ScotSports.com Blog

The shortest month in the year is also the busiest for sports coverage. So what better way to start it than with one of the best weeks of the year?
Here are the highlights of an action- and news-packed week in Scotland:

Monday:  UIL realignment
The UIL shuffles its district cards every two years, so at 9 a.m. all eyes and ears will be at the Birdville Fine Arts Center for the announcement of which schools HP will be competing against in district play for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons. It's an event big event that even Fox Sports Southwest carries a one-hour program on it live.

Tuesday: Girls basketball vs. Royse City
Come to Highlander Fieldhouse at 7:30 p.m. as the Lady Scots try to advance to the playoffs for a second consecutive season. HP (15-11, 7-4) can clinch a playoff bid with a win. Royse City won the first meeting, 54-38.

Wednesday: National Signing Day
There will be an assortment of Signing Day activities at HPHS honoring the Scots' student-athletes who are continuing their athletic careers in college. Among the HP athletes to be signing are Trevor Hubbard in boys soccer (South Carolina), Margaret Gottsacker in girls soccer (Texas Tech), Garrett Childers in football (San Diego) and Joey Landess (Richmond). 

Thursday: District swimming and diving championships
You can use this day to catch your breath, or you can keep the adrenaline going by heading out to the new Rockwall ISD Natatorium, which we hear is a swimming and diving palace. The district diving championships open the event on Thursday, with the swimming finals on Friday afternoon. HP is favored to win both boys' and girls' divisions.

Friday:  Boys soccer vs. McKinney
HP is 4-4-3 on the season against one of the toughest non-district schedules in the area. They return home for their final non-district match against McKinney, a team they may face again in the playoffs. The high-scoring Scots (18 goals in 11 games) are fun to watch.
Next door the girls' basketball team hosts state-ranked Rockwall in Highlander Fieldhouse.

Saturday: Meet the (fill in the blank) and district wrestling
There are "Meet the Scots" events for the softball, baseball and boys lacrosse teams at the high school. Basically, stay at HPHS from 10 a.m. to about 3 p.m. and you can meet the teams and half the athletic department.
In other news, the HP wrestlers head to Richardson Berkner for the district wrestling championships looking to set the postseason stage for another run at a top-12 finish at state.  

Just got word from Jerry Sutterfield, HP Athletic Director for Women's Sports, that the girls' soccer tournament is on as scheduled beginning Thursday at Highlander. A handful of other tournaments around the area, including the HP boys' and girls' junior varsit tournaments in Hebron and Waxahachie, have already canceled their schedules due to the winter weather.

But HP will play on and monitor the weather and temperatures as needed, Sutterfield said.

Dress warm, kids.

HP won its season-opener last night, 3-1, over Frisco Wakeland at Highlander Stadium.

The Lady Scots (1-0) are scheduled to face Austin Lake Travis at 7 p.m. Thursday at Highlander as part of the HP Girls Tournament. There is no word yet from HPHS officials on whether that game, or the tournament as a whole, will be played with the severe winter weather on its way. Waco Midway and Longview open the tournament at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

Updating a previous post, the HP boys soccer team will play only one game in what was the Waxahachie Tournament schedule for this weekend. Due to severe winter weather, the tournament was reduced to one day of games on Saturday, and HP will face Adamson at 4:30 p.m. at Ennis High School in the modified schedule.

Updating a previous post, the HP Girls Tournament scheduled to begin Thursday afternoon has been canceled in its original format due to severe winter weather. According to the HPISD website, HP will play two games at Highlander Stadium on Saturday, at 9 a.m. against Wichita Falls Rider, and at 3 p.m. against Austin Lake Travis in a modified tournament format.

The boys' soccer tournament in Waxahachie scheduled for this weekend has been canceled except for its Saturday games due to the freezing weather and possible negative-temperature wind chills expected to hit the area on Thursday. 

The junior varsity soccer tournaments that would have opened the seasons for the boys' and girls' teams have been canceled entirely.

There is no word yet on the status of the varsity's HP Girls Tournament that begins tomorrow night at Highlander Stadium.

HP fans don't have to look or go very far to see the state's best teams. Six of the top 10 teams in this week's Texas Association of Basketball Coaches' state poll are from Region II, and more specifically, in the D/FW area. Two more Region II teams are in the top 25, making one-third of this week's state poll playing in HP's region. It will be a tough playoff road for HP (11-8, 3-1), which is not ranked, should it make it into the postseason.

