On Tuesday, June 16, the first ever, Best of East Texas Prep banquet will be held at the Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Center in Longview. The banquet will honor some of the best high school athletes in east Texas for the schools in the coverage areas of the Longview News-Journal, the Marshall News Messenger and the Panola Watchmen. After each season, the sports staff of those papers vote on the Best of East Texas All-Star team and every athlete voted to the team is invited to attend the banquet free.
There will also be rewards for every sport as well as the overall female athlete, the overall male athlete and overall coach of the year. All the awards are named after athletes with East Texas roots who high school sports in the area.
The list of names includes people like Chris Davis of the Baltimore Orioles, Pro Football Hall of Famer Y.A. Tittle, Super Bowl Champion Terrance Shaw and many others. On top of that, the guest speaker will be 1982 Heisman Trophy winner and former NFL running back Herschel Walker. Walker played 11 years in the NFL including two stops with the Dallas Cowboys, the team with whom he began and later ended his career.