Area Baseball Going Strong!

By SAM KHAN JR.
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle


On the home side of Andy Wells Field in Kingwood, there's a small wooden sign that hangs with two words on it: Round Rock. They're short and simple but they speak volumes of the expectations.
“Every time you get a helmet or a bat, it's a constant reminder that that's why we're here,” Kingwood coach Kelly Mead said. “We're practicing for the ultimate goal. Every day you touch ‘Round Rock' but only if you can believe we can do it.”

Kingwood, the area's top-ranked Class 5A team, enters this postseason with the same goal that just about every other big school has — to get to Dell Diamond in Round Rock, home of the Class 5A and 4A state tournament.

While the Greater Houston area is virtually guaranteed at least one representative (from Region III-5A), the area is experiencing a brief drought in what has been over two decades of dominance in Texas Class 5A baseball. The last 5A champion from Greater Houston came in 2007, when Cy-Fair hoisted the state championship trophy.

The last time the area went three straight years without a champion in the University Interscholastic League's highest classification was 1972-1976 when Lubbock Monterey, Midland and Duncanville combined for five Class 4A titles in that span. The Houston area produced the next four 4A champs and since Class 5A baseball began in 1981, the area has produced 16 of the 29 state champions.

From 1998-2007, the Houston area was home to eight of 10 champions in that span.
And while two or three years without a championship is nothing to get worked up about, there is a bit of local pride at stake coming into the postseason.

“We want to do it for us No. 1 and for Houston No. 2,” Mead said. “I feel that in the Houston area, the talent we breed is unbelievable. I believe it's the best in the state of Texas.”
Mead's no stranger to the state tournament. He was an assistant at Kingwood when the Mustangs earned state tournament berths in 2004 and 2005, which included a state championship in 2005.

In this year's playoff bracket, many of the Houston-area's usual suspects are lurking. In addition to Kingwood, Bellaire, Brazoswood, Memorial and Pearland are among the Region III-5A favorites and Klein, Cy-Fair, Cypress Falls, College Park, The Woodlands and Tomball are among the teams to watch in Region II-5A.

Seven of those teams have won a state championship since 1980. That doesn't necessarily mean they'll emerge from the pack - the last two Region III-5A champions have been teams that did not win their district - Bellaire in 2008 and Pearland in 2009.
“
The thing about the playoffs is that you just want to get in,” Bellaire coach Rocky Manuel said. “Nobody cares how you got in. Look at Butler in (NCAA) basketball. It's a giant tournament, the biggest tournament in the state of Texas and hopefully you win your round.”
Even if his team doesn't make it, Mead said he's hopeful that the 5A trophy returns to the area.
“When you have those Houston teams in there it makes you feel so much better,” he said. “When you go on a run and the team to that beats you wins it all, you know that you got beat by the best.”
sam.khan@chron.com

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