AUSTIN — For years, foes in Class 4A have wished Lake Travis would move away, while others have pondered what kind of championship caliber the Cavs would have in Class 5A.
Six months from now, the ruminations will become reality as Lake Travis moved up a classification and into 5A in the UIL’s biennial realignment announced Thursday.
Scrambling around the Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex with phone in hand, Lake Travis football coach Hank Carter and athletic director Gary Briley enthusiastically anticipated what the shift upward would bring to the entire program.
“It’s good, fun, you just never know what the UIL is going to do but this is pretty much what we thought would happen,” Carter said. “It’s exciting. It’s not old hat because everything changes now.”
Briley added, “We wound up in a seven team district and it’s going to be good. The Austin schools do a great job and have a great athletic department that supports all their programs, we’re real excited about getting in with them.”
The Cavaliers will boast a challenging nondistrict slate before getting into District 15-5A play, where they will start by hosting Austin High in Week 4.
Lake Travis starts the regular season with four nondistrict games as the new district features seven teams, and along with Austin the new district foes are Westlake, Anderson, Akins, Del Valle and Bowie. In nondistrict, Lake Travis will play Converse Judson, New Braunfels Canyon, Westwood and Texas A&M Consolidated.
The move up to 5A could impact the Cavs chances at a sixth straight state title in football, as Lake Travis will move to Region II from Region IV.
“You know what, I think when we’re playing good football we should be able to compete fine and the rest of our sports will be fine, too,” Carter said. “We’ll see, we’re in the middle of offseason now and the guys are getting after it. We’ll be ready to go.”
Both Westlake coach Darren Allman and Carter had hopes the Westlake-Lake Travis rivalry would be featured at the end of the district slate, and after conferring as a district and setting up the (tentative) 2012 schedules, that’s exactly how it wound up.
The game is scheduled to be played at Westlake instead of at Darrel K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium like the past two seasons.
“This is a chance to have a rivalry game, to make it more of a true rivalry, and to play them for more than just pride,” Chaps football coach and Eanes school district athletic director Darren Allman said.
Although the game will be in Week 9, it will act as the Cavs final regular season game as they will have their bye week in Week 10. And unless things go catastrophically wrong, Lake Travis will be in position to have a lull in game play before the playoffs as the open date corresponds, which could be a boost or a detriment depending on the vantage point.
Carter said he welcome both the move to 5A and the open date to conclude the regular season.
“I think it can be pretty favorable in a lot of ways. I’m all for having the bye week (at the end),” he said.
How will the change to District 15-5A, with Lake Travis joining the group, impact the Cavs in football and the other sports is still to be seen, but that doesn’t mean the excitement and anticipation are diluted six months before any of it takes affect.

Here is the Lake Travis 2012 football schedule (tentative):
Week 0 — Converse Judson
Week 1 — New Braunfels Canyon
Week 2 —Westwood
Week 3 — Texas A&M Consolidated
Week 4 — Austin High
Week 5 — Bowie
Week 6 — Akins
Week 7 — Anderson
Week 8 — Del Valle
Week 9 — Westlake
Week 10 — Bye

The highly-decorated Lake Travis football team brought home more honors this past week.
Cavaliers coach Hank Carter was named Coach of the Year in the 61st annual Collin Street Bakery/Texas Sports Writers Association All-State Football Teams.
Senior linebacker Corbin Crow and senior defensive back Zach Streuling were both named to the Class 4A first team.
Junior quarterback Baker Mayfield made the second team honors in his first year starting under center for the Cavaliers.
In the Dave Campbell’s Texas Football preseason poll, Lake Travis slotted in at No. 3 even before the Cavs officially make the move up to Class 5A. DCTF picked Mayfield as its Newcomer of the Year for the past season, while Colin Lagasse nabbed Region IV player of the year honors.
Furthermore, Lagasse was featured as the Scout.com Gatorade Performer of the Week Tuesday, making him the final recipient of the award for the football season.
See the video of Lagasse at recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=28&c=1&nid=4908914.
Whether Lake Travis moves up to 5A will be determined and announced officially today, and it is all but certain based on enrollment figures and prior cutoff numbers that the Cavs will make the move, although realignment has provided plenty of surprises in years’ past.

