The new district will also consist of Seguin, Red Oak, Lancaster, Ennis and Waxahachie.

“I feel pretty good about it,” Principal Jimmy Neal said. “I felt confident either way. It’s a good fit for us.”

The UIL realigns schools every two years based on enrollment taken on “Snapshot Day”. It takes those enrollments and divides the schools evenly across the five classifications. From there, they create districts for the school.

This year, the cutoff line for 5A was 2,090. Principal Neal said they fell just short of that mark with an enrollment of 2,067.

“I didn’t know how it would go,” Neal said. “I knew we were right on the edge, but it went up from two years ago.”

Summit has spent the past two years in 4A, separated with the other Mansfield schools who were 5A. Principal Neal said he likes being put back with Legacy and Lake Ridge.

“It will build some rivalries between the Mansfield ISD schools,” Neal said. “It’ll be good to go against them.”

Head Boys Basketball Coach Jason Mutterer said he’s happy with the way things turned out and expects competing in the new district to be a new learning experience.

“We don’t know how good these teams are,” Mutterer said. “It will be a learning curve. It will be nice to have three close games.”

The realignment affects more than athletics. Band, choir, ACADEC and UIL Academics are also classified by the UIL using the same rankings. Band director Brad Bonebrake said that staying in for 4A will favor the individuals looking to make it to All-State.

“It gives the students a competitive edge over some of the others,” Bonebrake said. “They have more options. They can go either the 5A or 4A track.”

Bonebrake, however, said it doesn’t necessarily help the band when it comes to marching season.

“I don’t know if it matters any more,” Bonebrake said. “4A is just as competitive when it comes to making the UIL state marching contest. There’s not much of a difference.”

The three Mansfield schools will be placed with Red Oak, Waxahachie, Lancaster, and Ennis, all of which are competitive in athletics. Principal Neal said that this will be a “good little district.”

“I think we’ve found our niche,” Neal said. “Waxahachie has a good tradition in academics and athletics, and Red Oak and Ennis are also very strong. This is a good district for us.”

Her only wish is to go to Florida and walk on the beach.

With FROG Week (Friends Reaching Out and Giving), the Student Council hopes to raise enough money to not only send her to Florida, but also to Disney World. The week-long fundraising effort run is Jan. 27 through Feb. 3.

“This is going to be really fun,” senior Victoria Clark said. “It’ll be a big accomplishment. She just wants to feel the beach, but we’re going to top that.”

Monomelic Amtropy, or MMA, is a disease of the nerves that cause voluntary movements, such as walking. But despite having the disease, senior Victoria Clark said she couldn’t tell too much that Sienna had it.

“She’s just like you and me,” Clark said. “She looks like you and me. She just speaks a little bit slow.”

Sienna, through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, wants to go to the beach in Florida. Student Council, however, is looking to send her much farther.

“She just wanted to go to a Florida beach,” Clark said. “But we’re going to send her to both the beach and Disney World. She’s very excited.”

To do so, the Student Council will have to raise $7,000, a number set by the foundation. Student Body President Antionette Bennett said this year is going to be a big deal.

“We love it,” Bennett said. “At the end, we’re going to feel accomplished for all of the hard work.”

Frog Week is earlier this year. Normally held in the spring months, Student Council had to push it forward because of the EOC’s and TAKS testing. Student Council sponsor Emily Waneck doesn’t believe the earlier start will affect donations.

“It might actually increase this year,” Waneck said. “Who knows.”

Frog Week will actually kickoff this Friday with the Battle of the Sexes Messy Pep Rally. The Frog Week 5K run will be held Saturday. Bennett said that the colder weather has helped sign ups for the 5K.

“A lot of people like to run in this weather,” Bennett said.

Next week will feature a spirit day at particular restaraunts each day. Student Council will also host different events each day, including Frog Fest on Jan. 30, a talent show on Feb. 1 and a movie night Feb. 2. There will also be different dress up days in support of Sienna.

Also new this year is a partnership with Ousley Junior High School in Arlington ISD, Sienna’s school. Clark said Ousley is planning to be a big part in helping them reach the goal.

“They wanted to help us hang signs over there,” Clark said. “Some of the teachers are going to run in the 5K. They’re going to help donate money and will be at Frog Fest.”

