T.P. Miller has a lot of history with Mark Soto.
Mark Soto has a lot of history with Judson High School.
Miller, Soto and their teams (Johnson and Judson, respectively) will face off at 3:30 in the Alamodome on August 27th in a game with so many subplots, it makes you think “All My Children” was canceled too soon.
In the mid 2000s, Mark Soto was an assistant under Jim Rackley. With Soto on the staff, Judson twice won their regular season finale to squeak into the playoffs, then advanced to the state championship game.
As for Miller, in the mid 2000s he was a player for San Marcos. Miller was a member of the 2006 team which finished 5-5 the regular season, then made their own fantastic playoff run, defeating Smithson Valley and Marshall by one point apiece on their way to an overtime playoff loss to MacArthur in the fourth round.
By 2012, Soto was the head coach of the San Marcos Rattlers. Miller soon became an assistant on his staff.
When Soto returned to Bexar County as the head coach of the Johnson Jaguars in 2020, Miller followed him as the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach. Two years later, Soto returned to his alma mater, Judson; Soto, a Judson grad, played in the 1988 and 1990 state championship games for the Rockets before becoming an assistant coach there.
Miller then ascended to the head coaching job at Johnson. Miller’s debut as a head coach will be against his long-time mentor Soto.
Oh, and there will be high school football players involved.
Judson (4-6, 3-4 in 27-6A) in 2021 suffered their first losing season since the death of Charlie Chaplin. The Rockets will have top recruits on each side of the ball with DL Johnny Bowens and WR Anthony Evans.
Johnson (10-1, 8-0 in 28-6A) lost many starters, but Ty Hawkins, who played varsity football and baseball as a freshman last year, is expected to take over at quarterback. He’ll have Alex Tavarez (6-0, 180, 4.4) to lead his receiving corps.
Mark Kusenberger
August 17, 2022
Read more from Mark on his blog at https://mkusenberger.wixsite.com/website/blog