Matt Stepp's first post at DCTF: A special welcome to readers

Hello, Texas Football fans! My name is Matt Stepp and I can’t tell you how excited I am to join the DCTF team, it’s really a dream come true for me and I can’t thank the brain trust enough for taking a chance on me. For those of you who know me and my work, I say to you hello. To those who do, you won’t see much change from me in what I do or how I go about my day to day, it’s just that my content will be located at a different place. Back to those of you who don’t know me or my work, let me make a quick admission: I’m a junkie. I am a bona fide Texas High School Football junkie and I have no desire to enter a treatment program any time soon. I make no apologies for being a Texan and loving all things Texas, and for me there is nothing that personifies all that is good about our great state than Friday nights at in countless towns across Texas. I love the game, I love all that it entails and I can promise you it’s a year-round passion for me. What you will see from me are weekly previews and recaps of big games across the state. I am based in Fort Worth and I attend more than my fair share of DFW-area games, but I do not hesitate to hop on a plane and cover a Saturday game in Houston or San Antonio, or spend a weekend in the Valley or El Paso. There’s great football played all over the state and each region brings its own unique flair to the gumbo that makes up Texas High School Football and I want to bring that to you each week on this blog. If you follow me on twitter (and I think you should @Matt_Stepp817), you will get not only in game tweets and updates, but also plenty of atmosphere and pre-game shenanigans inside and outside of the pressbox. As I’ve always done post game you’ll get some quotes and video from the coaches and players who played key parts in their team’s success. And don’t you for one second think that this is limited to Friday nights. There’s plenty of good Thursday and Saturday action that I’ll see, as well. In a normal season I’ll attend around 65 games in person each year. It’s a lot of football, but you’ll never once hear me complain about it – like I said, I’m a junkie! The grind won’t stop after the state title games. In early January we’ll get cranked up with the always active Texas High School Coaching Carousel during the off-season. My aim is to make DCTF the place to go for the most updated information on coaching movement in UIL 11-man football anywhere! We’ll do this by continuing my practice of being an advocate for the Texas High School coaches and as always utilizing the privileged information we get from the coaches in confidence in a way that keeps fans “in the know” but also maintains the trust that we value so much from the coaches. Did I say I was a Texas High School Football junkie? Well if you aren’t convinced then you’ll need to hang with us during the summer as DCTF will be the place for 7-on-7 news, as well. I am a huge believer in the concept of “school based” 7-on-7 teams and no one has it better than us in Texas with our 7-on-7 Board of Directors running the well organized and always competitive 7-on-7 State Qualifying Tournaments. DCTF also has the unique distinction of being the ONLY media outlet to actually direct some qualifiers in the summer, my experience running and assisting with actual events themselves goes from El Paso all the way to East Texas and it’s something I’m very proud of! There will be plenty else to follow along as we’ll sprinkle in some recruiting nuggets from time to time, interviews from off-season coaching clinics, spring football and of course every two years we’ll have UIL realignment covered. To the Texas High School coaches, I want to thank you, as without your support and trust I wouldn’t be here. My continued promise is to continue to be an advocate for what you do for the student athletes in Texas and for education based athletics as a whole. Coaches and fans, I’m ready to get 2016 started and as always any feedback or questions are welcomed, just drop me a line at

mrstepp817@yahoo.com