Coach Samples Wins Historic Victory For his 1st State Championship. They say the 3rd time is the charm, and same goes for the Duncanville head coach in the 2022 Div I 6A State Title Game last weekend. With more than 300 victories on his resume’ none are more dear to coach “Reggie” than this past weekend when his Duncanville Panthers defeated arch nemesis Galena Park North Shore with a 28-21 victory at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. (Panthers / Mustangs III)
In a rare historical feat this year both Duncanville and DeSoto, of the 11-6A district, are only the second district mates ever to win Texas state championships in the same season. Only LaMarque and Texas City, achieved this feat only a few years ago in 2019.
RB Caden Durham rushed for three touchdowns and the Panthers held off the Mustangs 28-21 in the Class 6A Division 1 state championship. Durham was named offensive MVP of the game and was overcome with emotion at the end the states Championship weekend!
RB Caden Durham was overcame with emotion at the end of the game. He will forever be a Texas High School Football State Champion Photo: Stan Martin
Texas Sports Monthly teams up each Holiday season with our friends at TexasHSFootball.com to compose their annual State Championship Book. This year Duncanville was honored as the State Champion team.
Three of the four state championships between Duncanville and North Shore have now been decided by just one possession.
Texas Sports Monthly is in the Process of Composing our 7th Annual 2022 Kickoff Season Magazine.This year’s Fall Book is a preview of Texas teams that are looking to get back on top of grid-iron glory and make a deep run in the playoffs. Also profiles the Texas Longhorns and the future of Westlake Chaps as coach Todd Dodge made out like a bandit retiring into Texas high School Football glory after a Three-Pete run as State Champs.
Prototype Cover for Sept 2022 Edition
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Round Rock, TX; Lake Travis Cavaliers wide receiver Chernet Estes (10) unable catch the pass as North Shore Mustangs defensive back Jacoby Davis (5) defends during the second quarter at the Class 6A Division 1 state semifinal playoff on Saturday, Dec 11 2021, at Kelly Reeves Athletic Center.
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Austin, Texas —Henderson Engineers, a national building systems design firm, celebrates the one-year anniversary of the June opening of Q2 Stadium, the first ever major league sports venue in Austin, Texas. The Kansas City-based company, which has offices in nearby Dallas and Houston, served as the lead engineer for the $260 million facility that is home to the Austin FC Major League Soccer (MLS) team. In providing architectural lighting, electrical, fire and life safety, mechanical, plumbing, security, and telecom design services, Henderson was keen on elevating the fan experience.
Most striking of all Henderson-designed features are the lighting systems, which enabled Q2 to be the first ever stadium worldwide to be constructed with tunable RGB LED lights from the ground up. As a result, all 402 light fixtures throughout the facility have color changing and color tuning capabilities. The stadium’s operations team can instantaneously shift the lights from white to more than 16 million unique colors, allowing them to illuminate the pitch, the stands, and even attendees in numerous hues and patterns.
“Most stadiums use fireworks to boost excitement, so it’s an amazing experience to watch everything around you change color to red, white, and blue during the national anthem, to rainbow when commemorating PRIDE Month, and so on,” explained MischaHaramia, Henderson’s entertainment practice director who project managed the firm’s work on Q2. “Austin FC fans are ravenous, and the full-color-tunable lights are a great complement to the passion they show for their team at every game. The operations team also really loves the experience it provides, so much so that they host tours for the general public and other major league sports teams to specifically showcase the lighting.”
Adding to Q2’s stimulating atmosphere are several landscaped green spaces surrounding the stadium that serve as outdoor recreation areas on game days and public parks year-round. This includes a terraced 2,500 capacity amphitheater that doubles as a concert venue. To sustainably irrigate the greenery, excess rainwater is diverted from the soccer pitch via piping and pumping systems that were powered by Henderson and stored in nearby ponds, the stormwater catch basins designed by GarzaEMC, the civil engineer on the project. Henderson helped implement a HVAC condensate capture system that stores condensation in a holding tank and pumps it out to irrigate the landscaping as needed. Furthermore, the stadium’s electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems are fully equipped to allow the facility to install a SubAir System for the pitch if desired in the future to supply fresh air into the root zone to help maintain healthy turfgrass.