This is the fifth year Student Council has raised money via Frog Week. This year, Waneck wants everyone to be involved.

“This is the side of caring and giving that doesn’t really happen much at Summit,” Waneck said. “We don’t really have opportunities to give as a mass. All we ask is that every single students gives $2 so that everyone feels a part of this.”

“It wasn’t a pretty win, but it was a win,” senior Ashley Eli said. “You can’t be nothing but happy and we’ll take it.”

The Lady Jags got off to a sluggish start offensively, managing only eight points in the first quarter against a stiff Seguin defense.

“[Seguin] came out fired up like they always do,” junior Maya Hawkins said. “We had to snap out of it really fast.”

The second quarter featured much of the same, as the Lady Jags fell behind 18-15 heading into halftime. Eli attributed some of the lag to the past five games against Burleson, Crowley, Cleburne, Joshua and Eveman–all blowout victories.

“When you have two weeks off from no intensity and no pressure and no press, you kind of get relaxed,” Eli said. “It was kind of like a slap in the face.”

The third quarter, however, was a completely different story from the first half.

The Lady Jags came out firing, outscoring the Lady Cougars 13-4 in the third including a 9-0 run to finish out the quarter.

“It was huge,” head coach Tammy Lusinger said. “I thought we had some great defensive stops. I was glad we kept battling and battling because we weren’t knocking down shots.”

The run continued on into the fourth quarter as the Lady Jags stretched the lead to ten at one point, but Seguin would not go away.

A combination of missed free throws and turnovers allowed Seguin to close back in as the quarter wore down. But the Lady Jags held off the late charge for the win.

Eli also attributed the late fourth quarter run to the lack of close games they have played.

“When you’re not used to pressure situations, you can’t really simulate that in practice, you have to get through it,” Eli said.

The Lady Jags complete a sweep of the district rival. They won at Seguin 43-34 on Dec. 13 to open district play. Coach Lusinger said this is a big win for the squad.

“Everybody knows our last five games haven’t been very challenging,” Lusinger said. “You try to get them up for practice and it’s easier said than done.”

The Lady Jags travel to Granbury Friday night. They beat the Lady Pirates at home earlier in the season. The Lady Pirates are only a game behind the Lady Jags in the standings.

Box Score

Summit 39, Seguin 34

Seguin – Katrina Thompkins 9, Dwanisha Tate 7, Alarie Mayze 6, Tiauna Jefferson 4, Laurynn McGowen 4, Aundra Stovall 4

Summit – Maya Hawkins 14, Ashley Eli 9, Shayna Jackson 4, Alex Rundles 4, Nia Jackson 3, Jazzmin Jackson 2, Destiny Strange 2, Tierra Brown 1

“In five to seven years after high school, I see Ruben in a dark cell with steel bars and a concrete wall around him,” the teacher said. “He will no longer be wearing what he is wearing now; instead he will be wearing an orange jump suit with a number to identify him. On the back you will see the words Santa Fe State Penitentiary.”

For Mascerenas, high school in New Mexico is where life ended and began again.

“In New Mexico, seventh grade was the last grade in elementary school, and that was when I started doing drugs,” Mascerenas said. “My first drug of choice was marijuana. I bough t it once, and after that, I grew it myself because it got too expensive.”

The friends that got him into drugs had the type of life that they continued to pull Mascerenas into. Doing drugs was just the beginning.

“All of my friends belonged to a gang, and I always had to be in charge,” Mascarenas said. “So one day a group of my friends found the current gang leader, right after he had taken some weird drugs that made him crazy, and we beat the crap out of him.

After he was gone, I was in control of the gang now.”

With Mascerenas as the new leader, he developed a reputation that followed him all the way to high school.

“Once I got to high school, I had a reputation that I could not get rid of,” Mascarenas said. “One thing that I learned from this was that your reputation follows you. In school they would put us into classes where all the teachers wanted to do was control you.”

Since Mascarenas had to be in charge, these classes could not control him and an outlet was needed.

“I learned to play the game very quickly,” Mascarenas said. “I would not bring attention to myself unless the teacher put me out there and started asking for it. I was kicked out of class repeatedly because I would not take the corporal punishment. The only people that could swat me were my parents.”

Calling Mascarenas a trouble child based on this would be an understatement. As he grew, so did his attitude.

