Westlake won’t get much home cooking early in the 2010 season, but the opener could prove close enough to suit Chap fans.

Although the details have not been solidified, the Chaps will tentatively open the season Aug. 27 against Lake Travis at Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Eanes officials could not confirm the Friday-night showdown between the two burgeoning rivals Friday, but a source said the agreement to play on the University of Texas campus is almost finalized.

According to the source, Lake Travis and Westlake will meet in the season opener at DKR Memorial Stadium in both 2010 and 2011. Lake Travis will serve as the nominal host team in 2010, while Westlake will play host in the 2011 season, according to the source.

The three-time Class 4A champion Lake Travis has defeated Westlake in each of the past two seasons.

A pair of challenging road games follows the meeting with Lake Travis. The Chaps will journey to Abilene for a matchup with Abilene Cooper Sept. 3 before a trip to College Station’s A&M Consolidated Sept. 10. Both teams reached the playoffs last season.

Westlake will close out its nondistrict schedule will home games against Pflugerville Sept. 17 and New Braunfels Sept. 24. Pflugerville, a former District 25-5A rival reached the second round of the Class 5A playoffs last season, while New Braunfels advanced to a state semifinal in the 5A Division II bracket.

The Chaps will open their District 25-5A schedule Oct. 8 against visiting Anderson and host Austin High Oct. 15. After an Oct. 22 road trip to Del Valle and an Oct. 29 home date against Akins, Westlake will close the regular season Nov. 11 against Bowie at Burger Stadium.

All games are scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

The Chaps finished last season with a 13-3 record and an overtime loss to Euless Trinity in the Class 5A Division I championship game.

2010 Westlake schedule

Date Opponent location time
Aug. 27 Lake Travis *Lake Travis 7:30
Sept. 3 Abilene Cooper Abilene 7:30
Sept. 10 A&M Consolidated College Station 7:30
Sept. 17 Pflugerville Westlake 7:30
Sept. 24 New Braunfels Westlake 7:30
Oct. 8 Anderson Westlake 7:30
Oct. 15 Austin High Westlake 7:30
Oct. 22 Del Valle Del Valle 7:30
Oct. 29 Akins Westlake 7:30
Nov. 5 Bowie Burger 7:30

* tentatively scheduled for Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium

Until Drew Brees led the New Orleans Saints to this weekend’s Super Bowl, not a single Texas schoolboy signal caller had ever earned a start under center in the world’s biggest football game.
What in the name of Slingin’ Sammy is going on in the National Football League?

The passion and pageantry that defines Texas high school football has been documented for generations. A 1961 article in Time magazine gave the nation a glimpse into Pflugerville’s gridiron dynasty (“Friday is football day, and placid Pflugerville twangs with tension. Toddlers practice cross-body blocks under the goal posts while the high-schoolers pummel their opponents on the field.”), and H.G. Bissinger started a stir – not to mention a brand name that includes a film and television series – with his 1990 book “Friday Night Lights.”

Yet, all that obsession never landed the sport’s most glorified position in the sport’s most glamorous game.

Until now, of course. As every Chap fan worth his or her weight in seat options knows, Brees captained the 1996 Westlake team to a perfect season that included a 55-15 win over Abilene Cooper in the Class 5A Division II title game.

Thirteen years later, he has guided the Saints to their first Super Bowl – and strengthened Texas’ claim as the nation’s premier gridiron hotbed. Although Sammy Baugh came out of Sweetwater to lead the Washington Redskins to a pair of NFL titles in the World War II era, Texas football fans can now point to the Super Bowl as an example that the state has finally shed its reputation as a land of fullback dives and clouds of dust.

Certain states have long proven their status as cradle of quarterbacks.

Pennsylvania – specifically, the rugged and rusting steel towns that spur forth from Pittsburgh in the western portions of the state – holds claim as quarterback country. Eight quarterbacks that have played in a Super Bowl hail from Pennsylvania, including seven that were born and played high school ball within 100 miles of Pittsburgh. That Steeltown group includes the mythical (Joe Namath, Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly) and the mediocre (Jeff Hostetler, Kerry Collins).

