Daily Craig: Next man up

For many years I have emceed various TOUCHDOWN CLUB OF HOUSTON'S events. One of those was last night. The 2016 Greater Houston H.S. Football Dinner.

The dinner honors 10 area coaches and 20 area players. The outstanding player on offense and defense is chosen at night's end. Reading the stats alone is staggering. In my day we were just happy if only half the team smoked. One guy is 6-6 , 250 and runs a 4.5 40.  Others are in the 4.3 range and have straight A's in school. Houston is once again prime recruiting ground. One of the coaches honored is still in the hunt for a state title. THE WOODLANDS goes after Lake Travis in class 6A DIV 1. The Highlanders are 15-0. Their coach, Mark Schmid was named the area's top coach. His kid is the quarterback.

Last year one of the finalists was a kid from Channelview. He had great stats but not many saw him play. Nick Saban did and that kid is Nick's quarterback at Alabama. This year the top offensive player is CeeDee Lamb of Foster H.S. He is going to Oklahoma. THE TOP DEFENDER IS Trevon Lewis of Lamar H.S. He has 3 schools of interest including ARIZONA ST.  Not all the talent is going out of state. One young man is named Garrett Grammer. He has to be an English major and will play for Rice. The Aggies will get a dandy in Derrick Tucker of Manvel. A free safety with 12 interceptions and 4 fumble recoveries.

The evening also brought out the winner of the RON STONE AWARD for broadcast excellence. I was sure glad to get that award 2 years ago but this year was sad. Our friend the late BOB ALLEN was the guy who was honored. His friends including BARRY WARNER accepted the honor. I sure wish Ron and Bob had been there in person.