Yoemen Sports Network

Elite football program normally do no have two bad years in a row. That is exactly what the folks over at Dave Campbell’s Texas Football were thinking when they were compiling their rankings for the 2018 season. The Yoemen, which finished 2017 with a 4-7 record and bi-district playoff finish, have been ranked 11th in the state by the publication in their annual preseason summer magazine.

Cameron was chosen by the magazine to win a state championship just last season, earning the coveted number one preseason ranking. Things didn't turn out like anyone would have liked, as the Yoemen struggled to a fourth place district finish and suffered a big loss to the Teague Lions in the opening round of the playoffs.

Summer football/basketball comes to an end

On Monday, the Yoe 7-on-7 teams played in their final week of the summer league from Temple. The Yoemen finished the day with a 1-2 record, knocking off previously undefeated Belton while suffering losses to both Copperas Cove and Temple. Cameron finishes the league with an overall record of 3-9, with two wins over Copperas Cove and the most recent win over Belton.

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the Yoe basketball summer team attended the Texas A&M team camp and played in several games against competition from all across the state. Cameron opened pool play with a win over 4A Anna, 42-39, defeated 2A Iola in match number two, 35-25, and fell to Jesuit in the finale, 41-31.

To start day two, Cameron defeated Eustace, 38-36, before falling to Ovilla Christian, 57-56, and Bland, 35-33, to finish 3-3 in pool play.

Broussard getting out of baseball

Gateway Prep head baseball coach John Broussard is leaving the game of baseball after one year with the school. Broussard spent a good portion of his head coaching career in Cameron where he led the Yoemen to the 2011 state championship.

Just this season, Broussard led his Gators to the state tournament for the second consecutive year before falling to Clifton in the semifinals. Broussard will not be accepting any other baseball jobs and will be going into other business.

Lone Star Cup winners announced

The state’s most successful athletic programs were announced over the weekend with the release of the final UIL Lone Star Cup Standings.

The Cameron Yoemen competed well on Monday in their league play with big-school competition. Cameron held their own with the big schools of Temple, Copperas Cove and Belton, but in the end could not hold off late surges and finished the day with an 0-3 record.

Cameron now moves to 2-7 overall in the league (two wins over Copperas Cove) with one more week to play in Temple on Monday at 5:30 pm.

“It’s frustrating because we could have beat every team that we played today,” said Yoe football coach Tommy Brashear on the three last-second losses. “We were a little sloppy.” “I see signs of getting better and then a little sloppiness, like not running the route like we should or not reading the defense correctly. We are dropping some passes that we shouldn't and forcing some balls.”

Game Breakdowns

Temple (L, 26-24)

It’s now June, and that means that Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine will start hitting the shelves soon. The 59th edition of the 400-page publication is expected to be in stores around June 28.

DCTF most recently released their cover for 2018, and the obvious was selected.

“The 59th annual edition of ‘the bible of Texas Football’ revealed its storied cover on Tuesday featuring new Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher for its latest iconic image,” said the magazine via their website. “The headline tells the whole story: “JIMBO — The Aggies Got Their Guy. Now, The Work Begins.” It’s the first time the Aggies have made the cover of the magazine since 2013.”

The magazine will once again be in all color and will feature the following:

Summer basketball/football update

Over the weekend, the Yoe basketball team played in their second state qualifying tournament of the year in Salado. Cameron rebounded by defeating Thorndale (47-40) in game one of pool play after falling to the Bulldogs in last week’s home SQT tournament. However, the Yoemen narrowly fell to Salado (50-49) while Thorndale topped to the Eagles as each team finished at 1-1.

Cameron ended up being the odd man out on points given up and finished third place in their pool. The Yoemen did play Burnet in a consolation game, but also fell there, 55-48. There is another chance to qualify this weekend in Rosebud-Lott.

My column last week on building a successful athletic program garnered quite a bit of attention, and I gained some great feedback from readers. This week, I want go over some of those comments and re-emphasize some of the points I made while also trying to be a bit more clear in my explanations. I spoke mainly on select organizations and privates lessons. There are certainly other factors that come into play when building a successful program, but right now I feel that is the area we must focus on improving.

I am not promoting sports specialization

I saw an interesting post on Facebook after Clifton had lost their 3A state championship baseball game to Beckville in dramatic fashion over the weekend. All of the players on the Clifton starting lineup were multi-sport athletes. Simply put, at the small school level you must have all of your great athletes competing in as many sports as possible if you want to be successful.

This week, I want to dive into a second topic that I feel very strongly about - building a successful athletic program. Cameron themselves has one of the most successful athletic programs in the state in its football team, which is in the top 10 in wins all time for all classifications and has won a total of four state championships. There is potential for other programs in Cameron to reach this level, but I believe there has to be changes at the bottom to make that happen.

Why is Yoe Football is so successful?

In Cameron - on any given Friday throughout the months of August through December - there is just a different feel in the air. That’s because there is going to be a Yoe football game played somewhere.

As I do every year, I want to take a look back to the 2017 season and give you a breakdown of Cameron’s opponents and how I had them ranked, from weakest to toughest The pool of teams was smaller than usual as Cameron only played 11 games this past season, so I will go ahead and list everyone.

11. Jarrell (W, 55-0)

After going 11-1 in 2015, Jarrell has fallen on hard times in a big way the past two seasons, finishing with a combined 1-19 overall record. The Cougars were shutout in six of their 10 games and the Yoemen managed to collect one of those in their most dominant victory of the season.

10. Little River Academy (W, 41-0)

Summer basketball and football update

Over the weekend, Cameron hosted their first-ever state qualifying basketball tournament from Yoe Gym. Things did not go quite as planned as the Yoemen fell to Thorndale (44-41) in their opener before rebounding with a win over Rosebud-Lott (62-48). Thorndale and Salado qualified for the state tournament.

The team will be back at it this Saturday in the Salado SQT. There is also the Rosebud-Lott SQT on June 16. There will be open gym for most of June before it is closed for floor repair in July.

Varsity players will be attending the Texas A&M camp from June 21-23.

On Monday, the Yoe football 7-on-7 team traveled over to Copperas Cove and finished with a 1-2 mark. The Yoemen took down host Cove before falling to Belton and Temple.