Friday Night Lights: South Oak Cliff HS

Welcome to another installment of Friday Night Lights. Every Friday from now until November, we will be posting an interview with a different high school coach. This series will highlight different high school programs around the country, with an attempted focus on high schools that are recruited by Mountain West Conference schools. The hope is that through this journey we all understand a bit about what goes into coaching at the high school level, what teams do similar and different from one another, and also learn more about the teams that recruits are coming from each year.

After spending two weeks in California, we head over to Texas for this week. We sat down with Coach Michael Traylor. He is the Defensive Line coach and Recruiting Coordinator for South Oak Cliff HS. South Oak Cliff, or SOC is a prominent program in the world or Texas football and one that college coaches (especially ones from the Mountain West) seemed to be flocking to this past spring for the evaluation period. Read why below.

How would you describe the culture or identify of your program? What do you think might make you unique compared to other schools?

I would describe our school culture as a family atmosphere. We are a close nit family that has a lot of tradition and pride. Our program is built on relationships and hard work. We normally get kids to come to our schools because their parents, grandparents, or siblings have attended our school. The unique thing about our schools is that we have one of the most active and visible alumni in Dallas. We have produced the most professional athletes in all major sports such as Football, Basketball, Track, and Baseball.

What styles of offense and defense do you play?

We run a run pass option offense based on zone schemes on offense. Our defensive scheme is based on a multifront system based out of a 4-3 two high look.

What are some specific ways your program develops players or helps them improve from freshman to senior year?

We make all of our student-athletes play multiple sports. We develope our athletes by letting them play other sports that may increase speed, agility, strength, coordination. We make all football players play soccer, wrestle, run track, our power lift to obtain these goals with constant monitoring.

What’s something about your team/program that not many people know about?

Most people don’t know that we produced the most NFL players in Texas. We have two of the most winningest coaches that graduated form South Oak Cliff HS; Reginald Samples a of Duncanville and Chris Gilbert of Lancaster.

How do you as a team balance the current high school season with players being recruited by colleges or how might you help a high school recruit with that process?

I personally handle all recruiting on our campus. I send out a prospect list to every school in the country from D-1 to NAIA . We tend to let our student-athletes know their options early in the summer and make them narrow their list to three schools before the season. We set up visits on bye week and after season over in December. We handle all recruiting either before the season or after the season is over.

Who are some of the prominent players from your school who have gone to D1 programs and where have they gone?

We have several in recent years that have went on to play Division 1 football!

• Jordan Stevenson- Nebraska
• Prentice McKinney Oklahoma
• Jamile Johnson Texas Tech
• Ladarryl Blair (Boise State now Texas Southern)
• Jalen Goss Northern Arizona
• JaMarcus Ingram Utah State
• David Johnson University Incarnate Word
• Juice Parker PVU
• Jaylon Wooton PVU
• Kanion Williams Oklahoma State
• Ricky Wrenn Alabama AM

Who are some of your top players this year getting D1 looks or offers?

2019

• Steven Parker DE Texas Tech Commit

All these guys have multiple D1 offers and will be committing this summer.

• Derrion Clark LB
• DeQuavion Ludd LB
• DeOndre Dansby DB
• Sean Simms QB
• Bobby Holmes DB
• Zee Cannon WR
• N’Kozi Bell DT
• Arrington Taylor OL
• Rashad Wren DT
• Gerald Ausborne DL

We also have several in the 2020 and 2021 classes that have multiple D1 offers

2020

• Jonathan Davis DB
• Donajz Dunn WR
• Anthony Faz OL
• Courtline Flowers WR/DB
• Rakwuan Pinskton RB/LB
• Kimoni Greene LB
• Antwone Brown OL

2021

• Jai Jones LB
• Jalen Jones LB
• Mikevieun Titus ATH/QB
• Jimmy Wyrick DB
• Ga’Corian Owens WR

Want your team to be part of a future Friday Night Lights series? Contact @Mike_SBN or @MWCConnection on Twitter.