As speculation runs rampant and ramps up in intensity leading up to UIL’s biennial realignment Feb. 2, most projections have Lake Travis moving up a classification.
It would be somewhat of a letdown at this point if the high school winds up staying in 4A as it seems every team and program has started somewhat preparing for the move up.
With that move, Lake Travis could be thrust into a district with other Austin schools, particularly those in the Class 15-5A district now with well-known rival Westlake.
“It really is the best kept secret. Everybody out there thinks they know, but they don’t know any more than any guy on the street,” Lake Travis football coach Hank Carter said. “One thing that would make sense, and that rarely happens, would be for us to move to the Austin district.”
If the UIL figures hold close to where they are now, Lake Travis would indeed move up a classification, but figuring out exactly how the realignment and redistricting is a fool’s errand.
For years, onlookers have speculated how the Lake Travis program would fare if it was in 5A, and it’s a move up that Carter said he would relish.
“Whatever happens to us we’re going to be fired up about whoever we’re playing.
I would imagine we move up to 5A,” Carter said. “With us growing I’m sure we’ll be 5A, and I think we’ll do well in all sports. There may be a little growing pains in some sports. It’s tougher because of the competition level moving up, but we do pretty well at everything.”
As the realignment plans unfold Carter and several other area coaches will converge on The Palace on Parmer to hear the announcements and partake in the ensuing scramble.
“When you find your district, if everyone is close by, you have a district meeting and line up schedules for football and all the other sports that day. Then it’s a scramble to find games if you lost someone or a nondistrict opponent is in your district now,” Carter said.
The Cavaliers sentiments on realignment don’t necessarily stretch out to others in the area, as Carter witnessed first-hand two years ago just as he was taking over the reins of the football team and athletic programs.
“It’s very similar to what Wall Street would look like, as soon as they open trading going crazy. You see coaches running across, hear someone over there cussing because they’re stuck in district they didn’t want or move up to 5A. And you see guys celebrating because they got out of a district they were in.”
Gauging the movement of others that have either gone up to Class 5A or come down from 5A to 4A, from Cedar Park to Cibolo Steele to Denton Ryan to Longview, Carter says sustaining success can be a matter of mindset.
“It sounds like a company line, but that’s our attitude on that as we’ve watched it unfold,” he said. “What that all says is once you get to a certain number of kids, about 1,800 or more, a good football team is a good football team. I don’t know that there’s a lot of difference between a really good 4A and 5A team. Recent history says if you are good you’ll be able to compete.”
With the chaos of scheduling and finding new opponents a likely scenario, Carter and the football team is just now getting fully accustomed to hearing they are in Texas lore after winning a fifth-straight state title last month.
“I think it’s just now starting to set in. This is time of year, we go spend time with clinics and colleges meeting with other coaches, and obviously they’re very complimentative. Hopefully, it doesn’t wear off for a while.”
If the move up happens, Carter and his crew are hoping they can put another peg into their historical run.
“It all has to do with who you matchup with in the playoffs,” he said.

sports@ltview.com

Lake Travis still stands atop the perch as time winds down in the highschoolsports.net and USA Today “Super 25 People’s Champion” in which fans can vote for the top high school football team in the nation.

Voting ends Jan. 31 at at http://www.highschoolsports.net/mvnc/index.cfm, and the winning athletic department in this separate competition will receive a $2,000 donation.

As of Jan. 17, Cavalier fans have flocked to cyberspace to earn the Cavs that virtual championship.

Lake Travis held a decent-sized lead over St. Ignatius High School in Ohio. The Cavs had garnered 36,578 votes to St. Ignatius’ 25,849, as it will likely come down to those two programs in the final tally. The third-place school, Southlake Carroll, has just 3,884 votes.

The lore of Texas high school football has grown five-fold, and the Lake Travis Cavaliers have the tall tales — and hardware — to illustrate their place in history.