“I threw a teacher in the trash can because he was trying to correct me and enforce our school’s one-way hallway policy,” Mascarenas said. “I locked a teacher out of her room and made her cry. I would use profanity with any teacher that would tell me to do something that I didn’t want to do or didn’t like. I was suspended quite a few times as well.”

Mascarenas truly was heading for the state penitentiary, until someone saw some good in him.

“My principal, I called him Chopper, took an interest in me and said that if I could get a job I could graduate high school,” Mascarenas said. “I lacked 11 or 12 credits and I could only earn three credits that year, which was my senior year.”

Mascarenas apparently had no plans to do anything, and nothing was in the future for him, except to take high school all over again.

“One day the principal called me into his office and asked me where I wanted to go to college,” Mascarenas said. “I told him that the only place my parents would pay for was South West Adventist University. So he sent in an application for me with a letter of recommendation.”

To get into college, Mascarenas first needed to graduate high school and that didn’t seem possible at the rate that he was going.

“I was surprised when the principal told me that I was going to graduate,” Mascarenas said. “I was even more surprised when I got my transcript. I not only had those credits that I needed, but I also had seven extra credits. I not only had extra credits but I also had classes that I had never taken, including two classes of driver’s education, which I passed with A’s.”

Now, with a high school diploma, college was now an option that could be considered.

“I received a letter of acceptance to S.W Adventist University for outstanding academic performance,” Mascarenas said. “Now that I was accepted I had to cut my hair because it was down to my waist and they never would have accepted that.”

Mascarenas was just getting over the shock that he had graduated high school, but now he had been accepted to a college. When this news was revealed he was no longer the only one that was shocked.

“When my parent’s found out, my dad said to me that he always wanted another one of his son’s to complete school,” Mascarenas recalls. “He then said to me that they would be more than willing to help me out in any way I needed. So after that, I went out and shaved my head.”

Mascarenas went through a lot in those years of his life. Now he tries to help out his students in any way he possibly can.

“Mr. Mac is funny, sarcastic, but he is also a friend who is there for you,” Manny Chavez said. “He helped me quit drinking simply by talking to me and motivating me. Not only did he help me with that problem, but he also helped me get my grades up. I went from a failing grade to a passing grade.”

Mascarenas, who now goes by Mr. Mac, has helped many others, other than Chavez.

He helped Marilyn Mendoza by giving her a plan to help her get her dad to stop smoking.

Mascarenas has not only helped with these problems but also with something simple as getting grades up.

“When I first got to Mr. Mac’s Spanish class, I thought that I didn’t need this and I would sleep in his class,” Lucas Hammond said. “I would get zeros on quizzes. My mom would get on me about my grades, but after the first six weeks, I didn’t care again.”

Mascarenas got onto Hammond about this, and changed everything for him.

“Mr. Mac started motivating me to do better, not just in his class, but in school in general,” Hammond said. “After that I started taking initiative in my work and started doing better, I went from a 20 in his class to a 97. He truly did take an interest in me.”

Mascarenas got onto Hammond about this, and changed everything for him.

“Mr. Mac started motivating me to do better, not just in his class, but in school in general,” Hammond said. “After that I started taking initiative in my work and started doing better, I went from a 20 in his class to a 97.He truly did take an interest in me.”

Mascarenas takes an interest in every single one of his students, and they can be confident that what is said stays confidential.

“If anything he is like an uncle to me because I can go talk to him whenever,” David Alvarado said.

Anyone can stop by anytime and talk to Mascarenas whenever they need to, for whatever reason.

“If I ever had a problem, I know for a fact that Mr. Mac would be there to talk to,”

Amber Reece said. “He is funny and awesome, but if you were to ask for help his door is always open. I have never seen it closed.”

Mascarenas doesn’t believe in closing his door.

“About 80 percent of the interruptions I have come from students who come by just to ask what they should do in a certain situation,” Mascarenas said. “They know that

I have been there, done that, and I have answers to their questions.”

He also realizes that things done in the past always have a way of coming back around.

“The things that I did when I was young, I am paying for now with my health,” Mascarenas said. “Thirteen years ago, I was diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer and the doctors said that I had a 20 percent chance of living. But today, I am proud to say that I am a survivor.”

