From the archives: Shorthorns dominated from 1985 to 1997

Story line: David Husmann started his head-coaching career when he came to Schulenburg in 1985. For the next 13 years, the last 11 of them playoff seasons, the Shorthorns went 137-30-1. In an eight-year stretch, from 1989-96, they were 101-11.

The apex of Schulenburg's fortunes under Husmann occurred in 1991-92, when the Shorthorns won back-to-back state championships with 16-0 and 15-1 records. In the state championship games, they stopped Albany 21-0 at Baylor and Goldthwaite 35-20 in the Astrodome.

The 1994 team also reached the title game but lost its bid for a perfect 16-game season when Goldthwaite got revenge, 20-16.

In those years, Schulenburg also reached the semifinals in both 1989-90, losing to Groveton and its future NFL running back, Rodney Thomas, both times. The Shorthorns started the playoff run with a quarterfinal finish in 1987.

Notable: Some Schulenburg players of that era who went on to play Division I ball in college were quarterback Bo Adams at Texas Tech, flanker/safety Shane Hollas at Rice and quarterback/linebacker/defensive back Casey Taber at LSU. Also, quarterback/linebacker Marc Tidwell was the leading tackler at Sam Houston State.

Quotable: "We had good leadership from an administration, led by superintendent Greg Gant, good quality coaches and a good run of athletes," said Husmann, who now is at Gladewater. "They were really hard workers and well-disciplined.

"We had tremendous offensive lines year after year and played good defense."

Postscript: Schulenburg stretched its playoff run to 12 seasons under Don Wild in 1998, the year after Husmann left for Gladewater.

In 2001, Husmann had a 12-2 Class 3A Division II quarterfinalist at Gladewater that lost 14-10 to eventual state champion Commerce.

Despite a 1-9 record in 1999, the Shorthorns were one of only 20 schools in the state to win at least 100 games in the 1990s, finishing in a four-way tie for 15th with 104 victories in the decade.

This year's team under Brad Oden, a defensive coordinator on Husmann's staff, is the first Shorthorns club to reach the playoffs since 1998. Schulenburg lost to Yorktown 6-0 in bidistrict two weeks ago.

John Hines