Stepp's Ten Thoughts from Week 5 of the TXHSFB Season

The rise of Killeen Shoemaker
After winning just two total games in the past three seasons, Killeen Shoemaker HC Toby Foreman told us at the THSCA Coaches Convention in July that he thought his team had a great shot to compete for a playoff spot. Thursday night’s impressive 42-23 win over Belton certainly puts the Grey Wolves on the radar of a lot of folks in the 12-6A playoff race. Shoemake, who now owns wins over San Angelo Central and Belton, is 2-2 on the year and, more importantly, 1-1 in district play after the big win. Last week, Shoemaker went toe-to-toe with a powerful Temple team in a 38-28 loss to open district play and Thursday night’s win puts Foreman’s squad in the mix without a doubt. The next two weeks will be critical for Shoemaker as they take on Killeen ISD rivals Killeen High and Killeen Ellison and wins in these two games will be crucial as the margins in this nine-team district are incredibly slim and as we saw late last year ANYTHING can and often does happen.

Longview makes its case
Despite starting the season 4-0, there were rumblings among some in the media that maybe Longview didn’t have that “it” factor in 2019 and it might be excused since the Lobos did win their first state title in 81 years in December. Don’t think for one second that John King was going to allow anyone to be satisfied with just one state title though. But we had some questions. Longview’s offense had been plagued by turnovers and poor execution early and had to be bailed out by a veteran defense through the first four weeks of the season.