Once someone has gone through a somewhat traumatic life, like Mascarenas, they would do anything to save others from that hard ship.

“Mr. Mac is a caring person who is strong and determined,” Reece said. “If he sees someone on the path that he was on he tries to steer them straight. I think just because he has gone through so much that is why he became a teacher. He is determined to help students no matter what their situation is.”

One man cannot help everyone, no matter how much they try to, it is not possible.

“I wish I could reach out and help everyone,” Mascarenas said. “I don’t exactly know what helps the ones that come to me, whether it is the granola bar, the apple, the email, or the cracker, I don’t know.”

Uncertainty is something that is a part of life, however there is something that Mascarenas knows for sure.

“To me, if I were to lock the door, I would be saying to my students that I don’t care about them and I don’t want to see them,” Mascarenas said. “Having my door unlocked is equal to a hug, and sometimes students just need to know that they have someone there for them. Morning, lunch or after school I am here for anything that they might need, and I am happy to help anyway that I can.”

“Its wonderful to see all my friends again,” Thibodeau said. “I’m doing my best.”

While her friends were celebrating Homecoming and her 18^th birthday was approaching, Thibodeau was in a hospital fighting for her life.

“I didn’t think I’d be out of the isolation room until March,” Thibodeau said. “ I was very scared.”

Thibodeau was born with a heart condition named Hypo Plastic left Heart Syndrome, which means that Thibodeau has half a heart. Thibodeau was born with this condition. She’s visited the hospital twice because of her disease, once when she was a year old and again when she was 10 years old in 2005.

“The only time I can remember was when I was 10 years old and I was scared,” Thibodeau said.

When she was 10, she got an internal pacemaker installed into her heart. The device made sure her heart was still beating. Having it in her was an inconvenience, but it was nothing compared to having to stay in the hospital, stuck on a hard bed in a colorless, dull room for the rest of her life. With an internal pacemaker, she could be mobile and try to act like a normal teen even if she was careful and a bit frail.

Thibodeau was relentlessly positive toward her school-life. Her teachers were aware about her tenuous condition, and had been trained and instructed on how to react if she complained of heart/chest pains.

“Ever since she was enrolled teachers have known that there are risks,” Michael Fore, her math teacher of two years,  said. “ It’s on Infinite Campus so teachers are aware.”

Fore was teaching the day Thibodeau was admitted into the hospital. Although she had had a few episodes in his class before, Mr. Fore could see that Thibodeau was sicker than ever. Convinced that something was seriously wrong with her, he personally escorted her to the nurse.

“She turned purple and her hand was going numb,” Fore said. “I had her last year, and it’s happened before, but this time she was really weak, and I told her that I was going to help her to the nurse because she was obviously unwell. She kept insisting to go alone, but I told her, ‘You can’t go alone’.”

School nurse Christy Silvas, R.N. confirmed that Thibodeau was critically unwell. They called her mother, had her dad pick her up and took her to the doctor who later sent her to the Children’s Medical Center in Dallas.

“The internal pacemaker monitors her heart pulses and sends in electrical currents into the heart muscles to jolt her if it stops beating,” Silvas said. “As she grows they have to put in a new pacemaker because it will grow old.”

Thibodeau’s doctors in the hospital discovered that Thibodeau’s internal pacemaker had stopped working. It had grown old and the electrical wires attached to her heart had detached.

All of Thibodeau’s friends and teachers were concerned for her. They would stop in hallways and ask for updates over her condition. Some teachers, like Keli Cullen and Fore, even had their students make Thibodeau get-well, and happy birthday cards and posters. On Homecoming night, which was Thibodeau’s 18^th birthday, Fore personally brought the cards to Thibodeau.

“I brought the cards down to her and told her who had won Homecoming and she was excited to know,” Fore said. “She told me to keep her updated.”

Marissa Rubio and Megan Garza are both really close friends of Jaimie. They were completely devastated with Thibodeau’s predicament. Garza remembers bursting into tears in her classes and Rubio admits tearing up countless times a day.

“I’m basically her younger sister,” Rubio said. “It’s hard not having her at school. And I know there are some people who don’t like her, but if they could all put that aside right now, she really needs your help, and it’s not the time to make jokes. Put yourself in her shoes, how would you feel?”

