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Players will be instructed in fundamentals for the Maverick offense and defense.

Players will meet the McNeil coaching staff and become oriented to McNeil procedures,

KMAC along with several local media groups are hosting a dinner roundtable discussion with all the Round Rock ISD Head Football coaches and district AD Loerwald on July 28 at the Chisholm Trail Icehouse & BBQ restaurant.

The Mavericks put together a solid performance in College Station at the State 7 on 7 championship. Day one had a rough start with the Mavericks losing their first two games but the Mavericks would rally to win their next three games against Katy Cinco Ranch, Cy Woods and Southlake Carroll on Day 2. The Mavericks lost to eventual consolation bracket champion Lufkin in the quarterfinals but the boys definitely turned some heads and earned some respect during their time at Texas A&M. This 2010 Mavericks team went further than any other Mavericks 7 on 7 team in school history and they should be congratulated for that. The team will now finish up speed camp and get ready to open camp in August.

McNeil hopes 7-on-7 tournament the start of resurgence

Cameron Smith understands that Stony Point and Pflugerville are among the best football teams in District 16-5A. The SMU-bound defensive end, however, wants to help prove that McNeil belongs on top with the Tigers and Panthers.

After a 2-8 season in 2009, the Mavericks are moving on. And the first stop on McNeil's image rehabilitation tour will be in College Station, where the team will participate in its first 7-on-7 state tournament since 2007.

McNeil opens pool play at 1 p.m. Friday against Coppell. The Mavericks also will play Boswell and Cinco Ranch as they bid for a spot in Saturday's championship bracket.

"It's a big change in our program right now," Smith said. "I've been here too long to come out here and just do this. I want to go on in the fall and the winter and (win)."

Winning has eluded the Mavericks in recent years. McNeil is 15-24 over the past four seasons, and the team has not made the playoffs since 2004.

McNeil struggled last season, closing with a 54-35 loss to previously winless Georgetown .

In November, coach Robert Wilcox resigned after eight years with the Mavericks. Lee Penland, who had spent the past 12 seasons with Hutto, was brought in to replace Wilcox, who has since been hired at King High in Kingsville.

Less than six months after Penland's hiring, the Mavericks are heading to College Station for only the second time in school history. McNeil also has been picked by Texas Football Magazine to make the playoffs this season.

"We're going to expect to be better, we're not going to (just) try to be better," McNeil junior Zach Kuhn said.

At the center of McNeil's rebuilding efforts is senior Joshua Williams, whose older brother Aaron is a star defensive back for the Texas Longhorns . Joshua slides into the quarterback position after lining up as a wide receiver last season, and his father, Anthony, will serve as one of McNeil's 7-on-7 coaches this weekend.

"I feel a little pressure," said Joshua, who will be joined in the backfield this fall by his brother Daniel, a sophomore running back. "There is going to be pressure all the time. You've just got to put it aside and play your game."

Penland found plenty of success at Hutto with a wing-T offense, reaching the Class 3A, Division II championship game in 2005. McNeil also has done well with its ground game. Former Mavericks running back Adrian Smith rushed for 1,612 yards and 14 touchdowns last year.

But this weekend's tournament is all about passing the football, and the Mavericks will be challenged from the first snap in pool play.

Coppell was 11-2 last season while Boswell returns eight starters from a seven-win team. Cinco Ranch advanced to the Class 5A, Division I semifinals in 2009, and the Cougars have one of the Houston area's best players in K.C. Nlemchi , a running back who, like Smith, is an SMU recruit .

Two wins in pool play would likely get McNeil into the championship bracket for the first time. Win or lose, however, the Mavericks are hoping that the summertime drive from north Austin to the Texas A&M campus becomes an annual trip.

Cameron Smith is having a pretty good week. First, he and his teammates qualify for the 7 on 7 state championship then he commits to SMU! Cameron becomes the 2nd player in the last 3 years to commit to SMU as 2007 graduate Bryce Tennison committed to SMU and is now a junior for the Mustangs. Congratulations to Cameron and his family for his outstanding accomplishment.

Former Maverick and current Texas Longhorn Aaron Williams was recently named to the 2010 Bronko Nagurski award watch list. The Nagurski award is given to the best defensive player in college football. Aaron, a 2008 graduate from McNeil is a junior defensive back at Texas and was joined on the watch list by his two teammates, Sam Acho and Curtis Brown. Congratulations to Aaron for his hard work and dedication. Go here to view the press release on the 2010 Nagurski watch list.

The following story was recently posted about 2007 McNeil graduate Bryce Tennison.

June 28, 2010

Story courtesy PonyFans.com

Coaches and players often talk about a player's ability to play hurt. SMU offensive lineman Bryce Tennison is just looking forward to having a chance to play un-hurt, basically for the first time in his college career.

The junior-to-be, who has started for the Mustangs at guard for the last two years, is moving this fall to center, where he will compete with Blake McJunkin for the starting position.

In his first college game, the 2008 season opener against Rice, Tennison injured his left shoulder while leading a wedge on special teams. The bad wing bothered him off and on over the last two years, until he had offseason surgery this spring to clean out bone spurs.

