more proof: the talent's right here

[LA_Mustang]

BTW, Duncanville has two outstanding freshmen who will likely be national top 50 players.....Shawn Williams (6'5" can shoot lights out) and I cant think of the other kid, but they are good.

District 7-5A teams are hard to beat

11:02 AM CST on Monday, January 30, 2006
By MATT WIXON / The Dallas Morning News

"Winning stays the same. Only the names change."

That's the motto of the Cedar Hill boys basketball program, but it actually fits the boys and girls teams at Cedar Hill. The boys and girls at Duncanville, too. And DeSoto.

The three neighboring schools in southwest Dallas County are again basketball powerhouses this season. The combined record of their six teams is 146-28, and nine of those losses have come against each other. All the teams are in SportsDay's Class 5A area rankings.

"As far as a six-mile radius," Cedar Hill boys coach David Milson said, "you can't find better basketball."

That's nothing new. Only one of the last six Class 5A state title games hasn't included DeSoto, Duncanville or Cedar Hill. That was last season, when the DeSoto girls lost in the regional final to eventual state champion Arlington Bowie, which is only about 10 miles west on Interstate 20.

And oh yes, Bowie is in the same district as Duncanville, DeSoto and Cedar Hill.

That makes 7-5A possibly the best basketball district in the state – a district where "you don't get many off nights," according to DeSoto senior point guard Jazmyn Green.

Unless you miss the playoffs, of course. And that happened to a pair of very good Cedar Hill teams last season. They combined for 49 victories, were in SportsDay's area rankings all season and didn't make the playoffs because they finished behind DeSoto, Duncanville and Bowie.

The same fate awaits a pair of 20-win teams this season. A year before the 5A playoffs expand to four deep in every district, the fourth-place teams from 7-5A will have to watch as inferior squads play on.

"Whoever doesn't make it could probably win some of these districts around here," Duncanville boys coach Phil McNeely said. "It's just luck of the draw to be in this district."

That luck might change for the Arlington schools when the 2006-08 UIL realignment is announced this week. But Duncanville, DeSoto and Cedar Hill will almost certainly stay in the same district, battling each other in what DeSoto girls coach Larry Goad calls a "rich basketball area."

Success is standard
It's certainly rich with success. Along with a handful of schools from Dallas ISD – Kimball, Lincoln and South Oak Cliff – the three southwest Dallas County schools have been fixtures at the state tournament. Since 1988, 15 teams from Duncanville, DeSoto and Cedar Hill have played for state titles, and eight have won championships. The main reason?

"Players," Milson said. "Players make it happen."

Players such as Dez Willingham, who led the DeSoto boys to a 2003 state title and now starts for SMU; Tiffany Jackson, who led the Duncanville girls to a 2003 state title and now starts for Texas; and Jason Horton, who led Cedar Hill to the 2004 state final and is now the first player off the bench at Missouri.

They helped maintain a high basketball standard for the area that dates back to when the late Sandra Meadows led the Duncanville girls to their first state tournament in 1973. Meadows coached Duncanville to 11 state appearances and four state championships before retiring in 1993.

Meadows was a great ambassador of the game, Goad said, and she is a big reason for the region's longstanding basketball success.

"She set the standard we all tried to reach," Goad said.

Strength in stability
She also set the area standard for coaching stability by spending 25 years at Duncanville. But the three schools still have that.

McNeely has been at Duncanville 23 years, Goad has been at DeSoto for 21 and Milson is in his 19th season at Cedar Hill. Chris Dyer is in his eighth season coaching the DeSoto boys and has won a state title, and Cathy Self-Morgan is in her sixth year as Duncanville girls coach and has a state title. Cedar Hill's Andrea Robins is in her third season, but she's only the third Cedar Hill coach since 1992.

"You've got to have that stability," McNeely said of the long coaching tenures. "You just get the kids coming through knowing what they are supposed to do."

Which is win.

"The kids see that, and the kids coming up expect it," he said. "It just kind of perpetuates itself."

It perpetuates itself by inspiring future high schoolers in southwest Dallas County. It inspires them to get involved in year-round youth leagues and teams through Amateur Athletic Union and Basketball Congress International.

Duncanville senior guard Trae Harrison, who grew up playing in the Duncanville Youth Basketball Association, is one of those players. He remembers watching Brian Boddicker lead Duncanville to a state title in 1999 and thinking, "I'll get my chance."

"I always wanted to play for Duncanville," Harrison said. "Coming up in junior high, we all thought we were going to win state four years in a row."

Harrison now hopes it will happen once. But if this isn't the year for Duncanville, he said he would take pride in another team from the area winning the title.

"As much as I hate DeSoto, if we were to get knocked out, I would hope that they would go all the way," he said. "Same for Cedar Hill and for Bowie."

E-mail [email protected]

THE TEAMS

Arlington Bowie boys
DMN area rank: 4th

Record: 21-7

Arlington Bowie girls
DMN area rank: 4th

Record: 22-5

Cedar Hill boys
DMN area rank: 6th

Record: 23-5

Cedar Hill girls
DMN area rank: 6th

Record: 22-9

DeSoto boys
DMN area rank: 1st

Record: 28-0

DeSoto girls
DMN area rank: 2nd

Record: 26-4

Duncanville boys
DMN area rank: 2nd

Record: 21-6

Duncanville girls
DMN area rank: 3rd

Record: 26-4

[Pony_Fan]

That is great....BUT we need them in a SMU Uniform. Sign them early!

[PonyPride]

Maybe we can get Williams to sign as a freshman?

[MFFL02]

Tubbs need to start making a splash in the local area. He did a great job with Morris and Fall! Keep it up Tubbs!

[smupony94]

Was Bamba local?

[mustangbill67]

Well a relative works for the Mavs. Cannot recall if it is his father or his uncle.

[StangEsq]

Morris wasn't local either.

[Pony_Fan]

Was Bamba local?

Diop (Mavs) and Fall both went to Oak Hill Academy. (not at the same time) - Uncle works for the Mavs apparently.

Morris nor Fall are local.

[MFFL02]

I did not mean to imply they are local. What I meant was that Tubbs has done a good job nationally but needs to have that same success locally.

[White Helmet]

personally I dont care if a kid is from Dallas, Detroit, Denmark, or the Democratic Republic of Congo DRC, if he can play basketball and wants to play for the ponies, welcome aboard.

[MFFL02]

I agree, I would imagine that he would be able to get better recruits locally but you are correct who cares where they come from...if we can get recruits like fall and morris every year i am ecstatic!

[ponyplayer]

personally I dont care if a kid is from Dallas, Detroit, Denmark, or the Democratic Republic of Congo DRC, if he can play basketball and wants to play for the ponies, welcome aboard.

do they need to only come from places that with the letter D..............

[White Helmet]

NO they dont have to start with D, but alliteration is fun when it can be used.

[MFFL02]

haha

[Pony_Fan]

personally I dont care if a kid is from Dallas, Detroit, Denmark, or the Democratic Republic of Congo DRC, if he can play basketball and wants to play for the ponies, welcome aboard.

haha...

I'll take anyone from Denver, Denton, Des Moines, Delware, Demascus, or District of Columbia....as long as they can play ball who cares where they are from.