California has had seven native sons play quarterback in a Super Bowl. Include four more that moved to the Golden State by high school, and the most populous state in the Union has produced the most Super Bowl signal callers. However, the quarterbacks from Cali have proven pedestrian compared to their brethren from Pennsylvania. Nondescripts such as Daryle Lamonica, Vince Ferragamo, Tony Eason and Trent Dilfer have all made just one Super Bowl appearance. However, the triumvirate of Tom Brady, Troy Aikman and Jim Plunkett more than make up for that mediocrity with a combined eight Super Bowl titles.

Only one other state has produced more than three Super Bowl quarterbacks, and little Louisiana has done it without California’s population or Pennsylvania’s heritage. Seven quarterbacks have emerged from the parishes, including four-time Super Bowl winner Terry Bradshaw and a host of one-timers such as Stan Humphries, Doug Williams, Jake Delhomme and David Woodley.

Oh yeah, and Louisiana produced Eli and Peyton Manning, who have each already claimed a Super Bowl ring.

Peyton Manning will go for his second title Sunday against Brees, who will attempt to drive another nail into Texas’ reputation as a running back state.

Texas spent decades earning such status. Legendary Longhorn coach and Westlake resident Darrell Royal famously said, “three things can happen when you pass the ball, and two of ’em are bad.”

And for generations, Texas high school coaches took that advice as gospel. They called sweeps for legendary halfbacks such as Kenneth Hall or Eric Dickerson, and they hammered off tackle with Earl Campbell or Cedric Benson.

But a curious thing began happening in the last generation. Coaches dusted off the back pages of forgotten playbooks and rediscovered the forward pass, including former Westlake coach Ron Schroeder. He nurtured a string of college quarterbacks such as Brees, who’s tossed plenty of touchdowns during plenty of wins for Purdue University, the San Diego Chargers and, now, the Saints.

Brees joined that early wave of Texas quarterbacks more adept at throwing the ball downfield than pitching it out on an option.

And time has only added depth to that growing pool of talent at the quarterback position. High school football in Texas has undergone a seismic shift in the past decade. Spread formations are commonplace, and 7-on-7 summer football has spread like cedar trees.

The prep coaches’ embrace of the passing game translates to recruiting, too: This past season alone, 22 of the 120 starting quarterbacks at bowl subdivision schools are from Texas.

Brees may be the first Texan to start in a Super Bowl, but he will certainly have plenty of company soon.

Super Bowl quarterbacks, by state of berth:

8: Pennsylvania (Joe Namath, Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, Jeff Hostetler, Jim Kelly, Rich Gannon, Kerry Collins.)

7: California (Daryle Lamonica, Vince Ferragamo, Jim Plunkett, Tony Eason, Troy Aikman***, Tom Brady, Trent Dilfer.)

7: Louisiana (Terry Bradshaw, Stan Humphries, Jake Delhomme, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Doug Williams, David Woodley.)

3: Ohio (Len Dawson, Roger Staubach, Ben Roethlisberger); New Jersey (Joe Theismann, Jim McMahon*, Neil O’Donnell); Washington (John Elway*, Drew Bledsoe, Chris Chandler).

2: Mississippi (Brett Favre, Steve McNair); New York (Ron Jaworski, Boomer Esiason); Alabama (Bart Starr, Kenny Stabler); Indiana (Bob Griese, Rex Grossman); Michigan (Earl Morrall, Craig Morton); Illinois (Ken Anderson, Donovan McNabb).

1: Kansas (Billy Kilmer); Virginia (Fran Tarkenton**); Kentucky (Phil Simms); Utah (Steve Young); Georgia (Brad Johnson); Colorado (Matt Hasselbeck****); New Mexico (Joe Kapp*); Iowa (Kurt Warner); Texas (Drew Brees).

By foreign country
1: Canada (Mark Rypien)

*Played high school in California
** Played high school in Georgia
*** Played high school in Oklahoma
**** Played high school in Massachusetts

Editor’s note: New England Patriots quarterback Steve Grogan, who came off the bench in the Patriots’ loss to the Chicago Bears in the 1986 Super Bowl, was born in San Antonio and played high school football in Kansas.

Swope will rejoin his older brother, Ryan, a former all-state running back at Westlake who is a scholarship receiver for the Aggies.

Louie Swope, a 6-foot, 180-pound defensive back, committed to SMU last spring after a stellar junior season at Westlake. He suffered a torn knee ligament in the fourth game of the 2009 season on a punt return against Bowie. SMU recently informed Swope that would “greyshirt” the defensive back this fall, hoping that Swope would stay at the school without scholarship in 2010 and join the team as a scholarship player in 20111.

