This will sound like a promotion of recruiting, and in a sense it is perhaps. I will express it this way:
2001-2003
Jordan and Jared Hicks are big reasons RS goes State Game,Quarters and Semis.
2003-2005
Tyler and Jesstin Fox and Shelby Smith help us go Semis, State Champs and Semis.
2006-2008
Jesstin Fox, Shelby and Abraham Ahumada help us go State Champs twice and almost beat eventual state winner Strawn in early round of 2008 playoffs.
2010-2011
Denim Reeves leads them to two state championships.
2015-2016
Tippie leads them to two championships
From a different perspective, up in Follett the Panthers enjoyed some excellent success from 2007 thru 2014 with move-ins from nearby Darrouzett and Booker. Both Hernandez boys and Cole Freeman attended their lower grades in Darrouzett. The Bechthold boys were from Booker until 2009. My 2012 state qualifier team had three players who moved in from Booker, Colorado and East Texas who played huge roles getting us to Abilene. We would not have made it there without any combo of the three, let alone all of them.
In all these examples the only problem is that most of them were not recruited. The Foxes, Shelby and Abraham were foster kids from Austin. Denim moved in when he was in elementary school. I don't know the exact story of the Hicks, but I asked them several times why they relocated and every occasion they said they just wanted out of Brookesmith.
The Follett kids had to transfer out of Darrouzett because they had no high school. The Bechtholds left Booker for personal reasons associated with the school, not athletics. Patrick came from East Texas with his mom and dad whose grandfather led a church in a nearby community. Erroll Ormesher's mother came to Follett six months before Erroll because he did not want to leave Colorado.
Was I glad these guys came to Follett? Of course. They were all kids who were fun to coach and a true blessing to be around. The ones who came with the most adversity to get there had the greatest stores of desire and toughness. There was always something extra about them that the other kids didn't seem to have. A maturity beyond there years. They were deeper in their personalities and character in several ways, also. Other than one exception, as a teacher and coach you could make it very hot on them and they would just keep plugging until the end. No crying, no manipulating a parent to fight their battles. It was them man-to-man in every scenario that counted.
Now that I think about it all, I think I will send mine to Africa next summer to run with the indigenous people to toughen them up...or maybe Austin, Tx.