What’s in Store for Football with Stats & Coach Parker’s Thoughts
Canyon Lake’s Fall Sports came to a close when The Lake was ousted from their 2nd round of play-offs against Bay City in November, but this season was not without some exciting moments.
The 2024 season was welcomed with a new head football coach from the Houston area who also had other coaches added to this hill country community.
Defensive Coordinator Kurt Sloan Offensive Coordinator Brad Manning Other New Coaches from this past season: Brandon Vasquez And Returning Coaches Brian Hooper Bret Hodges Jarret Beebe Daniel Lancaster Cody Means Kyle Hejnicki Heath McDonough
Coach Sam Parker came to The Lake with a different offense & defense that helped jump start a 2-win 2023 season into an Area Round 2nd place in district 8-4 final record.
CLHS replaced their slot-t offense for the last 10 years to a more balanced attack that scored at a 40 points per game clip.
The ReSporter will give kudos to these players starting with where a school shout excel in against a more imposing opponent….academics.
ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT THSCA ACADEMIC ALL-STATE Harris Gilliam WR Harris Gilliam Jason Ammons OLB Jaxon Ammons Hagen Gill K Hagen Gill Ryder Hopper TE/QB Ryder Hopper Michael Anderson LB Michael Anderson Luke Jeckell DB Luke Jeckell James Garza RB James Garza Kaiden Lewis RB Kaiden Lewis Matt Elson DL Matt Elson Noah Chandler DL Noah Chandler Rylan Oppelt DL Tristan Alexander DB Carter Williams WR Jace Wheeler QB Gram Simpson WR Wyatt Roberts DL Jackson Stracener K Lucas Schexnayder WR Isiah Eureste OLB Peyton King WR JR Lindell OLB Tyler Rios OLB Ben Parma DB Nico Wyckoff RB Cash Ziemba DB Rowdy Clancy OLB Eli Hammons LB Caleb Armstrong LB Carter Prieto DB Chandler Cross DL Dalton Hodges DL Ryan Reyna TE Chris Taber LB Jayden Hicks OL Joseph Matos DL Donovan Menchaca OL Evan Poole OL
This is a pretty impressive group of players who were able to excel on the field of play added to their work in the classroom.
2024 Canyon Lake Football ALL-DISTRICT TEAM (*) indicates Senior *Carter Williams WR Offensive Player of the Year Cayden Toon OL 1st Team All-District Eli Hammons LB 1st Team All-District *Evan Poole OL 1st Team All-District *Harris Gilliam WR 1st Team All-District Jace Wheeler QB 1st Team All-District *James Garza RB 1st Team All-District *Jaxon Ammons OLB 1st Team All-District *Luke Jeckell DB 1st Team All-District *Ryder Hopper TE 1st Team All-District *Rylan Oppelt DL 1st Team All-District *Hagen Gill K 1st Team All-District Dalton Hodges DL 2nd Team All-District Donovan Menchaca OL 2nd Team All-District Gram Simpson WR 2nd Team All-District Isiah Eureste OLB 2nd Team All-District *Michael Anderson LB 2nd Team All-District Tristan Alexander DB 2nd Team All-District Ben Parma DB All-District Honorable Mention Cash Ziemba DB All-District Honorable Mention Chandler Cross DL All-District Honorable Mention Jackson Stracener K All-District Honorable Mention Jacob Price DB All-District Honorable Mention Joseph Matos DL All-District Honorable Mention Matt Elson DL All-District Honorable Mention Phoenix Dent OL All-District Honorable Mention Victor Caldera OL All-District Honorable Mention Wyatt Roberts DL All-District Honorable Mention
Losing some good players but an abundance of up and coming students will be ready to replace or continue their second year of continued improvement awaits.
Let’s Go Lake!
Coach Sam Parker came to work in February and hit the ground running as a transformation would need to take place with a new language needing to be learned.
“It’s a totally different language that needed,” Coach Parker stated when asked the main thing needed when entering that first season. “That’s not only for the players but some of our coaches too.”
Coach Parker quipped, “This first year was a start from scratch and everything we were having to teach from language to work-outs….now going into our second year it is going to be huge by not starting at zero.”
“They needed to understand the intensity and know that there were no starters from that prior season only back-ups…..No one had a Varsity Locker Room,” Parker continued. 
On what will be going on this off-season, “We will be creating competition at every position for the next 4 months and ultimately do the best we can by keep molding them.”
