Bi-District Players to Watch
The real season is upon us. After 11 weeks and 10 games (or maybe just nine because of the weather), we’re down to the final six weeks of the season aka the playoffs.
In the Denton County area, we have 14 teams that begin the playoffs this week, but we want to look a little deeper as to which players are the most vital to success in the Bi-District round. We’ll go in class order and then alphabetical within each class.
6A
Byron Nelson
A lot of focus for Nelson this year has been the conversion of Parker Almanza going from tight end to quarterback because the team needed someone to run the offense. He’s done an impressive job as a yearlong, emergency starting quarterback.
The player to watch the most in Nelson’s first round matchup is CB/WR Mahamadou Siby – a Wake Forest commit – whose versatility on both sides of the ball could carry the Bobcats a long way through the playoffs.
Siby has amassed 622 all purpose yards, including 584 yards receiving on 39 receptions and four touchdowns. But at the 6A level, it’s not just about offense. It’s just as important to be able to cover dynamic receivers, which Siby has the talent to do and possibly limit one side of the field.
He’s provided 34 total tackles, which is fifth on the team, along with two interceptions and a tackle for loss. While there are no tracked passes defensed provided by Nelson, it’s hard to imagine Siby not having more impact on the pass defense.
Denton Guyer
The defense is still the team’s calling card with a stout front 7 with D1 talent in both levels as well as up-and-coming players in the secondary. That hasn’t been the issue for Guyer this year – though there have been some peculiar starts to games only for things to get figured out at halftime and it shut down opponents.
What has been curious at times is the play of the offense with constant rotation of the quarterback position and up-and-down play. Where Guyer has been steady on offense has been at running, thanks to Illinois-commit Kaedyn Cobbs.Â
Cobbs was fourth in the regular season in rushing yards at 1,131 and second with 21 touchdowns. In a sense, he’s been the bell cow for a Guyer offense that has needed that leader.
Guyer and Cobbs should be able to get the running game going early against Rock Hill, a team that gives up 132.6 yards on the ground a game out of the 275.8 allowed per game.
Hebron
Hebron succeeds this year based on the play of quarterback Brady Brock. When Brock had time, cleaner pockets, found the right targets and Hebron won, he completed 71 percent of his passes. In the five losses, that number dropped by more than 10 points to 59.7 percent.
Another way to look at it is for Hebron to strike the right balance on offense. In those 5 wins, Brock averaged just 20 pass attempts with the most in any of those games being 24. In the five losses, that averaged jumped to 28.8 with a high of 37.
Brock has a solid trio of wide receivers to throw to in Tyler Hoke, Drew Koster and Ethan Hellwig, who combined for 1,698 of the 2,182 receiving yards. Spreading the ball is paramount in conjunction with either run plays to Ayson McCray-Jones or designed runs for Brock.
Hebron will have to leverage what Brock does best against a very tough Prosper defense, which gave up just 151.7 yards passing per game.
Lewisville
It’s a lot to ask a sophomore in their first varsity season to be the leader of an offense that had solid talent roll through over the past few years – it’s a byproduct of standard being set and reset under the Michael Odle era.
But that is what Lewisville needs from Tre Williams especially going up against a regular first round foe in Allen. And what the Farmers specifically need from Williams is the player from the first six games of the season and not the one from the last six games. Here are the quarterbacking splits for Williams.
First 6 games: 64.9% completion rate, 243.5 passing yards/game, 19 TDs to 3 INTs.
Last 4 games: 62.4% completion rate, 209.8 passing yards/game, 9 TDs to 8 INTs.
For Lewisville to be successful, it needs a clean game from Williams as well a complimentary defense that we saw in those first six games.
5A DI
Carrollton Creekview
In this edition of the Creekview-Reedy matchup, it will be paramount that the skill position players provide top-tier support for Cason Garcia, who struggled last year.
That means quick screens, schemed routes and draws for Brendyn Shed, Kenyon Evans and Ahmari Washington. Shed had 17 total touchdowns between carrying the ball and playing receiver for 1,334 total yards. Evans contributed with 505 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on the year, and Washington led the team with 752 yards receiving and nine touchdowns.
Garcia had an outstanding year with 30 touchdown passes and nearly 3,000 total yards, but he can’t do it all especially against a defensive unit that nearly took down the No. 2 team in the state last week and had him finish last year with -83 yards rushing in the blowout loss.
Denton Ryan
This is a two-fer for Denton Ryan as the focus for the team has been and always will be the defense. For the start of the 2025 playoffs, the most eyes should be focused on the duo of Uzziah Warmate and Errol West.
The Sam Houston State commits combined for 130 total tackles, 32 tackles for loss, seven sacks, three fumble recoveries and 30 hurries throughout the regular season.
When these two are getting into the backfield and causing chaos either with the pass rush or clogging up the middle in an opponent’s run game, it bodes very well for the Raiders and helps take the burden off the offense.
