miles Coleman and Alex Foster played huge roles in the Vipers’ run to state, and will be All-State favorites.
Lewisville is not an upstart program, but it has been a very long time since they’ve been discussed among the state’s best programs. After a successful 2022 campaign saw Lewisville advance four rounds, the Farmers are well positioned to build on that effort with 12 returning all-district players including defensive stalwarts Tony Nukuba and Jaylen Hardy. Head coach Michael Odle quarterbacked Lewisville’s last state championship winning team in 1996.
On the more established side, Katy and Southlake Carroll start the new season in the top 10 and both are tasked with moving on from record-breaking running backs. For Katy, Seth Davis graduates as the program’s all-time leading rusher. The Tigers will rebuild around a very talented upcoming group of underclassmen. The Dragons go forward without their own all-time rushing leader, Owen Allen, who will play at Air Force. If these state champion king programs have proven anything over the past several years, it’s they know how to graduate talented classes and bounce back without losing much of a beat.
Spring Westfield and Humble Atascocita are two talented Houston area programs that figure to be in the mix once again. Neither one has broken through yet with a football state championship, but each has the outlier potential to become perennial state powers should they put all the pieces together. These programs are very similar to DeSoto before the Eagles’ breakthrough. There is a seemingly bottomless pool of talent in each area which puts them in the discussion every season.
From the San Antonio area, Cibolo Steele is an early frontrunner to make one of the biggest jumps forward in 2023 after advancing to the second round of the playoffs in 2022 (losing 24-21 to Lake Travis). Steele returns junior quarterback Chad Warner along with 10 total all-district players. The Knights program has state championship pedigree and most recently finished runners up in 2016 after winning its first and only state title in 2010. Lake Travis will be right there with Steele in the rankings to start, and also figure to be one of the more improved teams in 2023 after overcoming significant adversity throughout 2022.
Denton Guyer arguably has taken the most significant graduation hit of any top ranked team from 2022, but this is a program that’s proven it can take graduation hits and storm back reloaded with talent. This season, Eli Bowen and a loaded defense will set the tone early while the offense figures out how to replace all-star quarterback Jackson Arnold (Oklahoma).
This is not the first time in the history of Texas’ largest classification specific programs have dominated proceedings for a period of years. In fact, big school history has been marked by cyclical periods of dominance by powerhouse programs.
The 1980s and into the mid-1990s were dominated by Odessa Permian, Plano, and Converse Judson. These programs combined for an astonishing 12 state championships between 1980 and 1995. This is more impressive given the two-division playoff format was not introduced until 1990.
The late 90s witnessed a changing of the guard as Katy and Midland Lee emerged as dominant programs entering the 2000s. Katy, Southlake Carroll, and Euless Trinity were the leading powerhouses in the first part of the new millennium. They combined for 13 state championships from 2000 to 2012.
Between 2012 and 2017, Allen won four state championships. The Eagles captured their first in 2008. The balance of power started to shift again in 2016 and 2017 before North Shore, Duncanville, and Austin Westlake began their current runs of dominance. It will be interesting to see if Westlake can keep pace with North Shore and Duncanville, or if DeSoto emerges as the primary challenger. Also, perhaps old stalwarts Katy and Southlake Carroll aren’t quite done yet or a program yet to realize its full potential steps forward to challenge the hegemony.
What’s unique about the current moment is witnessing three programs enjoy perfect storm moments nearly simultaneously. North Shore, Duncanville, and Westlake have put the best teams in their history on the field over the past few seasons. Also, they are some of the best Texas high school football has ever seen at any level.
The bar has never been set higher for football programs in Texas’ top classification, and the chasing pack has clear marching orders. Find a way to respond and compete with the current cycle through attention to detail, and cultivate the kind of environment that will sustain a program for the long haul.