The 7-on-7 State Championships are getting a shakeup. (Photo by Richard Badillo)
The biggest news of the weekend happened on Super Bowl, but it was about games this summer. The Texas 7-on-7 Board of Directors released their qualifying schedule, and the biggest change in formatting was the moving of the State Tournament to the final weekend of June instead of the first weekend after July 4. This will condense the qualifying schedule a bit as in years past, instead of 32 State Qualifying Tournaments (SQTs) in Division I, there now will only be 24 tournaments. Several tournaments will feature 32 or 24 teams and three or four qualifiers. There will be 28 qualifiers at the Division II level. New Division I qualifier locations include New Caney and Grapevine. At the Division II level, new qualifier locations are West Columbia, Midlothian, West Hardin and Snyder. Look for DCTF to be out and about this summer at various qualifiers statewide in May and June.
On the coaching front, we had a stunner in the DFW area as Grapevine HC Randy Jackson departed Northeast Tarrant County after three years to try to turn around the struggling North Forney program. Jackson has a reputation for being able to revitalize programs and he’ll try to do the same at North Forney, which has seen very little success in football since its opening. It was certainly an eyebrow raiser for many and opens up what looks to be a very attractive job at Grapevine. Jackson has certainly logged some moving truck miles. He’s been a head coach at Paducah, Mason, DeKalb, Lone Oak, Mesquite Poteet, and Plano East prior to his tenure at Grapevine.
Cibolo Steele is bringing in a small pool of candidates to interview for their vacant HFC position this week as SCUCISD looks to replace Scott Lehnhoff, who was promoted to district athletic director. The smart money says this hire stays in house with the Steele DC, but there are a couple of intriguing candidates coming into town for a chance to make an impression.
Klein Oak has a new head coach for the first time in nearly 20 years and they hired a guy with plenty of pedigree as they promoted DC Jason Glenn to head coach. Glenn, a legend as a player at Texas A&M, spent seven years in the NFL and has since worked his way up the coaching ranks. He was a HC for one season at Houston Chavez before moving to Klein Oak to become the defensive coordinator. He joined DCTF Live this week to talk about the new gig.
Houston King brought in Galena Park North Shore assistant head coach Derek Fitzhenry as their next HFC/AD, Fitzhenry has prior head coaching experience including a successful tenure at Giddings and a short stint at Longview Pine Tree. Fitzhenry was a part of the 2015 state title staff at North Shore.
Beaumont West Brook has not started interviewing for their head football vacancy, which was opened when Kevin Flanigan left to take over at Tomball. The Beaumont Enterprise posted an article that only eight applications had been received thus far, including interim HC Eric Peevy. Port Neches-Groves assistant Chuck Langston also applied; Langston is a former HC at the University of Central Oklahoma and at Trinity Valley Community College. Former Beaumont Ozen HC Jeff Nelson was an applicant, as well.
After a lengthy process, it appears El Paso Hanks is finally ready to move forward with interviews for the HC position, which has been vacant since November. Interest in the job has been light at best and the job was reposted on THSCA recently. Candidates interviewing include several local assistants (one of whom who is a former HC) and a couple of assistant coaches from Central Texas. Interviews will kick off late this week.
The search for a new head coach at Killeen Shoemaker is starting to heat up as the first round of interviews kicked off last Friday, Feb. 3. The finalists will then be brought in for a second round of interviews this Friday. Expect KISD to move fairly quickly after that to hire their next coach. Early word is that, going into the final round of interviews, a coordinator from the DFW area is the favorite to land this potentially underrated gig.
Round Rock ISD has found a new HFC at Cedar Ridge after Shawn Bell’s departure to join the Baylor staff, and the promotion is from the inside as DC Sam Robinson was unveiled on Monday evening. Robinson came to Round Rock after a stint as the HC at Class 3A Slaton near the Lubbock area. He had the support of the current staff and many of the parents as the Raiders are hoping for some stability after two straight years of searching for a new coach. He also joined DCTF Live this week to talk about trying to continue the program’s momentum.
Hallsville appears to have quickly zeroed in on one candidate to replace David Plunk, who was reassigned a couple of weeks ago, but apparently the leading candidate turned the job down. Subsequently, it was posted on THSCA late last week indicating the race is wide open. Interviews will kick off early next week. Not too farr away, Texarkana Texas High is among the most coveted jobs out there and Texarkana ISD is looking to start the interview process up later this week. They could be bringing in a large pool of candidates initially, but look for them to narrow things down quickly to a core group of finalists.
Houston Madison is also kicking off interviews next week. Several talented young assistant coaches from Greater Houston, DFW and Central Texas are in the mix for this job. Elgin is moving quickly to replace departed HFC/AD James Garfield, who took an assistant AD job in Lubbock ISD. EISD is bringing in candidates to interview later this week, don’t look for more than five candidates to receive an interview despite over 100 applications received.
Sweetwater and Bridgeport will be kicking off their interview process late next week. Bridgeport interview candidates are starting to emerge and two of the candidates in the mix are small school coaches in East Texas. Corsicana Mildred started their interview process this week, as well. Look for up to three finalists to be brought back for a second round of interviews as early as next week.
Ralls will have a new head football coach in 2017 as Jeff Caffey departs after two rough seasons, where the Jackrabbits won just two games total. Down in the Rio Grande Valley, Port Isabel is beginning their interview process for their head football coach vacancy. The rumor is former Weslaco HC Tony Villareal is a strong early contender considering his past ties to the Tarpons program, but there is plenty of other interest in this attractive job at a tradition rich school.
Mesquite is bringing in four candidates to interview for their vacant HFC position on Feb. 8. The word is there is one candidate internal to MISD and three external candidates, two of whom are current head coaches and the other a former head coach in the DFW area.
Once again, there is big transfer news statewide as Jordan Moore, a four-star recruit from Yoakum, has made the decision to transfer to IMG Academy. Moore, who holds offers from almost every power five program in the country, departs Yoakum where he helped lead the Bulldogs to the 3A Division I state title game. His brother Jordan Moore, who is committed to Texas A&M, will remain at Yoakum for his senior season. Also on the transfer front, Galena Park North Shore, in addition to losing assistant coach Derek Fitzhenry, lost three-star WR Ralph Davis, who transferred to a school in Louisiana last week.
It’s officially clinic season in the state of Texas and if you have coaching clinic information that we are missing below by all means send it our way! You can e-mail it to me at mrstepp817@yahoo.com or reach out to me on twitter @Matt_Stepp817
February 10-11: Hill Country Clinic/Best Little Clinic In Texas, Fredericksburg http://www.hcfc-blc.com/
February 10-12: Lone Star Coaches Clinic, College Station http://www.lonestarclinic.com/
June 13-15: Angelo Football Clinic, San Angelo http://www.angelofootballclinic.com/index.html
July 23-26: 2017 THSCA Coaches Convention & Coaching School, Houston
Convention & Coaching School | Texas High School Coaches Association (THSCA)
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Matt Stepp is the Texas High School Football Inside for Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. Find him on Twitter: @Matt_Stepp817.
The post This week in TXHSFB (Feb. 8): 7-on-7 changes, Jackson leaves Grapevine, Steele interviews & more appeared first on Dave Campbell's Texas Football.