Trivia question: Who is the only Texas high school player to throw a touchdown pass in a Super Bowl?

Answer at the bottom of All-time Texas team

As always, there are plenty of former Texas high school players in Super Bowl XL between Seattle and Pittsburgh.

Seahawks

• DT Rocky Bernard (Baytown Sterling)
• TE Brock Edwards (FW Christian)
• LB D.D. Lewis (Aldine)
• DE Robert Pollard (Bmt. Westbrook)
• DL Marcus Tubbs (DeSoto)
• WR Jerheme Urban (Victoria Stroman)

Assistant Coaches

• Ray Rhodes Mexia
• Zerick Rollins Houston Kashmere

Steelers

• NG Casey Hampton (Galveston Ball)
• WR Lee Mays (Houston)
• WR Quincy Morgan (South Garland)

They have a chance put themselves among the very best Super Bowl performances.

Here’s an An All-Texas High School Super Bowl Team I put together for The Dallas Morning News

Defense

• DL Bob Lilly Throckmorton Had that 29-yard sack of Bob Griese
• DL Joe Greene Temple Dunbar Steel Curtain leader
• DL Bubba Smith Bmt. Charlton-Pollard Star on great Colt defenses
• DL Harvey Martin South Oak Cliff Lone Texan Def. MVP
• LB Lee Roy Caffey Thorndale Part of Lombardi’s Packers
• LB Mike Singletary Houston Worthing Those eyes
• LB Jessie Armstead Carter Interception for TD called back penalty
• DB Lyle Blackwood SA Churchill Started with brother Glenn for Miami
• DB Darrell Green Houston Jones Speedster coverman for Washington
• DB Everson Walls Richardson Berkner Won ring with Parcells’ Giants
• P Maury Buford Mt. Pleasant Son just played for SLC state champs

Offense

• QB Gary Kubiak Houston St. Pius Only Texan QB to SB throw passes
• RB Duane Thomas Lincoln He looked fast and was
• RB Kenny King Clarendon 80-yard TD catch
• RB Thurman Thomas Willowridge TDs in 4 SBs
• OL Guy Morriss Arl. Sam Houston Baylor coach started with Eagles’ Jerry Sisemore
• OL Gene Upshaw Robstown Great Raiders player (forget union work)
• OL Keith Bishop Midland Lee With Broncos in 2 SBs
• OL E.J. Holub Started SBs at LB and C
• OL Forrest Gregg Sulphur Springs 2 titles with Packers
• WR George Sauer Jr. Waco Jets’ leading WR in win vs. Colts
• WR Max McGee White Oak First SB TD catch
• K Chris Jacke Richardson Pearce 2 FGs as Packers won SB XXXI

Coaches

• Tom Landry of Mission
• Jimmy Johnson of PA Jefferson
• Forrest Gregg  of Sulphur Springs
• Raymond Berry  of Paris

Trivia answer: Cowboys RB Robert Newhouse of Hallsville Galilee threw a halfback pass to Golden Richards for a 29-yard TD in Dallas’ 27-10 win over Denver in Super Bowl XII.

* Avery Johnson has been chosen to be the West coach for the All-Star Game. He's the fastest coach to get to 50 wins in NBA history. He was named Coach of the Month for January and has now won that honor three times in four months on the job. And he's an all-around great guy.

So I'm prepared to name AJ "Greatest Coach In Sports History.''

But I'm thinking some credit needs to go to the situation he stepped into, as well. Avery might be an almost-percent coach, but the team he took over was pretty close to almost-perfect, too.

As top assistant Del Harris says, "he didn't exactly take mud and make a fruitcake.''

Good one, Del. ... except have you ever actually tasted fruitcake? Are you certain they don't make those things out of mud and maraschino cherries?

* Really happy for George Clooney. He received unprecedented sort of Oscars honors this week. And it's about time that poor bastard could sure use a break in life.