Rubio tried to visit her everyday in the hospital. But Thibodeau’s most recent trip to the hospital was looking bleak.

“This is the first time I’ve been through something like this,” Rubio said. “It was scary. I had noticed that her heart was hurting during some football games and I knew she visited the nurse’s office a lot but it kills me that I can’t spend so much time with her as I used to.”

Ms. Silvas made sure to be up to date on anything related to Thibodeau. She was anxious about Thibodeau’s health.

Things were not looking up for Thibodeau. If she wanted to leave the hospital she’d have to consent to surgery. But surgeons were hesitant to operate on her, due to her weak heart. They advised her to get a heart transplant, so that when they did do surgery on her, they could be sure that her heart would continue to beat.

“Her heart over the last eighteen years has become weakened,” Silvas said. “The cardiologists are afraid that if they go to do the operation to put in a new pacemaker, it’ll kill her. They put her on a transplant list so that they can have a good heart to keep her alive.”

After they found out that they would be unable to receive the transplant, Thibodeau and her parents were left with a very difficult decision. They had three options: they could go home and get another opinion, they could go ahead with the surgery Thibodeau had done before or they could try a newer surgery the doctor suggested and pray Thibodeau’s heart would keep beating. Although Thibodeau’s parents wanted to keep searching for better odds, Thibodeau wished to just go through with the surgery she had done before. The doctor insisted that the newer operation would be risky but more secure than their other options.

“I had gone through this procedure once before, and at the time it seemed like the safest option,” Thibodeau said.

In the end, Thibodeau’s parents and Jaimie agreed to doctor’s decision and let her go through the newer surgery. On Oct. 19 at 12:30 p.m., Thibodeau entered the emergency room to save her life.

“I was very relieved,” Thibodeau said. “ I’m alive and I can see all of my friends again.”

With the pacemaker safely installed and her heart beating soundly, Thibodeau was finally on her road to recovery. Her friends and family could breathe in relief, and cry with joy.

“I knew that the longer the surgery lasted, the more they were doing to help her.” Garza said. “I was just happy she was okay.”

Thibodeau’s surgery had lasted 12 hours. It had taken longer than planned and was an overall nerve-racking experience for everyone involved.

“I love her to death,” Rubio said. “She’s so excited to come back to Summit but I personally think she needs to rest. I’m making her a CD and other surprises.”

Thibodeau came back to school on Oct. 24. She was ordered to take things slow, and be mindful of her fragile state. She used a wheelchair for a couple weeks until she regained her health.

“I really don’t like the wheelchair,” Thibodeau said. “But I’m very happy to be back in Summit and the wheelchair is worth being here.”

She came back a week earlier than anyone wanted her to, but she insisted on coming back as soon as possible. She is going to be featured in a medical study because of her surgery. It was so new that her surgery’s success has to be noted. This whole experience might repeat itself one day, but this time Thibodeau has overcome it. She thanks her ‘personal support family’, Rachel Hayes, Heather Martinez, Rubio and Garza. But she’s especially grateful to Summit students and teachers who thought of her while she was in trouble.

“The cards and Summit love at the hospital made it all bearable,” Thibodeau said.

The girls won 47-42 while the boys came back in the fourth quarter to win 43-39.

“It’s one our team goals [to beat the Mansfield teams,” head girls basketball coach Tammy Lusinger said. “That’s special to our seniors.”

The Lady Jags got off to a slow start against the Lady Wolves, trailing by five at the half. But the second half was a completely different story.

The Lady Jags came out of the break on a 15-2 run and outscored Timberview 19-6 in the third period. Senior Ashley Eli said the difference was being able to play as a team.

“From the beginning, we were a little bit jittery,” Eli said. “I know I was taking some bad shots. So I think in the second half we calmed down and started to rely on our offense than trying to do our own thing.

The Lady Jags came into the game ranked fifth in the state 4A rankings while the Lady Wolves came in the number 15 team in 5A. Eli said this win is bigger than any other so far.

“Beating Timberview feels a lot better than a lot of other things,” Eli said. “It’s not even about the win necessarily. It’s about Timberview. They’re our biggest rivals and we’re happy.”

The Jags also got off to a slow start, falling behind 5-0 early on. Head boys basketball coach Jason Mutterer said they missed a lot of little things which led to the deficit.

