BRYCE STILL, JAYDEN EDWARDS | BOTH of ’em take home Whataburger / ETB Player of the Week honors!

Overton’s Jayden Edwards (top) and Bryce Still (inset) both hit inside-the-park home runs last week against Beckville, Edwards’ a grand slam, and their athletic careers have intertwined at Overton High School. It’s only fitting they do so one more time, as they share the May 19-24 Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Player(s) of the Week Award. (Photos by RONNIE SARTORS – SPORT SHOT PHOTOGRAPHY / ETBLITZ.COM)

Inside-the-park home runs are typically the sort of thing you see in Little League or Dixie Youth baseball, not at the high school level. I mean, the kids hitting inside-the-park homers at the high school level would have to be just – well, incredibly fast, right?

Like, stupid-fast, right?

Right.

Last week against Beckville, in the UIL 2A, Division II, Region III finals, the Overton Mustangs had not just one, but a purely ridiculous, simply ridiculous TWO inside-the-park home runs: one solo shot in the first game by Bryce Still, and one in the second, a grand slam, by Jayden Edwards.

Still and Edwards, both seniors, have shared a lot of moments throughout their athletic careers at Overton High School, so it’s really only fitting that they share this: BOTH Still and Edwards are the Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Players of the Week for the week of May 19 through May 24.

The two have played so many games in so many different sports for the Mustangs, and the mind goes directly, of course, to football, where Still has been the Mustangs’ starting quarterback and Edwards one of his primary targets the last three seasons.

This isn’t a football article, but to show just how prolific that tandem was, Still and Edwards connected 184 times for a staggering 3,505 yards and 55 (!) touchdowns. Those would be phenomenal CAREER numbers for most quarterbacks – but those numbers are only Still’s completions to Edwards.

We could go into all the wins, in football, baseball and basketball, that Edwards and Still both have been a part of, across the board. The current senior class has been one of the most successful in the history of Overton athletics.

Of course, the weight of the moment for both home runs was heavy.

Overton, playing for its playoff life last week in Longview against rival Beckville, needed as much offense as possible, and naturally, the series loser was going home.

We couldn’t have that.

So Still, in game one of the series, put the ball in play and then turned on the afterburners, jetting all the way around the base path before Beckville outfielders could get the ball back in. The Mustangs already had the lead, but the shot sparked Overton to an 11-5 win.

In game two, Edwards’ grand slam was a part of a NINE-RUN scoring outburst for Overton and a nightmarish fourth inning for Beckville. With the bases loaded, Edwards duplicated Still’s feat and no one was catching him, not with that speed – all four runs crossed the plate and Overton never looked back, getting a run-rule 14-4 win and sweeping the series, two games to none.

And that was actually Edwards’ second time to do it this season! He had an inside-the-park home run in a 12-2 win against Elkhart back on Feb. 28!

Coach Chris Cook’s Mustangs are 29-7 this season, and are on a four-game winning streak. They’ve beaten LaPoynor, Bowie, Gary, and Beckville, and now Burton is the challenge in the 2A-DII state semifinals. Win this best-of-three series and Overton plays for a state championship next week at Dell Diamond in Round Rock.

Today, though, Burton is the focus, as game one begins at 6 p.m. at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. Game two is Thursday at 4, and if they need a game three to decide the series, it’ll begin 30 minutes after game two.

We’ll have a preview shortly.

Whataburger has been our sponsor for the Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Player of the Week awards since their inception not long after ETBlitz launched in 2023. We’re so proud to have them as our ad partner – and the ETBlitz.com crew is constantly in there, all across East Texas at all of the DKT Investments-owned Whataburger locations.

Whether it’s a sausage taquito or pancakes for breakfast – which you can get every day from 11 p.m. until 11 a.m. – or a spicy chicken sandwich, or the good ol’ original No.1 Whataburger meal, no one beats Whataburger, hands down.

Check out their menu on the website here, Whataburger | Order Online with Curbside and Delivery, and order ahead of time, or download their app and earn points for free items at every stop.

Here’s a list of our players of the week so far this 2024-25 school year:

In case you’d like to look back on all the winners for the awards this year, here you are:

If you’re wondering, girls sports have concluded for this school year – that’s why there’s no girls winner this week. And dating back to the beginning of the presentation of this award, it’s only been shared on two other occasions, so Still and Edwards are joining rare company.

Congratulations to Jayden Edwards and Bryce Still, the May 19-24 Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Players of the Week!

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