* One of my best stories from my days as a Cowboys beat writer concerns old friend Troy Aikman (who should on Saturday afternoon be announced as a Pro Football HOF'er) and his legendary "vision'':

Everyone knew that Aikman was somehow vulnerable to concussions; his hang-in-the-pocket gutsiness positively begged for him to lose some brain cells. In the 1993 NFC Championship Game, he got kneed in the earhole, and here came concussion No. 10. The Cowboys shipped him to the hospital when they asked him if he knew where he was, what he was doing, and he answered that he was playing "Henryetta Hens.''

That was his high school team. Henryetta (Okla.) High. Yeah, the Hens.

The next day, he begged his way out of the hospital and made his way to Atlanta. And before the January 30, 1994 Super Bowl kickoff against the Bills, he quietly informed the team's medical staff that he was woozy, that he had a severe headache. Aikman started neverthless, but as you might recall, there were long stints when he wasn't asked to throw; the Cowboys' decision to openthe second half by handing the ball to Emmitt on seven consecutive plays was as much headache-driven as it was gameplan-driven.

Did Troy play that game with a concussion? Not exactly.

"I played with my right contact in my left eye and my left in my right," Aikman told me the next day. "I just put 'em in the wrong eyes. But please don't write that. It's too embarrassing."

I hope it's OK, Troy, if I write it now.

* A girl named Epiphanny Prince, a 5-foot-9 senior, shattered the all-time national high school girls basketball scoring record this week with 113 points as Manhattan's Murry Bergtraum routed Louis Brandeis 137-32. I could delve into how this story ties to Kobe Bryant's 81-point game, how it speaks to the socioeconomic troubles of our inner cities, how there are noteworthy differences and similarities between the men's game and the women's.

I could do all that. ... but I'm still hung up on the parents who named their little baby girl "Epiphanny.''

* Utah coach Jerry Sloan, a disciplinarian type, had so much praise for the Mavs the other day that he even complimented the way Dallas lines up for the National Anthem. It really has been an accomplishment over the years here, inasmuch as half our around-the-globe team didn't exactly grow up singing the thing

* Bill Walton is on ESPN. He's on ABC. He's on the radio. He's on the internet. He's everywhere. And the other day, he mumbled something about how "the Mavs are being overlooked.''

Listen, you Big Pothead. ... I mean, Big Redhead. ... given the fact that you are ubiquitous on the basketball airwaves, aren't you the guy most in charge of 'un-overlooking' them?

* Aretha Franklin will sing the Super Bowl's National Anthem. Because, apparently, the game isn't important enough to get a popular singer from present times. OK, I'm being a little rough. I know she's a Detroit girl and all that. So I'll accept it. As long as Aretha doesn't wardrobe-malfunction her way into exposing a breast or two.

* In his address to the nation, Mr. Bush says "America is addicted to oil.'' Weird thing is, according to my sources, he said this while a gas pump was being plunged into a vein on his wrist.

Southlake Carroll going national

Two-time defending Class 5A Division II state football champion Southlake Carroll is negotiating a home game with California power Concord De La Salle for 2007 said Dragons coach Todd Dodge. Carroll was named mythical national powers in ’05 and ’06 while De La Salle earned a national reputation with its national record 151-game winning in which it was named USA Today national champs in 2000, 2001 and 2003. De La Salle’s streak was stopped in ’04.

Southlake Carroll would play Shreveport Evangel in a 2006 non-district. Evangel also is a nationally prominent program. Dodge wants to play high profile games only at home. Carroll has had three regular-season games broadcast live the last two years and likely will have games against Evangel and De La Salle broadcast.

Carroll has reached a 5A state record 4 state finals with three championships.

UIL realignment announced

Highland Park stays 4A

Highland Park, which won the 2005 4A Division II state football title, squeaked its way back into the state’s second-largest classification by 27.5 students. UIL realignment is based on an average daily student enrollment in grades 9-12. Highland Park turned in an enrollment of 1,957.5, with the half-student coming from a UIL formula on how to count hurricane displaced students who may leave.

Staying in 4A is critical to the year-round, all-sport success of Highland Park, which would suffer competitively as one of the smaller 5A schools rather than as one of the largest 4A schools.