“In a relatively dry state like Texas, it’s important to make sure we’re using our natural resources responsibly,” noted Haramia. “We’re proud to have helped provide fans, families, and the surrounding community with beautiful green outdoor spaces that they can enjoy throughout the year while still limiting water usage. The amphitheater is an especially great addition in a city where live music is a beloved part of the local culture. And because we’re diverting rainwater, the City of Austin’s sewer systems are less strained whenever there’s unusually high rainfall or wastewater.”
For a seamless technological experience for fans and the operation team, Henderson provided a public distributed antenna system (DAS) and WiFi throughout the 465,000 square foot venue to boost connectivity and power key stadium technology features including a large LED videoboard. Given the rapidly evolving technological landscape, the systems are designed to be readily adaptable to future innovations.
“Social media, video, and other communication tools are an integral part of the modern sports experience, and we made sure fans are able to engage with the game and each other from virtually every location at the stadium,” said Haramia. “Our venue experts work on projects for every major sports league, giving us firsthand experience on how fast technology is changing and the steps we can take to keep up. So, we consciously provided Q2 with the flexibility to upgrade its WiFi systems, cellular network, and DAS without needing major infrastructure upgrades. That helps ensure the venue can remain at the forefront of tech for years to come.”
The Q2 Stadium project team included Gensler as the lead architect, Walter P Moore as the structural engineer, and Austin Commercial as the general contractor. The facility is LEED Gold certified by the U.S. Green Building Council owing to the sustainability efforts undertaken during design and construction.
Project photos and interview opportunities are available. If interested, contact Mike Achoki at [email protected] or 913-742-5145.
ABOUT HENDERSON
Henderson Companies, Inc. is the 100% employee-owned parent company of Henderson Engineers and Henderson Building Solutions. Henderson Engineers is a national building systems design firm with a wide array of engineering design services and a project portfolio representing a wide range of markets including business, community, retail, healthcare, and venue. Henderson Building Solutions is a construction management and commissioning services firm that provides a seamless bridge between design, construction, and ongoing maintenance. As Henderson, we combine engineering knowledge with in-the-field construction expertise to provide single-source design-build solutions for any project.
Founded in 1970 and 2013 respectively, we’re licensed in all 50 states (plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and British Columbia) and bring buildings to life through our 1,000 employees and 250+ PEs across 12 offices, including New York, Philadelphia, Tampa, Nashville, Bentonville, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City (Lenexa, Kansas, and downtown Kansas City, Missouri), Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. Our vision is to be the firm that builds a better world. We’ve diligently cultivated an inclusive, best-in-class work environment where people can reach their full potential. Our core values drive us to deliver unrivaled service and solutions that make us the team you want to partner with.
Mavs Fall Into 0-2 Hole With Blowout Loss to Top-Seeded Suns in Phoenix last night. Chris Paul went berserk in the 4th Qtr as the 37 year old veteran made the case for MVP in the house of the rising suns. CP3 scored 28 points, including 14 in a memorable fourth quarter performance, to lead the Suns over the Mavericks 129-109 on Wednesday for a solid 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semis. The “W” marks the Suns’ 11th straight win against the Mavericks going back to the regular-season games.
The game was pretty close until the end of the 3rd when the Mavs hit a dry spell shooting. The Suns took an 89-83 lead going into the 4th quarter when it looked like a dog-fight was coming. Then Chris Paul happened! Scoring 14 points in the 4th hitting six baskets in a row on everything from layups to 3-pointers to mid-range jumpers in the paint as well as getting the line several times.
Phoenix hosted a sellout crowd for a 31st straight game.
The Mavericks will be desperate for a win in Game 3 on Friday.
