Photo by Army National Guard
Whoever first said that everything is bigger in Texas sure knew what they were talking about. This was evident as the Texas Army National Guard and MaxPreps joined the
Cedar Hill (Texas) Longhorns on the ninth-annual MaxPreps Football Tour of Champions.
Growing up outside of Texas, you hear stories of how big the sport is in the Lone Star State, but one cannot fully appreciate just exactly how big it is until they go down and experience it themselves.
For its accomplishments on the field this past season, Cedar Hill was holding a parade with coach Joey McGuire and his team as the guests of honor. One would think that hosting a parade in the middle of the day would be inconvenient, as kids are in school, some people might have work, etc. Cedar Hill, on the other hand, made sure that the time slot wasn't going to shut things down. Every school in the district got out early so it could either watch the parade or take part in it.
Various floats had the "Jr. Longhorns" on them with other middle school and elementary school students throwing out candy to the crowd. The parade also saw the likes of the tennis team, cheerleaders, step team and even the town's mayor. Led by an arsenal of fire trucks blaring their horns, the parade left the school property to make the one-mile trek through the town before arriving back at the school for the real party.
Nothing was going to dampen the mood on this night. Not even the dampness and the cool air could scare people away. As people filed into the stadium, I had to ask SFC Marcellous Williams of the Texas Army National Guard what were the odds that the stands would be full. With a straight face he told me that if they don't get filled then they will surely get pretty close, and he wasn't exaggerating. With the football team sitting on bleachers on the edge of the football field, a plethora of distinguished guests sat in front of them: Various board members, the superintendent and even the mayor.
The first award that the team received was the Army National Guard National Ranking Trophy. Even though they had two blemishes on their record, the Longhorns were still able to persevere and not only bring home their second Texas 5A Division II state title, but also finish as the 12th-best team in the nation according to the MaxPreps Freeman Rankings. SFC Williams presented coach McGuire with the Minuteman Trophy as well as the National Ranking banner to one of his senior captains.
After they received their trophy and banner, the crowd and team were treated to performances from the school's step team, marching band and even had special congratulations from former players, some of whom are playing at the collegiate levels and even the pros.