The Hawks are losing some valuable skilled players on offense but as a whole there is still a defense with some numbers returning.
SENIORS (16) RETURNERS (21 JR & 7 Soph) TACKLES 277 524 TFL’s 30 66 SACKS 7 17 Caused Fum 10 16 Fum Recovered 4 14 Ints 6 9 PBU’s 4 32 Blocked Kicks 2 4 TFL’s Tackles For Loss PBU’s Pass Break Up
CL’s Defense has several more defensive skilled players returning who had impressive numbers.
Tackles Eli Hammons 134.0 Cash Ziemba 54.5 Ben Parma 50.5 Jacob Price 47.5 Dalton Hodges 38.5 Joseph Matos 34.5 Tristan Alexander 29.5 Isiah Eureste 29.5 TFL Eli Hammons 29 Dalton Hodges 11 Sacks Eli Hammons 7 Dalton Hodges 5 Fumble Caused JR Lindell 4 Joseph Matos 3 Chris Brown 2 Wyatt Roberts 2 Fumbles Recovered Isiah Eureste 3 Tristan Alexander 2 JR Lindell 2 Interceptions Tristan Alexander 6 Pass Break-Ups Ben Parma 14 Isiah Eureste 5 Jacob Price 4 Tristan Alexander 3 Blocked Kicks Isiah Eureste 2 Eli Hammons 2
Way to Stay in Shape Hawks!
Last season it was this Defense that helped CL’s Offense during those winnable games that needed help to keep games within reach.
Those Sub-Varsity squads had successful seasons with a case in point Freshman team that came out of a less than stellar Mountain Valley tenure to forging a winning season during their freshman campaign. Does that mean the MVMS coaches did not do a good job? Not at all…in fact those Mtn. Valley teams play every game against schools that feed into a larger Comal School.
Add to that having boys that don’t hit their growth spurt until one or two years later.
“Our feeder program helps to build Canyon Lake High School,” Coach Parker said. “We have some good classes as kids and players and they will learn the same language and our Freshman to our Seniors these kids are together.”
Lake Hawk Proud!
Coach Parker closed, “We will put the schematic together during this off-season to make our team better and it will take our entire coaches and players having to get smarter.”
One last item was watching this year’s offense and how well balanced it turned out to be….need proof.
Look at these numbers: Rushing Yards 2220 Passing Yards 2118 Rushing Plays 418 Passing Plays 213 Touchdowns Rushing 32 Touchdowns Passing 31 SEASON STATS 12 Games 1 2 3 4 Total Opponent 53 119 95 69 356 CL Hawks 167 131 105 76 479 OPPONENTS HAWKS Total Yards 3790 4338 First Downs 188 209 Rush/Yards 398/1461 418/2220 Comp/Att/Int 170/322/15 121/213/13 Passiing Yards 2328 2124 Punts/Average 38/33.0 38/36.1 Fumbles/Lost 24/16 18/10 Penalties-Yards 62-528 60-557 Passing Comp Att Pct Yds Int TD Jace Wheeler 105 183 .567 1893 10 30 Ryder Hopper 18 31 .543 225 3 1 Totals 123 214 .563 2118 13 31 Rushing Att Yds Ave Lg TD James Garza 197 1350 6.9 87 17 Kaiden Lewis 77 432 5.6 25 7 Nico Wyckoff 32 189 5.9 32 2 Harris Gilliam 19 143 7.5 28 2 Gram Simpson 10 88 8.8 32 2 Ryder Hopper 32 78 2.4 14 1 Carter Williams 11 39 3.5 19 1 Peyton King 2 13 6.5 18 0 Lucas Schexnayder 3 3 1.0 6 0 Jace Wheeler 18 -35 - 7 0 Team 7 -81 — - - Totals 408 2220 5.4 87 32 Receiving No Yds Ave Lg TD Carter Williams 50 1189 23.8 72 19 Harris Gilliam 32 511 16.5 48 8 Ryder Hopper 9 95 10.5 43 2 Peyton King 8 86 10.8 14 1 James Garza 11 73 6.6 12 1 Gram Simpson 7 65 10.8 16 0 JR Lindell 2 45 22.5 37 1 Lucas Schexnayder 1 19 19.0 19 0 Nico Wyckoff 1 12 12.9 12 0 Totals 121 2118 17.6 72 31