The team’s 22-7 victory over Waco Midway vaulted the school into the pantheon of folk lore (see Section B for complete game coverage).
In a state where football looms large and stands as a microcosm of community, the Cavaliers rose to the top of the Texas totem pole as they became the only team in the state’s lengthy history to capture five state titles in a row.
Perhaps that’s a Texas tale destined for a bigger audience.
“One day they’re going to make a movie about you guys,” Lake Travis coach Hank Carter said to his team following the 4A State Championship at Cowboys Stadium Friday. The film would need three actors to portray the roles of the three head coaches of the Cavaliers five titles — Jeff Dicus, Chad Morris and Carter.
In this take, Carter was in the center and the scene was set. Once the clock hit zeroes in the fourth quarter, the Lake Travis community flooded the field as cries of joy, tears, laughs, shouts, photos and hugs came together on the turf.
With stars in his eyes, senior Jude Jeffress reflected on the glimmering championship medal dangling from his neck, with his words suitable for the entire scene.
“This is straight gold,” he said. “I’m just high fiving all my brothers, saying my goodbyes, soaking all this in, getting all the smells in — I’m never going to forget this. I love it.”
With jewelry enough for a movie star, senior Griffin Gilbert now has four state medals and will get his fourth state championship ring shortly. Prior to the game the four-year letterman said he pretty much never takes out his rings, but now that a fourth one is in tow, he might have to see if they can all fit on his large hands at the same time.
“I might, just to see what it looks like, and to see if it’s really real,” Gilbert said. “I couldn’t be more proud of these teammates, couldn’t be more proud of this community, I couldn’t be happier right now going out with a win as a senior. I’m definitely going to miss it, I’m cherishing each moment. I’ve cherished it from the very beginning.”
From the beginning of this season a familiar story was foretold over and over as Lake Travis has been reminded frequently of where they stood in terms of historical opportunities and what they could accomplish with another state title this year.
Even if nerves were flared up a little beforehand, and during, when the opening kickoff signaled “action,” it was time to put on a show in the biggest Texas-sized theatre of a football stadium.
“It’s what we set out to do since the beginning of the year — setting history is amazing,” senior Zach Streuling said. “We knew we were on the verge of breaking history, but then it was getting closer so we were getting kind of nervous … I didn’t know for sure until we put the last points on the board, then we got out there with a few minutes left and it was like, oh my gosh, crazy.”
One of the last players to trudge off the field Friday, Corbin Crow was happily lugging the state championship trophy cradled in his arms with a smile as wide as the gigantic overhead jumbotron.
The Lake Travis senior had a fleeting idea of how to hang onto the trophy a little longer.
“Get a duplicate? I wish,” he said.
For a second straight title game the Cavaliers allowed just seven points to the opposing team, quite a feat considering the caliber of competition trying to ruin the Cavaliers’ history-filled tale.
“The defense worked hard every single week, every single practice, and it shows how much we care about each other,” Dane Balazs said, “how much we love each other. It was 100 percent effort every single play to stop them.”
Kneeling on the field as the sights, sounds and smells lingered in the air, Tyler Paulsen made sure the scene would be stuck in his mind for eternity.
“We knew it was going to be a defensive game like Cedar Park, we knew the offense would get it done but we had to play our best,” he said. “I just wish I could play another year with them. We have so many (memories), and all the tough times getting mad at each other practicing hard, it’s awesome.”
As bright as the defense shined against Midway, the offense had sterling moments as well on the way to gold against a rugged defense. The Cavaliers offense had chances to put the game out of reach but it stayed close thanks to the Panthers defensive efforts. As the score closed within 10-7, there was cause for concern, but the Cavs were not concerned as they drew on a season, and seasons, of history that told them they would be just fine.
“It was tough because we were holding them, we were holding them and they have a great offense so I felt like if you give them opportunities they’re probably going to score,” Carter said. “But the kids rose to the occasion. Everybody’s talking about the defense, but the offense did enough, the offense scored 22 points and we’ll take it, that’s a good defense they’re playing.”
If that movie script is coming along it might have to be delayed as the Cavs can keep lengthening their history into the future with some more scenic victories.
For this part of the tale, relief came into play just as much as elation when the game ended as the weight of setting history was finally lifted, and the ending was much better than any alternate.
“It’s just awesome to finish this out for the seniors,” said senior Colin Lagasse, who won offensive MVP honors. “To leave high school with this is a lot better than not doing this.”

— By Habeab Kurdi

sports@ltview.com

When soon-to-be senior Jacob Standard wanted to join the reigning champion football team last spring, there were skeptics.

