First, an update from the weekend you may not have seen: Violent Illness 1, LK 0.

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Friday night at George Stadium, the power went out before game time due to a transformer that went down at approximately 5:50 PM near the stadium. After waiting for nearly two hours, we were told by officials of the Spring ISD that the game had been postponed and the schools were working out a mutually-agreeable time to play on Saturday.

We packed up the remote broadcast equipment and headed down the stadium stairs (no electricity equals no elevator), but my partner Brett Mills noticed something that, at the time, seemed mildly amusing: Klein Oak head coach David Smith telling Spring ISD uniformed policemen that the game wasn’t called yet. 

He relayed the story to me and we laughed, thinking that, “Yeah, it is.  They’ve sent everybody home!”

Turns out Smith was right…and it’s probably his insistence that they wait a little longer and (perhaps) his unwillingness to agree upon a Saturday time that allowed the game to be played, and ultimately won by his Klein Oak Panthers.

As I packed the gear into the trunk of my car and got it, my cell phone rang.  It was Mills.

“Did you just see that?” he asked. “The stadium lights just came on.”

Sure enough, shortly after 8:00 PM, the electricity was restored and, almost immediately, Smith ran his team (still suited up and ready to go) onto the field to warm up. 

The exact chain of events that followed are unknown to me, but by 8:40 PM, the game was on and it wound up being a huge win for the Panthers.

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Here’s my unofficial look at the districts going into the final week. (Of course, we always go back and review this info to make sure it’s as accurate as possible and we welcome your feedback if you see something we’ve missed.)

District 13-5A
Klein Collins is the district champion and must wait to see who joins them in the playoff picture before knowing whether they will be a D-I or D-II representative. Klein Forest, win or lose, also has enough tiebreakers to know they are in. The rest of the picture is still muddled.

We know with certainty that the loser of the Klein Oak-Dekaney game is out of the picture. But if Collins beats Forest, there could potentially be a four-way tie for three spots. Without dragging out all the details, it appears to come down to this:

  • Westfield: win and they’re in
  • Dekaney: win and they’re in
  • Klein Oak: win and they’re in
  • Klein: win AND need Spring to upset Westfield

District 14-5A
The Woodlands, Lufkin and Oak Ridge, thanks to their 24-0 shutout of College Park last week, are in. That leaves the final spot for the winner of the Conroe-College Park matchup this weekend.

District 15-5A
As usual, this district is a mess going into the final week. Six of the eight teams still have possibilities of making the playoffs.

Cy Creek and Cy Woods are in. Cy Ridge is in with a win. Cy Falls is in with a win and a Cy Springs loss. Cy Springs would be in with a win and a Langham Creek loss.  There are also a couple of scenarios where Langham Creek gets in.

If Langham Creek, Cy Falls and Cy Springs all lose, they wind up in a three-way tie for fourth place. Those three teams are 1-1 vs the others, so a positive point differential would come into play and Langham would have the advantage.

If Cy Springs loses to Cy Creek, Cy Falls upsets Cy Woods and Langham beats Cy Ridge, then Falls, Ridge and Langham all wind up in a three-way tie for two spots. The third playoff spot would go to Cy Falls, who is 2-0 against Langham and Ridge. Langham would then get the fourth spot by virtue of their head-to-head win over Ridge.

Cy Springs and Cy Falls would appear to have the most difficult roads, each having to play—and defeat—the top two teams in the district, Cy Creek and Cy Woods. But stranger things have happened in the CFISD district in the past.

District 17-5A
Cinco Ranch, Katy and Katy Taylor have all clinched. Nick Georgandis of the Katy Times has broken down the fight for the fourth playoff spot nicely.

District 18-5A
Memorial, Stratford and Elsik are in. Taylor is in with a win over Elsik. Hastings is in with a win AND a Taylor loss. Even with a win, Strake doesn’t hold the tie-breaker in any scenario so they are out. The Alief schools would be the DI reps and the Spring Branch schools would be the DII reps.

District 19-5A
Atascocita and Eisenhower are in. Humble is in with a win and Kingwood is in with a win or losses by either Humble or Aldine. Aldine is in with a win coupled with a win by Humble and loss by Kingwood.

District 20-5A
Whew! An easy one…the four teams are set: Westside, Madison, Lamar and Chavez. Week 10 will help sort out the district positioning, but Westside and Lamar will be the D-I reps and Madison and Chavez will go D-II.

District 21-5A
This has turned out to be an interesting race, with Baytown Sterling being the only team eliminated from playoff contention.

West Brook and North Shore are in, and will play in Beaumont on Friday night for the district championship. Baytown Lee has also clinched a spot.  But Channelview’s upset of Port Arthur Memorial last Friday means that, if Channelview wins and Port Arthur Memorial loses this week, the Falcons make the unlikeliest of playoff appearances.

Conversely, Memorial needs a win OR a Channelview loss to Baytown Sterling to ensure their playoff berth.

District 22-5A
Pasadena Memorial, Pearland, Deer Park and La Porte will be the playoff reps from this district. Barring any kind of major upsets this weekend, Pearland will be the higher-seeded D-I team and Deer Park the other. Pasadena Memorial will be the higher-seeded D-II team.

District 23-5A
Hightower and Willowridge win their zones, so both will make the playoffs. The Hurricanes will go D-I while the Eagles head for a D-II matchup. Those two teams will face off on Friday for the district championship. Corey Roepken of the Fort Bend Sun lays out the remaining district contests for this week, and the accompanying playoff implications here.

District 24-5A
Joshua Buckley of the Galveston Daily News breaks down the implications of Week 10 in this district. To boil it down, Clear Springs and Brazoswood are both in; Galveston Ball, Dickinson and Clear Creek are all vying for the final two spots.

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And in conclusion, how ’bout them Ags?