14 hours Ago By Mike Forman
The coaching accomplishments of Travis and Charlie Reeve are well documented. Travis Reeve won a state championship at Cuero in 2018 before moving on to New Caney, where with younger brother Charlie Reeve as his offensive coordinator led the team to a district championship and the most wins in school history. Charlie Reeve began his head coaching career last season at Victoria East, where he led the Titans to their first playoff win since 2016.
The siblings worked together as assistant coaches for their father Mark Reeve at Cuero, but neither Charlie nor Travis have coached against each other. But they will be on opposite sidelines when Travis’ El Campo (6-4) team takes on Charlie’s Corpus Christi Calallen (8-2) team in a Class 4A, Division I bi-district playoff game at 7:30 p.m.
Friday at Sandcrab Stadium in Port Lavaca. “Even before I took the job, we talked about how our districts matched up and we may end up playing each other,” said Charlie, who is in his first season at Calallen. “I never really thought a whole lot about it other than hoping it was the third round or something.
” Calallen was the champion in District 16, while El Campo lost its final three games to finish fourth in District 15 and created the matchup. “It will be a unique deal,” said Travis, who is in his second season at El Campo. “It’s the same family, but we coached together.
He was our offensive coordinator in New Caney. He’s done a great job as a head coach, turning around things at East and carrying on the tradition at Calallen.” The brothers will do their best to keep their emotions in check, but admit it won’t be easy.
“Unless you’re in it, you really don’t understand how much time preparation work goes into each week of preparation,” Charlie said. “That’s the tough thing. At the end of the day, one of the two teams is going home.
It makes it a little tougher when it’s family on the other side.” “I think you could say this for both of us, our focus is getting our teams ready to play,” Travis added. “It’s a players’ game.
They’re the ones who are going to be out on the field competing so we want to make sure our team is ready and I know he will too.” The Ricebirds and Wildcats run similar offenses, which will make coming up with a successful gameplan a unique challenge. “It’s kind of like spring football back when we were at New Caney,” Travis said.
“Going out there and having an idea about what we’re doing and trying to adjust to that and execute things that are going to be successful. I don’t think that either side is going to be surprised by what the other side does. It’s going to be a matter of executing at critical moments of the game.
” “There are a lot of similarities,” Charlie agreed. “It’s funny, messing around with Travis, it’s like Jedi mind tricks because you know what he has in their bag and he knows what we have in our bag and I think sometimes you start to overthink things. You’ve just got to do what you do and execute and all those things.
It does add a lot of different dynamics that a normal game wouldn’t.” Mark Reeve, who coached both of his sons at Victoria High, experienced a similar scenario in the area round of the playoffs last season, when he watched El Campo play Tyler Chapel Hill, where Travis’ son Blake coaches. But Mark Reeve knows it will be a difficult night for him and wife Jan at Sandcrab Stadium.
“There’s nothing easy about it,” Mark Reeve said. “It’s not a game I’m looking forward to, but when they play, we go. I really don’t know.
I just don’t know. I’m not trying to not give you an answer. It’s a different deal.
It’s hard to be at a game and half of it be good and half of it be bad, because you’re involved in both halves.” The brothers know only one team will be able to keep its season alive, and that is the goal for El Campo and Calallen. “It’s a mix of emotions,” Charlie said.
“Obviously, you want to win the game and there are two really good teams playing. But it is tough, just because you know all the hard work that goes into preparing for a game like this and at the end of the day, somebody’s going to go home disappointed.” “Both sides are going to compete and want to win,” Travis said.
“But at the end of the day, we’re still family and whoever doesn’t win will be rooting for the guy who does win the rest of the way.”.