As Standard received the defensive MVP award following Lake Travis’ fifth straight state championship Friday, there were none.
Without a single rep of real football action since his seventh grade year, Standard capped his lone season with Lake Travis in anything way above standard play as he had a key interception and a fumble recovery to go with three tackles in helping the Cavaliers earn that fifth straight title with a 22-7 win over Midway.
“It says a lot, I can’t even…,” Standard said searching for words. “It’s unbelievable.”
The lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan was among the throngs of fans in the stands at Cowboys Stadium Friday watching the 4A state championship instead of earning the trophy and a state title medal.
Throughout his freshman and sophomore years, Standard kept playing pickup games with friends during each offseason and they continually asked him why he wasn’t playing pigskin.
“I’d go out with a bunch of buddies out on the field and play pickup games and stuff,” he said. “Then they’d ask, ‘how come you don’t play football?’”
So once Standard had decided not to play basketball last season, soon after the Cavs won their fourth straight title Standard wasted little time approaching coach Hank Carter.
“Yeah, I was (skeptical) because typically in January I’ll have a bunch of guys come to me. They just saw us win a state championship, so a lot of guys want to come back out.”
Unsure if Standard wanted to join in on the fun and winning for his senior year, or if he was going to be dedicated to doing the hard work and making a mark on the team, Carter made Standard wait while he consulted with members of the team such as Tyler Paulsen, Colin Lagasse and Griffin Gilbert.
“Absolutely, they were skeptical,” Standard said. “He said, ‘give me a week.’ He talked to some of the players and they gave me a shot. They ended up letting me in, so apparently somebody said something good, so I appreciated that.”
That shot wasn’t a guaranteed spot on the roster, though, as Carter told Standard he would have to earn his way onto the team.
“I told him and one other kid I’ll let you come out, but I’m not fired up about this because I only have three lockers left and I like to save those for call-ups from the JV,” Carter said. “I don’t cut people, so I told him, ‘I’ll check you out in the spring and see if it fits, but if it doesn’t work I’ve got to cut you then.”
As the Cavs don’t do any drills or rigorous work like that in the offseason before spring ball starts, Standard had to show that he could run routes and catch the ball. Then he stepped up in the spring and started showing the staff more and more each day. Then the person slated to start in front of Standard got injured and then decided to leave the team, Carter said, leaving an opening for the new-to-the-team senior to step in.
“I went throughout spring ball, 7-on-7 this summer, Cavs Course (training and conditioning), and just got to where we are now,” Standard said. “They wanted to see what I could do for themselves as well.”
Carter and the rest of the staff saw something special, even as Standard was working on going from basketball shape to football shape.
“We just watched him and all of a sudden he just started blossoming. I told the coaches, ‘this kid is going to help us, I just don’t know where,” he said.
Standing at 6-foot-2, 165 pounds coming into the program, Standard is now at 6-foot-3, 187 pounds (a little more with the trophy and medal).
The first few days last spring hit Standard hard after he had been away from the game for so long, but he the enjoyment far outweighed anything else.
“It was intense, weird getting pads back on but after a few days I got fundamentals back like tackling and hitting,” he said.
Still, Standard didn’t have a solidified spot on the field as he put in work on both sides and thought he would wind up at receiver until that fateful day he stepped in at cornerback.
“We thought we were going to be thin at receiver but, sure enough, we filled those like no other with those kids Zach Austin and Zach Joyner, they stepped up and did amazing during spring ball,” he said. “They tried me out at corner and I just worked from there. I told the coaches, ‘I am not picky. I just want to play. Put me where you think I have the best chance of playing and I’ll give you my best.”
He definitely did that and the Cavs were better off for it. He started the first game of his senior season and stuck in the spot for the rest of the ride on the “Drive for Five.”
“We put him at corner and the rest is history,” Carter said.
With 79 total tackles on the season, one fumble recovery and four interceptions Standard earned second team all-district honors as well. There is a chance for Standard to continue on and play collegiately, likely for a Division II school if he wanted.
“Oh yeah, he could play, you can’t coach them to be 6-3 and he has several of the qualities big time colleges look for,” Carter said. “The fact he hasn’t played in a while (before this season), there’s still potential there to continue to get better.”
The honor of receiving his state championship hardware had a little extra meaning for Standard because of the situation from last spring. After thanking the coaches and his teammates, his parents Jim and Susan, he decided on a permanent home for his defensive MVP memento from Cowboys field.
“I’m going to give it to my dad and see where he wants to hang it up at the house, because it’s staying there for forever,” he said. “He’s my biggest role model and has supported me through all of this.”
Now, the Standards are going to need a little more support to hang the plague on the wall.

