Who's David & Who's Goliath?: 6A Central Plays 1A Jayton in Nondistrict Matchup

SAN ANGELO, TX — The Class 6A Central Bobcats get an unusual opponent Tuesday when they host the top-ranked 1A team in the state, the Jayton Jaybirds.

Central has been playing basketball longer this season than Jayton. The Bobcats are 17-4, losing to Hobbs (New Mexico), San Antonio Reagan, Midland Christian and Waco University. All four losses have been by less than 10 points.

Jayton, on the other hand, has played just five games and sports a 4-1 record. The Jaybirds won the 1A Division II state title in football against Richland Springs, then two days later played 4A Frenship Memorial in basketball and won, 56-54.

Jayton head basketball coach Ryan Bleiker has been with the Jaybirds going on 16 years and spoke to San Angelo LIVE! about getting Central on their schedule.

“We’re driving all over the place,” Bleiker said, “from northeast Texas to Central to Van Horn. I’ve known Coach (Arsenio) Geter for a while, and I was texting everyone I knew, and I think he was struggling to get teams to come play him as well.”

The reason this is such a cool matchup is Central is in the state's largest classification and turned in an enrollment of 2,774. Jayton is a 1A D-II school, the smallest of the small, and turned in an enrollment of 58.

It sort of is a David vs. Goliath situation. But who is who? Looking at enrollment, Central is Goliath. But looking at the state success of Jayton — which has won back-to-back state titles in basketball — the Bobcats are David. 

Bleiker said, “I think (we) understand the challenge that it is. Our kids know how hard it's going to be and how well they’ll have to play. Every year, we try to play the best teams that we can play. That’s our goal to play the best teams, best programs, best coaches, so that we are battle tested when the playoffs come around. We don’t want to play anybody in the playoffs and go ‘Man, we haven’t played anyone this good all year.' We are going to play as many good teams as we can no matter what the classification is.”

Jayton also finished second in the state track meet last year, so the Jaybirds have a special group of athletes at the school right now.

“It’s an expectation that we are going to be good in everything,” said Bleiker. “It really started with groups long before when we couldn’t really close it out. Three years ago, we lost in the state championship game in overtime. That was a really hard loss for us and for me. The kids have worked really hard to make sure they are at their best when the big game happens. It really trickles down. That’s probably the thing I’ve really enjoyed seeing the most is how it trickles down to these younger athletes. They see the older kids and they want to be like them, so it’s a continuous cycle.”

Jayton's No. 1 ranking comes with a lot of pressure, but this game could be one where both schools can play hard and get better without high stakes.

When asked for a score prediction, Bleiker laughed, saying that he knows Central has some talented players and that Jayton is just going to play as hard as it can.

Geter echoed what Bleiker said about getting this game on the schedule.

“He called and asked if we wanted to play, and I needed a game,” Geter said. “I really don’t know much about them. They’ve only played five games since winning their football championship. They won the basketball championship last year, and I figured it would be a really good chance to get some good competition.”

Not having a lot of film on a team can scare coaches, but Geter didn’t seem phased. He is actually fired up.

“It’s exciting, so what we’ve focused on is just getting better at what we do,” Geter said. “We need to be better at what we do, so this is a great opportunity to get that done before district starts.”

Geter laughed as well at being asked for a score prediction but gave Jayton their roses.

“They’re No. 1 in the state for a reason. Their classification is way lower than ours but that just means numbers, not talent," Geter said.

“It will be interesting to see and gauge where we’re at. We have done a good job this year of venturing out. We’ve been in San Antonio, in Waco, all over that area. This is just another game that is going to help us out. We’ll see where we stack up."

Central will host Jayton at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Bobcats will play one more nondistrict game at 5:30 p.m. Friday at home against Killeen Ellison before opening District 2-6A play at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 16, against Frenship.