NationalHSFootball.com
– Dallas Jackson, NationalHSFootball.com
Coppell (Texas) High football is enjoying its best five-year run in the last half century and the program is ready to make two major moves.
The school is preparing to announce that it is promoting Mike Dewitt from defensive coordinator to head coach as well as acknowledging an agreement to host Elkton (Md.) Eastern Christian on Sept. 12 of the upcoming season.
Coppell football is stepping out onto the national stage.
CoppellCowboys.com
The 12-year coaching veteran declined to comment on the promotion until an announcement was formally made by the school board next week.
Its contest against Eastern Christian will mark the first out-of-state game for Coppell in school history but cannot be signed until later in February.
The states governing body will release new district alignments for the next two-year cycle on Monday and the school cannot technically sign contracts until after all appeals are final but both sides have verbally agreed to play the game. It will likely remain labeled as a tentative agreement until after February 20th when the appeals process is expected to conclude.
According to sources Brian Hercules and his staff at Hercules Sports Management worked behind the scenes to negotiate the agreement. HSM is also responsible for bringing South Carolina champion Irmo (S.C.) Dutch Fork to play Allen (Texas) High next year, a game that was previously announced but is also labeled a tentative agreement in accordance with UIL bylaws, and is in negotiations with other Texas programs to host contests.
Prior to 1999, it had been 36 years since Coppell had made a playoff appearance and since the turn of the century it has been involved in postseason play in 11 of the last 13 seasons.
Under McBride the Cowboys rose to national relevance.
Coppell was nationally ranked for the first time in school history at the end of the 2010 season as it finished No. 19 in the HSFB100. That year its season concluded with a one-point loss to Euless (Texas) Trinity in one of the best high school football games in state history.
The Cowboys have been ranked each of the last two seasons as well, finishing No. 52 in 2012 and No. 20 in 2013.
Eastern Christian is a private school in Maryland that is moving towards national relevance in its own way.
This season it is scheduled to play Jersey City (N.J.) St. Peter’s Prep, Cleveland (Ohio) St. Ignatius, Lakewood (Ohio) St. Edward, Baltimore (Md.) Calvert Hall, Washington (D.C.) Friendship Collegiate, Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances Academy, Paramus (N.J.) Paramus Catholic and Goose Creek (S.C.) High as well as Coppell.
Its head coach, Dewayne Thomas, said that he knows what he is getting into and that there will be pressure and expectations with his ambitious schedule.
“My wife still loves me and my kids are growing strong,” he said. “But I joke that if the team had a better coach they would have been undefeated last year. We were within a few minutes of being undefeated and those situations come down on me.
“When we were ranked in the preseason kids printed it out and put up posters, that is the goal. We want to get back to that point and I don’t think anyone is making a secret about it. There are expectations here and we have worked hard to get to where we are but we are not done.”
