Mineral Wells Area News

By DAVID MAY

Special to Mineral Wells Area News

The Gordon Longhorns and head coach Mike Reed have experience playing for, and winning, state sixman football titles. But it has been a minute.

Reed will be making his sixth trip to a sixman title game, the last one occurring 11 years ago.

The Horns won state titles in 1996 and 1999 under legendary head coach Nelson Campbell, but they have not appeared in a title game since.

“They waited until I graduated before they won,” quipped Reed, who was a student coach on the Horns’ 1999 team.

But now, they are back. Gordon (14-0) has a date this Wednesday, Dec. 13, against the two-time defending Class 1A-1 champs Westbrook Wildcats (13-1) at AT&T Stadium. Kickoff is 11 a.m.

While the path has been relatively smooth for the undefeated Horns to date, Reed knows his team and staff will have to be at their best to win the school’s third state title. But he also wants the team to stay loose, enjoy the moment and prepare the same way they have throughout the season.

“It’s the same recipe,” Reed said. “They know what has to be done. They come in, we keep things fun, but we also have that intent to get the job done, and have fun and enjoy it. This is enjoyable. Each week you don’t want to just work, work, work and not enjoy it. We try to find a good balance of both.”

Although Reed did not win a state title playing for the Longhorns, he did play in a historic game for Gordon and all of sixman football in 1994, when local sports writer Tommy Wells arranged for a first-of-its-kind matchup of nationally ranked teams Revere, Colo., and Gordon. Revere was the nation’s top-ranked team and Gordon was ranked 10th nationally.

The game was played in Gordon before a reported crowd of more than 3,500 people. Gordon’s population was around 500. Reed, a running back, scored the game’s only two touchdowns in an 18-0 Gordon win. In an Associated Press article about the game, Reed said the Coloradoans were very good players, but they talked and shook hands differently than Texans.

While attending Tarleton State, Reed embarked on his coaching career that is now in its 26^th year. He has coached at Strawn and has highly successful head coaching stints at Rule, Throckmorton and now Gordon.

At Rule, Reed led the Bobcats to consecutive sixman Division 1 championship games in 2006 and 2007, losing both times to Richland Springs. 

Moving to Throckmorton, Reed took the Greyhounds to three straight sixman Division 1 title games in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Garden City won the first won, but Throckmorton claimed back-to-back championships the following two years with wins over Borden County and Abbott. Reed’s coaching record at the two schools was a combined 130-19.

Reed accepted the head coaching position at Hamilton, a Class 2A 11-man program. He did not enjoy the same kind of success there, going 13-26 in four seasons guiding the Bulldogs.

An opportunity arose in 2018 to return home to Gordon, a proud sixman program deemed the sixman kings of the 1990s but one that had fallen on hard times. The team went 2-8 in 2017 and missed the playoffs two consecutive years.

The 2018 team saw a rebound in Reed’s first season, going 4-7 with a second-place finish in district and a return to the postseason. The Horns have been in the playoffs in each of Reed’s six years in Gordon, winning three district titles while gradually building to this point – a chance to once again play for a state championship.

Reed’s record at Gordon is 59-17, while his overall sixman head coaching record stands at 190-36 (by our count).

Last year the Horns were eliminated in the quarterfinals round by Abbott. They extracted a measure of revenge this year by soundly defeating Abbott in the same round. Gordon then dominated Jonesboro in the semifinals.

Reed will be seeking his third championship with a team that is built around sophomores and juniors, and has dominated every opponent this year. The undefeated Horns have played into a fourth quarter just once this season in 14 games. In the past two years they mercy-ruled each of their 20 regular season foes, and five of their seven playoff opponents.

One expects the Horns will find themselves in a much different game against Westbrook. The Wildcats have gone 35-2 since winning their last eight games of 2021 (Gordon is 36-4 since 2021 but with just one loss the last two years).

Westbrook defeated May in the 2021 state title game, then vanquished Abbott to win last year’s championship.

Coming out of District 8, Westbrook this season is averaging 57.6 points per game, mercy-ruling 11 of their 14 opponents. Defensively the Wildcats have allowed 16.3 ppg.

By comparison, the Horns are averaging 58.7 points per outing, having played into the early portions of the fourth quarter just once this season. The Horns defense has been especially stingy, allowing 116 total points, an average of just 8.2 ppg. – half of the Westbrook’s defenses points allowed.

The Wildcats boast a potent rushing attack, totaling 3,466 yards on the ground for a per game average of 247.6, equating to 9.9 yards per carry with 83 rushing touchdowns on the year. Westbrook has 1,083 passing yards, an average of 77.4 aerial yards per game with 20 touchdowns against just two interceptions.

Fielding a senior-heavy roster, the Wildcats have two 1,000-yard runners in Keegan Gilbreath (1,456) and Grayson Jeffrey (1,294). Parker Matlock has been the Wildcats’ top passer, completing 55% of his 49 throws for 434 yards and eight touchdowns. Gilbreath also has eight scoring passes.

Gilbreath and Matlock lead the Wildcats’ defense with 101 and 116 tackles, respectively. Matlock has 24 tackles for a loss while Aiden Sullivan leads the team with eight sacks. Gilbreath tops the team with five of their nine interceptions.