A greyshirt refers to a college football player that either doesn’t go to school in the fall or enrolls part-time and pays his own way without officially joining the team. In January of the following year, that player enrolls full-time and officially joins the team. Therefore, Swope would have technically been part of SMU’s 2011 recruiting class.

“The idea (of grayshirting Louie) is not horrible, but we were not totally comfortable hearing that 10 days before signing day,” Louie Swope’s father, Paul Swope, told Bohls. “They’re [SMU] concerned about his knee injury, which I can respect. But I didn’t think that was right telling us so late, especially since he committed to them in April.”

Swope’s move to Texas A&M left Westlake with five players signing scholarships Wednesday at Westlake High School, including linebackers Bryce Hager (Baylor) and Ellis Glaw (Dartmouth), quarterback Tanner Price (Wake Forest), kicker Cody Rademacher (Air Force) and tight end Charlie Copa (Syracuse).

Copa will join linebackers Bryce Hager (Baylor) and Ellis Glaw (Dartmouth), quarterback Tanner Price (Wake Forest), kicker Cody Rademacher (Air Force) and defensive back Louie Swope (SMU) at tomorrow’s Signing Day festivities at Westlake High School.

As customary, Westlake will face a challenging nondistrict slate in 2010 that includes five playoff teams from this past year. The Chaps will open the season against three-time defending Class 4A champion Lake Travis before facing, in order, Abilene Cooper, A&M Consolidated, Pflugerville and New Braunfels.

Times and places have not yet been set, but the opener against the Cavs will take place during zero week. Westlake will have a bye before beginning play in the six-team District 15-5A that also includes Austin High, Bowie, Anderson, Akins and Del Valle.

“I think it’s a good schedule with a lot of tough teams, and I think it will get us ready for district,” Westlake coach Darren Allman said about the Chaps’ new schedule and new alignment.

Allman and most of his coaching brethren finalized their schedules for the 2010 and 2011 schedules in the wake of this morning’s biennial realignment by the UIL. The Chaps moved from District 25-5A to District 15-5A.

A quick glance at Westlake’s 2010 nondistrict football foes:

Lake Travis: The Cavaliers and the Chaps are quickly developing a fierce rivalry that belies its lack of history. Lake Travis has won the past two meetings to even the series at 2-2, and Westlake is the last team to beat the Cavs. Since that setback, Lake Travis has won 46 consecutive games.

Abilene Cooper: A Class 4A playoff team a year ago, Cooper has rejoined its West Texas 5A brethren in a rebirth of the Little Southwest Conference. The Chaps lone meeting with Cooper came in 1996, when Westlake defeated the Cougars in the Class 5A Division II championship game.

A&M Consolidated: These two programs have faced each other in each of the past 10 seasons, and the rivalry has produced many memorable moments. The Tigers won a share of a district title a year ago.

Pflugerville: The Panthers will no longer play in Westlake’s district, but they’ll remain a formidable foe on the schedule. Pflugerville’s District 16-5A will face Westlake’s 15-5A in the first round of the playoffs for the next two seasons; however, the Panthers will likely compete in Division II, leaving little chance that they will face Westlake in the postseason.

New Braunfels: This game will renew a once-fierce rivalry between the Unicorns and Westlake, two district foes in the late 1990s. New Braunfels returned to Class 5A in 2008 after an eight-year stint in 4A, but the tougher competition didn’t prevent them from reaching a 5A state semifinal this past season.

Beginning in the 2010-11 school year, Westlake will spend at least the next two seasons competing in a new District 15-5A that also includes Austin High, Anderson, Bowie, Akins and Del Valle, which has moved up to 5A for the first time in school history.

Westlake has an enrollment of 2,486. The UIL cutoff for Class 5A schools was 2,065 students, a drop from the previous cutoff set at 2,085.

Bastrop and Connally, which currently compete with Westlake and the Austin schools in District 25-5A, will drop to Class 4A. Current district foe Pflugerville will compete in District 16-5A with schools from Williamson County.

Because four teams make the playoff in each sport, the move almost guarantees a playoff spot for every Westlake program.