“Early in the game we missed a lot of opportunities,” Mutterer said. “We missed a lot of offensive put backs that would have stretched out the lead. We struggled to score.”

The Jags took hold of the game in the second, starting the quarter on a 7-0 run to take a 21-18 lead at the break. Timberview made a run in the third retake the lead, but in the fourth, the Jags grabbed hold of the lead for good.

“I think some of that is our conditioning,” Mutterer said. “We play a lot of kids and I think in the fourth quarter, when you’re pressing and doing a lot of things, you need your legs.”

The Jags held the Wolves’ leading scorer to zero points, something not lost on the players.

“That made a huge difference in the game,” junior Patrick Tshituka said. “It all came down to defense.”

The Lady Jags start district play next Tuesday night against another state ranked team, Seguin. Coach Lusinger said the team is ready to defend their title.

“We start off with the toughest team on Tuesday,” Lusinger said. “We’ve got one more game and we’ll get that out of the way and then we’ll get ready for Seguin.”

The Jags will have to wait an extra week to begin district play when they take on Burleson. After the sweep and a good run in the Mansfield Spring Creek Classic, Coach Mutterer said they’ve still stuff to work on.

“We’ve got a lot of practice time,” Mutterer said. “We need practice time with these guys. Some of the players have played more than they’ve practiced. So right now we’ve just got to get in that gym and practice and get something of these things cleaned up.”

The proposal still includes an eight period day, but the start time for high school has been moved from 8:15 to 7:30 and the release time from 4:10 to 3:00.

The move to an eight period day comes after the Texas Legislature cut $13 million from the district’s budget for both this year and next year. The district said that the change in schedule will save approximately $4 million.

At the last school board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Bob Morrison said the school board would vote on the format of the eight block schedule at the Dec. 13 meeting.

Head boy’s basketball coach and world geography teacher Jason Mutterer likes the idea of a an eight block day.

“It’s a necessity,” Mutterer said. “It will be good for students because they’ll see their teachers everyday which means they’ll have more retention. But 45 minutes goes by quick.”

Some students, however, aren’t quite in favor of going to class everyday. Freshman Jessica Martinez said she’s concerned about what it will do to band.

“We’ll have less time to prepare for concerts,” Martinez said. “It usually takes a half hour to warm up and with the 45 minute class, we won’t have time to practice. We might have to do after school rehearsals for concerts now.”

Martinez also has concerns about how her other classes will be affected. She thought of taking Culinary Arts at Ben Barber but is unsure she will be able to since Ben Barber classes will take up three blocks.

“I’m not sure how I’ll be able to complete my foreign language credit, band and culinary arts like I wanted to,” Martinez said.

Athletics will also have to make changes to fit into the new schedule. Among the changes will be the elimination of the study hall time.

“It won’t give us much time to spend with our players and work on improvements which means we will have to spend more time after school to practice,” head baseball coach Chris Peacock said.

The district has also put in a plan in place to limit homework. First, third, fifth and seventh blocks would be allowed to give homework on odd numbered days while second, fourth, sixth and eighth would be allowed to do so on even numbered days. The same follows for tests.

Friday night, the Lady Jaguar basketball team will kickoff their season against Fort Worth Dunbar. Considering their tough exit from playoffs last year, junior Maya Hawkins is ready to go.

“We’re very excited to start off the year,” Hawkins said. “We can’t wait. We all have a common goal and we know what is expected of us.”

That common goal is to get back to the state tournament in Austin in March. After winning the 5A title in 2009, the Lady Jags have fallen in the regional semifinal round each of the last two years.

Last year, the Lady Jags ended their season with a 29-26 loss to eventual 4A state champion Canyon. They were held to about half of their season average points scored and fell short with free throws down the stretch. For senior Ashley Eli, it was an experience to forget.

“It was very tough,” Eli said. “We never want to feel like that again. We were so close.”

About nine months removed from the loss, however, the Lady Jags are now using that loss as motivation.

“We remember that loss,” Hawkins said. “We’re pushing super hard to ensure that we don’t lose like that again.”

Fortunately for the Lady Jags, the team only lost two graduating seniors; however, replacing them was not easy.

“We do have the heart of our team back, however we are a different team,” head coach Tammy Lusinger said. “Right now we are trying to establish our own identity. Each year is a new year.”

