Hagen Hughes ran for 202 yards and two touchdowns to lift the Azle Hornets to a thrilling 41-34 win over Cooper in the season opener for both teams Friday night at Shotwell Stadium.
Hughes scored twice on counter plays in the second half — once from 77 yards and a second time from 34 — and those sprints basically spelled the difference in a battle featuring very evenly matched teams lifted by big plays all evening long.
Each week here at Big Country Preps, we’ll post our picks for all of that week’s 11-man games, in addition to the results of our weekly fan polls for each matchup.
For those interested in voting, polls go up on Sunday night each week and close Thursday morning.
Disagree with our picks or the fan poll consensus? Let us know in the comments section below.
Continue reading “Big Country Preps’ Pick ‘Em Panel (Week 1)”
After a week of highlighting area playmakers, we wrap up our eight-part preseason position rankings series with the Big Country’s best signal callers.
To complete our look at the area’s top players, we’ve ranked our top 10 quarterbacks with a list of others to watch in 2024.
We hope you enjoy this list and that you’ve enjoyed our position rankings as we get set to kick off a new season.
As we wind down our eight-part preseason position rankings series, we arrive finally at the Big Country’s top ball-carriers.
After breaking down this year’s crop of receivers and tight ends earlier tonight, we move now to the area’s top backs, ranking our top 10 with a list of others to watch in 2024. Don’t forget to check in Thursday when we conclude our series with the top 10 area quarterbacks.
We hope you enjoy tonight’s list and encourage you to check out the other position groups, which are linked below.
We’re approaching the final stretch of our eight-part preseason position rankings series, and it’s time to look at the Big Country’s top receivers.
After starting the offensive portion of our series Tuesday with the linemen, we now shift our attention to the playmakers on the perimeter, ranking our top 10 wideouts/tight ends with a list of others to watch in 2024.
We hope you enjoy our list and encourage you to check out the other position groups, which are linked below.
With the defensive and special teams rankings behind us, it’s time to look at the area’s top offensive players. And we’ll start with the foundation of any productive offense: the offensive line.
For the fifth installment of our eight-part preseason position rankings series, we turn our attention to the trenches, ranking the Big Country’s top 10 offensive linemen with a list of others to watch in 2024.
We hope you enjoy reading through our rankings.
After recognizing the top defensive players throughout the Big Country over the past three days, it’s time to honor the specialists.
We continue our eight-part preseason position rankings series by naming our top 10 kickers and top three punters to watch this fall.
We hope you enjoy this list and that you have enjoyed our position rankings as we get set to kickoff the 2024 season.
Each week here at Big Country Preps, we offer fans the chance to pick the winners of all games involving our local and area football teams. The results of these weekly polls, which will close at 5 p.m. each Thursday, will be included in our weekly Pick ‘Em Panel.
Here are the games for Week 1:
Continue reading “WEEK 1 FAN POLLS … Pick this week’s 11-man winners!”
After starting with the linemen and linebackers, we turn to the defensive backfield to complete our look at the top defenders in the Big Country.
For the third installment in our eight-part preseason position rankings series, we shift our focus to the secondary, giving our list of the area’s top-10 defensive backs and others to look out for in 2024.
We hope you enjoy our list.
After taking a look at the Big Country’s top defensive linemen last night, it’s now time to examine those who will backing them in 2024.
Continuing with Big Country Preps’ eight-part preseason position rankings series, here’s our top 10 linebackers to watch this fall, as well as a list of the others we’re expecting big things from.
We hope you enjoy our list.
With the start of football season around the corner, it’s time to take a look at the players who will be making the biggest impact in 2024.
For the first installment in an eight-part series that will cover all position groups, we’ll be taking a look at the area’s top defensive linemen, ranking our top 10 with a list of others to watch this fall.
As with any such list, these rankings are subjective. We hope you enjoy reading through them.
Ready to take the truck out on one of those farm-to-market roads to watch high school football into the late hours on a Friday night?
You’re not the only one.
And, as always, we’ve come up with a preseason menu of sorts for those of you who will be hitting the trails each week in search of pigskin.
Every week for the next 11 weeks, Big Country Preps will be searching for its Game of the Week, and we’re already looking ahead. The list below represents that work and acts as a framework for the rest of the season. We now share it with you … our preliminary list of Big Country Games worth traveling for in 2024. But keep in mind: the following list is subject to change as surprises and disappointments emerge.
