The Texas Invitational will answer early questions

BROOKE MCCARTY

After a monster class of 2012 players graduated from our wonderful state, one would wonder what would be next and when you look at the states past and understand year after year not a whole lot changes, the safe bet would be to put on your seatbelts and get ready for the ride. Several major tournaments highlight part one of the season, I break it down like this, preseason, district and playoffs and those events I’ve tabbed “MAJORS” are loaded with teams that will probably make significant runs or have a say on whop goes where in that most important part of the season.

Off the bat, the Texas Invitational will have defending champion Duncanville back and ready to show that they are still as powerful as they were last season. The Pantherettes came to the event last season and beat our top two teams at the time, Cy Falls and Clear Springs en route to the tourney championship in fact that Duncanville team was the best team I’ve seen in Texas ever and their domination in Austin was simply amazing as they closed everything out with an exclamation point. Tasia Foman and Ariel Atkins are two of the top players in the country from the 2014 class, they alone could carry a team quite far however they have help and are on a mission.

The big news however will be the game being played at high noon on Friday as Manvel takes on Clear Springs and without seeing either team play so far this season and basing my opinion solely on the talent that’s on each team, I would have to say these are the top two teams in Region 3 and this could be a preview of an Elite 8 match-up in R3 providing both win their districts which means one of them won’t make the Final 4 for the first time in three years.

 Manvel’s Brianna Turner (2014) is the top player in the country while Clear Springs Brooke McCarty (2014) is also in the Top 10 for her class, I called them “can’t misses” while both were in middle school as well as Manvel’s Jordan Hosey (2015) who recently committed to Texas and is also among the top players in her class. 

MANVEL’S JORDAN HOSEY AND BRIANNA TURNER