Denton RC High School

Former Denton running back Anthony Alridge is about to be a Bronco again. This time in Denver.

A report from the Longmont Times-Call details Alridge's journey from an undrafted free agent to the brink of the making an NFL roster.

Alridge was a stud with both Denton and the Houston Cougars. He has epic speed and is in a great spot with Denver. Mike Shanahan is known for taking little-known running backs and making them stars. Let's hope he does the same with our boy Anthony.

Ryan Lady Raiders head coach Cindy Williams has many challenges ahead of her in 2008, but the biggest may be finding the right combination of hitters on the front row.

She has plenty of options. Kayla Bond and Chloe Tate will anchor the front line at middle blocker. Stephanie Routh, Sarah Proctor, Katie Jones, Ashlyn Hamilton and Hannah Marshall all deserve playing time as hitters, but who will get the call?

Something tells me Routh will be a fixture as the right-side hitter. She was the Newcomer of the Year in District 5-4A last year and really came into her own. She is the most accomplished hitter returning to the lineup for the Lady Raiders.

Not too familiar with new District 5-4A foe Little Elm? Me neither.

That's why this article from our friends at the Little Elm Journal was helpful to me. It runs down some of the background on Little Elm and highlights some of the issues the Lobos are facing in 2008.

It also includes a 5-4A coaches poll from last weekend's annual coaching school hosted by the Texas High School Coaches Association. The top 3 are no surprise -- Wichita Falls Rider, Ryan and Wichita Falls -- but Guyer-lings will be elated to learn they were picked fourth, much to the dismay of fifth place Lake Dallas and all you Corinthians out there.

The Dallas Morning News released its Class 3A-2A rankings along with the Large Private Schools preseason poll, and many area schools were recognized, but none more than the newly aligned District 9-3A, which could shape up to be one of the best 3A districts in the state.

The top-ranked team in the poll is no surprise in defending state champ/most storied program in Texas prep history Celina, which is the overwhelming favorite to win 9-3A. The No. 4 team is also a 9-3A team in the Prosper Eagles, who went 8-4 last year and return a decent amount of starters. So does Argyle, which is ranked just behind them in the No. 5 spot after their 10-3 finish last year. The majority of the district's coaches actually have Argyle finishing ahead of Prosper.

Look, to say anyone but Erin Garvey was the Guyer team MVP last year as the Lady Wildcats went all the way to the regional semifinals after going undefeated in district play would be crazy. Garvey was one of those transcendent players that could impose her will on opponents and take over a game.

With that being said, in my novice take on volleyball last year, I thought Guyer's juggernaut offensive attack moved through setter Kaylee Fifer. Yes, setters are always kind of the "quarterback" of a volleyball team, but what Fifer did was special, and it earned her Setter of the Year honors on our DR-C All-Area team as well as all-state honors. She showed a unique mix of brains, athleticism and craftiness leading me to tab her with the nickname "Bag O' Tricks". Actually, I just realized that's a pretty horrible nickname. I can surely do better.

But get this, as good as Fifer was last year as a sophomore, head coach Jenn Bramlett said she's better this year. When she asked for assistant Heather Van Noy's opinion, she agreed 100 percent, saying Fifer is stronger, faster, smarter and more mentally tough this year. Erin Garvey told me at the end of the school year to expect big things from Fifer this year and that she would emerge as the team's leader.

The Ryan Lady Raiders are expected to finish third or fourth in the new District 5-4A, just below Guyer and The Colony.

After the summer they've had, I won't be surprised if they do better. Ryan won two tournaments over the summer and has its varsity roster pretty much set. The team has good top-end talent and quality depth as well. The team is working to speed up its offense a little bit, which I think will help tremendously.

One player I'm excited about seeing is middle blocker Kayla Bond. Bond missed most of last season with a stress fracture in her foot, but played club volleyball this summer and did well. She has the rare ability to hit hard with both her left and right hands.

She also has very good taste in Mexican food. I ran into her while eating at my favorite Denton Mexican place - Mazatlan. If you haven't been there, I highly recommend it. And so does Kayla.

A lot of people have asked me why Ryan isn't doing two-a-days. Well, turns out, Ryan has never done two-a-days.

Head coach Joey Florence has his Raiders practicing from about 8 to 11 a.m., and that is the only practice they have. Florence believes that with advances in video technology, his coaching staff is able to get what they need done in one practice.

You can't really blame him. Florence has made the playoffs in all 19 years of his coaching career, which includes two little state titles and four straight trips to the big dance.

Went out to Guyer's volleyball practice today and spoke with a couple of players, including outside hitter Alyssa Hanley. The 6-2 senior will without question be the defending 5-4A champs' best hitter this year -- that is, after she gets back from a back injury that will likely sideline her for all of nondistrict play.

Last year, Erin Garvey committed to Nevada before the season started, so we'll see what Hanley decides to do but she told me she already has offers from North Texas, Louisiana Tech and The University at Buffalo. She's visited Louisiana Tech, and North Texas, obviously, but has yet to take a trip up to Buffalo. I was there this summer, and have to say I can't blame her.

I had a nice conversation with Ryan defensive back Yahshua Williams today. He seems like a really nice kid who is eager to prove himself on the football field.

Yahshua is a three-star prospect on Rivals.com and the Division-I scholarship offers are rolling in. The senior pretty much has his pick of Big 12 schools and currently his favorites are Texas Tech, Kansas and Nebraska.

One interesting thing I learned is that he's being recruited more as a safety than a cornerback. The Raiders are looking at him at safety as well. He seemed excited about the move, but I'll have much more on that in my Ryan practice story that will run next week.

