BY DENNIS SILVA II | densilva2@gmail.com

While at home with his wife, lounging on the couch watching Auburn play North Carolina in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament last week, Nick Barosh perked up.

Barosh had a vested interest in the game, having coached Auburn junior guard J’Von McCormick from 2012-13 to 2015-16 at Mayde Creek High. And he saw McCormick, in his first season as a Tiger after two years at Lee Junior College, about to do what J’Von McCormick does.

“Just playing in the SEC is a huge accomplishment in itself,” said Barosh, now at Seven Lakes Junior High. “But the other night is when it really, really hit me, when he went end-to-end for a layup at the end of the first half against North Carolina. I told my wife, ‘This is J’Von’s specialty. This is J’Von.’ He goes full court and does these types of things. It went viral on social media, but it was nothing new.

“In my opinion, he’s the fastest guard in the country.”

Continue reading “From Mayde Creek to Final Four, McCormick a boon for Auburn” →

BY DENNIS SILVA II | densilva2@gmail.com

After wrapping up a brief stint as a graduate assistant coach at NCAA Division III Lake Erie College in 2005, Brian Burg did not know where the next chapter of his career would be written.

All he knew was he wanted to be a college basketball coach.

So for 29 straight days, the Katy native wrote letters to then-Texas Tech head coach Bob Knight and then-assistant Chris Beard. Burg met Beard as a 13-year-old when Beard coached summer camps at the University of Texas in Austin. Burg had since followed Beard’s career because of his “obvious passion and ability to communicate with young people.”

“Every single possession, in a summer camp, you could see his drive and passion,” Burg said.

On the 29^th day, Burg finally received a call from Beard.

Continue reading “Katy native Brian Burg climbs coaching ladder all the way to Final Four” →

BY DENNIS SILVA II | densilva2@gmail.com

Eddie Joseph, a Texas high school coaching icon, died early Sunday morning at the age of 86 years old.

His son, renowned Katy High football coach Gary Joseph, delivered the news on Twitter not long after Eddie’s passing.

My father Eddie Joseph left us this morning to go be with our Lord and creator. He was the single biggest influence in my life and he made a major impact on countless others.
We appreciate your prayers and will share information once further arrangements have been made.

— Gary Joseph (@GaryJoseph5) March 31, 2019

Eddie Joseph was synonymous with the essence of coaching. He coached for the kids, and he coached because he believed in the value athletics provided for young lives.

“A coach’s coach,” many would say.

Continue reading “Texas coaching legend Eddie Joseph dies, impact lives on” →

BY DENNIS SILVA II | email: densilva2@gmail.com

Bubba Fife’s respect for Gary Joseph goes all the way back to the early 1980s, when Fife worked with Joseph’s father, Eddie, on the Texas High School Coaches Association board of directors.

Fife considered Eddie a mentor, and in the years that followed, specifically 22 spent as a coach and administrator in Katy ISD, it did not take long for his admiration for Gary, a football coach at Katy High since the early 1980s, to foster as well.

“Coach Joseph is one of the finest coaches, but also a fine, quality human being,” Fife said. “He’s a fine father, a fine husband and a great leader. He’s a close friend and I respect him so much.”

It’s only central casting, then, that Fife and Gary Joseph will be enshrined together this summer into the Texas High School Coaches Association’s Hall of Honor. Fife and Joseph are two of five inductees that will be acknowledged at the Hall of Honor Banquet at 7 p.m. on July 20 in Houston.

Continue reading “Katy ISD greats Fife, Joseph to be inducted into THSCA Hall of Honor” →

BY DENNIS SILVA II | email: densilva2@gmail.com

Mere hours after winning his third consecutive Class 6A state wrestling championship, Katy High senior Daniel Manibog was in a car, driving with his father Dean and Katy coach Vinnie Lowe on 1 ½-hours of sleep to go watch the duel between No. 2 Oklahoma State and No. 3 Iowa in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Manibog rode an emotional high after becoming the 14^th wrestler in UIL history to win three state titles and the second at Katy, following James Aston (2003-2005).

