Region III wide open for the taking in 2017?

Three of the four districts that make up 3A DI region III will begin play this week. The lone other district - 12-3A - will begin the following week. In general, it has been somewhat of a struggle for some of what were expected to be the top teams within their respective districts. Are the preseason top dogs still the favorites? Will a sleeper come up to surprise someone? Those are questions that we will have answered over the next couple of months.

9-3A

This district does have three undefeated teams, but the one to focus on is Malakoff. The Tigers are off to yet another hot start with a 3-0 record. The only concern here is that Malakoff had a 137-40 scoring advantage in 2016, and that has fallen to 126-108 in these same games. I’m not sure this team is quite as talented as last season, but they will be a contender. The sub-varsity program went undefeated as a whole last year and has still yet to lose a game this season.

Teague will also be in the mix. The Lions suffered what was a shocking 24-0 loss to Madisonville to open the season, but have since rebounded offensively with a 40-33 win over Mexia and 57-7 throttling of Dublin. The surprise team thus far is Whitney, which is 3-0. We will see just how good these Wildcats are when they play Malakoff this week. West and Groesbeck are going to be in the mix for playoff spots.

10-3A

As a whole, it has been a rough go of it for for everyone included in 10-3A. No team is over .500 and some of the frontrunners have struggled at times. Cameron is 1-3, but actually has the most impressive results based on who they have played and how close the games have been. Rockdale was blown out by Lexington (38-7) and Franklin gave up 57 points to what is an average Caldwell team. Those three are still picks to finish near the top, but McGregor and Troy should be good enough to pull off an upset or two.

11-3A

Woodville has been the most impressive in the early going, and that is not really a surprise. The Eagles hung tight (30-22) with an undefeated Madisonville team and just got through beating 4A Liberty, which was 10-3 last season and was in the third round of the playoffs. After that, this district appears to be wide open. Coldspring is 0-2 and Kirbyville appears to be down, so this could open doors for someone like Buna to potentially finish higher up.

12-3A

This was the district that had something to prove in 2017, and so far nothing has been done to think there could be a contender here. La Marque was that one team that had big potential for a breakthrough with their tradition, but is off to an 0-3 start. East Chambers is improved and should compete with La Marque and Hitchcock for the district title. No team from this district

made it out of the first round in 2016.