By David Bobo
LUBBOCK – For the 20th Annual ASCO High School All-Star football game, it seemed like any other Friday Night early season game being played at Lubbock’s Lowrey Field.
One side of the field featured Jason Sims, Lubbock Monterey’s newly appointed head football coach, and on the other side was veteran head coach Chad Dunnam, who is headed into his eighth season with the Amarillo High Sandies. When the two met pre-game, they appeared ready to battle it out to see whose team would finish victorious.
Only this wasn’t a Friday night in August, it was a Saturday night in May. And these two head coaches weren’t playing with their respective high school squads, instead both of their teams were made up entirely of 2025 graduated seniors from all over the Texas Panhandle and West Texas areas who had been nominated by their high school coaches. Coach Sims was the head coach of the Red Team for this All-Star Classic while Coach Dunnam handled the home Blue Team.
The Red and Blue squads had been practicing since Wednesday, learning offensive and defensive schemes, getting to know teammates, and having an all-around great experience. Friday night leading up to this contest was the annual ASCO All-Star banquet. The banquet honors individuals permanently injured from the game of football.
It also gave a space for Sims and coach Dunnam to address their teams. Dunnam gave amazing advice for both athletes continuing on to play in or attend college as well as those going out into the working world. Dunnam said, “be it your faith, job, marriage or kids… football gave you the tools to be successful at all of these. In football, if you want to be good there are no shortcuts, if you want to be successful in life there are zero shortcuts. Fall back on your training and don’t let anyone tell you effort won’t help you succeed (and go be great)”.
The banquet introduced the players and coaches of both teams and presented them with an ASCO All-Star watch and customized plaque. After the banquet it was all about business. Saturday, both teams had a walk through, watched a movie, and ate a pregame meal all leading up to kickoff.
From here, it was all football for these 76 All-Stars. The moment the first play occurred fans could tell it would be an eventful game. The Red Team struck first by getting things going with a 6-yard touchdown pass on a beautiful jump ball Lubbock Monterey quarterback Luke Arrington to Landon Heibert. Heibert had a big night all-around pulling down four catches for 59 yards with two touchdowns.
The Blue Team came right back with a 5-play, 4-for-4 passing effort by Lubbock Coronado’s Isiah Vazquez. The drive finished with an explosive play from Vazquez to Muleshoe’s Mauricio Herrera of 52 yards for the score. The talented recently graduated Muleshoe receiver also had a huge outing snagging five catches for 87 yards with a TD.
It looked like it was going to be a back-and-forth title bout but at halftime with the Red Team leading 21-7.
When the Blue Team came out in the second half, they were assisted by numerous defensive plays including a pair of interceptions from West Plains defender Will Grisham and Wellington’s Brenden Garcia. The defense continued to grind to keep their team in the game with the help of Idalou’s Lucas Jarnagin.
The former Idalou Wildcat had two sacks, one of which was a strip sack where he recovered his own fumble. The offense only managed to capitalize on the strip sack with Lubbock Coronado’s Demarion Finch eventually punching it in from a yard out to bring the score to 21-14.
The Blue Team got the ball back from Grisham’s interception only to throw a pick-six to the Red Team’s Jake Fogerson from New Home. That pulled the Red Team ahead by two scores again taking a 28-14 advantage. Dunnam’s team kept proving they were never out of the fight. On the next drive Littlefield’s Chip Green found Brody Bobo, of West Plains, on a shallow slant to middle of the field. Bobo found another gear running away from the defense all the way to the endzone to bring the score back with in seven. That was part four catch night for Bobo finishing with 64 yards with a score.
But from here, the Red Team proved to be too much on the night. They began to run the ball behind their stout offensive line that included teammates from Caprock, left tackle and left guard duo of Dax Davis and Adrian Benavidez. The Red team rounded out the fourth quarter with touchdown runs by quarterback Tyrean Henderson, out of Floydada and Spearman’s running back JP Carbajal punched in a score to make the final 42-21.
The Sims era seems to be firing on all cylinders heading into his official first season as head coach of the Plainsman this fall.
While this was only an All-Star game, Sims and his team made sure he remembered it with his first ice bath of his head coaching career. When the final second rolled off the clock, it was the last time for some to play football, but it didn’t seem to matter as both teams’ families and friends poured out onto Lowrey Field. This wasn’t a Friday night contest in the fall, but it was a fun night in May for kids to play a game that they all love, at the high school level, one last time.