Denton RC High School

Guyer girls soccer coach Marc Cox has resigned his coaching duties effective immediately due to family reasons.

I haven't actually gotten a hold of Cox yet but I did speak with Guyer athletic director John Walsh, who said Cox resigned "due to family reasons".

Guyer's season finale is tonight against Lake Dallas and Cox won't be on the sidelines. Assistant Kristin Wilhelmson will take over as the interim head coach and junior varsity coach Cory Maxwell will move up to become the varsity assistant, this just a week shy of the playoffs starting which Guyer will be a 3-seed in and play perennial power Aledo in the first round.

Guyer cornerback Josh Stewart has orally committed to play football at Texas A&M, becoming the third Class of 2011 Guyer player to commit after QB J.W. Walsh and DE Jimmy Bean committed to Oklahoma State.

Stewart told me the other night he was waiting to see if Oklahoma State would offer, and they eventually probably would have, but Stewart's top choice has been A&M for quite some time and he received an offer over the weekend.

His cousin, Lionel Smith, will be a junior safety at A&M next season, and had a lot to do with Stewart's decision to break the recent Guyer-OSU pipeline.

Look for more on Stewart's decision in Friday's DRC.

Former Ryan and Liberty Christian basketball coach Richard Scofield's funeral arrangements are set.

The service will be Thursday at 2 p.m. at The First United Methodist Church in Denton.

Keep Scofield and his family in your thoughts.

When the Steve Clarkson Dreammaker Tour rolled through DFW on Saturday, Guyer's J.W. Walsh was expected to be one of the stars of the show, and he didn't disappoint.

Here's my boy Gerry Hamilton's account of the day on ESPN.com's recruiting page. Check it out.

In case you guys haven't heard, former Ryan and Liberty Christian head basketball coach Richard Scofield died of a massive heart attack on Sunday, less than a month after coaching his final game with Liberty.

Scofield leaves behind three young kids and a wife who he had hoped to spend quality time with after retiring last month. In my time dealing with Scofield he was always a class act and what from those who were closest to him have said, that was no "act".

I've had many people e-mail wondering about funeral arrangements, and while nothing is set as of now, we will let you guys know somehow when the details are worked out.

In the meantime, keep Scofield and his family in your thoughts.

0:00 4Q: Ball game.

1:57 4Q: Wilhite just pulled down a rebound, made a nice pass to Darrough, who put in an easy bucket. But at this point, it won't matter.

4:25 4Q: This one appears to be over, barring a miracle for Ryan. Two things are killing the Lady Raiders right now -- poor free throw shooting and absolutely horrible effort on the glass. That's going to be where Canyon wins this game, well that and the 15-4 first quarter.

8:00 4Q: Ryan is going to need a huge fourth quarter to pull away here and play tomorrow. 13-point holes with 8 minutes left aren't easy to overcome against a No. 2 team in the state. Wilhite had eight points in the third and no fouls, but the rest of her team only scored five.

9.8 3Q: Ryan made a nice little run, cutting the deficit to six a couple of times, but Canyon is making too many big shots, including a huge 3-pointer just now by Nicole Hampton, who's Canyon's top scorer.

7:01 4Q: Well, Ryan has scored the first four points of the second half off a nice feed to Domineak Darrough in the post and a Wilhite floater after a turnover.

0:00 2Q: Well, it's halftime, and for Ryan, 10-point deficit could be a lot worse. Wilhite has three fouls already and just four points. She picked up her second with 7:11 left in the half and sat out for four minutes before coming back in and immediately picking up a ticky-tack, questionable call with 1:46 left in the half to give her three. I'll never count a De'Amber Wilhite team out, and 10 points is manageable, but this Canyon team is very solid and Wilhite won't be able to be her usual aggressive self with three fouls on the ledger. Someone else is going to have to step up. So far, Teana Ogden (2) and Keisha Blanson (3) have all the points that Wilhite doesn't.

8:00 2Q: So far, not so good. So far, Wilhite has two points and is being doubled every time she gets the ball. So far, no one else has been able to hurt Canyon to make up for it. Wilhite is 1-for-4 from the field. Canyon is a darn good team.

