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COLUMN: 8-5A proves to be anything but down, out
BY Kevin Hageland Staff Writer
Much like Mark Twain, it appears the reports of District 8-5A’s death have been greatly exaggerated.
After the opening two games of the 2009 football season, speculation was abound that the district featuring defending Class 5A Division I Champion Allen, Class 5A Division II State Finalist Wylie, Plano Senior, Plano East, Plano West, McKinney Boyd and Jesuit was in for a fall after dominating the first year of realignment.
After all, Wylie had been stomped by Hebron, Plano West was handled by Southlake Carroll, Plano and East each lost, and Allen was knocked off as well.
But take a closer look and its already becoming apparent that Week 0 was an anomaly.
Allen, the mighty defending state champs, lost.
Shocking!
Or was it?
Allen lost to Longview by three points on the Lobos home field. This is the same Longview team that advanced to the Class 4A Championship last season and is the No. 1 team in the state at 4A. This is the same team that hasn’t lost at home under head coach John King, a streak that is now at 26 games.
I asked Eagles head coach Tom Westerberg how he would convince people the sky wasn’t falling after the defeat and his response was simple, but to the point.
“Because it’s not,” Westerberg said.
The Plano ISD might have been suffering from similar fears after the city went two weeks without seeing a win from any of its teams; although to be fair, East missed out on one of those chances due to rain.
But take a closer look at those losses.
In retrospect, Plano probably should have beaten Irving MacArthur, but the Wildcats were breaking in a new quarterback as well as having to replace stud players at all the skill positions. Plano followed up with a humbling loss to DeSoto. That’s the same DeSoto team that gave Cedar Hill, the No. 1 Class 5A team in the state, all it could handle before the Longhorns escaped with a 3-point win.
East lost its opener to Flower Mound by one point. This is the same Jaguars team mind you that is still undefeated after three weeks of play.
The same can be said for West, which lost to still-undefeated Southlake Carroll and Flower Mound Marcus. And anyone who has seen the Dragons this season knows the team is primed to make another state title push.
But even with all those perfectly reasonable explanations for the early struggles of District 8-5A, the doubts began. I have been in five different press boxes in five different cities this season and have heard the refrain of, “This is going to be a down year for District 8-5A,” at nearly all of them.
If by down they mean the district won’t have a state champion and state finalist, then maybe, but that seemed highly unlikely whether the district was down or not. If these onlookers meant 8-5A won’t be a powerhouse amongst the rest of the state, think again.
Evidence of this was on display Friday night as District 8-5A made the state take notice once again.
Clearly no one told Allen that the defending champ’s season was over as they put a 28-point hurting on previously unbeaten Rockwall, a team which historically plays tight games with the Eagles.
Obviously no one told Plano and West that 0-2 records meant their seasons were over as the Wildcats, without their starting running back, edged past undefeated Hebron while the Wolves hung 55 points on a North Crowley team that will make the playoffs.
People must have forgotten to tell East it was destined to struggle like it did in 2008. How else would the Panthers have gone to Colleyville and handed Heritage its first loss by the tune of 24-7?
Same can be said for Boyd, which lost triple-threat Daryn Alves, but has still managed to win two of its first three games.
Didn’t these teams know their district was down this year?
Clearly not or else 8-5A teams wouldn’t have scheduled a Week 3 slate that includes Boyd taking on city rival McKinney; Allen traveling to Euless to face perpetual powerhouse, and revenge-seeking, Trinity; West hitting the road to face undefeated Garland Naaman Forest; Plano facing Temple, which features No. 3-ranked national recruit Lache Seastrunk; and East hosting Skyline, one of the top 5 Class 5A teams in the state.
Will this local quintet win all those games? Probably not. And does the Week 2 resurgence mean District 8-5A is the best in the state? No, that honor belongs to 6-5A.
But I would put reigning 8-5A champion Allen up against 6-5A kingpins Carroll and Coppell any day. And at least maybe now I can listen to a different strain of chatter in the press box.
Perhaps something about Kanye West, did you see what that guy did Sunday? Now there’s someone who could be in for a down year.
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