— By Habeab Kurdi

sports@ltview.com

Griffin Gilbert got the scoring started with a leaping touchdown grab and Colin Lagasse capped a terrific night — and career — with the last score of the game to give Lake Travis yet another Texas 4A title, a history-setting fifth consecutive state championship for the Cavaliers.

“Now the Lake Travis football program, to me, sits at the top,” coach Hank Carter said. “It’s hard to argue. When you start talking about the best programs ever, of all time, we want to be at the beginning of the discussion.”

Lagasse was named offensive MVP after turning in another all-around amazing performance. The versatile senior Lagasse finished the night with 80 yards rushing and a touchdown, 11 catches for 130 yards and he added a tackle on defense as well.

“It hasn’t really set it yet, it will soon, right now it’s just excitement,” Lagasse said. “A big win.”

Zach Streuling and Jacob Standard each had an interception for the Cavs as the Lake Travis defense was the star of the night, with the finishing touch coming on a late fourth quarter interception by Luke Hutton to let Lake Travis coast on the last bit of the “Drive for Five” as the Cavs ran out the clock.

Standard, who didn’t suit up for football until this season, took home defensive MVP honors with a fumble recovery and three total tackles to go with an interception.

“I couldn’t have better teammates to celebrate it with, I couldn’t have a better group of coaches, they’ve been such a good influence on me,” Standard said. “I’ll never forget this. This will probably be the best year of my life, ever.”

The Lake Travis offense had trouble getting going early on and never possessed the ball for four minutes on any of their 13 drives in the game. Still, the Cavs offense easily outpaced Midway in the game, with 388 total yards compared to 177 for Midway.

Quarterback Baker Mayfield was 24-for-39 for 276 yards passing and one touchdown, and he added 15 yards on 10 carries. Shaun Nixon tallied 48 yards on 13 carries. Zach Austin had a few standout catches and finished with four grabs for 62 yards, Gilbert added four catches for 53 yards and Cameron Wrinkle had three catches for 26 yards.

Streuling led the defense with nine total tackles and Blake Burdette had two sacks, four tackles for a loss and six total tackles. Jude Jeffress, Corbin Crow and Connor Shannon also pulled down a Midfield quarterback for a loss.

“It feels like a dream, I can’t really understand it right now,” Crow said. “Just a lot of mixed emotions, being a senior and going undefeated again, it’s just amazing.”

Junior kicker Kevin Marcotte played a big role in the victory as well, kicking through three field goals when the game was close and adding a key tackle on a kickoff return that could have prevented a touchdown by the Panthers.

“It’s the greatest feeling in the world,” Marcotte said. “It happened so fast, I just, I haven’t had to make much of those this season.”

The Panthers lone score came on a kickoff return to start the second half, cutting the Cavaliers’ lead to 10-7. At that point, the defense declared they weren’t going to allow Midway to score again and Lake Travis made sure that was the case as it had the Panthers flustered throughout the second half. Lake Travis led 16-7 heading into the fourth quarter thanks to another Marcotte field goal, and Standard’s interception with 6:30 to play set up Lagasse’s score that all but sealed it.

After a pass interference call in the end zone Lagasse ran it in from 1-yard out to put the Cavs ahead 22-7. On the next series Hutton snagged the game-sealing interception and the team began to feel the history sinking in.

“It’s bittersweet, it hasn’t set in yet, it sets in a couple days later or next week. We’ll be sitting around and it’ll be like, ’Wow, we made history,’” Jeffress said.

It was a big moment for the sophomore Hutton as well.

“We’ve been ragging on him all year for not having any (interceptions) and he gets one at the end of the state championship game, that’s pretty sweet,” Streuling said. “Setting history is amazing.”

Paulsen was one of many Cavaliers just taking in the scenery, reluctant to walk off the field.

“I’m not going to get to play with this guys next year,” he said. “It feels awesome winning five, setting history with the group of teammates I have, we’re all great friends.”

