It's a long way to Ireland. It's quite a little haul to Houston as well.
The football team at
Dallas Jesuit not only traveled to far-away lands, but the Rangers also prevailed.
Sandwich those two impressive wins with a 34-21 triumph over Fossil Ridge and Jesuit is 3-0 on the young season and ranked as high as 18th in the state. Earning a top-20 spot in Texas is a major accomplishment for this private school of 1,000 boys. Unlike most states, the public schools dominate the Lone Star State.
Talk about a long journey.
Brandon Hickman, Dallas Jesuit
Courtesy photo
"It's the first time in a very, very long time," said Jesuit coach Brandon Hickman. "Considering all the traveling we've done and the competition we've seen, I'm very pleased with our start. The effort has been outstanding."
Hickman, in his second year as head coach at Jesuit, has led that effort and following a 57-0 win at Strake Jesuit (Houston) he's been selected the Dallas Coach of the Week presented by Comerica Bank.
The Rangers scored on six of their first seven possessions, including five touchdown passes by
Jack Brezette in the first quarter.
Jake Oliver caught three of the touchdown passes and
John Berend the other two.
According to the Dallas Morning News, Oliver finished with seven catches for 123 yards.
"We run a no-huddle spread attack and throw the ball 80 percent of the time," Hickman said. "It's wide open and fast-paced."
Hickman was raised in a smashmouth era and was a star lineman for Cypress Creek (Houston) before earning a scholarship to TCU. He's been coaching high school since 1996 and had a long stint as an assistant at Jesuit before leaving to be the head coach at North Garland and J.J. Pierce for four years.
He was thrilled when he had a chance to come back "home" to Jesuit as the head coach.
"Even though I went away, my heart was always here," Hickman said. "I'm so grateful for the opportunity to gain experience and mature as a coach at the other places, but being back is a true blessing. I have a fifth-grade son and I hope we're here together."
It was a tremendous experience to play Loyola Academy (Wilmette, Ill.) as part of the Global Ireland Football Tournament to start the season.
Jesuit escaped with a 30-29 victory on a 28-yard field goal by
Cody Wicker with 49 seconds to play. Wicker, who had missed an extra point earlier, split the goal posts that were only 18 feet wide compared to standard 24-foot-wide posts in high school.
Oliver, a Texas commit, had 13 catches for 163 yards while Brezette completed 25 passes for 330 yards.
"Taking 112 kids overseas was a little nerve-racking," Hickman said. "And the time difference was tough – we were all burning on fumes by the end of the game. But overall, it was great once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Hickman said those kind of experiences and seeing the vast improvement in young adults is why he loves coaching high school football.
"I think at this level, it feels like you can make a bigger impact on their lives," he said. "It's all about teaching them how to work through and deal with adversity. Coaching high school football was a perfect fit for my family and I."
The Rangers have a week off before they face some real adversity on the field in the form of Skyline (Dallas), No. 8 in the state and 53rd nationally in the MaxPreps Freeman computer rankings. Jesuit hosts Skyline Sept. 28.
You can contact Mitch Stephens by email at mstephens@maxpreps.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MitchMashMax.
