The 2020 Hall of Honor Inductees have been unanimously approved by the THSCA Board of Directors. The inductees will be honored at the THSCA Hall of Honor Banquet sponsored by Balfour, in San Antonio on Saturday, July 18, 2020 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center at 7:00 pm. The banquet is held in conjunction with the annual THSCA Coaching School and Convention which will take place July 19-21, 2020 in San Antonio. Tickets to the luncheon are $55 each and can be purchased by downloading the ticket form from the THSCA website (www.thsca.com) and sending in with payment. Hall of Honor Inductees are:
Bob Alpert compiled an impressive record of 42-8 in his six years as Athletic Director and Head Coach at Duncanville. In his first year, Bob led the team to the first undefeated regular season in the school’s history. His 1997 team advanced to the State Semi-Finals and in 1998 won it all by capturing the 5A Division I State Championship.
Before coming to Duncanville, Alpert was coordinator and head coach at Aldine MacArthur for 13 years, where he compiled a 110-37-4 record, reaching the playoffs ten of those 13 years. Prior to coming to MacArthur, Alpert headed the football program at Willis. His 21-year combined record as a head coach was 183-60-4.
Alpert began his career at Galena Park North Shore. He moved to Strake Jesuit, and then spent six years at Huntsville as defensive coordinator helping the Hornets win the State Championship in 1980.
Coach Alpert has served as chairman of the THSCA All-Star Selection Committee and chairman of the THSCA Football Advisory Committee. He was also President and Director of the Greater Houston Football Coaches Association and served on the Houston Touchdown Club Selection Committee.
Alpert passed away in 2004 at the age of 59.
Gerald Brence recently announced his retirement as Athletic Director of Plano ISD ending a 39-year career with the district. He served as an assistant coach under Tom Kimbrough beginning in 1981 and helped lead the Wildcats to two state championships in 1986 and 1987. He was named head coach in 1992 and served in that capacity for 15 years amassing a 120-70-1 record, eleven playoff appearances and one state championship in 1993. He hung up his whistle for good to become Plano’s full-time athletic director in 2008 and has served in that capacity until his recently announced retirement in 2019. He has always worked to improve Texas high school athletics for both male and female sports.
Coach Brence was a member of the THSCA Board of Directors (2004-07) and was a nominee for the Tom Landry Award. He was named Texas High School Coach of the Year twice (1993 and 2007) and authored a book titled The 70-30 Split. He was also president of the National Football Foundation Gridiron Club of Dallas.
Joey Florence never had a losing season or missed the playoffs in his 20-year head coaching career. His first head coaching job in 1994 at 2A Cooper saw his teams make the playoffs all 6 years and he amassed at 53-16 record. He quickly established Denton Ryan High as a premier football power when he came in 2000. In his first year, he led a team, who had won a one game the previous year, to a 12-3 record and an appearance in the 2000 Class 4A Division I state championship game.
The next two seasons cemented Ryan’s stature at the top as the Raiders posted a 30-1 record en route to winning the 4A state championships in 2001 and 2002, becoming the district’s first athletic program to win back-to-back state championships. Mr. Florence never stopped winning and led the Raiders to 4A state championship appearances in 2003 and again in 2010.
At Ryan, Mr. Florence became one of only eight active head coaches with 200 or more victories in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, recording his milestone 200th win against Flower Mound Marcus in 2013. His career record is 205-53.
Florence was named athletic director for Denton ISD in January 2014. As an athletic leader, he has been a guest speaker for numerous conferences, including Nike Coach of the Year Clinic, DFW Coaches Clinic, Texas Tech Spring Clinic and many others. He served on the THSCA Board of Directors from 2006-2009.
Mr. Florence graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989. He served as an assistant coach at Sulphur Springs and Marcus before becoming one of the youngest head coaches in the state when he was named head coach at Cooper in 1994 at age 28.
Joey McGuire is in his fourth season on the Baylor coaching staff. After spending two seasons as tight ends coach from 2017-18, he was promoted to associate head coach and defensive ends coach for 2019 and will be coaching outside linebackers in 2020.
McGuire came to Baylor after a legendary run as head coach at Cedar Hill High School. He led CHHS to three state championships in 14 seasons, including back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014. He took Cedar Hill, a program that hadn’t won a playoff game prior to his tenure, to 12 straight playoff appearances.
McGuire’s teams amassed a 141-42 record, won state titles in 2006, 2013 and 2014, and made four title appearances (runner-up in 2012), won nine bi-district championships and seven district championships.
McGuire was named the 2013 Texas coach of the year by MaxPreps, Dallas Morning News, SportsDayHS and Chevy Silverado after leading Cedar Hill to the Class 5A state title. He earned Class 5A coach of the year honors in 2013 by the TSWA, Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, NFF Dallas Club and the Padilla Poll, and he repeated in the 2014 Padilla Poll. In 2006, he was honored by the Dallas Cowboys as the Coach of the Year.
A two-time district coach of the year honoree (2005 and 2006), he has coached in all but two Under Armour All-American games and was a head coach of the 2013 Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl. He served as head coach for the North in the 2014 THSCA All-Star Football game.
McGuire served as an assistant coach at Cedar Hill from 1997-2002. Prior to that, McGuire began his coaching career at his alma mater, Crowley High School, where he spent two seasons (1995 and 1996) as an assistant. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1995 from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1995.
JOE BOB TYLER, considered one of the great Single Wing coaches of all time, left a head coaching job at Burkburnett to serve as an assistant at Wichita Falls High School under then head coach Joe Golding in 1956. He then went to Rider High School in 1961 when he was hired to be the first head coach of the Raiders new football program.
Tyler led the Raiders to a record of 8-1-1 in just the second season of the program, and in 1965 took them to a 10-1 record and the Raiders first district championship.
He left Wichita Falls in 1969 to take over the reins at Haltom City, a program that had only won 16 games in eight years before his arrival. It took six years, but Tyler turned the Buffaloes into winners with an 8-1-1 record in 1974, a mark they would repeat in 1975.
In 1980, Tyler returned to Wichita Falls as an assistant under Danny Palmer before again becoming the Coyotes head coach in 1981.
1985 and 1986 were the Coyotes’ best years with 10-2 and 11-1-2 records respectively and a state quarterfinals appearance in 1986.
A lineman in his playing days, Tyler first attended Louisiana’s Northeast Junior College in 1942 before joining the United State Army and serving in World War II. Tyler was taken prisoner in 1945 during the Battle of the Bulge and was held captive for four long months. By the time he and the other prisoners were liberated, the bulky 198-pound Tyler was down to a thin 110 pounds.
Returning home and regaining his health, Tyler returned to school to what had become Northeast Louisiana University (now known as the University of Louisiana-Monroe). In his first season back on the field in 1946, Tyler became the school’s first football All-American.
Tyler passed away in 2010 at the age of 86.
Other Award winners:
2020 Putt Powell Sportswriter of the Year Award
Matt Stepp, Dave Campbell’s Texas Football
2020 Curly Hays Officials Award
Joe Ray, Houston Chapter
2020 Trainer of the Year
Deirdre Scotter, Longview High School
2020 Tom Landry Award
Gary Joseph, Katy High School
2020 Distinguished Service Award
Ronny Flowers, Athletic Supply