A Whole New Look
Spring football is in full gear in Houston
Matt Reese
May 23, 2018, 8:46 pm
2018 is shaping up to be another great year in high school football Vype
It might be a little crazy, but it's already time to start looking toward the 2018 football season in Houston.
Across the city, teams have fired up their 7-on-7 teams for the summer circuit and high school programs are either conducting spring football practices or working in the weight room to get ready for next year.
VYPE has scoured the city and found stories you should know about heading into the 2018 season.
A Rare Night Off by Joshua Koch
James Clancy hasn’t had a Friday night off in a while. Being a head football coach in Texas doesn’t give you that luxury from August until December.
In 2017 though, as the new head coach of Klein Cain, Clancy only had a junior varsity squad to field. Hence giving him Friday nights off.
“I got to watch some of my friends coach who I never would have gotten a chance to, which was neat,” Clancy said. “Just go watch some of the surrounding programs that do a good job. Try to steal some good ideas. I never get to watch people warmup or how they do pregame and stuff like that.
So we just would look at the area schedule and a couple of us would pick out a game and go watch it.
“It was interesting.”
Along with taking away the on- the-field knowledge from watching the game from the stands, Clancy admitted he got to take in the entire Friday night lights atmosphere.
“It kind of recharged us,” Clancy said. “We were jealous of everybody that was getting to coach and be a part of the life on Friday night. We’re excited to get back to that.”
Klein Cain fittingly will open the 2018 season against fellow newly-birthed program Cypress Park on September 1 at Klein Memorial Stadium.
“We’re very excited,” Clancy said. “It’s a long way away in terms of days, but for me as the head coach and the rest of our coaches it feels like it’s next week. We have a sense of urgency, we still have a lot of things we need to do to get better as a program and as a team.
“We know that clock is ticking and that we have to have our guys ready.”
The Wait is Over by Thomas Bingham
Cypress Park waited two years for a varsity football program, but is now only months away from having one. The Tigers enjoyed success during their freshman and JV seasons, so they can make a splash on the state’s biggest stage as early as this fall.
“I think we’re good with our starters and the ones we’re going to run out there with,” said Cy Park coach Greg Rogers. “It’s just being able to hold up in a tough district and stay healthy.”
Three of the players who will ease the transition are fullback/outside linebacker Sergio Small, tailback/free safety James LeBlanc and two-way lineman Bryan Gutierrez.
“Most of them hardly ever come off the field,” Rogers said of the trio. “They play offense, they play defense and they’re on our special teams.”
Small, LeBlanc and Gutierrez led the Tigers to an 8-1 record during their JV season in 2017, and have the work ethic to continue that success against the state’s biggest schools.
“Even in the offseason, they’ve become our leaders,” he added. “They get out front and outwork everybody.”
Park won’t have spring football this year, but is preparing for its inaugural campaign with an earlier start to fall practice and an extra scrimmage. Coach Rogers knows his team is joining a tough 14-6A district, so closing out fourth quarters will dictate its playoff chances.
Coaching Shuffle by Joshua Koch
District 23-6A will have a mix of the new, old and very familiar when it comes to the head coaches strolling the sidelines next fall.
The district, which includes the Alief schools – Elsik, Hastings and Taylor – Brazoswood, Strake Jesuit, Pearland, Dawson and George Ranch, is the only one in the Greater Houston area that will have four new head coaches next season.
“I think it’s good any time you can mix some new blood in with some guys who have been in it for a while,” newly appointed George Ranch coach Nick Cavallo said.
Cavallo moved over from Rosenberg Terry, where he was the defensive coordinator. Other moves included Ricky Tullos moving within the district from George Ranch to Pearland; Klay Kubiak, the son of Gary Kubiak, being promoted at Strake Jesuit and Mike Allison moving from Clear Brook to Dawson.
With the new coaches moving in and add in the existing coaches, there is a combined 62 years of head coaching experience between the eight men.
“I think it’s good when you can lean on some veteran leadership like that, but at the same time bring some new energy to the district as well,” Cavallo said.
Taking Winning Ways to Lake Creek by Joshua Koch
Pat Kennedy brings one kind of mentality to Montgomery Lake Creek – a winning one.
Coming from The Woodlands, which as recently as 2016 played for a state championship, Kennedy is used to being around a winning atmosphere.
That is what he is bringing to the Lions and it starts with the players.
“When I was at The Woodlands, we always goal set through the kids,” Kennedy said. “The kids will determine how much they buy into what we’re selling. They’ll determine the amount of success that we have.”
Kennedy, who started with The Woodlands in 1998, was a part of a coaching staff that guided the program to nine district championships in the past 10 seasons.
Being at a brand-new program is different.
Kennedy has spent the spring months not running spring football but rather ordering equipment, finalizing the team’s schedule and playing a role in the hiring of the high school’s other head coaches.
Despite not having spring football, Kennedy said there has been no lack of energy in the weight room.
“I think any time you have something new the kids are fired up,” he said. “When I came in here they’ve been excited about what we’re doing. They’ve worked really hard.”
So for a coach that is at the helm of a new program, what are the expectations for 2018?
“A realistic goal would be being about .500,” Kennedy said. “Is that where I want to be? No. I want to win every game. Is being 10-0 a realistic goal? No. But somewhere in between there that’s where we’re going to be.
“We’re going to be between 0-10 and 10-0 and we’ll let the kids decide where we’re going to be.”
This article appears in the May Issue of VYPE Magazine. Pick up your copy at any one of our locations today!
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or nine games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after a 4-8 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez (though not Breggy Bad). A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.