In Dallas area, it's the year of the inexperienced quarterback

There's talent and experience at wide receiver in Texas; Barnett transfers again; Highland Park to use two QBs.

By Matt Wixon

Aug 17, 2010, 11:56am

With receivers such as Allen's Jonathan Lee (orally committed to Baylor), Houston's Kameel Jackson (Oklahoma) and Waxahachie's Ladarius Brown (undecided), it looks like the year of the receiver in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Allen High wide receiver Jonathan Lee.

Photo by Harvey Dunn

Unfortunately for those receivers, it's also the year of the inexperienced quarterback.

Allen and Trinity, which won the last two Class 5A Division I state titles, will debut quarterbacks who threw a combined three passes last season. Other perennial powerhouses such as Bowie, Garland, Highland Park and Ryan will also be working in new quarterbacks with very little experience. Skyline, which relied on Javia Hall the last three years as it compiled a 36-5 record, will turn to sophomore Devante Kincade, who has yet to throw a pass in a varsity game.

"He’s got to grow up fast," Skyline coach Reginald Samples said.

So will a lot of quarterbacks. But by the time the playoffs arrive, teams with questions at quarterback might be teams with stars at quarterback.

That happened last year with Trinity’s Willie Hubbard. He threw only two passes for the varsity as a junior, but as a senior, he was named District 5-5A Most Valuable Player and threw the winning touchdown pass in overtime of the state title game.

Allen coach Tom Westerberg hopes his new quarterback — it will be either junior Alec Morris or sophomore Oliver Pierce — will progress the same way. But right now, he only knows what his quarterbacks can do in practice.

That's a big difference, obviously.

"You can try to create the game conditions,” Westerberg said, “but you really don't know how they'll do until you play a game."

More top stories in the Dallas-Fort Worth area as volleyball season begins and football season approaches:

2. Star tight end transfers again: Chris Barnett, MaxPreps’ No. 25 tight end recruit in the nation, is now at Bell. The 6-5, 260-pound senior, who played for A. Maceo Smith last season, enrolled at Trinity in the spring and practiced with the team, but then withdrew from school. Barnett's transfer must be approved by the District 6-5A executive committee before he can play.

3. Another top QB at Southlake Carroll: Carroll, which has produced college quarterbacks such as Chase Daniel (Missouri), Greg McElroy (Alabama) and Kyle Padron (SMU) in the last decade, has turned the reins over to a move-in from Oklahoma: Daxx Garman. Carroll's top two quarterbacks from last season graduated, and Garman, who transferred to Carroll in the spring, was announced as the starter on the first day of fall practice. Garman has orally committed to Arizona.

4. Richardson Pearce volleyball team wins in Duncanville: The Pearce volleyball team won the prestigious Duncanville Tournament of Champions over the weekend by beating Westlake, 25-19, 25-15, 25-27, 25-22, in the championship. Pearce is No. 2 in the latest Class 4A state rankings, behind only Lake Travis.

5. Two-quarterback system for Highland Park: The school that produced Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford is replacing its latest star quarterback with two of them. Senior Jake Howeth will be the starter, but coach Randy Allen said that junior Brady Burgin will also play. Howeth is more of a dual-threat QB and Burgin is a traditional drop-back passer.

Looking Ahead

* Saturday is the first day that 4A and 5A football teams can scrimmage other teams. The opening night for the season is Thurs., Aug. 23.

* This weekend's Allen Eagles volleyball tournament will feature some of the top teams from the Dallas area, most of which are 4A and 5A public schools. A few private schools are also in the field, along with Lovejoy, a 3A school. Lovejoy is smaller than most schools in the tournament, but it's a volleyball power. The two-time defending 3A champions are No. 2 in the latest 3A state rankings.

Recruiting updates

DeSoto quarterback Ryan Polite, who last year threw for 39 touchdowns and more than 4,000 yards, doesn't have a scholarship offer from an NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision school. That fact is stunning to the coach of the 6-2, 200-pound senior, who has been a starter since he was a freshman. "The only thing he can do is go out there and put up the numbers like he did last year and continue to prove people wrong," coach Claude Mathis told The Dallas Morning News. … Argyle kicker Chad Hedlund has orally committed to TCU, according to The Denton Record-Chronicle.

News and Views

One great thing about high school football is that, without a need to earn points in polls or BCS computers, top programs are willing to meet early in the season. So instead of a powerhouse taking on the prep equivalent of the Western North Dakota School of Agriculture and Frostbite, we get matchups such as Allen vs. Cedar Hill, Skyline vs. St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla., DeSoto vs. Miramar (Fla.) and Trinity against Shiloh Christian (Springdale, Ark.). … Groundbreaking for one of the largest and most expensive high school football stadiums in the country, Allen's new Eagle Stadium, is set for Sept. 16. The new stadium, estimated to cost $59.6 million, will have 18,000 seats, two large scoreboards, a video screen, an indoor golf hitting area and a wrestling workout room. Take a look at what the stadium will look like and you’ll see that Texas high school football is bigger than ever.

Matt Wixon is the high school sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News. He can be reached at mwixon@dallasnews.com.