Koch's Top 5
New coaches, Tomball Bowl, epic showdowns headline opening week
Joshua Koch
Aug 27, 2018, 5:00 am
Originally Appeared on Vype
Welcome to a new weekly piece on VYPE Houston!
Every week I will sit down on Monday's and layout what I think are the Top 5 headlines from the previous week of Texas high school football in Houston and what are some of the biggest topics heading into the next week.
This will be a great way to get your Monday started! So here goes the first installment of 16 ... yes heading all the way up to the UIL State Football Championships at AT&T Stadium ... let's do it!
1) New Coaches All Over
The number is way too high to count on two hands and two feet. There are new coaches all over the Greater Houston area heading into this opening week of football. Some notable ones are gone. The Woodlands Mark Schmid opted to retire from the program he built into a powerhouse.
Klein Collins' Drew Svoboda exited the program he built into a power to coach the running backs at Rice University (who ran for more than 300 yards against Prairie View A&M in a 31-28 win on Saturday). Those were the two largest exits. Replacing them was Jim Rapp, who was already on staff at The Woodlands, and Adrian Mitchell at Klein Collins. Heading into their first game weeks, Klein Collins has to prepare for a road game at Alief Taylor and The Woodlands at Cy-Fair.
These two coaches will be arguably the most watched this season considering the ultra-successful programs they took over. Also one to watch is Ricky Tullos at Pearland, which he moved over from George Ranch where he guided the Longhorns to the 2015 state championship.
Read the rest of Josh's top five
Houston center fielder Jake Meyers was removed from Wednesday night’s game against Cleveland during pregame warmups because of right calf tightness.
Meyers, who had missed the last two games with a right calf injury, jogged onto the field before the game but soon summoned the training staff, who joined him on the field to tend to him. He remained on the field on one knee as manager Joe Espada joined the group. After a couple minutes, Meyers got up and was helped off the field and to the tunnel in right field by a trainer.
Mauricio Dubón moved from shortstop to center field and Zack Short entered the game to replace Dubón at shortstop.
Meyers is batting .308 with three homers and 21 RBIs this season.
After the game, Meyers met with the media and spoke about the injury. Meyers declined to answer when asked if the latest injury feels worse than the one he sustained Sunday. Wow, that is not a good sign.
Asked if this calf injury feels worse than the one he sustained on Sunday, Jake Meyers looked toward a team spokesman and asked "do I have to answer that?" He did not and then politely ended the interview.
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) July 10, 2025
Lack of imaging strikes again!
The Athletic's Chandler Rome reported on Thursday that the Astros didn't do any imaging on Meyers after the initial injury. You can't make this stuff up. This is exactly the kind of thing that has the Astros return-to-play policy under constant scrutiny.
The All-Star break is right around the corner, why take the risk in playing Meyers after missing just two games with calf discomfort? The guy literally fell to the ground running out to his position before the game started. The people that make these risk vs. reward assessments clearly are making some serious mistakes.
The question remains: will the Astros finally do something about it?