High School Football

This past weekend was the final weekend of the longest high school football season (142 days to be exact), and it was arguably a very exciting couple of days. The 5A schools battled it out on Friday night at AT&T Stadium with Denton Ryan and Aledo coming out on top. Aledo, who competed in the D2 bracket, now has the most football state titles with a total of 10. The night after these historical wins, the 6A teams had their shot at victory.

The afternoon game was the D2 bracket and Katy beat Cedar Hill by a landslide 51-14 win. Now this is an opinion, not a fact, but I feel like the State Championships games most commonly end with a blowout, and not a close game. This may just be the results of recency bias, but I think that’s a common trend in the CFP as well. Either way, Katy was the offensive and defensive dominator the entire game with a 17-0 first quarter shut out. After half, Cedar Hill scored 2 touchdowns which would be the first and last time they saw the endzone for the day.

While the D1 bracket title game may not look like a close game, the box score and film tell a different story. The two teams ended the first quarter tied at 14 which was very uncharacteristic of Westlake. This is a powerhouse team who was on the right track offensively, but defensively they weren’t performing. The team has averaged around 5 points scored against them this season, so 14 in the first quarter had to have been a shock to the team. Westlake went into the locker room up 28-21, and key corrections would be made in the Chapparal locker-room to come out on top. The defense showed up big time in the 3^rd quarter producing a 17-0 shut out, to give Westlake a 45-21 lead. Plenty of time left on the clock for Southlake to turn the ball game around but an interception, a fumble, and a turnover on downs showed the Dragons were getting sloppy which ultimately led to their demise. The final score of the game was 52-34.

Women’s Basketball

While MLK day honors the life of Martin Luther King Jr., it’s also a day to celebrate advancements made in equality over the year. The South Carolina Women’s basketball team defined adversity on January 14^th, and in light of this celebrator day the headlines are coming in. The University unveiled a statue of A’ja Wilson, a former women’s basketball player and current professional player who has arguably been one of the best athletes on campus. In her college career, she played 138 games and took 1624 shots on the net. On top of numerous accomplishments starting in high school with the McDonald’s All American, she holds the record for most point in a career (2,389), and leads in 4 other categories. Wilson was drafted in 2018 as the first pick and currently plays with the Las Vegas Aces. This year, she became the 2020 WNBA MVP, and her success has not gone unnoticed.

Now I have no clue what emotions come with seeing a statue of your legacy at your alma mater, but I can imagine pride is a leading emotion. Not only is this recognition about career alone, but when asked about the statue Wilson said

“The same campus my grandmother couldn’t walk on, is the same campus that houses the statue of her granddaughter”.

If that quote doesn’t define what it means to preserve, then I’m not sure how else to describe it.

NFL

While the Saints took the field for the last time this season in a 30-20 loss against Tampa Bay, the game was more than just a temporary ‘last’. Drew Brees announced before the game that after this post season, he would be hanging up his jersey for good.

Overall, Brees has had a very successful career in 20 seasons. The 41-year-old has a career average 67.7% completion rate, with 80,358 yards. In case you were looking for a Tuesday morning cry session, the following video shows Tom Brady and his kids joining Drew Brees and his kids on the field post game.