Coach Hickman
Courtesy photo
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.
"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.
