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Fort Bend Christian Academy Magazine: Fall Wrap
EAGLES' VOLLEYBALL LOADED FOR 2021 RUN
THE EAGLES ENTERED THIS SEASON UNDER NEW HEAD COACH ALEX EDWARDS, WHO HAD COME OVER FROM EPISCOPAL. FBCA MADE THE PLAYOFFS AND WON ITS OPENING ROUND MATCH AGAINST THE GENEVA SCHOOL OF BOERNE. THE WIN PUSHED THE EAGLES INTO THE AREA ROUND, WHERE THEY FELL SHORT TO EVENTUAL TAPPS 5A STATE CHAMPION ST. JOSEPH HIGH SCHOOL VICTORIA.
After the season was complete, the awards rolled in.
The team was led by Bailey Hanner, who earned TAPPS first-team, all-state honors and first-team, all-district honors as well. She was joined on the all-state team by Avery Hodge, who was an honorable mention and also a first-team, all-district pick.
Madison Glenn
Both Hanner and Hodge are just juniors and are slated to return to the nest in 2021.
Caitlyn Harraman was a first-team, all-district pick in her senior campaign. Second-team picks included Madison Glenn and Shea Stone. The pick of Stone is impressive, considering she is only a sophomore. Finally, juniors Reagan Heflin and Brooke Byers were honorable mention picks.
CROSS COUNTRY SENDS TRIO TO STATE
FBCA Cross Country
ON THE CROSS COUNTRY COURSE, THERE WAS A LIMITED AMOUNT OF RACES THIS FALL FOR THE AREA'S BEST RUNNERS TO COMPETE IN PRIOR TO STATE.
FBCA qualified three individual runners for the TAPPS Cross Country State Meet back at the beginning of November.
Freshman Kyra Whitman was the lone girl to qualify for the race and ended up finishing 109th overall with a time of 15:49.6. Whitman will be a runner to watch in the coming years as she works her way up the ranks.
On the boys' side, Wilson Whiles finished 112th overall with a time of 21:17.4, while Jackson Champion took 137th overall with a time of 22:33.4. Both Whiles and Champion are just sophomores and will be back in 2021.
FOOTBALL CONTINUING IMPRESSIVE RISE
FBCA Football
THE EAGLES SOARED INTO THE PLAYOFFS FOR A SECOND STRAIGHT SEASON AFTER AN IMPRESSIVE OUTING IN TAPPS DIVISION II-DISTRICT 4 PLAY, WHERE THEY WENT 4-1 IN LEAGUE PLAY. OVERALL, THE EAGLES POSTED A 7-3 RECORD WITH NOTABLE WINS OVER CONCORDIA LUTHERAN, TWCA, CYPRESS CHRISTIAN – WHICH REACHED THE TAPPS STATE SEMIFINALS – AND THEN SAW ITS SEASON COME TO AN END WITH A LOSS TO REGENTS.
Brady Dever was the story of the year for the offense. The move-in from Foster came in and lit up the stat sheet. In 10 games, Dever was 157 of 244 for 2,377 yards and 26 touchdowns. He has a bright future and FBCA has their quarterback for the next two years.
Solomon Cole
Solomon Cole was one of Dever's top targets as he finished with 68 catches for 1,084 yards and 13 touchdowns. Cole also had one rushing score and on the defensive side of the ball had seven interceptions. Overall, the senior racked up 1,881 all-purpose yards for the Eagles.
Other key performances this fall came from JD Migl, who transitioned from quarterback to running back and even receiver. David Kasemervisz, Braylon Gardoni and Michael Kasemervisz also played big roles.
The talk of this team prior to the year was the strength of the offensive line anchored by Texas A&M signee Remington Strickland. Along with Strickland, guys like Jalon Zuber, Rob Walter, Clifton Self and Cohen Carpenter helped open holes for the backs and protect Dever throughout the season.
Two years ago, Fort Bend Christian couldn't even complete the season because they didn't have enough players. Now, Jordan Black is building a program on the southwest side of Houston that teams will have to fend off for the District Championship year after year.
Cohen Carpenter
RECRUITING: Aggies winning H-Town recruiting battle in a landslide
Overall, Texas signed 13 of the Top 100 players from Texas, while Texas A&M brought in 14. Out of that number, only three - Derrick Harris Jr. (New Caney), Terrence Cooks (Shadow Creek) and Hayden Conner (Katy Taylor) - came from the Greater Houston area.
For the Aggies?
Jimbo Fisher and staff swooped into Houston and inked nine of the Top 100 players, with five of those being ranked in the Top 20 in Texas by 247 Sports.
"I believe that they are having so much success because players can go to Texas A&M, play in the SEC, stay in Texas and play in a system proven to have success in the NFL," Foster coach Shaun McDowell said. "And they just do a really great job of creating relationships and being visible with recruits."
Among the Top 20 players in Texas, the Aggies signed seven, which was the most by any single university. The next closest amount was four, which National Champion Alabama and perennial College Football Playoff selection Oklahoma tied for.
Texas only had one.
In that group of seven included No. 7 Tunmise Adeleye (frm. Tompkins), No. 8 LJ Johnson (Cy-Fair), No. 12 Bryce Foster (Katy Taylor), No. 15 Reuben Fatheree II (Foster) and No. 18 Shadrach Banks (North Shore).
"I think the proximity of A&M to Houston has always been an asset in their recruiting. In the eyes of some recruits, their move to the SEC separated them from the other Power 5 schools in Texas," North Shore coach Jon Kay said. "They have some coaches with strong ties in Houston. Coaches like Bradley Dale Peveto (who no longer works at A&M) and Darrell Dickey (dad and brother were both HC's in the Houston area) have always been mainstays in the Houston area.
"I think the success they had this year will only help the pipeline from Houston."'
247 Sports Recruiting Class Rankings (Class of 2021)
No. 7 - Texas A&M
No. 17 - Texas
No. 44 - Baylor
No. 53 - SMU
No. 61 - TCU
No. 64 - Texas Tech
No. 81 - Houston
Nol 93 - Rice
That is the other factor that is fueling this 12th Man surge - the Aggies went 9-1 overall this past season and finished on the verge of playing in the College Football Playoff in 2020. The Aggies' biggest win of the year came over then-No. 4 Florida (41-38) at home and their only loss came to eventual National Champion Alabama (52-24).
In the end, after an Orange Bowl victory over then-No. 13 North Carolina, Texas A&M finished No. 4 in the final poll and should be in the Top 5 in the country to start the 2021 season.
"I think they have done a great job of being aggressive in recruiting Houston players," Fort Bend Marshall coach James Marshall, whose former player Devon Achane was named the MVP of the Orange Bowl, said.
"The players see where that program is going and they want to be apart of it."
Overall, nine Houston area players did just that.
Along with those five previously mentioned, No. 60 Remington Strickland (Fort Bend Christian Academy), No. 63 Matthew Wykoff (Magnolia), No. 66 Albert Regis (La Porte) and No. 100 Fernando Garza (Katy) also signed with the Aggies.
"They are all over the place," Marshall said. "It's all about relationships with kids and high coaches and they are doing that very well."
The Class of 2021 has gone very well for the Aggies - being ranked No. 7 nationally (Texas coming in at No. 17) - and they have already started turning the page to 2022.
Texas A&M already has four hard commits - including Bridgeland quarterback and pitcher Conner Weigman - for the next class and take a wild guess where they are from.