Senior Dane Balazs had the overriding sentiment felt by many of his teammates.

“It’s incredible, it’s indescribable, it’s just amazing,” he said. As for looking ahead way, way too early, Mayfield said the Cavs are “In the mix for six.” As for his coach, there was no way it was time to look ahead yet.

“The feeling never gets old. This is the sweetest one yet just because of how hard it’s been to get them. The fact we talked about with the kids is no one has ever done this, it’s uncharted territory,” Carter said. “I’m ready to just celebrate with these kids, and have the biggest parade you’ve ever seen, and just relax a little bit.”

More from the game: In a stadium filled with spectacle it was fitting that Griffin Gilbert made a spectacular catch for the game’s first score. That was just the cap of a stellar play that saw quarterback Baker Mayfield slide and slip out of a tackle that would have been a sack and somehow finding Gilbert in the end zone for the touchdown.

“I have no idea. Once I got out of the sack it was like, find the 6-6 guy and throw it to him,” Mayfield said with a laugh. “I was jumping for joy.”

Starting from their own 4-yard line, the Cavaliers drove the length of the field in 13 plays and worked a little magic to put the first points on the board. Facing third-and-12 from the 17-yard line, Mayfield somehow eluded a would-be tackler in the backfield, scrambled right and tossed up a pass into the back of the end zone that looked nearly uncatchable — except the Cavs had one man who could soar up to snag the pass in Gilbert — and the senior made the 17-yard catch and came down in bounds for the first score of the game to give Lake Travis a 7-0 lead with 7:41 left in the second quarter.

“Baker did such a great job scrambling getting out of the pocket. I kind of gave him a signal to throw it up and he did a perfect job of just throwing it up to where only I could get it,” Gilbert said. “Fortunately I kept my feet in bounds and made a play.”

Zach Streuling grabbed an interception just two plays later to stunt any Midway momentum, but the Cavs turned it over on downs on their next series. Midway returned the favor after driving deep into Lake Travis territory, coming up short on a fourth-and-6 try to turn it over on downs as well. Lake Travis took over with 2:40 remaining before the half and steadily moved toward the other end of the field. Nixon found a hole and ran for 18 yards to put the Cavs near midfield, then a 28-yard grab by Lagasse got the Cavs down to the 12.

After a 3-yard run by Nixon, two straight incomplete passes led to a 26-yard field goal that Kevin Marcotte nailed right through the uprights for a 10-0 lead with just 0:51 left before halftime, and it stayed that way into the break.

The Panthers pumped some life back into their sidelines with a touchdown on the kickoff to start the second half, whittling Lake Travis’ lead to 10-7. Marcotte put through his second and third field goals to make it 16-7, and Lagasse made sure the coveted hardware would come back to Lake Travis for a fifth time with the game’s final touchdown, giving the Cavs their 22-7 lead.

Neither team put up points on the enormous scoreboards in the first quarter, with a Midway fourth-down conversion the last play of the opening frame.

— By Habeab Kurdi

Check back and see the Dec. 22 Lake Travis View for much more on the Cavaliers fifth title.

Prognosticators may be ready to crown the Lake Travis Cavaliers with a fifth-straight state championship, but Coach Hank Carter is not looking past the Waco Midway Panthers.

