Cripps ends career in style
Clear Springs grad stars at Bayou Bowl before heading to college
Zach Cripps will head to college soon, but the Clear Springs graduate got one more chance last week to suit up while representing his highschool.
Cripps played for the East team in the Bayou Bowl in Sugar Land. Though his team lost the game, he said hewas grateful for the opportunity to play one more game in his highschool career.
“It was great just putting the pads back on and getting back into the swing of things, especially being around a group of people like this,” Cripps said. “There are great athletes all over the field. This has been tremendous experience.”
Cripps’ college career will begin at Texas A&M-Commerce, a Division II school north of Interstate 30 between Dallas and Texarkana.
The quarterback put up big statistics in his twoplus years as Clear Springs’ starter. He passed for more than 5,500 yards and 47 touchdowns as the Chargers piled up some of the most impresive numbers in the Houston area.
Cripps was on the recruiting radar of several
Division I colleges but never got an offer. He said TCU was close but offered a different quarterback. He said he thought he had a chance to go to Wake Forest before one of the coaches left. Southeastern Louisiana, which just won the Southland Conference, went the junior college route rather than offering Cripps.
Texas A&M-Commerce ended up being his only offer. Luckily Cripps fell in love with the campus and the coaching staff. He said he is looking forward to the opportunity to play for the Lions.
“I’ve always been one of the top quarterbacks in Houston, even in Texas really,” Cripps said. “I have a chip on my shoulder, and I have something to prove. I’m going to go out and prove it.”
He proved plenty at Clear Springs, which has become well known for its prolific passing attack. Cripps helped to continue that tradition, but he said he learned plenty more than howto light up scoreboards.
One of the biggest lessons he said he learned was to stick to the process even when things are not going well. Focusing on the next practice and the next game can go a long way toward longterm success.
“I loved it (at Clear Springs),” Cripps said. “Not only putting up the numbers but it was such a family over there. Everyone loved everyone. We were hanging out every day of the week. I’m going to miss being a Charger, but you have to move on eventually.”
Several other local play- ers joined Cripps on the Bayou Bowl East team. They were Pasadena Memorial’s Reggie Turner, Dickinson’s Xavier Walker, South Houston’s Darius Durrall, Clear Brook’s Joseph Mobley, South Houston’s Jame Davis, Dobie’s Jessy Cedeno and Deer Park’s Ashmeed Ahamad.
Nowin its 12th year, the Bayou Bowl changed from a contest between Houston-area all stars and Louisiana all stars to one that includes only Houston- area players. It was played on June 14 at Fort Bend ISD’s Mercer Stadium.