STALLARD: 2024 Football is here

Published 5:05 am Saturday, August 24, 2024

The first email caught me by surprise.

A couple of texts and phone calls later in the day had me a little worried that maybe someone (the folks who sign my paycheck) knew something I didn’t know.

“Since you’re retiring, who do I contact now about information for my athletes,” the coaches on the other end of the texts, emails and calls asked.

I finally asked where they had gotten their information about my impending retirement, and turns out it was an honest mistake.

A week or so earlier, I had written a tribute column about a longtime coach where I grew up in Tennessee retiring after 52 years of coaching everything from Pee Wee football to Little League Baseball to high school and middle school softball.

The headline said “One of the best calling it quits,” and since it was an opinion column, my photo (we call them mug shots here at the newspaper) ran with the column.

The folks asking only read the headline and saw my photo, and they thought I was about to ride off into the sunset.

They seemed genuinely pleased and even thankful I was sticking around, so if the folks who sign my paycheck will let me, I’m not going anywhere.

Why would I?

The publication you are holding in your hands (or reading online) is the 38th I’ve had the honor of helping put together, but this is actually my 39th season covering football in East Texas counting one year as a correspondent while I was a college student.

I say “honor” because that’s how I feel. The words “lucky” and “blessed” also come to mind.

This magazine, just like the coverage the Longview News-Journal and Tyler Morning Telegraph will provide over the next four months, is a labor of love and we hope you enjoy it.

It’s a team effort. Other contributing writers and photographers to The Zone are photographers Les Hassell of the Longview News-Journal, Michel Alfaro of the Tyler Morning Telegraph and Audrey Blaschke of the Henderson News. Writers were Thomas Bingham of the Longview News-Journal, Brandon Ogden and Phil Hicks of the Tyler Morning Telegraph and Ryan Silapan of the Panola Watchman.

Hicks has covered sports in East Texas for 44 years, the last 41 at the TMP. Ogden is in his 25th season overall and seventh at the TMT. Hassell is in his 30th season overall and 24th at the LN-J. Bingham is in his 15th season overall and fourth at the LN-J. Silapan is a 13-year veteran and is in his third season at the Watchman, and Alfaro is in his ninth season overall and fifth with the TMT.

ALL-NAME TEAM

Now in its 38th season, the annual All-Name Team honors the most colorful and unusual names listed on rosters gathered from teams around East Texas.

Past gems have included Kokain Mothershead, Hickory Van Winkle, Hunter Hunter, Dakota Sandman and brothers Hunter and Trapper Kessinger.

Three-time MVP Willie Nelson of Longview has graduated, and this year’s MVP is A’Million Johnson of Lindale.

Joining Johnson on this year’s team are Ranger McKee of Eustace, Journey Carter of Huntington, Maverick Rowe of Longview, Maverick Clayton of Quinlan Ford, Nehemiah Savage of Mount Pleasant, Atlantis Sessions of Nacogdoches, Racer McCullough of Mabank, Rev Neighbors of Mabank, Sutherland Singer of Chapel Hill, Croix Hesskew of Canton, River Huggett of Quinlan Ford, Blaze Flanagan of Sunnyvale, Blaze Connel of Hooks, Jett Fletcher of Wills Point, Jett Surratt of Carthage, Jett Taylor of Grand Saline, Jet Bates of Gilmer, Trill Butler of Gilmer, Trail Wilkins of North Lamar, Crew Bowman of Bullard, James Studley of Malakoff, Ryder Bowers of Mount Vernon, Rhyder Richardson of Sabine, Ryder Welch of Grace, River Canaday of Winnsboro, Kingston Nelson of Jefferson, Justus Savage of Fairfield, Finn Smith of Fairfield, Madden McElroy of Fairfield, Ny’Land Coaster of Teague, Lucky Jones of Teague, Reign Wallace of Daingerfield, Ripken Birdwell of Hooks, Noble Kendrick of Troup, Shiloh Peckham of Cayuga, Elvis Hernandez of Carlisle, Champ Bailey of Paul Pewitt, Champ Harris of Trinity Valley CC, Boone Hodges of Paul Pewitt, Wrigley Roberts of Union Grove, Springer Crouch of Hawkins, Slyder Sanders of Maud, Bruin Henry of All Saints and Smoke Bouie of Kilgore College.

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Jack Stallard began covering sports in East Texas as a student at Kilgore College in 1986.

He became sports editor at the Kilgore News Herald in 1987 at the age of 21, and spent three years there before becoming sports editor at the Lufkin Daily News in 1990.

Stallard joined the sports staff at the Longview News-Journal in October of 1997, and has been sports editor there since 2006.

He was inducted into the East Texas Coaches Association Hall of Fame as the 2020 Distinguished Service Award Winner, the 2023 Kilgore College Athletic Hall of Fame as a Contributor for his nearly 40 years covering the college’s athletic programs and the Region 14 Conference 2024 Legend Class for his longtime coverage of that conference.

Stallard and his wife, Rachel, a longtime East Texas teacher and current marketing specialist at Kilgore College, have one son, Kyle, who is a graduate of Kilgore College.

Contact Stallard: jstallard@news-journal.com