2:30 1Q: Monesha Allen just called a timeout for Ryan, who's trailing 10-4 now after a slow offensive start for Ryan. De'Amber Wilhite just found the scoring column for the first time after missing her first two shots.

A matchup with No. 1 Mansfield Timberview in the region final awaits the winner of this game. We're about 15 minutes from tip-off, which will be about 20 minutes late. Hurry up! You can still make it!

Timberview won the first Metroplex vs. Panhandle showdown, beating Amarillo Palo Duro, 54-40, and Ryan will need a gargantuan effort to continue that trend. Check back often.

Long name, right? As I said before, I grew up in this town and you won't find a better small town in Texas for my money.

I was hoping to grab a burrito at one of my favorite joints, Julio's, prior to the game, only to discover it closed at 2 p.m. Ugh.

I'm sitting here catching the end of the Mansfield Timberview-Amarillo Palo Duro game. Timberview, the No. 1 team in the state, appears to have this game in hand against the Lady Dons (yes, that's their mascot. Sweet.)

Timberview has four of five starters who are going on to play Division I ball, including a 6-4 post, who my 7-year-old nephew just dubbed "The Avatar". The Lady Wolves are coached by Candi Harvey, who was formerly the head of coach of the Utah and San Antonio WNBA franchises.

Ryan is awaiting the deep crevasses of Stephens Arena, which is an exact carbon copy of Texas Tech's United Spirit Arena, just on a smaller scale. The Lady Raiders will face the state's No. 2 team, Canyon, who I've learned is unofficially known as the Big Purple Machine.

Ryan knocked off No. 12 Fort Worth Dunbar to get here, and seems to be playing its best ball at the right time. But it will take a very sound effort to beat a fundamentally solid Canyon bunch that doesn't make mistakes.

Keep checking back here periodically for score updates. I'll try to update during timeouts. I'll start a new post for the live game blog.

I'm off to the best town in Texas (notice I said "town", not "city") to cover the Lady Raiders tonight, and with a miracle, tomorrow. Be sure to follow the game on this here blog if you can't make it out to San Angelo, and I'll do my best to keep you posted during timeouts.

Girls
Ryan vs. Canyon, 7 p.m. Friday at Angelo State in San Angelo
Liberty Christian vs. Tomball Concordia, 3:30 p.m. at Mansfield Legacy.

Boys
Ryan vs. Mansfield Legacy, 6:30 p.m. Friday at Byron Nelson in Trophy Club
Argyle vs. Crandall, 7:30 p.m. Friday at Dallas Conrad.
Ponder vs. Whitewright, 7 p.m. Thursday at McKinney North.

Guyer junior defensive end Jimmy Bean orally committed to Oklahoma State on Tuesday morning, where he will join Guyer junior QB J.W. Walsh for the 2011 season, assuming both stick to their commitment and sign on the dotted line next February.

Bean, a 6-5, 220-pound speed rusher went to the Pokes' junior day on Sunday and left impressed, spurning offers from: Arkansas, Houston, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Texas Tech. More offers would have come in the near future considering Bean's frame and his 4.6-ish speed in the 40-yard dash.

He finished the 2009 season with 60 tackles and seven sacks, 23 QB hurries and two blocked kicks.

Look for more on Bean's commitment in Wednesday's edition of the DRC.

Boys
Monday
Ryan vs. Fort Worth Brewer at Keller Timber Creek, 6 p.m.
Tuesday
Denton vs. Birdville at Keller Timber Creek, 7:30 p.m.
Argyle vs. Commerce at Frisco Liberty, 7 p.m.
Pilot Point vs. Boyd at Justin Northwest, 7 p.m.

Girls
Tuesday
Ryan vs. Fort Worth Dunbar at Colleyville Heritage, 7 p.m.
Krum vs. Peaster at Fort Worth Nolan Catholic, 6 p.m.
Aubrey vs. Brock at Fort Worth Nolan Catholic, 7:30 p.m.