And as we all know, surprises and disappointments will always emerge.
The time has arrived for us to make our Big Country predictions, district-by-district.
Several weeks of research and two solid months of summertime labor have gone into this, so we’re more than ready to post it.
With that please dive in and study our take on the upcoming season, along with the more than 80 preseason stories we posted earlier today. Enjoy! We’ll see you on the road!
Ask any football coach and they’ll tell you that the best place to start when trying to build a successful offense is at the line of scrimmage. When you can open holes in the run game and protect the quarterback in the passing game, everything gets easier for your skill position talent — and, in turn, your play-caller.
So if you’re wondering why Abilene High coach Mike Fullen is so excited about this year’s offense, you need look no further than the big boys he’ll have blocking for his fast guys this fall.
That line group, which returns four starters from last year’s 11-3 squad, including a trio of three-year lettermen, will be one of the most experienced in the region this season. And if all goes according to plan, it should also be one of the best.
After leading Abilene High to its best season in more than a decade last fall to mark the Eagles’ third run to the third round of the playoffs or deeper since 2020, sixth-year AHS head coach Mike Fullen feels like he has his program in a healthy place.
And following an 11-3 campaign that saw the Eagles claim their first district championship since 2016, who could blame him for holding that opinion?
But when it comes to rebuilding Abilene High’s tradition of gridiron excellence, Fullen is admittedly greedy. And both he and his AHS players are ready to make seasons like last year’s a more common occurrence in North Abilene.
As a sophomore in 2022, Hayden Wright was a breakout star, intercepting nine passes in his first year as a starter to help Wylie to a 10-4 campaign.
Challenged by coach Clay Martin and his defensive staff to become more of a complete safety last season, his coverage stats took a bit of a dip, but he still played a pivotal role in the Bulldogs’ run to the area round.
Now entering his final high school season, Wright is hoping for his best year yet. And Martin would be surprised, frankly, if he doesn’t accomplish that goal.
After posting a combined 18-8 record over the past two years, the Wylie Bulldogs are entering a campaign off consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 2016-17.
The goal — and expectation — now for coach Clay Martin’s squad is to make winning seasons and playoff berths the norm at WHS again.
In the pursuit of sustained year-over-year success, Martin will have another good group to work with in 2024. The Bulldogs have five starters back on both sides of the ball among 39 returning lettermen.
While the fifth-year Wylie mentor, who has coached four of the Bulldogs’ six seasons at the Class 5A level, will have some questions to answer and holes to fill, he likes his chances of putting another winning product on the field this fall.
After having his junior season cut short by a broken collarbone, Cooper senior Zavian Alexander can’t wait to get back on the field and make plays again for coach Aaron Roan and his teammates.
The good news for the talented athlete is he’ll have ample opportunity to do so in 2024.
Alexander, a rare two-way player at the Class 5A level, will see time at both receiver and defensive back for the the Cougars again this fall. And after watching the end of last season from the sidelines, he’ll be looking to maximize his impact on both sides of the football in his last go-round at CHS.
In his seven years as Cooper’s head coach, Aaron Roan has never finished a season outside of the playoffs. With a good group back from a team that reached the area round last year, a return to the postseason is the baseline expectation for the Cougars this fall.
In losing 27 of its 51 lettermen from last year, Roan and the CHS staff will have to develop some depth this season. That’s especially true with a smaller than normal roster of just 44 players.
But among that group, the Coogs return eight offensive and nine defensive starters, giving their coach a strong nucleus to build around and a lot of optimism for the season ahead.
Having gone 0-10 and 1-9 in their first two seasons as an 11-man program, the Abilene TLCA Eagles changed coaches in the offseason — moving from Jeremy Kirk, who started the program as a six-man school, to Steven Ward.
In taking his first career head coaching job, Ward will be faced with many of the same challenges that Kirk dealt with at the charter school. The most notable of those is not knowing who he would have during the summer as he worked to implement his stamp on the program.
Ward will have continuity on his staff with the return of Dakota Fannin (offensive coordinator) and Tyler Burchette (defensive coordinator), which should help the Eagles as they look to put together the best season in the brief history of the program.
