Every week the Lake Highlands football coaching staff picks and awards a player or players for game-changing hits on the field. It is not necessarily the most violent hit, or the hardest hit, but a hit that make an impact on the game. The player gets his name on a baseball bat known as “The Big Stick,” and gets to keep that bat in his locker the entire week. The bat serves as a reminder that when the lights go on, it’s time to play physical football.

This week, the Lake Highlands coaching staff chose offensive lineman Jeffery Gebara. The 5-foot-10 230 lbs. senior was awarded The Big Stick after the Wildcats defeated Jesuit 29-20.

Don’t miss this week’s Highlandette halftime show at The Boneyard. The game has big implications for district as Lake Highlands faces Skyline, but it’s also the occasion for a community favorite and LH tradition – the Bob and Susie Dance. That’s when Dettes dance with their dads (or another special man in the girls’ lives).

They’ve been practicing for weeks, and some dads will be counting through their teeth while others will reveal a Dancing With the Stars talent nobody knew they had. To find out which dads are which, stay in your seat Friday night – they’ll be dancing to the Mighty Wildcat Marching Band’s rendition of Kung Fu Fighting.

The Lake Highlands freshmen and junior varsity games have changed times and locations.

The freshman team A will play Wednesday night at Forester Stadium at 5:30 p.m. and the JV team will play at 7 p.m. at Forester Stadium.

• Audio: Scott Smith, LHHS head coach, on the opportunity to be in position to play for the District 9-5A championship
• Audio: Smith on what “DC 10″ really means

With two weeks yet to play, the Wildcats feel very confident this week against Skyline High School is the biggest opportunity they have to become District 9-5A champions.

Skyline is the reigning champ and Smith has said all along, no matter who wants it, they have to beat Skyline to get to take the lead in this district.

After each win this season the Wildcats players could be heard saying “DC 10,” a rallying cry for their goal of becoming district champions.

Lake Highlands will play Skyline on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at The Boneyard.

LH's Reid McCann works with at-risk kids in the Boston area as part of the Harvard Leadership Institute

Lake Highlands High School graduate Reid McCann’s educational and athletic goals led him all the way to Boston to play football at Harvard University. This January, he’ll really step out of his comfort zone, traveling to Bhutan with fellow members of Harvard’s Leadership Institute.

Reid and his team teach leadership training to at-risk middle school students in the Boston area. They direct the kids to focus on a problem affecting their life and work to address it, with recent projects including a recycling effort, anti-bullying campaign, and ideas for changing the school uniform. “The whole idea is that children can be the ‘leaders of today’ and not just ‘the leaders of tomorrow,’” Reid told me.

Through this work, Reid connected with the Minister of Education in the South Asian Kingdom of Bhutan, and a partnership was born. Six members of the Harvard team will fly to Bhutan to work with the nation’s top students, and they’ll train teachers to develop their own sustainable programs. “The Minister of Education kept stressing to me how impactful this will be in their country as their students have the knowledge but haven’t been able to develop the skills necessary to be successful leaders or businessmen.” (more…)

Catch football game highlights by Ben and our interview with Coach Scott Smith from the 29-20 Lake Highlands High win over Jesuit College Prep.

DeVonte Sunwenghan has already been announced as The Dallas Morning News Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts in the Widcats  29-20 win against Jesuit.

I posted his stats in the post-game story and this week’s Inside the Game.

Now you might want to go vote for Sunwegnhan as the HS GameTime Hero for his accomplishments.

Here are the five players listed:

Kent Bateman, LB Plano

DeVante Kincaide, QB Skyline

Grant Klembara, LB/RB Lutheran

DeVonte Sunwenghan, RB/WR, Lake Highlands

Jamal Turner, QB, Arlington Sam Houston

Lake Highlands defeated Jesuit Friday 29-20 in a rainy, slippery, turnover plagued game that came down to the final defensive effort by the Wildcats.

The win now sets up nicely for Lake Highlands as they get an opportunity to play reigning champion Skyline for the District 9-5A championship.

I’ll get to that later in the week, but for now let’s look back on some of the interesting thoughts of last week’s wins.

• Desmond Roland was out. His injury was still undisclosed, but he is expected to come back this week for the Skyline match-up. In his place DeVonte Sunewnghan filled in nicely with 191 yards on 32 rushes and 4 touchdowns and 11 catches for 122 yards. He will take Roland’s place next year as the offensive “bell-cow”.
• David Green injured his right leg on a defensive play. You could tell that Jesuit notice because they tried to go vertical a number of times after he left. The Wildcats defensive backs filled in nicely.
• The Jesuit announcer kept the stadium up to date on the Rangers-Yankees score throughout the night. Head coach Scott Smith was recording the game, so was I as well as a number of other people at the stadium. What are your thoughts on announcers giving scores to other games? Do you want to hear the score right then, or do you want to catch it on your TiVo?
• The first half rains brought out umbrellas from all of the place. I saw one with snoopy laying on top of his doghouse and thought that was my favorite as opposed to all of the black umbrellas. Where would I find a cool umbrella?
• Since giving up 38 points to Garland High six weeks ago, Lake Highlands has not let any individual opponent score more than 21 points. Say what you will about the defense, if you don’t believe that is, but these kids really tighten up when it matters.
• Jesuit’s James Hairston is one of the better kickers in high school. He missed a 33-yarder and a 38-yarder against LHHS. Now six points may not have mattered in the scheme of things, but the Rangers may have just tried to set up for a field goal to tie on their last drive instead of going deep on a couple of plays to get inside the 20 with little time left.

Lake Highlands played without star running back Desmond Roland, who was out with an undisclosed injury, and they got an exceptional offensive game from his replacement junior DeVonte Sunwenghan as the Wildcats went on to defeat Jesuit College Prep 29-20.

Sunwenghan finished the night with 191 yards on 32 rushes and 4 touchdowns. He also grabbed 11 passes for 122 yards.

Also Michael Ketchmark completed 56 percent of his passes for 224 yards.

Here is some post-game audio from head coach Scott Smith, Mitch Marzuola and DeVonte Sunwenghan.

DeVonte Sunwenghan, junior running back

Mitch Marzuola, senior defensive lineman

Scott Smith, Lake Highlands head coach

Scoring Summary

2^nd

LH – Mitchell Hinton 30-yard field goal, 3:47

LH – DeVonte Sunwenghan 5-yard run, 1:36

JES – Christian Franz 4-yard catch, 00:07

3^rd

LH – Sunwenghan, 4-yard run, 6:02 (Blocked PAT)

JES – Marty Murad 25-yard catch, 4:32

LH – Sunwenghan, 2-yard run, 11:30 (2-pt conversion fail)

4^th

JES-Jake Oliver, 3-yard catch, 6:56 (2-pt conversion fail)

LH – Sunwenghan, 18-yard run, 2:00