An honor long overdue
SOUTHLAKE – The Southlake Carroll Dragons inaugurated their
home turf – which last night officially became Bob Ledbetter Field at Dragon
Stadium – in a way that the legendary Ledbetter can understand and
appreciate.
They put on an impressive offensive fireworks display,
obliterated their hapless West Texas opponents and confidently set their sights
on a district title, a deep run into the playoffs and – who knows? – maybe even
a ninth state championship.
It’s almost impossible to overstate the impact that Bob
Ledbetter (he “led better,” get it?) has had on Southlake.
Under Ledbetter, as head football coach and Carroll ISD
athletic director, the Dragons football program dominated the UIL’s 3A
classification in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He and the Dragons brought
home to Southlake state championships in 1988, 1992 and 1993.
He installed a single, united football strategy – including
training and terminology – from youth football through the middle schools and on
to the varsity under Friday Night Lights. He decreed that every school in the
CISD, from elementary on up, would have the Dragon as a mascot. (“We’re all
Dragons!”)
Protecting the tradition
It was Ledbetter who heartily endorsed the “Protect
the Tradition” marketing slogan, still ubiquitously in use, whose genius lies
in the fact that it means so many different things to so many different people.
In the process, he was instrumental in transforming
Southlake from a small, undistinguished suburb nestled between the behemoths of
Dallas and Fort Worth into the exclusive, proud (some would say excessively
proud) upscale enclave it is today.
Without high school football – which is to say, without Bob
Ledbetter – Southlake would be just another sleepy, self-satisfied, insular
North Texas suburb, dominated by gated neighborhoods and toney, upscale retail
outlets.
It is all of those things, but it is something more – a
place where its children – or at least a solid proportion of them – are taught
that excellence is defined by hard work, discipline and a fierce determination
to succeed.
The only question I have about the decision to recognize Ledbetter
by naming the turf at Dragon Stadium after him is: What the hell took the powers-that-be
so long to do so?
Too busy banning books, tolerating racism and installing a
know-nothing approach to education in their classrooms?
(Oops! Sorry. I broke my own rule: Dragon game stories are
a politics-free zone. Oh, well, blame my
four decades as a newspaper man and the fact that my daughter is a teacher. Apologies.
Sometimes, it just slips out. 😊)
Following the playbook
A lot of people in these parts credit Todd Dodge,
another legendary coach and the father of current head coach Riley Dodge, with
creating the legacy of football excellence in Southlake. And while it’s true
that the elder Dodge brought four more state trophies to Southlake – all in an
unbelievable five-year stretch known widely as “The Run” – Dodge was
wise enough and lucky enough to follow the Ledbetter playbook.
I don’t mean to take anything away from Dodge, a
phenomenal coach who recreated his Southlake success elsewhere. He deserves
immense credit in his own right. But it’s only fair and accurate to point out
that he enjoyed the benefits of the football factory crafted by the wily Ledbetter.
By my lights, they did right by the legend last night. The Bob
Ledbetter Field dedication was quickly and tastefully done.
It took less than 10 minutes, as likely a response to the
evening’s blistering heat as to an outbreak of judgment and taste. After all,
the kickoff between the Dragons and the El Paso Eastwood Troopers already had
been pushed to 8 p.m. to protect both players and fans.
Not much of a contest
Predictably, the game was anticlimactic. The contest, if you
can call it that, effectively was over by the end of the first quarter, with
the Dragons leading 28-0.
Essentially, it was almost an exact replay of last year’s
match up with the Troopers, when Southlake crushed Eastwood 66-14 after jumping
to an insurmountable first-quarter lead. To their credit, the game but overwhelmed
Troopers never quit, but they still faced another long, dismal12-hour drive
home.
Graham Knowles, who guided the Dragons to the fourth
round of the playoffs last year, picked up where he left off. The Georgia Tech
commit tossed five touchdown passes, completing 70 percent of his throws and
connecting with six different receivers in the three quarters he was on the
field.
Last season, after stepping in for the injured Kaden
Anderson, Knowles threw 18 TDs before the Dragons’ season ended at
the hands of the detestable Denton Guyer Wildcats. If the 6-foot-7 senior can keep
up this pace – unlikely, but a guy can dream, can’t he? – he’ll equal his 18 TDs
last season by the fourth game this time around.
