Plano East Football Team Out to Prove it is the Real Deal

Originally published in the October 2006 issue of The North Texas High School Sports Report

Forget about that 30-29 loss to Mesquite in Week 1. Drop the talk about Plano East being good on paper and not the field. Early losses are over-rated anyway. The truth is, the Panthers have improved their play on both sides of the ball every week. They do not repeat their mistakes. They do not let up in the second half. They do not rely on one or two players to carry them, but play together like a team should. That should make the rest of District 9 very concerned. The Panthers are hitting their stride.

"We had an off game, we had too many turnovers," says coach Johnny Ringo about the season opener against Mesquite. "Considering how well they've (Mesquite) played since, the fact that we were still in the game despite the mistakes showed us something." Rather than hitting the panic button, the coaches and the players decided to put the past behind them and set their sights on the next game. "We knew we had a lot of potential, and we knew if we didn't come together, we wouldn't have a winning season, or make it to the postseason," senior co-captain Zack Skelton said. That would not be so easy: their next opponent was Garland, the #3 ranked team in the state.

If Plano East does have a successful season, they can look back to the Garland game, and one play in particular, as the turning point in the 2006 season. In that game on September 15, the Panthers jumped out to a 28-7 lead thanks to a Garland turnover and the strong play of Riko Smalls. The score itself was reason for East to be excited; Garland had shut out the Panthers in their previous two meetings.