WHATABURGER / ETBLITZ PLAYERS OF THE WEEK | How ’bout Kilgore’s Jayden Sanders & Tatum’s Aundrea Bradley?!!

Kilgore defensive back / wide receiver Jayden Sanders (3) and teammate La’Perrion Graves (11) talk to the camera after beating Carthage in the season opener. Sanders and Tatum girls basketball standout Aundrea Bradley are the Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Players of the Week for the week of Nov. 25-30. (Photo by ALEX NABOR – ETBLITZ.COM)

Someone could make a pretty solid argument that any player of the week honor that wasn’t eventually won by Jayden Sanders was not legitimate.

That’s how good of a football player the Kilgore High School senior is.

And Aundrea Bradley? The Tatum High multi-sport athlete has shifted gears from volleyball to basketball – and that’s probably not good for the Lady Eagles’ opponents.

For their performances last week, Nov. 25-30, Sanders and Bradley are the Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Players of the Week!

Sanders needs little introduction to anyone in the greater East Texas area. But for the record, here goes.

The Bulldogs’ senior is a defensive back by trade, who just happens to be a great receiver.

Ranked as a four-star by several recruiting sites, like 247.com, he’ll sign a national letter of intent on Thursday morning with the University of Michigan, unless he changes his mind at the last second. Sanders made his intentions to be a Wolverine clear in the summer with a verbal commit, the first ever announced at Kilgore’s indoor practice facility (IT’S MICHIGAN! | Kilgore’s Sanders announces verbal commitment to Wolverines (w/VIDEO)).

This past weekend, the players, coaches and fans of Navasota were wishing Sanders had his mind elsewhere, and paid a little less attention to them.

Unfortunately, Sanders was focused – boy, was he ever. Nobody on Navasota’s team could come close to guarding Sanders, who had five catches for 128 yards and looked like a man among children out there. He also did his job as a cornerback, and had two tackles on defense. And with another outstanding performance by Kayson Brooks, who had four touchdown passes, Kilgore won in another rout, 62-7.

The Bulldogs are now 11-2 on the season and go to Forney’s City Bank Stadium on Friday night, a 7:30 p.m. start, to meet rival Chapel Hill (10-3) in the UIL Class 4A-Division I Region 3 finals. The winner is one of the state’s final four teams in 4A-DI, and would need one more win next weekend to qualify for the state championship game on Dec. 20.

We’ve said this before – this is a player of the WEEK award, not a player of the year award. But Sanders has been very good this season: 51 catches for 878 yards and 10 touchdowns, an average of just over 17 yards a catch. And he’s not alone, obviously: Kilgore has so many weapons on offense (Javon Towns, Lakeyleon Graves, Rayshaun Williams, Isaiah Watters, Jacory Walton, and more): it really is an if-the-left-one-don’t-get-you, the-right-one-will situation.

Defensively this year, Sanders has 29 tackles, three for loss, three interceptions (Kilgore as a team has 22!), 12 pass break-ups, a blocked kick and a quarterback hurry.

So congratulations, Jayden, on being the Whataburger / ETBlitz boys Player of the Week, and we’ll say congratulations, Michigan, on getting an outstanding football player that might help you get back to the College Football Playoff.

Tatum High School’s Aundrea Bradley (above) is shown here, in a photo from the Texas Girls Coaches Association’s Basketball All-Star Game last school year. Bradley is already off to a sizzling start this season, and she’s the Whataburger / ETBlitz girls Player of the Week! (Photo courtesy of TATUM LADY EAGLE BASKETBALL Facebook page)

In Tatum, coach Patricia Nelson has been winning for a while, y’all.

In 2020-21, Tatum lost just two times in district play and won the district’s championship. In the 2021-22 season, Tatum won all 14 district games and claimed a district title. In ’22-

23, the Lady Eagles went a perfect 12-0 en route to a district championship. And last year, the Lady Eagles went 30-2, and another perfect 12-0 in district.

Guys, Tatum hasn’t lost a district game in three years! And you have to go all the way back to the ’19-20 season to find the last time they weren’t district champions.

And guess who’s been a constant on the team since the ’21-22 season?

If you guessed Aundrea Bradley, you’d be right.

Bradley is a part of that senior class that doesn’t know what it’s like to lose a district game, let alone to not be part of the district championship team.

And she’s just warming up. Last week, Thanksgiving week so a short week for Nelson and the Lady Eagles, Bradley had 16 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, five steals and blocked two shots in a 70-37 blowout of Atlanta.

The season is only four games in, and we know Bradley and her teammates will play a big part in 3A girls basketball, not just in the East Texas region, but in the state.

Congratulations, Aundrea, on taking home the Whataburger / ETBlitz girls Player of the Week honors for the week of Nov. 25-30!

Jayden and Aundrea join a growing list of our honorees this season. Here’s our winners so far, for the 2024-25 school year:

And congratulations to everyone reading this, because you’re fortunate to have Whataburger in your area. The World’s Greatest Fast-Food Restaurant is all over East Texas, many of them operated by DKT Investments, and open 24/7 to serve things like the Whataburger Patty Melt, the jalapeno cheddar biscuit, shakes, malts, and even good ol’ No. 1, the original Whataburger, with cheese, without cheese or made however you want it.

The ETBlitz.com team spends a good bit of time in Whataburger, because we love their food and their service. They serve breakfast each day from 11 p.m. until 11 a.m. (in case you want a sausage biscuit on the way home from the game!) and if you’d like to take a look at their very-large menu before you order, or even order ahead of time, download the Whataburger app (build up points for free items!) or go right here to their website: Whataburger | Order Online with Curbside and Delivery.

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