One of the graduated seniors was a starter and will have to slow down their running game.

“We’re not as fast as we were last year,” Eli said. “We’ve had to adjust. Our defensive philosophy has changed, and we’ve changed a lot because of the speed.”

Despite these changes, Hawkins believes that they can go all the way.

“No team should be able to throw us off our game,” Hawkins said. “We want to go as far as we can go.”

The Lady Jags come into this year ranked fourth in the state for 4A. Coach Lusinger has hope that this team will live up to that.

“I look for this team to really start coming together in the first month of the season,” Lusinger said. “I think if we can stay hungry and understand that it take a lot of work to have the kind of year we would like to have, the sky is the limit.”

“We feel like we accomplished the goal,” receiver senior Donovan Ellis said. “We worked for it and we deserve what we got.”

The Jags accomplish their goal with a 35-7 win over Granbury Friday night.

The Jags ended their district season 7-0 and with a commanding defense. They allowed no more than 20 points in one game and averaged 11.9 points allowed per game. Linebacker senior Micah Awe said that their run has made them better for the playoffs ahead.

“Even though we ran through district, we still faced adversity,” Awe said. “At the beginning of the Granbury, Everman and Joshua games, it was still close. We know that everything won’t be perfect.”

The offense has also increased its production over the last seven games, going from a relatively inexperienced unit to a high power, potent offense, scoring 46 points per game. Ellis said they feel good going into the postseason.

“We’re a better team now,” Ellis said. “We have a better bond and we work to win. We are set on what we want.”

The Jags will face Waco High  in the first round at Lumpkin Stadium in Waxahachie Friday night. The Lions bring in a 2,000 yard rusher in Darrell Harris. Awe said that they’re ready for whatever Harris does.

“Every week [in district] we’ve gone against a great running back,” Awe said. “And every week we’ve stopped him. We plan on swarming to the ball.”

If the Jags pass the Lions, they stare down a possible matchup up back-to-back state champion Aledo and their running back Jonathan Grey. Head coach Travis Pride isn’t worried about that possibility yet.

“That’s the way the brackets worked out,” Pride said. “You just have to keep playing your game.”

Last year, the Jags made it to second round before losing to Birdville in the last minute. This year, they’re hoping to go further.

“Our first goal is to win our district,” Pride said. “Our second is to practice on Thanksgiving because that means you’ve won your first two games. Our sights are set on the first two rounds.”

Awe believes that they have that run in them.

“If we get past Waco, we have a chance to make a deep run,” Awe said.

The ball is snapped. Immediately, Cuevas looks for his receiver senior Brandon Pegg. He releases it and a few seconds later Pegg hauls in the one-handed grab for a first down. A few plays later, senior Calvin Burns ran in the game’s first score to give the Jags the 7-0 lead.

It was that type of night for the Jaguars as they ran over the Bulldogs for a 35-14 win.

“We beat them fair and square,” Cuevas said. “We weren’t scared and played our game.”

That wasn’t the only clutch catch Pegg made. In the second half, Cuevas threw it deep to Pegg who once again made a one-handed grab. For that reason, his teammates call him “Mr. Clutch”.

“He’s making plays to make me look good,” Cuevas said. “We need someone like him to make plays.”

The win puts the Jags’ district record to 5-0 and clinched a playoff berth. A win over Seguin this Friday night will clinch the district.

The Jaguars dominated virtually the entire game, handling the Bulldog running game and forcing key turnovers while the  Jaguar offense proved to be too much.

“I was more worried about being able to slow down their offense,” head coach Travis Pride said. “They’re able to chew up the clock. But our defense shut them down. Minus the one touchdown because of blown coverage, we held them to seven points which is a big night.”

The Jags also snapped a couple of Everman’s streaks. Up until Friday night, Everman had never lost back-to-back district games since 1998. The Bulldogs had also never lost at home since 2006 to Wichita Falls who was led by Coach Pride at the time.

“It was a shock at first,” Burns said. “We did something that hadn’t been done in a long time.”

With only two weeks left in the season, the Jags need to win one of them to clinch the district championship, something the Jags have not done since 2007. But Burns said they’re focused on going undefeated.

“We want to finish the next two games against Seguin and Granbury,” Burns said. “We want to win district and then move on to playoffs.”