Unique All-star Game

[GreenBat]

Lone Star Classic a remedy for the everyday all-star football game

02/21/2007

By Jake Shaw/TexasFootball.com

Let's face it, all-star games have a tendency to get a little stale.

Collecting top players from their respective sports often produces games that lack defense, passion, and ultimately, fan interest.

Douglas MacGregor might have found the antidote for the all-star blues. The president of Austin's Arena Football League franchise, MacGregor is fusing the AFL with Central Texas high school football.

The result is the Lone Star Arena Football Classic, an arena football-style game featuring 66 of Central Texas' top graduating seniors.

"Of course people in Texas love football," MacGregor said. "But we found that a large number of people who love football didn't understand arena ball.

In fact, the spread-style offenses permeating every level of 11-man football closely resemble the fast-break style of the Arena Football League.

"The biggest difference is the size of the field and the quickness of the game," said Round Rock Westwood head coach Anthony Wood, who will coach the North team Friday. "It's such a faster game."

Said Logan Johnson, a Seguin defensive line standout: "We only have like six plays to learn. Everything we do on defense is still the same. The speed of the line on the defensive line is the same as the arena game."

A committee of local media, members of the Austin Wranglers Foundation, Harry McCrary of the Longhorn Foundation and area coaches picked the roster from cities between Florence, on the north side of Austin, down to Seguin.

MacGregor said the organizers limited it to the region to better generate local interest, and to make practices accessible to players.

"We didn't want kids to drive too far," he said. "Driving from Lampasas or Seguin, we didn't want to go any further than that."

Depending on the success of the event -- MacGregor said he'd like to see 7-10,000 of the 15,000-seat Erwin Center filled -- the Lone Star Arena Football Classic could expand to regions around the state.

Having Arena 2 Football teams in Laredo, Edinburg, Lubbock and Houston (aside from the Austin and Dallas AFL franchises) would allow for similar events across the state. MacGregor said to expect the Lone Star Classic to stick around — a welcome addition to the all-star circuit.

"We probably got started a little later than we would have liked, but we're already planning for next year," he said. "The NFL association wanted to have a banquet for kids this year, but we couldn't get it organized in time.

"Next year, we'll get all the pieces in place. We'll build on it. Our philosophy was to keep it great. We do that by keeping it simple."

More about the Lone Star Arena Football Classic

Revenge factor?

What shouldn't go unnoticed at the Lone Star Area Football Classic is the impact it will have on Central Texas communities.

First of all, the proceeds from ticket sales will go directly to charity. Secondly, without a previous all-star game for Central Texas preps, some deserving Texas high school football players finally will receive due credit.

"We thought, what a great opportunity for some kids to get some recognition," said Doug MacGregor, President of the Austin Wranglers, the driving force behind the event. "We wanted to make it a celebration of football in Texas. We wanted to say thank you to the trainers, to the boosters, the fans, the bands, to all the people involved with high school football.

"What we wanted people to recognize is that what you see on Friday is really a culmination of a lot of effort by a lot of people."

Still, a competitive game will be played, and it might give South coach Jeff Dicus (Austin Lake Travis) a chance at revenge.

Lake Travis only lost three games this season, but one came at the hands of Anthony Woods' Round Rock Westwood team. Woods is coaching the North team Friday night.

"(The loss to Westwood) has nothing to do with Friday night," Dicus said, "it's about celebrating the great performances of these players."

But ... "Like I said, I'm a competitor, (Wood's) a competitor," Dicus added. "I don't know too may people that like losing. I like winning, we've got a great group of kids that like winning and have been practicing really hard. It's just been a neat deal that Doug and the Wranglers put together."

Wood is also counting down to the event.

"It's going to be a lot of fun," he said. "Hopefully it's going to be a high scoring game. At least on one side."

Star power

Of the 66 players, nearly all will play football at the next level. Many of them signed Division I letters on National Signing Day a couple weeks ago.

"There are two kids that really stood out, Jimmie Anderson at Round Rock, and Trevin Wade from (Round Rock) Stony Point," North coach Anthony Wood said of his team's practices. "Those two kids are just incredible athletes. That's just looking at it from the skill positions."

Defensively, Wood said there hasn't been a shortage of eye-grabbers. The most impressive might be a Leander product.

"Ryan Douglass from Leander, he's just an incredible athlete," Wood said. "Baylor got a good one."

Ironically, South coach Jeff Dicus also raved about his defense. Though the point totals of AFL games suggest an offensive-minded league, he said his defenders have adjusted to the game well.

"The guys on defense, I'm just excited to set them loose," Dicus said.

One of them already got a head start. Seguin lineman Logan Johnson, having a hard time not going all-out, put a hit on a ball-carrier in practice.

"The third practice," he said, "I think I gave this kid a concussion. We weren't supposed to go full speed, but it's kind of hard not to."

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When: 7 p.m. Friday

Where: Austin's Frank Erwin Center

Tickets: $10, all proceeds to charity

More info: austinwranglers.com "I had a coach who called me once, he had a lineman who was a pretty good prospect. He said, 'Too bad (Arena Football) doesn't have any lineman, because I've got a lineman who can really play.'"

Despite the presence of walls, fewer players on the field, and goalposts as narrow as a country road, the Arena Football newcomers have learned the games have more similarities than differences.

Rosters

[Travis]

When do they have that one All-Star game that is usually played on FoxSW?

[GreenBat]

When do they have that one All-Star game that is usually played on FoxSW?

Coaching School. This year it's at the end of July