Boys Bi-district round
Ryan vs. Fort Worth Brewer at Keller Timber Creek, Monday, 6 p.m.
Denton vs. Birdville at Keller Timber Creek, Tuesday, 7 p.m.
Argyle, TBA
Ponder, TBA (waiting on tiebreakers)
Pilot Point, TBA (waiting on tiebreakers)

Girls area round
Ryan vs. Everman, at Saginaw, Friday, 7 p.m.
Argyle vs. Kennedale at Richland High School, Friday, 7 p.m.
Krum vs. Honey Grove at McKinney Boyd, Friday, 7 p.m.
Sanger vs. Crandall at Coppell, Friday, 7 p.m.
Aubrey vs. Gunter at McKinney High School, Friday, 7:30 p.m.
Liberty Christian vs. Austin Hyde Park at Fort Worth Nolan, Friday, 7 p.m.

We will update these games when we hear more.

News just came down that Denton ISD is closed tomorrow because of the 13 hours straight and counting of snowfall, at least here where I live.

So, the first round of reschedules are in for Saturday afternoon, keep checking back for more updates as we get them.

The Colony girls vs. Ryan, 2 p.m. at Lake Dallas
The Colony boys at Guyer, 4 p.m.
Wichita Falls at Ryan boys, 1 p.m. (10-year reunion reception at noon)
Denton boys at Wichita Falls, 1:30 p.m.
Prosper at Argyle, 2:30 p.m. (Game of the Weekend)

FIRST and FOREMOST, if you didn't travel to The Colony to watch Ryan drop the Cougars twice on Friday then you missed one heck of a night for high school basketball.

First, the Ryan girls stunned the packed house by beating The Colony behind De'Amber Wilhite's 32 points (Wow, she is good) to force a tie atop the District 5-4A standings.
Then, two hours later, the Ryan boys were dancing on The Colony's home floor after winning 48-46 behind the 3-headed monster of Trey Mohair, Bud Sasser and Adam Choplick to move the Raiders into a tie for first place with the Cougars.

Both wins were impressive.
Ryan boys head coach Bryce Overstreet told me after the game it was one of the best nights of basketball he has ever been a part of.

And surprise, surprise! There's two Denton ISD players on the team. Any guesses?

Yep, Ryan QB Scotty Young was named to the second-team offense, and Guyer DT Taylor Bible was named to the second-team defense.

Both players will sign with their respective colleges in the morning and these are just one more piece of icing on a huge piece of cake full of accolades. Congrats to both for their fine careers.

Well, as you might have read in the DRC today, Guyer quarterback J.W. Walsh has orally committed to Oklahoma State, which means, of course, he has more than a year before he can officially sign his name on the dotted line.

Walsh got the offer at 3:30 p.m., and called Mike "I'm a man, I'm 40" Gundy at 7:30 to commit. Then he gave me a ring. Pretty quick turnaround, quicker than normal anyway.

Walsh already had offers from Kansas, Arizona, Arizona State, Houston, Iowa State and Baylor, but had a list of four "dream schools", as he called them: Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and TCU. All those schools had shown great interest in Walsh, and I'd imagine at least two more of those would have offered him. Texas was down to Walsh and Connor Ash, and one of them was set to get that offer next weekend at Texas' junior day.

But all along, Texas and Oklahoma State were on the top of his list, and he took the chance when he got it.

"When you have two schools you really like and one offers you, you can hold out for the other school even though they might not offer, so it was just perfect timing on their part," Walsh said. "There's nothing I don't like about the school. They just got brand new facilities and it's unbelievable. It's close to home and I just felt like I was excited and thought this was place for me."

This is a note that did not make Tuesday morning's newspaper. But I felt like it should be addressed.

Guyer won't face local rivals next season
Since Lake Dallas and Ryan are not on Guyer's district schedule next season, Wildcats head coach John Walsh had hoped he could convince Young or Florence to play his team in nondistrict play. He didn't get his wish.

"Rivalries are about tradition," he said. "When you begin a rivalry that turns into atmosphere the Ryan and Lake Dallas [games] did you hate to lose it. It's kind of a downer right now, but we'll just go find some other rivals."

Florence and Young said they both entertained the idea, but when it came down to it, they wanted to do what was best for their programs.

"We talked about it," Young said. "But realistically we just didn't see it happening. It comes down to numbers and they are a much bigger school than we are."

