BRYAN, Texas — Even though the weather tried to play havoc with game schedules, the NFCA Texas High School Leadoff Classic was able to play 227 of the 298 scheduled games representing 100 high schools throughout the state of Texas over the weekend.
Tournament directors Enrique Luna and Billy Hicks learned last Wednesday that three local complexes with 13 fields would be unavailable for Thursday’s opening day of the tournament due to Tuesday’s torrential rains. Luna and Hicks collaborated with several participating schools within an 80-mile radius that have turf fields to secure assistance. A significant amount of support was provided by the coaches at these schools.
The existing 64-team bracket and 36-team round-robin schedules were replaced with a new format. In this new format, all 100 schools participated in a round-robin system, ensuring each school plays six games in accordance with University Interscholastic League (UIL) rules of Texas. The 10 high schools available for games were seven from the north and northwest sides of Houston, two in north Austin, and one in central Texas. Many schools who had already arrived in the Bryan-College Station area, had to hit the road on Thursday to travel to one of these sites, while some were able to stay in town, as five local high schools and one complex were able to host games to get a total of 70 contests played.
The field conditions improved in time for the second day of the tournament, allowing all schools in the Bryan-College Station area to play their games, totaling 116 contests. But overnight fog and mist on Friday night, along with persistent mist around noon on Saturday, resulted in cancellations due to the unavailability of some fields. Four of the five local high school hosts, plus the turf facility in Bryan, were able to host games into the evening as the tournament wrapped up with beautiful sunset.
Despite the weather changes, many schools played great on the field, as four had 5-0 records and nine were 4-0. Leading the way at 5-0 were Bullard, Houston Clear Lake, Montgomery Lake Creek and Southlake Carroll. Friendswood, Cypress-Fairbanks, Kingwood, Kingwood Park, Clear Springs, Leander Glenn, Barbers Hill, Antonian College Prep and Willis all finished 4-0.
There were numerous great games played throughout the tournament, and several of the schools in the smaller enrollment classifications had success competing against the largest classification of schools in the state. Included are Bullard (4A) who went 5-0, China Spring, Robinson, Bishop, Lexington, Snyder, Tidehaven and Little River-Academy.
The player that turned the fans’ eyes on Thursday and Friday was Madilynn George of Leander Rouse High in the Austin area. The senior infielder impressed in her four games by hitting five home runs (three over a 235-foot fence), three doubles, two walks, eight RBIs and was 8-for-10 at the plate with no strike outs.
The most dramatic home run of the weekend was by Barbers Hill’s Hailey Nutter, as her shot on the 235-foot Travis Park No. 1 field, hit the top of the fence and bounced over for the only run in their 1-0 victory over Prosper Walnut Grove, which was a battle of two of the top-ranked 5A teams from Houston and Dallas.
While there were no bracket champions to highlight from this year’s tournament, every coach and player who played in this tournament through rain, fog, mist, wet fields and extra traveling to dry fields, are all champions of this tournament. Organizers offered special thanks to the five local high schools (Bryan, Rudder, Caldwell, A&M Consolidated and College Station) and the 10 who were able to host at the last minute (Willis, Montgomery Lake Creek, Tomball Memorial, Cy Woods, Langham Creek, Bridgeland, Waller, Georgetown, Liberty Hill and Lake Belton). Luna and Hicks also thanked everyone for their great patience and flexibility as schedules changed to be able to get everyone as many games in as safe conditions as possible.
The 30th annual tournament is planned for Feb. 12-14, 2026.
