fwisdathletics.com<\/a>.)<\/p>\nThe size and contents of Aledo\u2019s trophy case are well-documented. Twelve state titles, including 11 in the past 15 years, most recently in 2023.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the Bearcats have advanced to this round by outscoring their first two opponents by a combined score of 122-12.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always tell our kids that the great thing is y’all play football in one of the greatest regions in the state. North Texas is one of the biggest regions of football, so you guys are pretty good football players, too,\u201d said Heights coach Curtis James, now in his third season as head coach and 14th overall at the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s always better to play one of those schools [the state powerhouses] when you earn the right to play \u2019em versus just putting \u2019em on your schedule. Anybody can schedule \u2019em [in nondistrict]. But whenever you earn the right to play, they look at you differently. Every round means you’ve had to get some callousing to get through that round. So, let’s go out, have fun, and let’s see what we can make happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, it\u2019s amazing what can happen when you just show up.<\/p>\n
Heights brings its own credentials and weapons.<\/p>\n
Running back Carson James, one of three sons playing for the coach, will get lots of attention. The 5-foot-10, 190-pounder has rushed for more than 2,300 yards and 38 touchdowns as a junior this season.<\/p>\n
Carson James has rushed for 512 yards and six touchdowns in the first two rounds of the playoffs \u2014 a 36-23 victory over Brewer and a 56-41 triumph over Lubbock Monterey.<\/p>\n
Including the regular-season finale \u2014 a win over Paschal \u2014 young Carson James has 727 yards rushing and 11 TDs.<\/p>\n
Carson has a twin brother Carter, a defensive lineman, and they have an older brother, senior Caynan James, also a defensive lineman, who has committed to UT El Paso.<\/p>\n
It carries an eerie feeling, considering the last time Heights advanced this far in the playoffs was 1973.<\/p>\n
It was Heights that ran into a beastly running back and his two brothers.<\/p>\n
Earl Campbell \u2014 a future Pro Football Hall of Famer \u2014 ran for 183 yards on 18 carries and four touchdowns in Tyler John Tyler\u2019s 34-12 victory over Heights in a state quarterfinal at Farrington Field. As Heights coach Merlin Priddy cautioned beforehand, Earl wasn\u2019t the only in the offensive backfield. Lynn King had 154 yards on eight carries.<\/p>\n
Earl had two brothers on defense \u2014 twin brothers Tim and Steve Campbell. (All of them wound up at the University of Texas.)<\/p>\n
Half a century after Heights was undone by a legendary back and his brothers, fate offers a turnabout: The Jackets now bring their own three-brother force \u2014 and a running back capable of rewriting the ending.<\/p>\n
If this family-powered juggernaut can somehow topple the mighty Aledo Bearcats, they\u2019ll carve out a permanent place not only in Arlington Heights lore but in Fort Worth history.<\/p>\n
This is what you call an opportunity not just anyone gets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get ’em off track,\u201d Curtis James said of Aledo. \u201cAledo is like a big train. They’re coming down that train track and every team on their schedule is just getting hit by that train. If we don’t get \u2019em off the track, then they’re going to do the same thing they’ve been doing every week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to do some things that make them adjust. We\u2019ve got to do some things that make them align differently. You got to make plays when the plays come to you to make. We\u2019ve got to be very aggressive and take some risks. No risk, no reward.\u201d<\/p>\n
See y\u2019all on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arlington Heights faces an Everest-like climb Friday in the Class 5A state football playoffs, with No. 1 Aledo…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":406784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[142469,5229,11438,7371,14948,7372,18131,13814,358,7453,3187,76832,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-406783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-aledo","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-arlington-heights","11":"tag-fort-worth","12":"tag-fort-worth-isd","13":"tag-fortworth","14":"tag-high-school-football","15":"tag-john-henry","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-top-story","18":"tag-tx","19":"tag-uil","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115617949640007200","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}