ETBLITZ POWER PICKS, WEEK FIVE! | Can you BELIEVE we’re at the midpoint of the season? It’s here. Kilgore-PT, Arp-Troup, KC-Cisco, A&M-Arky, ‘Bama-Georgia, all this weekend
So, it’s district time – not for everybody, but for a lot of the high schools in the ETBlitz.com coverage area, and that means some of you will be – let’s call it – playing some rivals Friday night.
Right off the bat, Arp vs. Troup comes to mind. That’s Friday. And even though it’s not that old, Sabine plays at Tatum.
A rivalry that’s played every year, of course, is Kilgore against Pine Tree, and for the first time in a long time, that’s a district game again. When I arrove here (LOL, that’s a tribute to “Support Your Local Sherriff,” the old James Garner movie) – when I got here many moons ago, Kilgore and Pine Tree were in the same district in every sport, and were for many years. It was a HUGE rivalry. Of course, Pine Tree for years couldn’t live up to their end in football, and for years we couldn’t live up to ours in volleyball. That’s just the truth.
In every other sport, now, it was tooth-and-nail – baseball, boys and girls soccer, boys and girls basketball, you name it. If Kilgore and Pine Tree both had water polo teams, we’d have freakin’ been there. It was intense.
In recent years, though, things have changed. Boy, how they’ve changed. The rivalry is still there, but PT’s football program greatly improved, and they’re a welcomed addition to the district. The game Friday night should be fun.
We’ll run down the complete list in a bit. Here’s what you came for…
THE PANEL
So, what’s the deal here?
Well, the deal is this.
We’ve got members of our staff – and it’s really not all of our staff, there are a few missing – that attempt to guess only the outcome of the games involving the high schools in our area. The schools are (in alphabetical order) Arp, Gilmer, Gladewater, Henderson, Kilgore, Kilgore College, Leverett’s Chapel, Overton, Sabine, Tatum, Troup, West Rusk and White Oak.
For good measure, we throw in colleges that have local interest, like Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU, Houston and so on – you may see Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, LSU, Louisiana Tech, and others on there as well, from time to time.
We also normally include a national game of the day. This week, that one is pretty obvious.
We have National Football League games, as well – again, only the winners, we don’t ask for scores. We normally include the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans, and we try to have what we believe are games that would be competitive, although that can really surprise on some NFL weekends.
The panel: well, we have the incomparable 40-year veteran sportswriter Joe Hale; there’s Dennis Jacobs, who’s an outstanding teacher at Kilgore Middle School and a great photographer who’s shot Kilgore High School football and other sports for me for 15-plus years; my wife Jenna, who’s the executive editor of our site and is a good photographer in her own right; there’s Dereck Borders, who I honestly believe could make the Buckingham Palace guards bend over in laughter with not much effort – Dereck is a taxidermist and also a member of the Kilgore Independent School District board; there’s Jacob Lucas, my son, who is a student at the University of Alabama and does video work there for Alabama’s athletic department; my daughter Ashtyn, a student here at Kilgore College; Alex Nabor, an unbelievable photographer who doubles as a student at KC (and will one day shoot for whatever sports entity he wants – mark my word on that); there’s Clayton Fletcher, our site’s associate editor, who does whatever he can to help make ETBlitz better; and there’s Ronnie Sartors, the elder statesman of our photographers, so talented, also of his own Sport Shot Photography.
Oh, and me. My name is Mitch Lucas. I’m just the editor/ publisher of this thing.
Let’s get going.
THE STANDINGS
So far, they look like this: Joe is in front by just a game, now, over Clayton. Joe has an overall record of 59-27, after four complete weeks in the books.
Clayton is right behind, at 58-28.
Ashtyn and I are tied, at 57-29 each.
Dereck has a mark of 52-34, and then Jacob and Jenna are tied at 50-36.
Dennis is 49-37; Alex is 47-39; and Ronnie is actually 51-25, but the numbers there are a little skewed just because he started a little later. He’s done fantastic.
In fact, last week, Ashtyn had the best overall record (19-4), and Clayton and Ronnie each went 18-5.
The rest of us: ehhhhh. Dereck, Jenna, and Jacob each went 17-6. Joe, Dennis and myself each went 16-7. And Alex, I love you, but 14-9 – mmm.
So here are this week’s games, followed by our picks. And anybody that would go bet anything on anything listed here on this chart is WORSE than out of their mind.
Y’all have fun with this, make your own picks and compare ‘em; see how you do.
ETBLITZ.COM POWER PICKS!
