2025 Willie Ray Smith Finalists

[AggiesAreWe]

Offense

Khelvy Jefferson          RB           WO-S

Luke Babin                  QB           Woodville

Amante Martin           QB           PA Memorial

Kendray Porter, Jr.      RB           Newton

 

Defense

Kaleb Menard            LB           Orangefield

Tank King                  LB           PA Memorial

Pierce Pirtle              LB           Hamshire-Fannett

Anterrion Fontenot   LB          WO-S

 

Congrats to all these finalists.

 

[navydawg31]

Congrats to everyone that made it! 
 

my prediction a PAM sweep this year… 

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

6 hours ago, navydawg31 said:

Congrats to everyone that made it! 
 

my prediction a PAM sweep this year… 

Can't go wrong with the WOS kids either IMO. 

[navydawg31]

3 hours ago, Mr. Buddy Garrity said:

Can't go wrong with the WOS kids either IMO. 

No you can’t, Jefferson was so much fun to watch this season. 

[BBfan061]

Should be Jefferson and Menard IMO

[bullets13]

It was stacked this year. 

[Reagan]

Interesting there were not any PNG players on this list.  Especially their QB!   🤔

[AggiesAreWe]

2 hours ago, Reagan said:

Interesting there were not any PNG players on this list.  Especially their QB!   🤔

Bailey (QB) and Winfrey (LB) were nominated but didn't get enough votes to make finalists.

There were 25 offensive nominees and 23 defensive nominees.

[1989NDN]

With the changes in local sports reporting, who are the panel members for the WRS award?  Does the PA News, Beaumont Enterprise, and Orange Leader still have sports editors and reporters?  I know Bob West passed away.  I don't know what happened to Tom Halliburton, Rush Wood, or Howard Roden.  The local TV stations have sports directors and reporters.  Are they on the panel?  Any others?  I'm not complaining about the nominees.  Just curious how the shrinking newspaper coverage of local sports affects this type of situation?  Congratulations to all the nominees.  I'd vote for the PAM sweep with a close follow-up by the WO-S RB and LB.  Good luck to all the kids.

[AggiesAreWe]

1 minute ago, 1989NDN said:

With the changes (or evolution) in local sports reporting, who are the panel members for the WRS award?  Does the PA News, Beaumont Enterprise, and Orange Leader still have sports editors and reporters?  I know Bob West passed away.  I don't know what happened to Tom Halliburton, Rush Wood, or Howard Roden.  The local TV stations have sports directors and reporters.  Are they on the panel?  Any others?  I'm not complaining about the nominees.  Just curious how the shrinking newspaper coverage of local sports affects this type of situation?  Congratulations to all the nominees.  I'd vote for the PAM sweep with a close follow-up by the WO-S RB and LB.  Good luck to all the kids.

As for newspaper panelists, BE has sports editor Matt Faye as a voter. Orange Leader has their sports guy as a voter. Not sure about PA News. Tom Halliburton is a freelance guy and is a voter.

Both TV stations has both their sports guys as voters. KLVI has Harold Mann as a voter.

KOGT.com has Gary Stelly as a voter. SETXsports.com has three voters including myself.

I also believe some former TV guys that have communications jobs with ISD's now are still voters.

So it's roughly around 15 voters.

I have been a voter since 2014. Back then it was around 20 voters.

[BrooksNDone]

Hey Aggies Are We, 

  tom halliburton is not a voter. he has been in previous years and he's a part-time senior correspondent at the Beaumont Enterprise but he no longer participates in selections of any post-season teams or honors

[Bigdog]

13 hours ago, AggiesAreWe said:

As for newspaper panelists, BE has sports editor Matt Faye as a voter. Orange Leader has their sports guy as a voter. Not sure about PA News. Tom Halliburton is a freelance guy and is a voter.

Both TV stations has both their sports guys as voters. KLVI has Harold Mann as a voter.

KOGT.com has Gary Stelly as a voter. SETXsports.com has three voters including myself.

I also believe some former TV guys that have communications jobs with ISD's now are still voters.

So it's roughly around 15 voters.

I have been a voter since 2014. Back then it was around 20 voters.

Just curious, who are the other two voters from SETXsports?

[AggiesAreWe]

1 hour ago, Bigdog said:

Just curious, who are the other two voters from SETXsports?

A long time moderator here (bullets13) and one of our best broadcasters (Aaron Ward) that sees lots of games.