The 2008 Six-Man Texas Bowl will be held this Saturday night July 12th at 7:30 pm in Garden City, Texas. The Texas Bowl, once known as the Six-Man All-American Bowl until last year, is an invite only bowl for graduating seniors. The two teams are made up from Division I All-Stars and Division II All-Stars. This game will pit the Division I players against the Division II players.

There will be an awesome group of talent on the field come Saturday night! The Richland Springs Coyotes will be well represented. The Coyote Coaching staff which include Jerry Burkhart, Shawn Rogers, and Tony Dodson was chosen to lead the DI team. Of course, our coaches would not head into battle without their weapons. Mark Williams, Patrick Couch, Shelby Smith, and Richie Daniels will be on the field wearing the Coyote logo loud and proud.

They will be joined by many other talented DI players from across the state like: Steven Pace (Rule), J.T. Spitzer (Rule), Kyle Simpson (Rule), Joe Davis (Throckmorton), Bo Eggemeyer (Garden City), Ryan Alvarado (Garden City), Garret Avalos (Rankin), Lane Shands (Grady), Bo Bryant (Ropes), Kit Chambers (Ropes), Weston Phillips (Wellman Union), Collin Allison (Meadow), and Gabriel Vargas (Silverton). The DII squad will be coached by Mike Bigham (Motley County) and Reece Walker ( Woodson).

These two coaches faced each other in last years DII State Championship Game with Coach Bigham getting the better of Coach Walker by a score of 44-38.

The DII players will be Quentin Shafer (Borden County), Logan Howard (Borden County), Michael Bullinger (Borden County), Isiah Archer (Motley County), Bradley Brown (Motley County), B J Santiago (Grandfalls-Royalty), Russell Taylor (Grandfalls-Royalty), McKenzie Taylor (Sierra Blanca), Peter Urbina (Sierra Blanca), Robert Perez (Woodson), Braiyn Barker (Dell City), Cody Paris (Whitharral), Corey Samson (Northside), Raul Salazar (Sanderson), Justin Alexander (Paint Rock), and Mattaniah Yoder (El Paso Bethel Christian).

Coaches and players will arrive in Garden City on Wednesday, July 9th. They will stay at Howard College in Big Spring. Each day will be filled with hot practices and a lot of FUN activities. Practices are open to the public at Bearkat Field each day from 9 am - 1:30 pm. Gate prices will be $5 for adults and $3 for students.

When the inaugural Texas Bowl started last year, the first thing that I did was laugh. I thought to myself, they are going to let DI play DII? I said, it would be over at the half and it would be a total embarrassment to the DII players! Boy was I ever wrong!! The game was very close for the most part. DI only held a slight 18-12 lead at the half. But in the end, DI was too much as they were victorious by a score of 42-28.

Last year, the Coyotes were well represented by Cason Fikes and Houston Burleson. The Coyote players hope that a bunch of Coyote Fans can make the trip to Garden City and show their support. Mark your calendars for Friday, July 25th and start planning your trip. It will all happen at 7:30 pm in Lubbock, TX at Lowery Field. Two Coyotes, Tyler Ethridge and Mark Williams will be there playing in the DI East vs. West Six-Man All-Star Football Game. Watch out for the one two punch these guys will give at this All-Star Game in Lubbock. What a deadly combo! Both (Garden City and Lubbock) are long trips out in West Texas, especially with the high fuel cost, but both will be well worth the trip! If you did not get enough Coyote football in 2007, you got ONLY these last two opportunity to witness the greatest and most successful group of kids in our schools history performing on the Six-Man stage! They will be playing with the best from all other parts of the state. Hope everyone can make it to the games and the very best of luck to each of our Coyotes! Let me take a shot at this “Texas Bowl,” with the Coyote coaching staff and those awesome Coyote players, I have to pick this one: DI - 58, DII - 20. GO COYOTES GO!