“They are a very good team,” Carter said. “They have three different quarterbacks, but one has emerged recently and is playing more and more.”
That would be Kramer Robertson. He threw for 152 yards and ran for another 97 against John Tyler in a 51-20 — and the game wasn’t even as close as the lopsided score would indicate.
“He is mobile and fast — probably one of the best athletes on their team,” Carter said of Robertson. “He throws the deep ball better than anyone we have played this year.”
Jordan Darling and Tyler Ellis will also see time at QB for Midway.
The Panthers have two terrific running backs in B.J. Kelly and DeCharr Greer. Kelly has been known to take a snap or two from the Wildcat. He cranked out 108 yards against John Tyler and he is a runner who gets stronger as the game wears on. Greer added another 109 yards on the ground, so Midway knows how to run the ball.
“They have very good skill players at every position,” Carter said. “And they are very well coached.”
Midway coach Terry Gambill is beginning this second year. His 25 years of coaching experience includes coaching at Garland High School and Duncanville High School, where former Cavs coach Jeff Dicus now hails. He was a coach at Forney High School where they were 2000 State Finalist and Allen High School where he was the Defensive Coordinator when they won 2009 state championship, so he’s a proven leader.
His team certainly responded against John Tyler, easily winning in a 51-20 rout. Midway piled up 505 yards of offense and scored 38 straight points after spotting the Lions an early lead.
Midway may be one of the most under-rated teams in the state.
“They lost a couple of games early in the season, but they are playing like a completely different team now,” Carter said. “They have a strong offense that runs a spread that is not too different than what Westlake and Smithson Valley use. They will use two- and three-back formations and sometimes even use a single back. They are pretty balanced running and throwing (they were almost statistically dead even between the passing and running game this season).”
While Carter is playing his cards close to his chest, he does know that his defense will have to keep the three-headed QB monster that Midway boasts in check — especially the athletic Robertson.
“We will have to keep their scrambling under control,” said Carter. “We can’t allow the big shot — the big pass play. That’s how they get their points, so we have to make sure that we challenge them up front and try to knock those balls down.”
He will be comforted by the defense Lake Travis has ever fielded.
Offensively, he wants to keep Midway guessing, and that means spreading the ball around.
“We have to play balanced offense,” Carter said. “We need to make some plays in the passing game and then we will hav to make some tough catches, because these guys are very good.”
After scoring an early TD, the Panther defense stiffened and wouldn’t let John Tyler into the end zone again until late the fourth quarter when the outcome was no longer in doubt. The final TD by John Tyler was only possible because of a face mask penalty on a fourth and long. And the Panthers defense managed to keep its all-star QB, Greg Ward, contained.
“Their head coach is a defensive-minded guy,” Carter, himself a defensive-minded guy, said. “They will run a 3-4 and he probably will call the defense. He does a great job and they will be one of the best defenses we have seen this year.”
Midway’s defense is led by linebacker Justin Richter and lineman Adam Deleon — but it is the Panther coverage that has really impressed Carter.
“They are simply excellent,” Carter said. And pass-happy John Tyler found that out first-hand.”
At the end of the day, Carter believes the game will come down to what all of them typically do…
“The team that makes the fewest turnovers will probably win the game,” Carter said. “We’ll need to make some special plays to win the ball game.”

Huddled together in a spacious room at Lake Travis High School Monday morning, the room packed full of teenagers were happy to have history on their minds.