WEEK FIVE – Thursday, Sept. 26-Monday, Sept. 30, 2024
HIGH SCHOOL GAMES
THURSDAY’S GAMES
Jefferson (4-0) at Gladewater (2-2), 7 p.m., Jack V. Murphy Stadium
FRIDAY’S GAMES
Kilgore (3-1) at Pine Tree (4-0; 7:30 p.m., Pine Tree Pirate Stadium
Palestine (0-4) at Henderson (3-1), 7:30 p.m., Henderson ISD Lion Stadium
Gilmer (2-2) vs. Brenham (4-0), 7 p.m., at Huntsville ISD Stadium
Sabine (2-2) at Tatum (3-1), 7 p.m., Tatum ISD Eagle Stadium
West Rusk (1-3) at Elkhart (1-3), 7:30 p.m., Jerry Ives Memorial Stadium
Troup (2-2) at Arp (3-1), 7 p.m., Arp ISD Bill Herrington Stadium
White Oak (4-1) at Atlanta (3-1), 7:30 p.m., Atlanta ISD Stadium
Overton (3-1) at Grapeland (3-1), 7 p.m., Jerry Richards Field at Grapeland Sandies Stadium
Leverett’s Chapel (2-2) at Apple Springs (1-3), 7 p.m., Nelson Davis Stadium
COLLEGE GAMES
Cisco (1-1) at Kilgore College (3-0), Saturday, 3 p.m., R. E. St. John Memorial Stadium
Mississippi State (1-3) at No. 1 Texas (4-0), 3:15 p.m., SEC Network
Arkansas (3-1) at No. 24 Texas A&M (3-1), 2:30 p.m., ESPN
No. 22 BYU (4-0) at Baylor (2-2), 11 a.m., FS1
No. 2 Georgia (3-0) at No. 4 Alabama (3-0), 6:30 p.m., ABC
NFL GAMES
THURSDAY’S GAME
Dallas (1-2) at New York Giants (1-2), 7:15 p.m. Amazon Prime Video
SUNDAY’S GAMES
Jacksonville (0-3) at Houston (2-1), noon, CBS
Philadelphia (2-1) at Tampa Bay (2-1), noon, FOX
Kansas City (3-0) at L.A. Chargers (2-1), 3:25 p.m., CBS
Buffalo (3-0) at Baltimore (1-2), 7:20 p.m., NBC
MONDAY’S GAME
Seattle (3-0) at Detroit (2-1), 7:15 p.m. ESPN)
| MITCH | DENNIS | JOE | DERECK | JENNA | JACOB | ASHTYN | ALEX | CLAYTON | RONNIE |
| G’water | Jefferson | Jefferson | Jefferson | G’water | Jefferson | Jefferson | Jefferson | Jefferson | Jefferson |
| Kilgore | Kilgore | Kilgore | Pine Tree | Kilgore | Kilgore | Kilgore | Kilgore | Kilgore | Kilgore |
| Henderson | Henderson | Henderson | Henderson | Henderson | Henderson | Henderson | Henderson | Henderson | Henderson |
| Gilmer | Gilmer | Brenham | Gilmer | Gilmer | Gilmer | Brenham | Brenham | Brenham | Brenham |
| Tatum | Tatum | Tatum | Tatum | Tatum | Tatum | Tatum | Tatum | Tatum | Tatum |
| West Rusk | West Rusk | West Rusk | West Rusk | West Rusk | West Rusk | West Rusk | West Rusk | West Rusk | West Rusk |
| Arp | Arp | Arp | Arp | Arp | Arp | Troup | Troup | Troup | Troup |
| White Oak | Atlanta | Atlanta | White Oak | White Oak | White Oak | Atlanta | White Oak | White Oak | Atlanta |
| Overton | Grapeland | Overton | Overton | Overton | Overton | Overton | Overton | Overton | Overton |
| LC | LC | LC | LC | LC | LC | LC | LC | LC | LC |
| KC | KC | KC | KC | KC | KC | KC | KC | KC | KC |
| Texas | Texas | Texas | Texas | Texas | Texas | Texas | Texas | Texas | Texas |
| A&M | A&M | A&M | Arkansas | A&M | Arkansas | A&M | A&M | Arkansas | A&M |
| Baylor | Baylor | Baylor | BYU | BYU | Baylor | BYU | BYU | BYU | Baylor |
| ‘Bama | Georgia | ‘Bama | Georgia | ‘Bama | ‘Bama | ‘Bama | ‘Bama | ‘Bama | Georgia |
| Dallas | Dallas | Dallas | Dallas | Dallas | Dallas | Dallas | Dallas | NYG | Dallas |
| Houston | NYJ | Houston | Houston | Houston | Houston | Houston | Houston | Houston | Houston |
| Tampa | Dallas | Philly | Philly | Tampa | Philly | Philly | Tampa | Tampa | Philly |
| K. City | Houston | K. City | The Swifties | K. City | K. City | K. City | K. City | K. City | K. City |
| Baltimore | Philly | Baltimore | Buffalo | Buffalo | Baltimore | Buffalo | Buffalo | Buffalo | Buffalo |
| Detroit | K. City | Detroit | Detroit | Seattle | Detroit | Seattle | Detroit | Seattle | Seattle |
