Top 26 storylines for 2016: No. 16 – The battle for 6A Region IV, ATX vs. S.A.

[caption id="attachment_24639" align="alignright" width="350"]AY5E7672 Photo by Mary Scott McNabb[/caption] Business picked up in Region IV. The addition of state finalists Lake Travis and Westlake from the Austin area after the latest realignment creates more depth and potential playoff matchups to an often forgotten region in Class 6A. San Antonio powers – Converse Judson and Cibolo Steele – remain to keep the status quo. The four teams make up a formidable core and offer instant rivalries. Austin and San Antonio are separated by an hour or four days depending on the brutality of I-35 traffic, but the two cities couldn’t be more different. Each has its personal style and it is reflected in the football teams. The San Antonio teams pound the ball and rely on a great defense. The Austin teams use a little more flash to win. Steele and Judson are the only programs to win Region IV football titles in the two-year history of Class 6A, with Judson winning in Division I and Steele taking the crown in Division II. Lake Travis is the reigning Class 6A Division II Region II champion. The Cavaliers fell to Katy in the state championship game and enter the season as our No. 1 ranked team in the state. Westlake lost in overtime of the Division I state championship game and return quarterback Sam Ehlinger. All four teams enter the season ranked in the Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine top 10 for 2016. If you take away the four playoff loses that ended each team’s season, the four programs lost two games in the regular season and both were to one of the other teams. Lake Travis and Steele’s lone loss of the season was to Katy in the playoffs. Westlake lost a district game to Lake Travis before the state championship loss and Judson suffered the same fate inside district play to Steele. [caption id="attachment_20667" align="alignleft" width="350"]Lake Travis vs Westlake Photo by Graham Staniforth[/caption] The overall depth of Region I might not exist in Region IV, but the top-tier talent does. Westlake and Lake Travis knocked off Region I champions in 2015 to reach state title games. Steele and Judson came within a touchdown of reaching the state championship games in 2014. And all four return impressive talent at important positions entering the season. The common denominator is quarterback play and defense. Westlake returns Texas commit Sam Ehlinger. Lake Travis is led by SMU commit Charlie Brewer. Texas Tech holds the commitment from Cibolo Steele signal caller Xavier Martin and junior Julon Williams helped lead Judson to a state semifinal as a freshman. Steele and Judson are led on the other side of the ball by defensive tackles Josh Croslen and Darren Thomas, while Westlake is home to linebacker Levi Jones and Lake Travis boasts Northwestern commit Austin Hiller at safety. Enrollment might prevent a pair of matchups. If predictions hold, Westlake, Lake Travis and Judson would all head to Division I. Steele would be the lone power remaining in Division II. For Westlake to be placed in Division II like 2015, Hays Consolidated would need to sneak past Vandegrift or Vista Ridge into the third or fourth spot in District 25-6A. If that happened, Lake Travis and Judson are placed in Division I and Steele and Westlake would go to Division II. Quality teams like Vandegrift, Smithson Valley, San Antonio Reagan, Schertz Clemens and Round Rock Cedar Ridge hope to spoil the party, but with four regional champions from 2015 now firmly placed inside of Region IV, the road to the state semifinals picked up a few more speed bumps for new blood to reach the top.

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