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John Walsh never lost faith in his Guyer (Denton) Wildcats — not when they started the 2012 season 0-2 and not when trailing by 16 points in the third quarter of the Class 4A Division I state championship game.
"I have confidence in my team,'' Walsh said. "I'm always confident, even when we lose. We just needed a couple of stops.''
John Walsh, Guyer head coach
Photo by Robbie Rakestraw
Guyer got those stops and outscored previously unbeaten Georgetown 34-7 in the final 18 minutes of a
48-37 victory Saturday afternoon at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.
For guiding Guyer to 14 straight wins and its first state football championship, Walsh was selected as Dallas area Coach of the Week presented by Comerica Bank.
Guyer's start in the championship game was fine. The Wildcats went in front 14-7 in the early moments of the second period. But Georgetown scored the final 16 points of the first half for a 23-14 lead at the break and got another touchdown in the opening four minutes of the second half. Guyer trailed 30-16.
"I didn't do a good job of play calling,'' Walsh said. "We began the game running the ball and then we started doing things we don't normally do. That was on me.''
Junior quarterback
Jerrod Heard, a Texas commit, put Guyer back on track by rushing for four of his five touchdowns in the second half, part of his 143-yard rushing day. He also threw for 189 yards and two scores.
The defense did its part, twice stopping 15-1 Georgetown cold on fourth-and-1 runs and setting up a touchdown when
Connor Allen, the game's defensive MVP, forced a fumble from Eagles quarterback Jake Hubenak.
"When the defense makes stops like that … it was huge,'' Walsh said. "When you stop a team when it needs only one yard, it makes you feel you can definitely stop them when they have to go 70 yards.''
Guyer was tabbed as a state title contender when it dropped from Class 5A to 4A in the University Interscholastic League's biennial realignment last January.
But Guyer opened the season with a 54-28 loss to Cedar Hill and the following week Heritage (Colleyville) followed suit, 54-38.
"After that second loss, we stayed in the locker room a good 30 minutes and called each other out, myself included,'' Walsh said. "What we decided was the seniors have to take this thing over. In any year when a team I coached has gone far, it had senior leadership. When a team hasn't done well, it didn't have senior leadership.''
Since taking his lumps to the tune of 1-19 in Guyer's first two seasons of varsity football in 2006 and ‘07, Walsh‘s teams have gone 60-4 over the last five seasons.
The Wildcats have reached at least the state semifinal round in four of those last five seasons. In its only previous state title appearance in 2010, Guyer lost to Steele (Cibolo) for the Class 5A Division II title, 24-21.
Guyer's quarterback in that game was the coach's son, J.W. Walsh, who now plays for Oklahoma State. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound redshirt freshman has played in nine games this season and has thrown for a team-leading 1,478 yards and 11 touchdowns.
John Walsh and wife Amber also have two daughters, Samantha and Maggie.
Walsh grew up in Merkel, a few miles from Abilene, and played receiver at McMurry University. He was an assistant coach at Brownwood before tackling the task of building a program at Guyer.
"We've been close the last five years,'' Walsh said. "To finally get it done is refreshing. We've been good enough a couple of those years but just didn't finish.
"There will be a lot of celebrating over the next few days.''
