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Tag: Coach Todd Dodge

Westlake Chaps win 2019 6A DIV II State Title

Written by River Tompkins on . Posted in HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL.

Two teams would enter only one would emerge victorious as the 6A DII Texas UIL Football State Championship was underway with the Westlake Chaparrals taking on the Denton Guyer Wildcats. Both teams had risen to the top of their division due to their physicality and run game and both were prepared to out-muscle and out-work the other. In a surprise upset Westlake shut out Denton Guyer 24-0 in a game with many twists and turns.

Both teams are no strangers to the big lights at AT&T stadium with a combined total of 13 championship appearances including tonight. Guyer won its two titles back-to-back in 2012 and 2013. While Westlake’s victories were much further apart with one in 1996 and the other in 2019. Coincidentally, Denton is 0-2 against the Dodge family (Todd Dodge – Westlake and Riley Dodge – Southlake Carroll) this season and 14-0 against everyone else.

“There’s no doubt that they are ready to play. They’re ready to go after a state championship and we’ve got a tremendous opponent in front of us, but we’re gonna have fun tonight,” said Westlake head coach Todd Dodge of his team.

“On the way here, I wore the Drew Brees jersey that Sam wore in the Sugar Bowl, the Westlake one. I kinda got in my mojo, but it’s awesome. When I was a freshman, I was behind [Ehlinger], and it’s really cool to have him here and have him watch us win state,” said Westlake quarterback Kirkland Michaux.

Westlake received to start the game and as they always did they looked to assert their physical dominance. Starting off with two straight power runs it proved unfruitful as the wildcats matched the Chaps physicality. Westlake than took to the air and exploited a defensive weakness as Westlake quarterback Kirkland Michaux would complete a series of passes, 18-yards, 35-yards, 11-yards, and a 5-yard touchdown pass to Jake Misch who was wide open in the end zone.

Guyer electrified the crowd as their speedy kick returner brought the ball all the way to the house. However a flag was thrown and it was called back due to holding, the fans excitement soared then plummeted. The Wildcats would have to slog it out getting down field as they went through three 4th down conversions. They then suffered a major casualty with the loss of star quarterback Eli Stowers due to injury. Stowers, a four-star recruit committed to Texas A&M is reported to have torn the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) in his left knee. With Wildcat fans shocked, silent and heartbroken, freshman qb Jackson Arnold bravely took the field. Arnold whose hands were visibly shaking, understandably having been thrown in to the un-fillable shoes of Stowers, attempted his his first throw, which was intercepted by defensive back Michael Taffe in the end zone.

The game from here on out would be a defensive one. Guyer continued that trend forcing Westlake into a three and out. Jackson Arnold would than fumble the snap and get sacked on the ensuing play by Westlake defensive end Austin McClendon once again forcing them to punt.


Denton Guyer got the ball back after a Westlake punt and star running back Kaedrick Cobb went to work weaving and juking his way through defenders for a pickup of 26-yards. Than the pressure came as Westlake defensive back Michael Taff came roaring into the pocket and dropped Arnold for a loss.

Westlake would put together a long drive aided by 4th down conversions and somewhat lucky penalties. The highlight was a 10-yard catch by Ryan Lindley and Kirkland Michaux being sacked in the backfield by Dotun Olanipekun. Then on 4th&18 from the 33-yard line the Chaps went for it, what seemed to be a terrible decision was in motion. Michaux rolled out to his left and fired a missile down field to Mason Magnum for a 33-yard score. The Westlake fans erupted.

Guyer would intercept Michaux’s pass before halftime but nothing would result. Westlake did everything fairly well in the first half, they were lock-down on defense and the passing game was roaring, the number one thing was to get Zane Minors going. For Denton Guyer it was about getting the offense going, especially through the air, they had 15 passing yards through the third quarter and that would simply not due against a strong Westlake defense.

Coach Dodge had this to say going in to halftime,”We’re not running the ball well enough right now. We’re making some explosive plays in the passing game. We got to do a better job of protecting the quarterback, the second half. Got to get a little bit more out of our run game.”

Coming out of halftime Guyer quarterback Jackson Arnold just did not want to be pummeled by players 100 pounds heavier than him. Sadly, his wish did not come true. On the first drive he was sacked twice by Austin McClendon and Will McConnell. The Guyer defense would continue to generate pressure on the quarterback but it was no help as the offense was essentially a stationary turret that was out of bullets and the secondary was a piece of armor that was hit one too many times.


Westlake took advantage of this as Kirkland Michaux found a wide open Jackson Coker down the field for a 39-yard touchdown. Westlake put the game on cruise control only scoring a field goal from there on out, but still managing to stay on top. 

