WAKE UP (AND EAT LUNCH) ON ETBLITZ | Kilgore-Carthage No. 1 game of opening weekend; welcome to Kilgore basketball, Brian Malone; and the Henderson Blue Sox on a mission
EDITOR’S NOTE: Wake Up! is presented daily here on ETBlitz.com, sometimes at lunch, and we call it “Wake Up! And Eat Lunch”, simply because summer is VERY slow for sports. Cozy Coffee Station is our ad partner for Wake Up!, and their products are fantastic. We challenge you to go by and try them today! In Kilgore, go to 110 Midtown Plaza, and in Gilmer, 755 Highway 271 North. You won’t be sorry, and you’ll become a regular customer. That’s my prediction.
Kilgore-Carthage tops it
We have had a slow few weeks here in the ol’ ETBlitz.com coverage area, and we’re about to go from a slow few weeks to a very-busy time of year, as volleyball and then football get started at our 15 area high schools.
We finally have something, courtesy again of the folks at Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, to sink our teeth into.
Two of our area football programs — Carthage and Kilgore — open the season against each other most every year, and if not, they normally do play as a part of the non-district schedule.
This year, that game is at R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium in Kilgore. We’ll see if Carthage, ranked No. 1 in the state in 4A once again this season, can get a little revenge on KHS for handing them what would be Carthage’s ONLY loss of the 2024 season. Coach Scott Surratt and his team went on to win the 4A-Division II state championship again last season, their 10th since Surratt’s arrival.
The entire state is taking notice of the weight of this game, even though it IS non-district.
Dave Campbell’s Texas Football’s Carter Yates has yet another rankings story (hey, man, I told you it’s slow out there right now), and this one ranks the best games in the state on the first Friday night of the 2025 season.
Guess what game Yates ranks as No. 1?
You got it: Carthage at Kilgore.
“These “bEast Texas rivals have played absolute bangers recently. In 2023, Carthage squeaked by with a 30-27 win. Kilgore handed Carthage its only loss of the 2024 season. With senior stars on both sides, like Carthage running back K.J. Edwards and Kilgore quarterback Kayson Brooks, this game should have fireworks.”
I won’t spill the beans on his other nine games, but go to texasfootball.com and subscribe. You’ll enjoy it.
Kilgore’s new boys basketball coach
Congratulations to Brian Malone, who will be the new head Bulldog for Kilgore High School boys basketball.
Malone, who had stops at Arp, Tatum and Jefferson over a quarter-century of coaching, takes over for the now-retired Jeff Coleman. Coleman, a hall-of-famer in multiple venues in Oklahoma, originally came to Texas in 2011 and got Kilgore basketball out of the doldrums, a 29-year playoff absence.
But Coleman retired following the 2024-25 school year, and now Malone will try to take the Bulldogs to the next level.
Kilgore went 13-14 in Coleman’s final season, finishing second in District 16-4A with an 11-3 record and back to the 4A playoffs.
Good luck to the Blue Sox
The 19-and-Under Henderson Blue Sox are carrying the banner of the Henderson Boys Baseball Association into the Dixie Youth Baseball World Series for their age division, in Sterlington, Louisiana, this coming week.
The Sox, coached by Bart Bradley and Billy Haynes, are the defending champions of the 2024 Pre-Majors World Series. They’re back and headed for Louisiana, aiming to win a 12-team tournament, and another championship.
We’ll try to have an update for you guys on how they’re doing in a day or two here in Wake Up!