Football is just around the corner, and we at BigCountryPreps.com are committed to bringing you the information you need to prepare for your favorite team’s season.
We’ll be releasing our Big Country Preps Preseason Football Preview, the most comprehensive look at the upcoming Big Country football season anywhere, on Wednesday, Aug. 21. But you won’t have to wait until then to sate your gridiron appetite.
Leading up to the first day of fall football practice on Aug. 5, we’ll be spotlighting each 11-man team in the area and posing some of the key questions they’ll face in 2024 as part of our annual “Countdown to Two-a-Days” series.
Today, we take a look at the Cooper Cougars, the Wylie Bulldogs and the Abilene High Eagles.
Digital photos, prints and keepsakes may be purchased by clicking the link below. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: 2024 State LineMAN Challenge (165 images)”
Digital photos, prints and keepsakes may be purchased by clicking the link below. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: FCA football all-star game (107 images)”
In a game that typically sees offenses struggle, the Blue team won the 25th annual FCA Myrle Greathouse All-Star Football Classic 20-10 over the Red team at Shotwell Stadium on Saturday night.
Since moving to a draft format, the Red and Blue teams have split the eight games played after the North All-Stars dominated the first 16 years, winning 13 times against their counterparts from the South.
Abilene High quarterback Dylan Slack was named Offensive MVP after throwing for 179 yards and two scores, while Cooper’s Eric Tonche earned Defensive MVP honors with two sacks among his five tackles.
It was a special afternoon on Wednesday inside the Cooper and Wylie gyms as 15 local athletes from a variety of sports made their college decisions official in a pair of signing ceremonies.
Cooper had nearly all of the signees as 14 seniors signed for their future with their families, friends, coaches and community members filling the bleachers of Cougar Gymnasium.
At Wylie, meanwhile, Garrett Salada was the lone signee, taking a brief break from his prep for this week’s Region I-5A quarterfinal series against crosstown rival Abilene High to solidify his pledge to Luna Community College in Las Vegas, N.M.
A trio of Abilene High athletes announced their college decisions on Tuesday as Bryce Neves, Jadrian Carrillo and Beckham Paul made their commitments to McMurry University official during a Signing Day ceremony at the Chuck Moser Fieldhouse.
Neves and Carrillo, both linebackers, committed to play for the War Hawks football team, while Paul, a standout safety in the fall and center fielder in the spring, will continue his career in baseball.
The trio’s signing ceremony capped a strong athletic year for Abilene High, which had nine athletes sign letters of intent to compete collegiately in February.
With National Signing Day taking place on Wednesday, the Big Country, as always, saw a large number of athletes finalize their commitments to compete at the next level.
Headliners among this year’s signees include Albany running back Adam HIll and Hawley receiver Chandlin Myers, both of whom signed early with Texas Tech University.
Stephenville offensive lineman Creece Brister (TCU) and Comanche defensive back Kyler Beaty (Baylor) also inked their letters early. They’re joined Brock offensive/defensive lineman Hunter Fay (Navy) and standout hurdler Dylan Foster (Army) as the top signees in the Big Country Preps coverage area.
If I were to ask one question of every high school coach in America – just one – it would be … why bother?
Yes … why bother?
While that may sound vague to some, it will quickly make sense to coaches and to those who have been paying attention.
Put simply, a once-thankless profession has sunk even lower than that (if that’s possible) – making me wonder if it’s worth the effort.
While the University Interscholastic League’s biennial realignment offered surprises for many coaches across the state, Abilene’s local football mentors were spared any real suspense when they opened their packets containing new districts for the next two school years.
When the news became official at 9 a.m. Thursday, Abilene High’s Mike Fullen, Cooper’s Aaron Roan and Wylie’s Clay Martin found their schools where they expected to in the Region I landscape.
Fullen’s Eagles will once again be in District 2-5A Division I, sharing a league with familiar opponents Amarillo High, Amarillo Caprock, Amarillo Tascosa, Lubbock Coronado and Lubbock Monterey, while adding a lone newcomer in Lubbock High. Cooper and Wylie, meanwhile, will be in District 2-5A DII with Amarillo Palo Duro, Lubbock Cooper, Plainview and new Wichita Falls ISD schools Legacy and Memorial.