“I think it’s a breath of fresh air,” said Darren Allman, Westlake’s head football coach and the Eanes school district athletic director. “Del Valle is talented and a program on the rise, and the playoffs will offer some new challenges.”

While district competition appears weakened for most sports, the postseason looks more perilous. Westlake’s football team has competed in Class 5A Region II four times and has a 4-4 record, including back-to-back first-round playoff losses in 2004 and 2005.

In comparison, the Chaps have a 35-5 record in 12 trips through Class 5A’s Region IV.

With the possible exception of volleyball, Region II offers an upgrade in every sport. The region includes the entire Austin area, Dallas and its eastern suburbs, the northern suburbs of Houston, East Texas and the Waco and Killeen metropolitan areas.

Scheduling emerged as the first challenge for Westlake’s coaches. Because the Chaps’ district lost two teams, the start of district play in every team sport will be pushed back two weeks. That particularly helped basketball, which will start district play after the Christmas break, but it caused some consternation for other coaches.

“This does cause some scheduling problems, and I will have to find four more games for next year,” Westlake baseball coach Jim Darilek said. “But it does give us more time to improve [for district].”

Realignment notes
Westlake hasn’t competed in a six-team district since the 2000-2002 school years. …. Only one of the nine Class 5A or 4A districts that contain Central Texas teams will have eight schools. During the past two years, five of the eight Central Texas districts had at least eight teams. … The UIL enrollment cutoff marked the first time since 1990 that the UIL lowered the minimum enrollment number for a Class 5A school. … There will be 245 Class 5A schools in the state for the 2010-12 school years.

Solving the nation’s health care quandary, for example. Or, say, finding a suitable way to withdraw from Afghanistan. Perhaps, even discovering a way to implement a playoff system in college football.

But since President Obama and his legislative ilk in Washington D.C. have refused to address the UIL realignment, we’ll have to tackle the issue ourselves.

The UIL, the governing body of the state’s high school athletics, will reveal its new alignments for each district in all five classifications Monday at 9 a.m. at www.uil.utexas.edu.

With the understanding that no certainty exists until that time, let’s answer some questions on how realignment will affect Westlake for the school years that start in 2010 and 2011.

It’s a true-or-false format, kids. Like the UIL, you have a 50-percent chance of getting a correct answer.

Theory: Westlake will remain in Region IV.

Answer: False, despite a wealth of reports that predict the Chaps staying in District 25-5A. According to respected high school poster Carl Padilla, the UIL will lower its enrollment cutoff for Class 5A from 2,085 to 2,039. Such a shift would result in a net gain of three 5A schools in Region IV, which currently includes the most Class 5A school of any region. Schools such as San Marcos and Seguin will return to Class 5A, while the likes of Bastrop and Pflugerville Connally drop to 4A.
A quartet of schools with 4A numbers have petitioned the UIL to compete at the 5A level, including Austin Anderson and a trio of schools from Laredo. The UIL almost always agrees to such a petition, thus creating a 10-team district in 29-5A that includes seven Laredo schools and three schools in Del Rio and Eagle Pass, according to Padilla. If the UIL culls the Del Rio and Eagle Pass schools into a district that includes southern San Antonio schools, Westlake will move into Region II.

Theory: Westlake will remain in a district with the Austin 5A schools.

Answer: True, although the Chaps’ historical ties with schools such as Austin High and Bowie don’t matter a spoonful of beans to the UIL mapmakers. Westlake will be one of the three schools in Central Texas that hold the coveted status of a single-high school 5A district, along with Pflugerville and Del Valle. Thus, Westlake can be moved to fill gaps in districts stretching from Williamson County to the northern suburbs of San Antonio.

Remember, the UIL broke up the Little Southwest Conference two years ago when they attached Abilene to a district centered in the Forth Worth area. Tradition matters little when matched against cold statistics.

Theory: Westlake will renew district rivalries with old foes San Marcos, New Braunfels and Seguin.

Answer: False, unless the Chaps stay in Region IV. San Marcos and Seguin will likely move back into Class 5A after a two-year hiatus, and they will be a part of Region IV’s northernmost district. However, look for Westlake to join Anderson, Austin High, Bowie, Akins and Del Valle in a second Central Texas Region II 5A district. Don’t be surprised if the UIL slots San Marcos into that district as well, despite the town’s proximity to Seguin and New Braunfels.

