When a sports fan sits down to watch the NFL Draft each April, it’s easy to focus on where each player did his growing up in the college ranks instead of thinking back to where it all started.

    From what I can tell, most of these highly-touted college players had their comeuppance in Texas.

    A study was done recently by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine, and it clearly shows 37 former Texas high school football standouts were taken in this past draft. I know! It surprised me too.

    But take a look at these numbers.

    The breakdown listed 37 standouts taken as early as the first round (six total) to as late as the seventh round (five players). In fact, there were a total of 17 former Texas players taken between the third and sixth rounds.

     That’s certainly not to overshadow the ones that went in the first round -- with Matthew Stafford, formerly of Highland Park, going No. 1. Jason Smith from Dallas White went No. 2 to the Rams while Michael Crabtree (Dallas Carter), Brian Orakpo (Houston Lamar), Brandon Pettigrew (Tyler Lee) and Evander Hood (Palo Duro) went 10th, 13th, 20th and 32nd, respectively.
Unfortunately, none were from our local coverage area. The closest was former Grapevine and University of Texas standout Henry Melton. Melton was drafted by the Bears in the fourth round. Rhett Bomar went to the Giants in the fifth round after playing high school ball at Grand Prairie.

    The last local athlete to be taken in the NFL Draft, by my recollection, was former The Colony standout Mike Williams in 2002. That may have been seven years ago, but it’s obvious that Texas is truly king when it comes to high school football – and there is no telling when or where the next big break may come from. The good news is that it more than likely will come out of Texas.

      Just look at some of the big name players who moved on to the college ranks this past offseason. Listed among the state’s Top 75 recruits in this same magazine were former Argyle wideout Brady Brown (Vanderbilt) and Guyer’s Jesse Coffey (Nebraska) and Kyle Clark (Texas Tech). Of those 75 recruits, 42 opted to stay in state rather than go elsewhere. This number was up from 33 a year ago.

     The magazine, which has been an annual hit since 1960, went on and pointed out that Texas once again leads the nation in the number of high school players who signed Division I-A letters of intent. This included junior college recruits and post-graduate prep school players. With JC and fifth-year prep players included, Texas beat out Florida 394-346. Texas’ numbers were up from 370 a year ago.

    That’s something to be proud of as the upcoming football season inches closer. From a writer’s perspective, I can’t tell you how special it is to be able to say I’ve seen some of these players get their start right here in the local area.

    Who will it be this year? It won’t be too long until we find out.

    Until next time, I’ll see you on the sidelines.