ORLANDO, Fla. (Feb. 28, 2021) – The Austin Spurs fell to the Santa Cruz Warriors by a final score 109-104 on Sunday.
Cam Reynolds put up a team-high 20 points for Austin. Anthony Mathis contributed 19 points and 4 rebounds for the Spurs, and Khyri Thomas finished with 18 points and 5 rebounds.
Sacramento Kings flex assignee Robert Woodard II posted a double-double for Austin with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
Santa Cruz was led by Nico Mannion, who had 27 points. Nate Hinton recorded a double-double for the Warriors with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
The 2021 Austin Spurs season is presented by SWBC.
NEXT UP
The Spurs will take on the Long Island Nets on Tuesday, March 2 at 2 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast live on FOX Sports Southwest, and fans can stream the game via FOX Sports GO or ESPN+.
The Hutto Hippos are a program on the rise within the Greater Austin area. Since current head coach Brad LaPlante arrived in 2014, Hutto hasn’t missed the playoffs and are now looking to book the Hippos’ first postseason trip as a Class 6A competitor. Texas Sports Monthly got the opportunity to catch up with LaPlante prior to the 2020 season to ask what makes Hutto a budding Central Texas power.
Q: Of course, it’s been the most unique offseason in Texas high school football history with the pandemic. Were you able to stay in contact with your team over summer and did it end up affecting summer workouts?
A: We still stay in contact, whether it’s Google Meet or Zoom or text or phone or team communications app. We shut down for a little bit there with our strength camp just as a precaution. That was the end of June going into July, so we missed just a few days of strength camp.
Q: What has helped the Hutto program not only gain success but become a consistent winner among a very competitive and talent-rich area of Texas?
A: That’s one of the best things about our kids — they get along, they believe in each other and they want to win. They’ve had success and they want to keep that going. The last time Hutto wasn’t in the playoffs was 2013, so these kids work hard to make sure that we keep that going. The other part of that is they do know that tougher competition is coming and they want to respect that and we’ve got a lot of respect as a coaching staff for the other Round Rock and Leander schools. This year, a favorable thing for us is we had so many unknowns. It wasn’t pressure from the coaching staff, but I think just from each other like, ‘OK, who’s going to start this year? I don’t know, so I better be working hard to make sure I’m the guy.’ The fact that we’re going to be really, really young kept these guys hungry I think.
Q: Coach, who is going to be back on defense to try and help slow down some of the high-powered and uptempo offenses that are featured every week in District 25-6A?
A: Defensively, we’re going to have our team leader back — and everybody knows him — Landyn Watson. He’s a rush end and an outside backer and a recent TCU commit as a four-star kid. Joining him is an inside backer, Braylon Sugg, and our other outside backer is going to be a sophomore, Brody Bujnoch. I think our linebacking corps is going to be pretty salty in our 3-4 defense. Then we have Junior Torres, he was a freshman up on varsity last year. We had four freshmen up on varsity last year playing against Shadow Creek in the second round of the playoffs. Defensively, those are some probably names that people are going to need to familiarize themselves with.
Q: As a team, you guy were able to average 399 yards per game and more than 35 points per outing offensively. Who will be relied upon to try and improve those numbers this season?
A: We do have a retuning quarterback in Grayson Doggett who was a sophomore last year. By watching him in our skills session and if you came to a practice, you would not know that we missed spring ball and 7-on-7. He is looking fantastic and is sharp. His offensive line in front of him is a veteran group. There’s not DI guys all over the place, but four out of five of them have game experience and they’re just good, hardworking kids and there’s cohesion between the group. We do have four guys who are going to get some reps at tailback and that will shake out in the scrimmage and early games. We have a receiver coming back, Jairiez Lambert, who has super soft hands and he’s getting some good receiver looks and he may start at safety for us too and play both ways. He’s a good competitor and kind of the rest of the receiving corps could be unknowns that didn’t play varsity last year.
Q: What are the unique challenges provided by the move from Class 5A to 6A, and specifically, into 25-6A alongside new foes like Vandegrift, Westwood, Vista Ridge, Cedar Ridge, McNeil, Round Rock and Stony Point?