Knowles (19-27 for 322 yards) looked cool and
confident in the pocket. Most of his throws zipped efficiently to his targets, although
he struggled a bit with the long ball.
“We put in a lot of preparation
into this game over the summer so it feels great to go out there and to execute
at the level we know we could,” Knowles told Cody Thorn of the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram.
He wasn’t the only star shining brightly in the sultry,
overheated air over Bob Ledbetter Field last night. Senior WR Jacob Jordan
– Knowles’ favorite target -- met fans’ ambitious expectations by ending
three consecutive drives with scoring catches of 19, 31 and 50 yards. The
Oklahoma commit led the receiving corps with 7 catches for 157 yards.
Senior WR Erik Bussman (4-74) added two more receiving
touchdowns and Caden Jackson ticked off another. Knowles is
blessed with a deep and talented receiving corps. Let’s hope he can make good
use of them.
A replacement for Allen?
Since the graduation of rushing phenom Owen Allen –
headed to Air Force and the great beyond, bless him – Dragon Nation has been
wondering about the state of Carroll’s running game.
And while there’ll be no replacing the redoubtable Allen,
last night’s contest provided evidence that hope is not all lost.
Dragonheads have been down in the dumps ever since
Colleyville transfer Riley Wormley, a worthy successor to Allen, failed
to pass UIL scrutiny. (That’s a story that must wait for another day.)
But sophomore Davis Penn boldly stepped up last night
to assure the downcast masses, “Forget about him, folks. Here I am.”
Penn – who raised eyebrows late last season as a
dew-faced frosh – led Carroll’s ground game with 102 yards on 8 carries. He
found the endzone twice, once on a 10-yard blast and the other on a stunning 68-yard
dash to the line.
James Lehman, a senior RB plagued by injury last
year, had a solid game, rushing 4 times for 57 yards and demonstrating his
potential to be a game-changer.
But it was a night for sophomore star turns. Backup
quarterback Angelo Renda, who replaced Knowles when Carroll’s starters left
the field shortly after halftime, made the most of his opportunity.
He electrified the sweaty and somnolent stadium late in the third quarter when he took the first snap of a Dragon drive, zipped untouched around
the left end and zoomed 75 yards to the endzone, the nearest defender 20 yards
in his wake.
Best keep your eye on Renda, who also connected with
Bussman on one of the senior’s two TD grabs. He could be next year’s starter.
Junior Carter Lind might have something to say
about that, however. The third-string signal caller made a brief appearance, guiding the
offense to the 1-yard line before capping Dragon scoring with a late-game dart
across the line.
Head coach Riley Dodge, beginning his sixth year in
charge of the Dragon program, pronounced himself pleased with last night’s
result.
“I love how we started the ball
game in all three phases,” Dodge told the Star-T’s Thorn. “We had
a couple of first-game stuff we need to clean up, but I’m really proud of the
guys. We didn’t have a lot of film on the Troopers. We wanted to keep it
simple.”
Making a noise out west
As for the Troopers, they went
9-3 last year after their drubbing by the Dragons. They’re good enough to make
some noise again out west in the next few weeks. But against one of the state’s
premier programs, they looked sadly outmanned and outgunned.
Trooper quarterback Evan Minjarez
was under pressure for much of the night by a Dragon defense led by Dustan
Mark and linebackers Aaron Scherp and Carter High. The Carroll
D gave up 21 points in the effort, but I’ll cut it some slack. Keeping your
concentration and intensity while enjoying a four-score lead may be too much to
expect this early in the season.
Despite the harassment, Minjarez
remained steady and focused, managing to complete 19 of 44 passes for 202 yards
and two TDs, both to receiver Rudy Garcia. He also racked up 69 yards on the ground with 13 keepers. Most of Eastwood’s offensive
fizz came during a stretch in the second quarter, a TD pass to Garcia and a 4-yard scoring run by
Jayden Martinez.
The Dragons will face a stiffer
test next week when they host the Flower Mound Marcus Marauders. Dodge said
last night’s slaughter served its purpose for the local lads.
“I think it
gives us momentum going into next week,” he told the Star-T. “We got
guys’ confidence and knocked some cobwebs off. It was nice to compete with
someone else besides ourselves every day.”
Dare we expect a break in the
furnace-blast heat? I doubt it. Fall, you can’t come quickly enough!
Go, Dragons!
