GAMES
RANKINGS
PN-G’s Joseph earns Bum Phillips coaching award
By Bob West
Jeff Joseph of Port Neches-Groves, who made an eye-opening statement in his first season with the Indians, has been named winner of the 4th Annual National Football Foundation Bum Phillips Golden Triangle High School Coach of the Year Award.
Joseph, an assistant at Southlake Lake Carroll in 2021, guided PN-G to a 13-3 record and its first appearance in the state finals since 1999. The Indians, after placing second in district, roared through the playoffs before losing to Dallas South Oak Cliff in the 5A Division II title game.
In recognition of the honor, Joseph will be presented a Balfour ring designed in Phillips’ image. The presentation will be made at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 2 in the Museum of the Gulf Coast. The public is encouraged to attend.
Normally Bum’s son Wade Phillips, who played for his dad at PN-G in the mid-1960s, comes in to make the ring presentation. Wade, however, is busy coaching the Houston Roughnecks of the XFL.
Legendary Texas High School coach Todd Dodge, a former Port Arthur Thomas Jefferson All-America quarterback, is going to pinch hit for Phillips. Dodge won seven state championships – four at Southlake Carroll and three at Austin Westlake.
Dodge is a recent Museum of the Gulf Coast inductee and strongly endorsed Joseph for the PN-G job. Joseph was an assistant coach under Dodge’s son Riley at Southlake Carroll before coming to Port Neches.
Also expected to participate in the program is Joseph’s dad Gary who has won five state championships at Katy. There is an outside chance Riley Dodge will attend.
Previous winners of the Phillips award are Silsbee’s Randy Smith, Nederland’s Monte Barrow and Eric Peevey of Little Cypress-Mauriceville.
THE NEXT BIG THING: Jasper has budding star in Smith
Southeast Texas has seen some talented football players become high level recruits and succeed at the next level and the next SETX star is a linebacker from Jasper.
Ty’ Anthony Smith from Jasper High School is already a 3-star recruit with over 20 offers from schools like Arizona State, Auburn, Baylor, Boston College, LSU, Texas A&M, OU, Texas and others.
Smith had a phenomenal Junior season tallying 76 tackles, 36 assists, 6 TFL’s, 4 PBU, 1 FF.
The 3-star LB visited Texas A&M this past weekend, showing up to Texas A&M’s junior day on Saturday with many other high level recruits from across the nation. While many recruits have different things that make a visit special, Smith's highlight of the weekend was talking with coach Jimbo Fisher.
“Honestly, talking with coach Jimbo was what I liked most about the visit” said Smith. “Talking with the head coach, the guy who runs the whole thing and makes all the decisions, really made my visit. He brought me into his office and kept it real with me with any questions I had, which was an important thing to me.”
Smith also got to talk with defensive coordinator DJ Durkin, who told him to just “keep being him”.
The experience was filled watching the playoff games with the other recruits, talking with the staff, and the food...
Smith will be playing on the 7v7 circuit this spring with the Texas Nightraydas, where he plans to work on his speed and coverage skills.
As far as more visits go, he will be visiting OU on the 28th and Baylor on the 29th. Watch out for this rising star from SETX, whose recruitment is heating.