A: That even stretches out into our non-district with College Station and Waco. We haven’t had those rascals on the schedule for a while. We played College Station a couple of times in the 5A playoffs and Steve Huff does a great job down there. Lot of respect for them. Then, of course, you open up with Anthony Wood and Westwood over at Dragon Stadium as our first district ballgame. That one could be 78-77 or whatever it’s going to be. They have a salty bunch and a new defensive coordinator over there. The McNeil and Round Rock, and some people have said they can’t wait to see us against Vandegrift the week before Thanksgiving, and I’m thinking we just have to get through game one. We’ve got to make sure we build up our numbers and get our depth going and do things right.
Michigan Wolverine wide receiver Tarik Black stated this week on his Instagram that he is transferring to Texas for the fall. The former Wolverine made the decision to move on from Ann Arbor following a three-year career as a Wolverine.
A former four-star recruit out of Ceshire (CT) Cheshire Academy, Black was a part of Jim Harbaugh’s 2017 class at Michigan. The former U.S. Army All-American chose Michigan over offers from Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Miami, Mississippi State and several others. The wide receiver room in Austin was stacked over the last few years, but departures from Lil’Jordan Humphrey and 2020 draftees Collin Johnson and Devin Duvernay left Texas young at the position.
Texas typically used big-bodied wide receivers like Black at the “X” position where their size provides a chain moving target for the quarterback on the outside. Collin Johnson served in that role for years in this offense, and Brennan Eagles has spent some time lined up there as well. It’s unclear how Texas offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich plans to use Black moving forward, but his presence as a veteran wide receiver should help to elevate a talented but young wide receiver room.
When Cowboys owner Jerry Jones brought in a new coaching staff last January, the team’s outgoing quarterbacks coach Jon Kitna did not have to travel far for his next job.
Kitna, 47, was named Athletic Coordinator & Head Coach at Burleson High School located outside Ft. Worth. It’s not as unusual a career change as it might appear.
Kitna played quarterback for four teams during a 16-year NFL career (1997-2011, 2013). After his playing career, he began coaching at his alma mater Lincoln High School in his hometown of Tacoma, Washington.
He moved his young family to Texas in 2015 and continued coaching on the high school level in Waxahachie. In 2018, he took another high school coaching position in Phoenix before then-head coach Jason Garrett recruited him to the Cowboys to work with Zak Prescott last season. Garrett now is the Giants offensive coordinator and Kitna has resumed his high school head coaching career.
“I can’t think of a better environment for a young man than to play high school ball in a program run by Jon”, says Garrett. “He has brought out the best in those around him at every level he has coached. The significant impact he will have on his student-athletes at Burleson will be felt for the rest of their lives.”
Kitna’s return to high school coaching will be an opportunity to work on the field with his two teenage sons. QB Jalen will be a senior at Burleson this fall and already has been recruited by colleges from Oregon State to Yale. J.T. is a younger 14-year old son who also will enroll and play at the school.
“One of the things I missed last year with the Cowboys was coaching Jalen,” says the elder Kitna, “but I am super excited about being able to finish coaching him this fall and then J.T. who’s coming up behind him.”
We at NFL Alumni wish the entire Kitna family (including mom Jennifer) much success and good health in their exciting new environment.
LUBBOCK, Texas — The Texas Longhorns have been on a tear giving a spark in recent weeks as the end of the regular season play nears. Shaka Smart’s young team is seeking a push for redemption and a NCAA Tournament bid. Tech has been a very stingy 13-2 at home coming into Saturday’s game against Texas. However, the Horns stayed the course out rebounding and out shooting the Red Raiders late in the 2nd half of Saturdays contest pulling away with a huge 68-58 win against No. 22 Texas Tech.
The Horns will have a chance at a third straight victory Tuesday night against Oklahoma. The Longhorns upset No. 20 West Virginia last Monday in Austin and have been playing injured and with sick players as of late, but have shown a lot of heart.