Florence added: "It just didn't work out. We had talked about it but we just found other teams to play."

Denton ISD athletic director Ken Purcell is sad to see the rivalries take a break.

"You're always disappointed to lose a great rivalry like that, but that's just the way the cards fall," he said. "There's not much you can do."

OK folks, first of all, just to refresh everyone's memory, this is a forum for you guys to have it out, but let's keep the language PG. So no more words that rhyme with "growing a rack" or ummm, starts with a p but nothing really rhymes with.

Anyway, on to what matters:

As we know, Guyer will be 5A in the fall and has its schedule drawn out for the 2010 season. After I'm done with this post, I'll go back to "Part 1" and update it with opponents' 2009 records and whether or not I think the game will be a win, even though that's basically for my own amusement because it's impossible to say right now.

Like all the coaches I spoke with today said, Guyer will be plenty competitive in football next year. They will be a playoff team barring unforeseen circumstances, and would match up with District 8, which is the LISD/Allen/Plano ISD district, likely the toughest in the state.

There was some talk that legendary coach G.A. Moore was not going to return to the sidelines next season if Aubrey moved to Class 3A.
Aubrey did move up to Class 3A on Monday along with rival Pilot Point.
Moore told me today he is staying put and will join the Chaparrals for the move from Class 2A to Class 3A.
"As far as I know I am still the coach," he said. "I plan on coaching next year."

Moore has been here before. He knows how to coach at the 3A level and he knows it will be a challenge for the Chaps.
But he was able to work his magic last season in a tough District 10-2A by losing only one regular season game.

District 9-3A will be a tough one and is loaded with area teams. Along with Pilot Point and Aubrey, local teams Argyle and Sanger will be in this district.
Raise your hand if you are looking forward to Argyle-Pilot Point next year? Heck, too bad we didn't get to see those two schools face off last year.

Argyle should really breeze through that district. Head football coach Todd Rodgers won't admit it, but I have a feeling the Eagles will be undefeated in district play again next year.
Pilot Point should get the second playoff spot even though it loses a lot of talent, including DRC All Area MVP Jarman Johnson.
Expect Aubrey and Sanger to fight for the third and final playoff spot out of that district. My nod goes to Moore and Aubrey.

On a side note: Ponder hired a new football coach recently after Patrick McLarty opted to take a position in the administrative offices. The new coach is Rubin Covington, who was an assistant under McLarty.
Covington will lead Ponder into its first varsity football season next year.

Just got home from North Richland Hills. It was my first time to cover a UIL realignment event. Pretty hectic. Pretty cool sight to see.

A nice sight to see for Lake Dallas coach Michael Young, Ryan coach Joey Florence and Denton coach Randy Patzkowski was that Guyer made the move up to 5A.

They are all happy.
And you can't really blame them. Guyer's football program is a lot larger and will be a lot stronger than the three previous schools mentioned.
And let's face it, Guyer belongs at the 5A level.

No longer will Denton, Ryan and Lake Dallas play in District 5-4A. They will play in District 4-4A will 5-4A holdovers Little Elm, The Colony, Wichita Falls and Wichita Falls Rider.

Young was surprised the Falcons did not move into a district away from Denton ISD and Wichita Falls ISD schools. Some "experts" had projected that Lake Dallas, Little Elm and The Colony would move north. But that was not the case and Young is pleased his team will be familar with its district opponents the next two seasons.

Early projection for the district: Ryan, Lake Dallas, Rider, Little Elm, The Colony, Denton, Wichita Falls.

One thing that today's announcement ruined was that some rivalry games will not be on the slate this season.

Guyer wanted to face Lake Dallas and Ryan in nondistrict action but when it came down to it, coaches on both sides could not make it happen. Is this good or bad?

I can see both sides.

It would have been nice to see Ryan and Lake Dallas square off with Guyer for rivalry and atmosphere reasons.

But if you were Young or Florence, would you want to play 5A Guyer? I didn't think so.

Ryan's and Lake Dallas' nondistrict schedules are still no cake walks. Click the jump for Ryan's, Denton's and Lake Dallas' nondistrict schedule.