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Class In Session: North Shore OC Willie Gaston grooming Bailey as freshman QB leads Mustangs to State
HOUSTON – For the past two years, North Shore offensive coordinator Willie Gaston knew what was coming up the pipeline.
Gaston knew since seeing Kaleb Bailey play quarterback for Cunningham Middle School as a seventh grader that he could be a “pretty special” talent.
“He’s just one of those kids that his teammates love him, he’s got natural leadership abilities, so it’s easy to gravitate to him and follow him,” Gaston said. “He’s a great kid, hard worker, a yes sir, no sir type of kid. Those kids are easy to coach.”
Making the jump from eighth-grade football to playing in the Class 6A Division I playoffs is no easy feat though, for anyone and especially a quarterback.
The differences between middle school and high school are tremendous. First, there is no play clock. Second, the speed of the game. Third, you don’t have full grown 18-year-old men blitzing you from the ends all the time.
But Bailey has taken it all in stride.
The 15-year-old freshman signal-caller, who will lead North Shore against Duncanville on Saturday at 3 p.m. inside AT&T Stadium, has shown his growth from being thrown into the fire as the starter against Atascocita in Week 10 for the District 21-6A Championship.
“You could see the growth from the Atascocita game as a district game and then when we played them a couple of weeks later in the round four game,” Gaston said. “Credit to him for just coming here and putting in the work.”
North Shore extends its lead and before this tweet can be sent they extend it again with a pick 6 @LTHSCavFootball - 14@NSNationFB - 35
3nd- 2:26@NSSH_Mustangs | @ltisdschools |@FlxAtx | #txhsfb pic.twitter.com/90sC5poCvt
— VYPE Austin (@VypeATX) December 11, 2021
Over the season, while coaching the offense, Gaston has had to also mix in grooming Bailey as a quarterback. Through the normal game-week preparation mixing in what he would have experienced during spring practice and quarterback school, which are two things he didn’t go through.
The freshman is “still raw” but is progressing each and every week he gets more reps under center.
“He’s got a strong arm, he’s big, he can run, so the biggest thing with us is cleaning up his footwork and get him where he needs to be,” Gaston said. “He’s getting better every week. He’s a coachable kid, which is what you want and what you like.”
The last time North Shore ran with a freshman quarterback, his name was Dematrius Davis, who is now at Auburn.
With Bailey being a freshman starting in the playoffs, there will be the natural comparison lines drawn between the two but there is one way that Gaston believes they are truly alike at this age.
“Just the way that they are competitors,” he said.
TOUCHDOWN!!!
First play of the Game North Shore gets on the board @LTHSCavFootball - 0@NSNationFB - 7
1st- 11:40 @NSSH_Mustangs | @ltisdschools |@FlxAtx | #txhsfb pic.twitter.com/ccHBv7Cm9s
— VYPE Austin (@VypeATX) December 11, 2021
BREAKING: UIL Releases Conference Cutoff Numbers for Reclassification and Realignment, and what this means
The University Interscholastic League (UIL) posted their official release on Twitter Wednesday morning to announce the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 UIL Reclassification and Realignment Conference Cutoff Numbers and Preliminary Enrollment Figures. With the realignment, it's possible that you may see a shift for some of your favorite Texas high school sports teams. The numbers for the realignment and reclassification are listed below:
Enrollment Figures and Division Breaks
⚠️ OFFICIAL RELEASE ⚠️
Football Conference and Division Cutoff Numbers for the 2022-2023 & 2023-2024 UIL Reclassification & Realignment
🔗 https://t.co/NsGjaWA6kV pic.twitter.com/dxTjzmXvUK
— Texas UIL (@uiltexas) December 8, 2021
Class 6A: 2225 and up
Class 5A: 1300-2224
Class 4A: 545-1299
Class 3A: 250-544
Class 2A: 105-249
Class 1A: 104.9 and below
With these numbers, the division breaks within the classifications are:
5A-D1: 1925-2224
5A-D2: 1300-1924
4A-D1: 880-1299
4A-D2: 545-879
3A-D1: 360-544
3A-D2: 250-359
2A-D1: 164.5-249
2A-D2: 105-165.4
1A-D1:59.5-104.9
1A-D2: 59.4 and below
What This Means:
For some schools, this means some shifting around. A look at some of the changes that comes with these numbers would include:
Manor heads back to 6A
Harker Heights becomes the only Killeen ISD school in 6A
Royse City and North Forney will move to 6A
El Paso Hanks, Parkland, Crosby, Aledo, and Ysleta move to 5A-D1
Lubbock High, Argyle, Melissa, Austin LBJ, and Amarillo Palo Duro to 5A-D2
San Antonio ISD schools are all 5A-D2
El Paso Austin, Bowie, and Irving move to 4A-D1
There will likely be more to dive into over the coming weeks. VYPE will keep a close eye on realignments and reclassifications.