Texas is on the outside looking in as the season comes to a close in hopes for a bid in the NCAA Tournament in 2020. Missing out last year still bore the fruit of a NIT Title for the Shaka Smart lead team that has been largely viewed by most critics as mediocre at best.
Currently they are (18-11, 8-8 in Big 12). Texas will travel to Norman tomorrow night to face the Sooners and then will play their final game of the season at home against OSU. Game Airs on TV/ ESPN2 & Radio: Longhorn Radio Network, Sirius XM 385.
TSM: Welcome to Texas Sports Monthly coach. At about the halfway mark through the season coach, how do you feel about this team so far as you get settled into district play?
Coach Baker: We knew coming in, with the experience that we had returning, this group had the potential to be pretty special. We have had some early season injury issues to our seniors, but we have used that opportunity to establish some depth, and the boys have really risen to the challenge. I really like what we have as a group, and I think, as long as we continue to work and improve, game by game, we have a real chance at something big.
TSM: Things are looking good as you’ve posted a 10-1-2 record thus far. Talk about your offense coach i see Zack Burd nailed that kick in the Lake Travis game the other day. This team has shown some grit thus far would you agree?
Coach Baker: It is one of the things that we preach here, being able to meet adversity head on and overcome it. We want to be aggressive and attack, but we also have to be able to respond when things aren’t going our way. A lot of teams would have folded after going behind to a team with such a tremendous defense; I thought we improved significantly after they scored and we responded right away, and probably could have added another at the end.
TSM: Lake Travis coach David Bammel will likely get in the playoffs, they played you pretty close in that tie game holding your guys to just that one goal in the 1-1 tie. Soccer may not get the accalades that football does by most media around town but district rival is still a rival. What did you think of that Cavs team yall just played in late January?
Coach Baker: They are a perennial playoff team and have had their fair share of success recently in the form of District Championships and playoff runs. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Bammel and the program he has developed. They are always well organized and difficult to get through, and they always seem to have playmakers that can create that something special offensively. Rivalry games are always tight affairs, and our game certainly lived up to the billing. We are looking forward to heading to their place in February and trying to take the season series.
TSM: What players stand out as your top offensive guys? And what 2 or three are you best defenders?
Coach Baker: We have a lot of fantastic attacking players, any of which are capable of finding the back of the net. Right now, our leading goal scorers are Junior David Leadbetter, who generally gets the most attention from opposing defenses, and Sophomore Raghav Sharma, who has stepped into our striker role perfectly and helps spearhead our attack. Junior Ty Jarrett has also been phenomenal this year, and is undoubtedly our most versatile player; he has played almost every position on the field at an extremely high level. Our defense is led by Senior Captain Oscar Nordfjell, who is an absolutely wonderful player, as well as Junior Max Moeser, who has been the biggest revelation with our injury issues in the back. He has come in on a mission and has been a rock for us in the back.
TSM: You have Del Valle coming up coach who also has won 10 games this season and is decent in this district. What will you prepare for in this contest as we close out January?
Coach Baker: Del Valle is always a tough opponent and they have had a great start to their season. The big challenge is that they play a similar style to us, in that they want to control the ball and influence the defense to create space. We have to continue to work on playing as clean a game with the ball as we possibly can. Our talent lies in our control and our passing, so we have to put ourselves in a position to be successful by taking care of the ball. It will be a challenge, certainly, but we are feeling confident in our chances to get the three points.
TSM: Best of Luck with the rest of the season coach as we get in the net with district play. Any final thoughts on the popularity of Soccer in Austin as we are only a year away from a professional team in 2021?
Coach Baker: Thank you! I’ve been around soccer in Austin for a long time, and this is probably the most soccer crazy the area has ever been. That can only be a good thing for the area and for the young players coming up through the pipeline. We look forward to seeing the product that Austin FC put out on the field to add to what the Bold have been doing the past couple years. It is a really exciting time to be a soccer fan in Austin!