Not quite in a classroom setting with textbooks, historical endeavors danced through the Cavaliers’ football media day Monday in the school’s adjacent football facility.
The lessons learned led Lake Travis through another 15 games again this season, and for a fifth time the Cavs head into the coveted 16th and final game of any season — a UIL State Championship game.
The keys to the bus bound for Cowboys Stadium in Arlington starts Thursday, the “Drive for Five” begins 8 p.m. Friday as Lake Travis takes on Waco Midway in the 4A Division I Texas title game.
“This year I feel a little more hungry because it’s my last year,” said senior Tyler Paulsen, who earned a championship ring last season. “I want to go out there and win that fifth straight championship and make history. “
As the Cavaliers stand on the precipice of building something truly historic, four-year lettermen such as Griffin Gilbert to first-time varsity players like starting cornerback senior Jacob Standard reflected on a year — and years — of memories and cresting history four days before the big game.
“It never really gets old,” said Gilbert, who is aiming for his fourth title. “It’s obviously really cool. Just going to the state championship for a fifth time straight is a great deal, to have a chance to get four rings is kind of unheard of. Especially as a high school player, you just go out there to try and get to a state championship, let alone five.”
Coach Hank Carter second season with the Cavs is starting to feel like his third as Lake Travis is already a healthy 29-2 in two years under his leadership.
The Cavaliers have kept even-keel even as the hype and pressure build thanks to those who have done it before.
“Since we just keep getting more and more guys through (to varsity), we’re all so hungry,” senior Zach Streuling said. “Some guys haven’t won, some of us it’s our second time to play, and we’re all so hungry for it. We talk about not getting complacent — it’s mostly the guys that have had one, because we don’t want to ruin it for everyone else.”
The second-year head coach said he is settled in more this season, and he’s noticed a difference in this year’s team as well.
“Last year being my first year as a head coach, I learned a lot, I learn every day still. But so many things this year I was more prepared for, just like anything else,” he said. “And it’s a different bunch of kids, I feel like this bunch is as close as any group we’ve had come through here it’s made it easier and made it fun.”
Senior Colin Lagasse said the plan is to treat the game like any other, though he admits that was easier said than done a season ago at “Jerry World,” the Dallas Cowboys enormous home stadium in Arlington. Winning has helped Lagasse feel at home in Texas after his family moved here from Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina.
“You have to actually work hard, you can’t just say you’re going to work hard, and you have to trust everything,” Lagasse said. “I remember going into that stadium just thinking, ‘Wow’ overwhelmed at how big it is. I think nerves definitely come in, but excitement — once the game starts — takes over and you start playing normal.”
Familiarity helps with the normalcy.
Senior Corbin Crow recalled playing with his brother in the playoffs, something Gilbert and senior Cameron Wrinkle have also had the opportunity to do over the years and Streuling is doing currently with his brother, Hunter, a junior.
Even with a lengthy history and some team bloodline, Wrinkle said he expects nerves and would be a little nervous if they didn’t show up, actually.
“I get jitters a lot. Sometimes when I’m lining up on the line I feel my leg shaking but when you’re playing you forget about it all,” he said. “The past few games I’ve been getting more nervous than I had been, it’s pretty nerve-wracking.”
Those nerves sure haven’t shown as he has been pivotal in the return game this year and last season with a memorable punt return for a score in last year’s title game.
Finishing this season with a fifth title in five years will elevate Lake Travis on the Texas totem poll.
For many on the Cavs roster this season, such as Standard, who had not played football since seventh grade before earning his way onto the squad in the spring (and into a starting role), just earning one state championship would be plenty for them to relish long into the future.
“I can’t wait to go there, it’s going to be a dream come true to step on that field,” said Standard, a lifelong Cowboys fan. “It’s every kids’ dream to play in the NFL. This is as close as it’s ever going to get.
“Might as well enjoy it.”
The four-year letterman Gilbert agreed.
“It’s such a fun ride to be senior, it is so special to me, it’s so special to the rest of the team and the community,” he said. “Really just winning state each year is a great memory. Hopefully, I can end my high school career with another great memory, winning state again, for the fifth time, and creating history.”
It’s all about focus, Carter observed.
”This is the mindset we imagined ourselves, being right here with three more practices to get ready for the championship,” Carter said. “We always tell them that our team is going to go the direction our seniors go, and I think our seniors have done a great job. There’s a lot of pressure on them, lot of expectations, and they’ve handled that. Now, they’re one game away from ending their career on the highest note possible.”

— By Habeab Kurdi

Every Monday we have scouting report at 7:30 a.m. and we go over the special teams from the week before.

We went and lifted afterwards and were all pretty energetic since we knew this was our last Monday of the season.
We finished early for media day, where we got to talk to all the local news stations about the Waco Midway game and what we thought about it. We didn’t really know much about them since we hadn’t watched any film yet, but knew that they were a worthy adversary.
During school all I thought about and all I talked with my friends about was the game. We all can’t wait to get to Arlington and play at Jerry World, and we may be a bit distracted this week from our school work even though our coaches preach that school comes first.
After school we were all happy to go practice knowing we had to get to know their schemes if wanted to make history.
Usually we have special teams in the morning then regular practice after school, but since we had media day we combined the two. So even though we all were excited to practice the length of it, plus the chilly weather, wore on us and we started to lag a little near the end, but we tried to get each going so we could simulate game situations as best as we could.
After practice we had a lengthy film session going over Midway’s game against John Tyler last week. We were looking at their formations and what plays they run out of each one. We all had a little extra focus since this week is the biggest one yet and the more we know about them the better chance we have of beating them. Ice baths after film are always entertaining, especially when Marshall Womack is crying like a little girl because of how the cold water stings.
But, today was a day we’d been looking forward to as safeties. Sometime at the beginning of the year Coach Luedecke agreed if we made it to state, he would get in the ice bath.
So, he got in and we made sure it was as cold as when he makes us get in.
— Monday 12/12/2011, By Zack Streuling
Zach Streuling is a senior defensive back for the Lake Travis Cavalier football team. His diary appears as a courtesy.