When it comes to building a football schedule, it’s often about making the pieces fit one’s unique situation. That can be a challenge, given that some coaches’ phones never stop ringing while others can’t get anyone to look them in the eye.
This Tetris game is played every other year during the University Interscholastic League’s biennial realignment, and the 2024 version was no different.
Coaches such as Craig Slaughter (Wall) and Russell Lucas (Sweetwater) may have a more difficult time getting colleagues to answer their phones because of the talent in their programs, while coaches on the down side of a talent cycle might have to put their devices in “Do Not Disturb” mode just to get them to quit ringing.
A move that has been discussed as a possibility for several years became official on Friday afternoon as Wylie announced it would be splitting the jobs of athletic director and head football coach into separate roles.
Clay Martin, who has served WISD in both capacities since 2020, was the one who went to the district and suggested it was time, Wylie Superintendent Joey Light said.
Light said Martin was given an option of which job to fulfill moving forward and the veteran coach chose to remain on the sidelines.
Here are our first-team selections for the 2023 All-Big Country Preps football team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our second-team selections for the 2023 All-Big Country Preps football team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our selections for the 2023 All-Big Country Preps Football Team (Third-Team roster). For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our selections for the 2023 All-Big Country Preps Rising Stars Team — an honor reserved for the area’s top freshman and sophomore football players. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Digital photos, prints and keepsakes may be purchased by clicking the link below. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Brandon McAuliffe’s top 100 football photos for 2023”
Digital photos, prints and keepsakes may be purchased by clicking the link below. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Daniel Youngblood’s top 100 football photos for 2023”
Each week here at Big Country Preps, we’ll post our picks for all of that week’s 11-man games and select six-man games, in addition to the results of Evan Ren’s Twitter polls for each matchup.
For those interested in voting, polls go up on Monday night each week.
Disagree with our picks or the Twitter consensus? Let us know in the comments section below.
In order to account for new schools opening and in keeping the different classifications as balanced and competitive as possible, the University Interscholastic League goes through a realignment every other year.
It’s one of the highlights of what’s typically a slow football offseason, but it got underway in October with Snapshot Day prior to taking the next step on Tuesday with the disclosure of enrollments for each of the state’s classifications from 1A through 6A.
Each week here at Big Country Preps, we’ll post our picks for all of that week’s 11-man games and select six-man games, in addition to the results of Evan Ren’s Twitter polls for each matchup.
For those interested in voting, polls go up on Monday night each week.
Disagree with our picks or the Twitter consensus? Let us know in the comments section below.
Digital photos, prints and keepsakes may be purchased by clicking the link below. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Abilene High-Aledo football playoff (68 images)”
STEPHENVILLE — Abilene High’s most successful football season in more than a decade came to an end Friday with a 56-21 loss to top-ranked Aledo in the Region I-5A Division I final.
A disastrous start saw the Eagles fall behind 28-0 after a quarter. And following a successful second period, during which coach Mike Fullen’s squad was able to narrow the deficit to 28-14 by halftime, Abilene High ran out of gas against a Bearcats squad in search of second consecutive state title and 12th in program history.
The loss forced Abilene High, which was outgained 527-210 and limited to just a single yard on the ground, to end its season at 11-3. But the run to the fourth round of the playoffs marked the Eagles’ deepest since 2011 and the 11 wins tied the program’s most since 2012.
When Abilene High takes the field for its Region I-5A Division I final against Aledo on Friday at Tarleton Memorial Stadium, the Eagles will do so as the clear underdog.
Unbeaten at 13-0 and ranked No. 1 in the state in their classification, the Bearcats are the favorite to return to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, where they won their most recent of 11 state championships last fall.
But if you think the Eagles will be uncomfortable in a challenger role or intimidated playing a state power, you don’t know enough about the AHS program. During a 25-year run that has seen Abilene High reach the playoffs 21 times, achieve double digit wins on 11 occasions and claim a state title of its own in 2009, the Eagles have built a well-earned reputation as a giant killer.
And they’re all too happy to put their own tradition on the line this week in Stephenville.
Each week here at Big Country Preps, we’ll post our picks for all of that week’s 11-man games and select six-man games, in addition to the results of Evan Ren’s Twitter polls for each matchup.
For those interested in voting, polls go up on Monday night each week.
Disagree with our picks or the Twitter consensus? Let us know in the comments section below.
