Salado offensive tackle Dallas Butts, Cameron Yoe tight end Thomas Limmer and Copperas Cove defensive tackle Steven Welch are looking forward to the game, even if it’s for different reasons.
As for Butts, it’s for the pure enjoyment of suiting up.
“I just plan on playing hard and having fun,” he said.
Limmer, however, has a different goal.
“My goal is to win. I want to win and represent the South,” said Limmer, who will team with Butts on the South squad against Welch and the North. “I think we’re better than the North. They keep our practices separated, and they’re on a different floor in the dorm. But come gametime, I think it’s going to be very competitive.”
For all three players, tonight’s game will be one more opportunity to sharpen their skills before playing at the college level.
Limmer (6-4, 215 pounds), an all-district tight end while splitting time at defensive end for the Yoemen, will play at NCAA Division II Harding (Ark.) this fall.
Welch (6-2, 270), an all-state honorable mention recipient the last two seasons as the Bulldawgs reached two Class 4A Division I state title games, will play at D-II Tarleton State in Stephenville.
And Butts (6-3, 270), an all-state lineman who helped lead the 13-1 Eagles to the 2A Division I semifinals, hopes to play for the U.S. Naval Academy in the fall of 2009.
“I’m going to a seminary in Pennsylvania for a year and then to the Naval Academy,” Butts said Monday during the all-stars’ lunch with the media at Trinity University. “I want to fly planes, and I figured the Naval Academy is the best route. But this won’t be my last football game. The Naval Academy wants me to play, so I plan on playing for them.”
Butts is only the second Salado player selected for the THSCA football game - following John Dulaney in 1986 - and he can’t find a bad thing to say about his experience.
“It’s been fun, a lot of fun,” he said. “I knew there would be a bunch of great athletes, but to practice with them every day, it’s been incredible. And the coaches have been great, too. They keep the offense not simple but basic, so everybody can learn it quickly. The best part has just been learning from all of these great coaches and being around all of these great athletes.”
Welch will be the fourth Cove player to participate in the annual game, and Limmer - by virtue of a roster change - will be Yoe’s 19th.
“I didn’t find out I would be here until about a month and a half ago,” Limmer said over a plateful of noodles and meatballs. “I was on my way to Florida, and I had to kind of change up my summer plans. It’s been kind of tough and long. But I had been conditioning all along. Harding sent me a little workout schedule and I had been using it, so I wasn’t out of shape.”
And as for the actual practices, which began Saturday?
“These practices are more like what you go through during two-a-days,” Limmer said. “Compared to regular in-season practices, these are a lot harder. But it’s been cool practicing with all of these Division I guys. And the food hasn’t been bad. It’s all-you-can-eat, so I’m not going to complain.”
In fact, there was only one complaint, and it came from a South teammate of Limmer.
“The only letdown,” said Corpus Christi Calallen cornerback Jeramie Marek, “is that all of the college girls are gone for the summer.”
Game details
San Antonio Alamo Heights coach Don Byrd will direct the South team, and Odessa Permian coach Darren Allman - an assistant at Temple in 2003 - will lead the North, which leads the all-time series 38-29. There have been six ties.
Tonight’s game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest.
Area contingent
Limmer, Butts and Welch will push the total number of area players who have competed in the THSCA football game to 137.
Temple has had the most representatives with 33 - though none in the last 15 years - followed by Yoe (19) and Belton (11). The first area player to take part in the game was Temple center Ki Aldrich, who competed in the inaugural game in 1935.
By contrast, the area has had only 23 players compete in the THSCA All-Star Basketball Game, which was held Monday night for the 64th time.
The basketball game’s history includes 64 games but dates back only 63 years because two games had to be played in 1949 to accommodate everybody in a small Beaumont gymnasium. The reasons for the large crowd were the coaches - Hank Iba for the South and Adolph Rupp for the North.