Frisco Lone Star
The talent with this team is far, wide and deep. None more evident than a sophomore coming in to be the new starting quarterback to replace the district MVP from a year that just so happens to still be on the team.
It started for Trey Wright with a showing out against ranked Argyle on the road and has continued through the entire year on the way to over 3,400 yards of offense and 37 total touchdowns.
Of course, the supporting cast of Logan Brown, Davian Groce, Isaiah Massey, Karece Hoyt, Zach Forbish and many others definitely make Wright’s job just that much easier.
Whether it is a pass with perfect touch or a scramble that puts no less than 5 defenders into a blender mode, Wright has been electric all season long and should have a field day against North Mesquite this week.
Frisco Reedy
Ball control will be paramount for Reedy against Creekview this year, especially with the status of starting quarterback Lincoln Harn up in the air. DJ Carlisle did as well as he could on short notice against Lone Star, but he struggled to make quick decisions and took a lot of unnecessary sacks against Lone Star.
That means running back Jarrett Walker could be looked to carry the burden for the Lions this week.
Walker finished the 2025 regular season campaign with 765 yards rushing and 7 rushing touchdowns along with 174 receiving yards and another score. Walker’s ability to pick up tough yards up the middle as well be a hot route out of the backfield is beneficial for a team that might have to help settle in a young quarterback.
Frisco Wakeland
The two-way players will always get the nod in these lists and heavily relied upon during the playoffs. Enter Grayson Myer.
The wideout/defensive back standout is all over the field constantly with either chunk plays on the offensive side of the ball or impactful takeaways on defense.
Remember the 2 touchdown, 2 interception game against Reedy? Myer came up huge in that one, which then put Wakeland in a position to claim the No. 2 seed for the playoffs.
Myer tallied 972 yards receiving and 13 touchdowns while also racking up 30 tackles, 4 tackles for loss and 4 takeaways in 2025. If the ball is live, you can expect to see No. 6 around the ball.
5A DII
Argyle
It could be easy to look at Argyle’s forthcoming matchup against Lovejoy and think that either Maguire Gasperson, Nathaniel Bruce or Julian Caldwell are vital to the Eagles winning. And that assertion wouldn’t be wrong.
However, there’s one thing that must be accounted for and that is the offensive scheming that accompanies a Todd Dodge coached team, which is where Brody Bomar and Co. come into play.
Bomar finished second in the area in tackles with 92, which was tops for the team this year. He was one of five players to wrack up two sacks this season and was in a three-way tie for the second-most tackles for loss with eight.
All this is to say Bomar is an integral part Argyle’s plans to be able to stop an offense that put up over 400 yards a game.
4A DI
Frisco Panther Creek
For a team loaded with talent, you could almost point to any number on the roster and be convinced that player is going to help lead the Panther to a first round win over Dallas Carter.
For this exercise, we chose WR/DB Donovan Webb as the pivotal player for Panther Creek’s success this week. In the first go-round with Carter this year, Webb only had 25 yards of offense and nine tackles in a 49-7 blow out win.
And while he might not be the No. 1 option for the offense or be attacked that much on defense, Webb’s presence is still felt. Overall, Webb racked up 1,181 all purpose yards and 16 total touchdowns splitting time as a running back and receiver and then led the team in tackles with 78 along with four tackles for loss and three takeaways.
4A DII
Krum
There a whole hosts of reasons why Krum has had as great of a year as any. It could be the passing game between Elijah Guerrero, Lane Larson and AJ Criss or the defensive combo of Mateo Gonzalez and Daniel Holt.
From our standpoint, the player to watch this week is running back Will Holland. Two-hundred yard games are very common for the senior running back with five games going for 200 or more and no game less than 103 yards.
Holland finished the year averaging 8.6 yards per carry on 189 attempts and tallied 14 rushing touchdowns. When Holland gets the ball, expect impactful runs each time.
Sanger
It would be easy here to say Reggie Jones. The area leader in all things rushing stats is highlight reel waiting to happen with each handoff. But we’ll ignore the obvious and look at the defensive side of the ball with Jaise Jackson.
Up until Week 11, Jackson had been the area leader in takeaways and finishes atop the leaderboard tied with 6. Jackson finished with 43 total tackles on the year and has a knack for being around the ball when a bad ball is thrown or when it is on the turf.
Jackson, as part of the ’25 senior class, has only been around a playoff run one back in his freshman year, so expect he and the rest of the seniors to make the most of this run as they can.
3A DI
Pilot Point
Pilot Point has morphed into a ground and pound team under head coach Chad Worrell, which has been by necessity. This means a lot of players get touches throughout the course of each game and through the season to the tune of 16 players registering a rush attempt.
The three we’ll focus on are the rushing yard leaders in Josh Chumley, Caden David and Hunter Newman. This trio accounts for 218 carries for 2,134 yards (9.8 yards per carry) and 30 touchdowns for the Bearcats.
Ball control will be crucial for Pilot Point against the favored West Trojans that held teams to just 15.9 points per game.
