A great year for football

Our three newspapers cover eight counties and 10 school districts. That means 10 football teams, and 2022 has been chock full of exciting stories across the region.

For The Texas Spur, both Spur and Jayton made the playoffs again this year. That’s an exciting validation for players, coaches, families and fans.

But Patton Springs also had an interesting football story this year. Eighth-grader Jocelyn Salas, daughter of Patton Springs head coach Juan Salas, has been playing as a running back and middle linebacker on the junior high team. In a school as small as Patton Springs, it’s pretty much all hands on deck when it comes to putting together a football team. Once Jocelyn joined the team, more guys came out for junior high football at Patton.

Heading north into Caprock Courier country, the Motley County Matadors earned their 16th consecutive ticket to the playoffs, after starting the year with four losses in a rebuilding year.

Last year, the Matadors made it all the way to the state championship before falling to Strawn. So to start this year’s season with multiple losses took great determination from the Matadors to overcome those setbacks and win a spot in the playoffs.

Also in Texas Caprock country, Silverton earned a playoff spot. According to coach Kevin Hurn it’s the first time the Owls have been in the football playoffs since 2018. The Owls attracted the attention of sports pundits this year early in the season when they upset #3-in-the-state Whitharral. Who will Silverton be playing Friday night in their first playoff game in years in Lockney? Whitharral. It should be an interesting game.

Across the way into Floyd County and Floyd County Hesperian-Beacon territory, Floydada is enjoying a back-to-back playoff year as well.

For years Floydada’s district nemesis has been Post. No more. In their final home game of the season, the Whirlwinds had it all, a come-from-behind victory; a career-rushing game for Andres Mendoza; 5-5 PATs; and a game-saving interception. When the dust settled, the Whirlwinds were 5-0 at home for the season. In the playoffs Floydada will face Panhandle Friday, Nov. 11 in Canyon.