Justin Griffin looks poised for another solid season with the Chaparrals. As a freshman last season, Griffin earned first-team all-district honors on offense and defense. He was also a Denton Record-Chronicle All-Area KR last season.
At practice Tuesday morning, it appeared head coach Daryl Hellman was correct when he said Griffin will be even better this season.

I've read a lot of criticism from you guys about the size of Ryan's offensive and defensive lines.

First of all, Ryan has some size on the offensive line with Blake Holland and Garrett Gramling. Holland isn't as big as either of the Guyer tackles, and the line as a whole might not be as big as Guyer's, but that doesn't mean Ryan's is "small."

As far as the defensive line is concerned, the team is hoping to make up for the lack of size with speed. Joey Florence believes this defense will have a lot more team speed than last year's, and it starts up front.

From what I gather, the open quarterback position at Sanger is Chase Knight's to lose. From what I gathered at today's practice, he's not going to lose it.

Knight looked pretty sharp in Sanger's second practice of the year. He laid a ball right in the hands of a receiver on a 15-yard bootleg just a yard from the sideline. He also looked strong on bubble screens, slants and deep balls.

At 6-0 and 180 pounds, Knight has the size to be successful at the position. Head coach Chuck Galbreath said he had a good summer and has really committed himself. He learned how to be a winner on Sanger's baseball team in the spring where he was an affective pitcher.

Here are some other thoughts from Sanger practice:

Well, Argyle's biggest hole on the offense is without a doubt behind center, where JJ Harp grew into one of the state's best quarterbacks over his three years as a starter and landed a scholarship to Eastern New Mexico.

The lead candidate to fill that role appears to be sophomore Chad Hedlund, who head coach Todd Rodgers said hasn't secured the spot, but is likely the frontrunner in a two-man competition.

The thing is, Hedlund's best sport might not even be football, at least not yet.

Well, I just got back from Argyle's morning practice which ended in a balmy 92 degrees. Practice went a little long, so much so that the timed sprinkler system came on in the middle of a play. Oops. Oh well, might as well get a little rain practice in too, I suppose.

Anyway, I actually spoke with Brady Brown, the 6-5 wide receiver, who's being pursued by a handful of big-name programs. As was said last week, he confirmed that he's narrowed his decision down to Kansas, Nebraska and Vanderbilt. Big 12 or SEC, not too shabby.

He said he wants to commit in the next week or two and had his most recent visit to Nebraska.

"I'm just kind of weighing each option," he said. "Each one has great things about them and negative things about them, so I'm just trying to weigh all that in and see which one has more positives than negatives and pick that one."

Ryan receiver D.J. Beshears isn't getting a lot of love from recruiting services, but that doesn't mean he won't pull down some big time scholarship offers.

Beshears, virtually off the map as far as Rivals.com and espn.com are concerned, has an offer on the table from the Big 12's Iowa State. Not bad for a guy who the NCAA looked at and declared "Too little."

I talked to D.J. for a minute at Ryan's practice today. He said he's going to wait and see what offers come in before making a decision.

From what I gather, Beshears is going to be one of those guys that no schools recruit until some of their first choices fall through. They'll get some more recent film on him, remember that Steve Smith is 5-9, and then realize that D.J. is a man-beast.

With all the hype surrounding Scotty Young and his rocket-launching arm, I was a little surprised to see running back Jay Catlin taking snaps in the shotgun at Ryan's first practice today.

Catlin split time at quarterback his sophomore year. That's the way it started last year before Austin Axtell moved under center full-time and Catlin became the feature running back.

So what does Catlin taking snaps mean? Probably very little. My guess is he will see some snaps in situations where Joey Florence and Co. think they have an advantage with a more mobile quarterback.

OK, that's a tad bit ridiculous. I know the start of football is supposed to come with hot weather, but 107 with heat indices over 110 is a bit much for the first day of football practice.

I'm setting the over/under on heat-related incidents in the area at five. I hope there's none, but that's some serious heat.

I spoke with Argyle head football coach Todd Rodgers this morning and despite the fact that he's Todd Rodgers, and not Brady Brown, I felt it necessary to report what I found out about Argyle's star receiver's college prospects.

The 6-5 receiver, who could end up playing tight end in college (he can throw up some pretty good weight on the bench press) has apparently narrowed his search down to Vanderbilt, who was one of the first schools after him, Kansas and Nebraska, which he recently visited. He's rated No. 55 nationally among wide receivers by Rivals.com and is No. 51 in the Texas Top 100.

By this time, we all know that Argyle's Ben Parks kicked a game-winning 41-yard field goal to lead the North team over the South in the Texas High School Coaches Association all-star football game in San Antonio. He also had a game-saving tackle on a kickoff return and laid down two perfect onside kicks in the game.

But on Monday, another former Eagle, Cory Dixon, left, led the North to a 109-103 victory in the all-star basketball game in San Antonio. Dixon, a lanky, versatile forward, led the North squad with 23 points, including four free throws in the final minute to hold off a South rally.

Oh yeah, Dixon also won the slam dunk contest. Quite a send off for the Northwestern State signee. How will Dixon's game translate to the Division I level? Can he body up with the big folks he'll be seeing down low?

Denton is abuzz about Guyer linemen Kyle Clark and Jesse Coffey - and rightly so. But who's the next great lineman in Denton ISD? It may be Ryan's Garrett Gramling.

The junior has the prototypical frame for the OL - 6-5 and just shy of 300, according to Texas Football Magazine. He played on Ryan's junior varsity team last year and is already familiar with new quarterback Scotty Young.

He should step in and not miss a beat. He and Blake Holland give the Raiders excellent bookends for their line, which should be solid again in 2008.