Highland Park remained in 4A in the last realignment by a slimmer margin in ’04 when the 5A cutoff was 1,925 students and Highland Park had 1,921. In the mid 1980s, Highland Park opted to compete in 5A in the first few seasons its enrollment fell within the 4A limits but decided to drop down to 4A because it wasn’t able to compete as well.

Highland Park remains in a somewhat familiar District 10-4A with Mesquite Poteet, West Mesquite, Richardson Pearce, Forney, Greenville, Terrell and first-year Rockwall Heath.

Dallas ISD happy, Arlington ISD gets powers

DISD officials were happy to learn their District 14-5A would remain all DISD with Carter, Bryan Adams, Molina, Skyline, Sunset and W.T. White. There was a chance the UIL could have grouped them with Duncanville, Cedar Hill and DeSoto, powerhouses in several sports including football and basketball.

But it was Arlington ISD schools who’ll get the I-20 trio as Arlington, Bowie, Sam Houston, Lamar and Martin get the three large single high school independent districts.

East Texas again

Mesquite, North Mesquite and Mesquite Horn figured they’d stay with Longview, John Tyler and Tyler Lee, three big schools in East Texas with no other 5A schools closer. The MISD was right. But it’s a 6-team district with Rockwall moving into an otherwise all Garland district.

Remember it’s 4 for 5A

Next season, the top four teams in Class 5A advance to the state playoffs. All other classes will remain with three qualifiers.

Back with Homer

Rockwall coach Scott Smith has his Yellowjackets in with all seven Garland schools. Smith’s first head coaching position was with Garland and he led the Owls to the 1987 state playoffs. Smith said he’ll like working with Johnson again, but added Rockwall’s one vote on all district matters might not carry much weight.

“I don’t need to go to the meetings,” Smith said. “They can just tell what they decided.”

Celina in trouble

A difference in classification can make all the difference and no one knows better than Celina, which was moved up to 3A from 2A.

Celina won the ’05 2A Division II state title but knows all too well what moving up to 3A means. The Bobcats won four-consecutive 2A state titles (1998-2001) but were elevated to 3A for ’02 and ’03 and lost early in the state playoffs.

Celina moved back to 2A in ’04 and lost in the regional final before coming back for the ’05 championship.

Toughest schedules

It’s a toss-up for toughest schedule between Mesquite and Horn.

Mesquite’s 5-game non-district gauntlet

Plano, Plano East, Carter, Abilene, Midland Lee

Horn has

Richardson Berkner, Arlington, Wylie, South Garland, Skyline

Ups and downs

Wylie, Hebron, Keller Central and Mansfield Timberview moved up to 5A from 4A … Carter again requested to play in 5A despite 4A enrollment numbers. Carter wants to play at the higher competition and it also allows the DISD to have a complete DISD 6-team district.

Pearce, Denton Ryan, Samuell, Keller Fossil Ridge, The Colony and Waco dropped to 4A from 5A … Defending 3A state champ Tatum drops to Class 2A with a lot of returning talent … Good news for Class 3A Canton, eliminated by Tatum in the ’05 playoffs and returning star QB G.J. Kinne.

For the UIL realignment website:

http://www.uil.utexas.edu/2006align/index.html

As always, Big 12 schools can’t keep all the southwest players. And some pretty big ones got away. So when you see these guys on TV the next few years, don’t blast your college coach. Some kids want to try someplace different.

1. Matthew Stafford, QB Highland Park - Could start ’06 for Georgia

2. Mon Williams, RB/WR Mesquite Horn - He’ll be SEC star at Florida

3. Michael Morgan LB Skyline - Lots of potential to keep USC deep

4. Emmanuel Moody RB Coppell - Needs patience at USC

Simms on horizon

Matt Simms, brother of Chris and son of Phil, will be among the nation’s top recruits next year. A 6-2, 200-pound right-handed QB, no word yet where he’s leaning. Remember Chris was a longtime Tennessee commit before switching late to Texas. A rising Rutgers might be in the picture for the Don Bosco Prep (N.J.) star.