Theory: Westlake will face a much different nondistrict schedule in football.

Answer: True. Westlake coach Darren Allman can’t finalize his nondistrict slate until after realignment, but it’s unlikely that he will want to play more than one Class 4A school.

That school will remain Lake Travis because of the budding rivalry and corporate sponsorship dollars from Chik-fil-A. Cedar Park will likely drop to Class 4A and fall from the Chaps’ schedule. Longtime nondistrict foe A&M Consolidated faced Westlake because their coach, Jim Slaughter, had an established relationship with former Westlake coaches Ron Schroeder and Derek Long. Allman doesn’t have such familiarity with Slaughter, thus a two-year renewal with the Tigers isn’t guaranteed.

Current Class 5A area alignments
District 16-5A
Cedar Park
Leander
CP Vista Ridge
Georgetown
Round Rock
RR Westwood
RR McNeil
RR Stony Point

District 25-5A
Westlake
Austin Bowie
Pflugerville Connally
Pflugerville
Austin High
Bastrop
Austin Akins
Austin Anderson

District 26-5A
New Braunfels
SA Churchill
SA Johnson
SA Lee
SA MacArthur
SA Madison
SA Reagan
SA Roosevelt
Smithson Valley

Westlake Picayune’s predicted 2010-2012 Class 5A area realignments

District 13-5A
Pflugerville
Leander
Georgetown
Round Rock
RR Westwood
RR McNeil
RR Stony Point

District 14-5A
Westlake
Austin Akins
Austin Anderson
Austin Bowie
Austin High
Del Valle
San Marcos

District 25-5A
New Braunfels
Seguin
Cibolo Steele
Converse Judson
Converse Wagner
SA East Central
CC Carroll
CC KIng

Carl Padilla’s predicted 2010-2012 Class 5A area realignments

District 14-5A
Del Valle
Leander
Pflugerville
Georgetown
Round Rock
RR Westwood
RR McNeil
RR Stony Point

District 25-5A
Westlake
Austin Bowie
Austin High
Austin Akins
Austin Anderson
San Marcos
Seguin
New Braunfels

District 26-5A
Cibolo Steele
SA Churchill
SA Johnson
SA Lee
SA MacArthur
SA Madison
SA Reagan
SA Roosevelt

Hager earned Class 5A first-team all-state honors after finishing with 158 tackles, including eight sacks and 15 tackles for losses. He also broke up seven passes, intercepted a pass and recovered three fumbles, including one for a touchdown.

The 6-foot-1-inch, 215-pound Westlake senior also ran for 13 touchdowns for the state-finalist Chaps, but his status as a full-time inside linebacker drew the attention of college scouts.

Those scouts, including coaches from the University of Texas staff, who offered Hager a preferred walk-on status. Hager’s father, Britt, had an all-American career as a linebacker at Texas.

Outside linebacker Ellis Glaw will join Westlake products Brad Dornak (a 2008 Westlake graduate) and Chase Womack (2009) on next year’s roster. In addition, Matt Dornak, a 2005 Westlake grad, was a senior of this season’s Dartmouth squad. 



Glaw was chosen to the All-District 5A-25 first team while helping Westlake to the Class 5A Division I state championship game, where it fell 41-38 in overtime to Euless Trinity. Glaw had 112 tackles (eight for a loss), four sacks and three forced fumbles this past season.

Glaw was also a rugby standout at Westlake where he played for former Dartmouth player Joe Daly.

The two teams will meet Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Elgin High School. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for children younger than 18 and seniors 65 and older, and free for kids 6 and younger.

The Westlake team consists of approximately 30 former players, including members of the 1996 Class 5A state championship team such as Jamie Tyler, Tomi Keah and Casey Legg. Other notable players include Erick Smart, Scott Churchin, Blake Pankonien and Chance Covert.

The Lake Travis team consists of approximately 30 former players, including members of the 2005 district championship team Clark Hanley, Adam Rossing, Eric Calloway and Michael Coronado. Alumni from as far back as 1979 are taking part in the game.

Westlake players who are interested in playing can still sign up. Game participants need not have to have played football in their high school days, only to have graduated from their respective schools. Pads and other equipment will be supplied.

Contact Casey Pankonien at westlake@caseypank.oib.com for more information.

The full schedule is also available at alumnigames.com.