“I never met him,” Manibog said of Aston, “but Coach Lowe coached him before I got here, so he would tell me about him. James got fifth (at state) as a freshman, too, so ever since I did that myself, I wanted to match what he did.”

Continue reading “Future Cowboy Manibog reflects on three-peat legacy at Katy High” →

BY DENNIS SILVA II | email: densilva2@gmail.com

On February 22, Fort Bend Elkins star wing and Texas signee Donovan Williams retweeted a schedule pairing of his team’s upcoming regional quarterfinal matchup against Morton Ranch.

“This is what y’all wanted right?” Williams noted in his own personal caption of the retweet, along with a pair of emojis. It was a looming showdown between two state-ranked teams, and arguably the finest programs in the Greater Houston area this season.

Morton Ranch star guard LJ Cryer retweeted Williams’ tweet almost as soon as Williams had sent it.

Continue reading “Elkins rallies to oust Morton Ranch, advances to Class 6A-Region III semifinals” →

BY DENNIS SILVA II | email: densilva2@gmail.com

Hayden Conner does not remember when his fascination with space started.

“I’m not sure,” the Taylor High sophomore offensive tackle said. “It was weird. Whenever I would go visit schools, they’d ask me what I wanted to major in, and I’d just say something in engineering. Eventually, I narrowed it down to mechanical, but even then I knew there was something missing. And to be honest, I don’t know what happened, but I got interested in space. I’ve just fallen in love with it.”

Just as much as he is pleased pancaking helpless defensive linemen, Conner, a four-star recruit who holds 19 offers from schools like LSU, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and others, is just as happy studying space. And he’s good at it.

Continue reading “A force on the field, Taylor’s Conner also has visions of a career in space” →

BY DENNIS SILVA II | email: densilva2@gmail.com

Rebuilding programs is becoming Anthony Fobb’s forte.

It happened in Aldine. After five consecutive years of not making the playoffs, Aldine High introduced Fobb as its new head coach in 2015. He immediately led the team to the postseason his first year.

When Fobb took the Mayde Creek High job last April, his task was greater. He was asked to bring to relevance a listless Rams program that had not made the playoffs since 2010, had made the playoffs just six times since the opening of the school in the mid-1980s, and had never won as many as 21 games in a year.

“My first impression was they were score-first guys,” said Fobb, who took the Rams job to move to Katy, his home since 2011. “A lot of their scores were in the 70s, 80s. I’m from this community and area, and I’d known some of the kids and mentalities. I always knew they could score the ball. They had to get stops.”

So Fobb went to work. It started with building relationships, continued with an intense focus on discipline and defense, and then the idea was to let everything fall into place.

Continue reading “RISE OF THE RAMS: Fobb’s arrival lifts Mayde Creek back to playoffs” →

BY DENNIS SILVA II | email: densilva2@gmail.com

Before practice on Thursday, Taylor High senior guard Ky Blodget walked up to coach Matthew Brayton and put his arm around him.

The Mustangs’ season was on the brink with a looming District 19-6A playoff play-in game against Katy, and Blodget felt Brayton, who’d lit into his team during a video session following Tuesday’s loss to Katy that forced the do-or-die game, needed reassurance.

“It’ll be different,” Blodget told Brayton. “I promise.”

Continue reading “Blodget, Mustangs earn redemption with playoff play-in win over Katy” →

BY DENNIS SILVA II | email: densilva2@gmail.com

Last season, around this time of the year, William Coakley hit a mental block.

Then a junior at Seven Lakes High, Coakley found himself worrying too much about results going into the state swimming meet. It was not an ideal predicament.

“It was getting into my head too much, and swimming is a mental challenge,” Coakley said. “You get in your head about wanting a certain time so badly or you set expectations too high, but at the end of the day you just want to show how hard you’ve worked. I’m ready to do that.”

Continue reading “Seven Lakes’ Coakley ready for one last shot at state gold” →