When the Ponies played at the University of Houston last Oct. 24 -- Tennison's birthday -- he suffered what he believed at the time was a strained lower abdominal muscle. The day after the game, he could barely move when he woke up. SMU head coach June Jones chose to rest Tennison for three weeks in the hopes of having his right guard available down the stretch as the Ponies battled for their first bowl bid in 25 years. Thanks to a combination of rest, anti-inflammatory medicine, cortisone shots, a heat pack inside his uniform and plain stubbornness, Tennison played in the regular-season finale against Tulane and in the Ponies' 45-10 laugher over Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl.

An offseason of rest and doctor's appointments revealed that what was believed to have been a lower abdominal strain was instead a double hernia. Shortly after recovering from his shoulder surgery, Tennison went under the knife again.

Before either surgery, he got hurt again. Tennison, who broke his left foot twice in high school, broke the fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot ... stepping out of his shoes. At least that injury healed without another trip to the operating room.

"I wish I had a better story than that, but I don't," Tennison said. "I was using one foot to take the other shoe off. I stepped out of the shoe, sort of stepped on the side of (the foot), and ... you put 295 pounds on a bone like that, something's going to give. It did."

The Mustangs' resident one-man M*A*S*H unit sat out spring workouts while working his way back from his injuries. Unable to lift weights, and joining roommate/right tackle J.T. Brooks on a revamped eating program based on fish and chicken, Tennison withered down to 268 pounds, making him look like a shadow of the player who normally carried around 300 pounds when he took the field last year. At different times during the spring semester, his left arm was in a sling from the shoulder surgery and his foot was in a protective boot while his foot healed. Even after he was out of the sling and walking without a boot, doctors prohibited him from doing any heavy lifting while recovering from the hernia surgery. Tennison is hoping to be cleared to resume all lifting and conditioning workouts with his teammates by the beginning of July.

If that wasn't enough, Tennison watched practice knowing that he will switch to a new position when he returns to the field this fall. To be accurate, center isn't an entirely new position for Tennison -- he played the position in high school and with the Mustangs' scout team during his redshirt season in 2007.

"I just need to get some reps in," he said. "It will come back."

Tennison said his transition back to center will be made easier by the fact that he spent the last two years playing next center Mitch Enright, who Tennison called "a genius at the position" whose preparation each week allowed him to understand opposing defenses' formations and alignments, and subsequently allowed him to call the right blocking schemes.

"Mitch was so confident in what he did, because he's a great student of the game," Tennison said. "He watched so much film that he knew he could trust his calls, because they were always the right call.

"You have to know what you're doing -- you can't hesitate. You can't play at 70 percent. The offense just clicked to Mitch faster than it did to the young guys. So just being around him, watching him prepare and practice and watch film ... anybody can learn by being around Mitch."

As he has resumed his training while rehabilitating from the hernia surgery, Tennison has regained some of his bulk -- he says he now weighs about 285 pounds -- and said his strength is returning, but that he is far from being back to where he wants to be.

"I'm close to being ... average," Tennison said. "But I'm not where I want to be -- not yet. I need to put a little more weight back on, I need to get stronger."

Tennison said that his desire to get back on the field makes it tough for him to stay within the confines of his rehab schedule. He said strength and conditioning coach Mel DeLaura and his staff have done a good job of keeping Tennison from pushing too hard, too quickly.

"It seems like every three-to-five lifts, Mel is checking up on me," Tennison said. "They make sure I only do what I'm allowed to do."

With Tennison's planned move to center, his old right guard position likely will go to fellow junior Kelly Turner, who has less collegiate playing experience, but Tennison said he is more than comfortable playing beside Turner.

"I trust Kelly Turner completely," Tennison said. "He's been in this offense for a couple of years, and he's a smart player. He's also a big boy, and unbelievably strong.

"And it's not like he hasn't played. He started three games last year, and played in the bowl game."

Tennison's slew of injuries over the last year have made him wonder if he is somewhat jinxed.

"Yeah, a little bit," he said. "But that's the kind of player I am. I don't take plays off, and I go hard until the whistle. I run downfield looking for someone else to hit.

"I guess if I'm going to play that way, injuries are a possibility. But I also know that it's the only way I know how to play. That attitude has worked for me at guard, and it's going to work for me at center, too."

Bill Bleil Cody Fredenburg Mark Richardson Chris Synder Mark Tommerdahl Clarence McKinney

Carlton Buckels Cody Farrell Jeremy Thielbahr Mark Carey J.B. Gibboney Brian Natkin

Cedric Cormier Greg Davis Jr. Robert Rodriguez Tony Grantham Todd Ivicic Chad Bostwick

The McNeil Football booster club in conjunction with other McNeil sports met with Round Rock ISD about the below standard field conditions at McNeil high school. The lack of standard irrigation on the main football field was causing the field to become unsafe for our athletes to use. In the last few weeks with the help of the Mark Biggs, city of Austin and RRISD district landscaping the foundation of a new irrigation system was laid down the last week of school. We look forward to seeing what the field will look like when the 2010 season starts in August. A big thanks to the booster club for pushing and managing this issue. Stay tuned for more information on the progress of the fields at McNeil.

For those you who want to stay up to date on the new Maverick Football Booster club and other football related information, you can join the Yahoo group alias. To join the alias just send your email address to Doug Kuhn and he will add you to the alias or your can request inclusion by going here. Also, we are looking to add new members from our feeder middle schools for the "Future Mavericks" memberships. Please contact one of the board members for more information.