Westlake defensive back Henry Smogur would get an interception putting him in company with Michael Taffe (1 int, 1 sack) who won defensive MVP. Michaux completed 20 passes for 285-yards and won the offensive MVP of the championship. His favorite target was Ryan Lindley (7-65) who went out with a hand injury as well as Mason Mangum (3-79-1).

“We have a very physical football team,” said Dodge when asked about the physicality of his players. “We have a bunch of kids that the worst thing that can happen to them is, to come to video on Saturday morning and have their team see them being soft or less than physical or giving less than great effort and that’s such a great peer pressure in our locker room.”

Westlake held their opponents to a scoreless game with a 24-0 victory. Westlake brings the title back home to Westlake/Austin which has not been done since their first state championship trophy in 1996, known as the Drew Brees era. After being eliminated multiple times by North Shore (2019 6A D1 state champion) they finally brought one back, symbolizing a banner year for Todd Dodge where he achieved 200 career wins and a Texas 6A DII State Championship.

“What a tremendous job that they’ve done all year long and I just, I am so happy. I’m so happy about the state championship,”commented Dodge on his team’s victory.

Jackson Coker had this to say about the team’s journey,”It’s unbelievable. This is something you know we’ve been working for, you know some of these guys I’ve been friends with since I was about two years old, and just to come out here and play the way we played is just, I’m at a loss, it’s unbelievable. It means everything, you know, we have a tradition of winning and I’m just glad that we could come out and uphold that to the potential that you know we held ourselves at.”

Westlake Advances to State Championship.

Written by River Tompkins on . Posted in HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL.

At McLane Stadium in Waco, a Texas high school football 6A Division II semifinal took place between the Westlake Chaparrals and the Katy Taylor Mustangs, both teams fighting to advance to the state championship at AT&T Stadium. The Chaps had made it to the semifinals the previous two years but were unable to tell the tale of anything further. The Mustangs, however, were in their first-ever semifinal game. Westlake swiftly eliminated Katy in a massacre ending with the Chaps winning 63-3.

After running through their hand painted banner with the modo ‘Hustle and Heart set us apart’, Katy received to start the game and were immediately welcomed to the semifinal round by Westlake who forced them to punt early. Katy’s defense followed in the same manner forcing Westlake to punt. On Westlake’s next drive they needed to make a play. They started with a 17-yard pass from quarterback Kirkland Michaux to Ryan Lindley. Next Michaux rolled out to his left firing a missile downfield to receiver Mason Mangum for a 33-yard touchdown.

After once again punting Katy’s defense would put up a fight. Mustang linebacker Martian Nowlin was able to sack Kirkland Michaux for a 15-yard loss. Starting in amazing field position on Westlake’s side of the field Katy put a nine play drive together highlighted by Keaton Kubeckas 15-yard catch to set them up for a field goal they would make.

The field goal was a bright spot for Katy and would remain so as their nightmarish first half would drag on and on. Westlake had the ball and were looking to end the game early. Jackson Coker, a jack of all trades, was lined up at running back, Kirkland Michaux found him on a middle seam route for a 60-yard catch and run straight into the endzone.

Westlake’s dominance would continue as defensive end Austin McClendon sacked quarterback J Jensen III. Capitalizing on the short field Kirkland Michaux would find Jake Misch in the back of the end zone for yet another Westlake score. Michaux also found freshman receiver Jaden Greathouse on the quick slant for a 6-yard touchdown.

With 45 seconds remaining in the half, Katy was just trying to make it to halftime alive but Westlake would not let that happen as they hunted the Mustang’s returner down forcing and recovering a fumble. As the Chaps had all game they threw the ball deep and on this play all-time leading Westlake receiver Mason Mangum was the recipient of a 38-yard touchdown.

Mason Mangum catches a 38-yard touchdown pass from Kirkland Micheaux.

Heading into halftime Westlake was up 35-3 and showed no signs of slowing down. On offense, the Chaps were finding holes and exploiting them as Kirkland Michaux had five first half passing touchdowns. The defense was doing their part and I would attribute that to the defensive ends. They collapsed the pocket on passing plays and more importantly played the inside zone and option hand-off incredibly well.

Westlake received to start the second half and the game was all but over as they quickly reasserted their dominance. It started out with a 41-yard touchdown pass to Jackson Coker who was left wide open in the end zone without a defender in sight.

Westlake defensive back Lucas Mireau then intercepted J Jensen III’s pass setting up yet another deep Westlake throw. Mason Mangum would run a great corner-post pattern to find himself once again open in the end zone for his third touchdown and Kirkland’s seventh. Kirkland Michaux wanting to add a little extra scrambled for a 29-yard touchdown to put yet another nail in the coffin.

Kirkland Michaux totaled 215-yards on scoring plays alone, and 302-yards on the day. Mason Mangum lead in the receiving game with 143-yards, all three of his touchdowns were in the 30-40 yard range. Jackson Coker who had 100-yards on the night averaged 33.3-yards per touch as well as a 66% touchdown rate for every touch.