Here are this week's state rankings courtesy of the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches and the Texas Girls Coaches Association:

Texas Association of Basketball Coaches
Class 4A poll, Jan. 4, 2010
1. Mansfield Timberview (19-2)
2. Canyon (21-1)
3. Frisco (19-4)
4. Del Valle (22-2)
5. Rockwall (21-4)
6. Schertz Cibolo Steele (19-3)
7. Waco Midway (17-5)
8. West Mesquite (19-5)
9. McKinney North (16-2)
10. Waxahachie (15-5)
11. Denton Ryan (11-5)
12. Rockport-Fulton (20-4)
13. Stephenville (16-4)
14. Mont Bellvieu Barbers Hill (16-4)
15. Livingston (18-0)
16. Hendrickson (17-4)
17. Springtown (14-4)
18. Longview (18-3) 
19. Wolfforth Frenship (16-5)
20. Willis (17-6)
21. Beaumont Central (15-6)
22. Houston Yates (10-0)
23. Aledo (15-5) 
24. Dallas Lincoln (10-3)
25. Dripping Springs (15-8)

Texas Girls Coaches Association
Class 4A rankings, Jan. 5, 2009 (no records provided)
1. Mansfield Timberview
2. Canyon
3. Del Valle
4. Livingston
5. Schertz Cibolo Steele
6. Frisco
7. Rockwall
8. McKinney North
9. West Mesquite
10. Rockport-Fulton
11. Stephenville
12. Springtown
13. Waxahachie
14. Waco Midway
15. Hendrickson
16. Mont Bellvieu Barbers Hill
17. Willis
18. Longview
19. Wolfforth Frenship
20. Dallas Lincoln

For the first time this season, the Scots are not a part of the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches' state poll. HP (8-9, 1-1), which was ranked No. 24 in the last poll released on Dec. 14, went 2-4 during the holidays, with wins against Molina and Carrollton Turner, but also lost to Everman and state-ranked teams Richardson Pearce, Lancaster and Houston Wheatley.

Here is this week's TABC poll:

Texas Association of Basketball Coaches
Class 4A poll, Jan. 4, 2010
1. Houston Yates (13-0)
2. Lancaster (18-2)
3. La Marque (17-2)
4. Lincoln (16-1)
5. Fort Worth Arlington Heights (19-0)
6. Kerrville Tivy (16-4)
7. Austin Lake Travis (15-3)
8. Killeeen (16-6)
9. Dallas W. Wilson (15-6)
10. Austin Johnson (11-6)
11. Friendswood (14-4)
12. Dallas Kimball (11-7)
13. Houston Waltrip (11-3)
14. Del Valle (14-5)
15. El Paso Bowie (16-1)
16. Brenham (13-4)
17. Richardson Pearce (13-6)
18. The Colony (13-7)
19. Fort Worth Southwest (9-4)
20. El Paso Austin (14-3)
21. Mansfield Timberview (10-7)
22. Frisco Centennial (12-7)
23. Rosenberg Terry (15-5)
24. Humble Kingwood Park (12-8)
25. Austin Reagan (7-8)

HP's girls soccer team opens its own tournament Thursday night taking on Austin Lake Travis at 7 p.m. in the second game of the HP Girls Tournament. The Lady Scots will also face Waco Midway, Wichita Falls Rider and Longview in the five-team round-robin tournament that continues through Saturday. A point system based on each game's result will determine the champion.

The tournament schedule is below. Schedule modifications may be necessary if an expected winter blast creates freezing temperatures this weekend.

HP Tournament

Thursday, Jan. 7
Game 1: Waco Midway vs. Longview, 5:30 p.m.
Game 2: HP vs. Austin Lake Travis, 7 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 8
Game 3: HP vs. Waco Midway, 1 p.m.
Game 4: Longview vs. Wichita Falls Rider, 3 p.m.
Game 5: Waco Midway vs. Austin Lake Travis, 5 p.m.
Game 6: HP vs. Wichita Falls Rider, 7 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 9
Game 7: Longview vs. Austin Lake Travis, 10 a.m.
Game 8: Wichita Falls Rider vs. Waco Midway, Noon
Game 9: Longview vs. HP, 2 p.m.
Game 10: Wichita Falls Rider vs. Austin Lake Travis, 4 p.m.

Each game will be two halves of 40 minutes. A game ending in a tie will remain a tie - there will be no shootouts.

10-point system
6 points for a win
3 points if game ends in a tie
1 point per goal, maximum of 3 points
1 point for no goals allowed

Tie-breakers
Head - Head
Goals scored; maximum 3 goals per game.
Goals allowed; maximum 3 goals per game.
Cards (Least red cards then least yellow cards)
Coin flip