Keller Citizen Legislature

Hugh Charles was a beast in High School…a men amongst boys on the football field.. His bio at Colorado University website lists some of his High School accomplishments on the field:

As a senior team captain, he was an All-Southwest performer by SuperPrep and Prep Football Report, with PrepStar naming him to its preseason All-Midlands squad. SuperPrep also tabbed him as the No. 56 player (fourth RB) in the Southwest, and Prep Football Report named him the No. 71 player overall (11th RB) in the Midlands. Rivals.com ranked him as the No. 59 overall player in Texas, and the No. 16 running back in the nation. As a senior, he earned first-team all-district (5-5A) honors at both running back and kick returner (he was special teams district MVP), as he averaged 34 yards per return on eight attempts, including one touchdown for 92 yards. On the ground, he totaled 1,084 yards with a long run of 54 and seven touchdowns on 150 attempts, as he also reeled in 24 passes for 200 yards and three scores. A team captain again during his junior year, he garnered first-team all-district honors at kick returner and running back. Averaging about 40 yards for six returns, he scored two touchdowns on dashes of 97 and 82 yards. He had 84 rushes for 607 yards and four touchdowns, with a long run of 50, while making 18 receptions for 120 yards and two more scores. During his sophomore campaign, when he was named the 2002 5A Sophomore Defensive Back of the Year playing free safety, he racked up 20 total tackles, with all eight solo stops going for losses, including four sacks; he also added two pressures and three pass deflections and returned four kickoffs, one for a 91-yard touchdown. Top games: in a 34-31 win over Fossil Ridge his senior year, he rushed the ball 18 times for 180 yards and two touchdowns; in a 38-24 win against Sam Houston in the first round of the 2003 state playoffs, he recorded 140 yards and one score on 16 carries, as he also caught one pass for a 10-yard touchdown; in win over Colleyville that same year, he had 138 yards rushing with one touchdown on 17 attempts, along with a 92-yard kick return for a touchdown. Under coach Kevin Atkinson, Keller was 8-2 his senior season, as it won the district championship before advancing to the second round of the state playoffs; the team went 5-4 his junior year and 4-5 his sophomore season. He also lettered four times in track and was a first-team all-district performer in the 100-meter dash (career best of 10.34) and the long jump (25-3¾). He was the only prep athlete in the nation in 2004 to record a jump beyond 25 feet, taking district honors with the effort along with winning the triple jump and being a key member on the 4×100 and 4×200 relay teams. He went on to win the regional championship in the 100 and the long jump in addition to finishing second in the triple jump.

Hugh went on to play four years at Colorado, finishing his career with 3,622 total all-purpose yards, second in Buffalo history. He played all four years and even competed in NCAA Track and Field. But unlike Jon Edwards, while huge on the field, Hugh is small in stature at only 5’8″ tall, so the NFL scouts passed him by after graduation.

My daughter is home from SHSU because of Hurrican Ike and she ran into Hugh the other night. She reports that Hugh graduated from CU and is selling insurance here in town. He is staying in shape and still looking for a professional football opportunity.

A feature that I hope to do every so often. I have limited knowledge of all the kids that graduated from KISD and moved on, but I hope to ask for some help from the coaches this year.

In my first post, I want to tell you about one of the best high school baseball players I’ve ever had the chance to see play the game; Jonathan Edwards was a 2006 graduate of Keller HS.

Jon played right field for the Indians and at 6′ 5″, 230 pounds was a formidable physical specimen. At a Perfect Game event he threw the ball at 98 mph from the outfield and he would hit balls out of tiny Indian Field like no other I have seen play there. Jon would at times misplay a ball in the outfield to try to goad some unsuspecting runner to try to take an extra base, and usually that runner would be thrown out.

There was no doubt in anyone’s mind, including Jon’s, that he was going to be drafted straight out of High School. There were always a passel of scouts following Jon around at every game his Junior and Senior seasons.

The one weakness in Jon’s game was his ability to hit good off-speed pitching, and it cost him on draft day, as he fell to the 14th round when he was selected by the then World Champion St. Louis Cardinals.

Jon is still playing in the Cardinals organization, being moved up to their Single A affiliate Quad City River Bandits in Davenport Iowa, right across the river from where my Mom and Dad live.

Jon still lives in Keller in the off season, and you can usually see him working on his swing either at Indian Field cages, or Swing City, just west of the railroad tracks.