Coach Todd Dodge talks with his Quarterback after a touchdown drive in the 2nd quarter of the 6A Division II semifinal at McLane Stadium in Waco TX Saturday December 14th 2019.

Westlake’s backups came in to the game for the remainder of the fourth quarter. Head coach Todd Dodge and his 2019 Westlake Chaparrals are heading to AT&T Stadium next Saturday to attempt what has not been done in the last 23 years…Bring a championship title home to Westlake. The Chaps will face the number four ranked Texas team Denton Guyer, who is fresh off a 35-17 win over Westfield.

Coach Dodge of Westlake

Written by Steven Ryan on . Posted in HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL.

Q: You’re on the most respected coaches in the state. You could probably coach any school in any city but you choose to coach here at Westlake in Austin. What do you love most about coaching at Westlake and living in Austin?
A: My favorite part about coaching at Westlake is just the great tradition that this place has. I love being at places that have tremendous tradition. There have been a lot of great players and a lot of great coaches that have come before us. Just like we did when we were at our run at Southlake Carroll, we wanted to make sure that we honor what came before us by continuing to raise the bar and making sure that we’re keeping this program in the very top five to ten teams in the state of Texas year-in, year-out. It’s not just a team very year. It’s a program that people have built around here and we want to continue to do that.
Q: One of my favorite parts about covering you last year was seeing the extra respect you paid to your opponents after games. After the Niceville (Fla.) game, you brought all the Niceville kids together and thanked them for coming to Texas. After the Lake Travis game, you went up to (Lake Travis quarterback) Matthew Baldwin and gave him a few extra words of encouragement. Why do you go out of your way to do that and how do you feel about the state of sportsmanship today>
A: One of the things is we want our players always to absolutely respect our opponents. We’re going to prepare extremely hard over the course of the week. We’re going to study them. We’re going to know everything that we can about them. One thing that I think is the biggest form of flattery is that you respect your opponent, and you prepare as hard as you possibly can. The one thing that we want to always make sure that never happens is we don’t get beat because we disrespected someone. As far as the stuff after the games, I take a lot of pride in being in the brotherhood of high school football in the state of Texas. This is something very special. Just because you’re not on the same team doesn’t mean your not in the same brotherhood, and so when the game is over with I want our players, I want our coaches to show respect to the people that we played against. I’ve always got something to say. We’ve been watching them all week long and want to encourage those guys for the rest of the year and let them know what we think about them, that they did a good job, and that’s just something that hopefully will permeate through our entire team.
Q: How you do feel senior quarterback Taylor Anderson has grown since he was first thrust into the starting role as a young sophomore?
A: Taylor is a veteran now. Taylor has started 22 games for us. Probably no one ever expected him to start seven games as a sophomore but we were 6-1 in the starts that he had as a sophomore. Obviously, last year, led us to a 14-1 season. It’s not even close. He is truly an outstanding leader because of his toughness and the one thing about Taylor, Taylor is a guy willing to do whatever it takes for his football team. I think the epitome of mental toughness was in last year’s Lake Travis game. He had a really bad first half as far as production. He threw three interceptions in the first half, and a lot of guys could’ve gone in the tank right there. He comes in at halftime and tells his teammates, ‘hey guys, y’all keep playing. I’m going to be alright. I’m going to get my stuff together.’ He rushed for about 125 yards, a couple touchdowns in the second half, led us to a victory. So that’s who he is. There are a lot of dual-threat quarterbacks in the state of Texas right now. He’s one of them. He’s a guy who rushed for 1,100 and threw for 3,000 (yards) last year and he accounted for about almost 50 touchdowns.

Westlake at Pflugerville 2017

Q: What do you think makes Tony Salazar such a special defensive coordinator?
A: He comes from a great lineage of defensive coaches. He learned under Pete Fredenburg and the guys at Mary Hardin-Baylor that play tremendous defense. He’s very intelligent, very passionate. He’s a guy that’s a tremendous teacher of the game. A lot of times people don’t equate coaches as teachers. We’re all teachers. It’s just our classroom when we’re coaching football is a little bit different. It’s out here in the open. It’s here between the white lines. But Tony is (somebody) I wouldn’t trade for anybody in the world.
Q: Name one player that lot of guys might not know but you think has had a great preseason camp and could potentially turn some heads this season?
A: A guy that a lot of people probably haven’t heard of yet or is not a household name is Drew Webster. Drew played a bunch of football for us last year but he wasn’t a starter at safety. He played enough to almost be a starter. So on the defensive side of the ball, it’s him. On the offensive side of the ball, I think that Tripp Graham – our running back – is going to surprise a lot of people in the replacing of Nakia Watson.