WIMBERLEY — Is it alternate universes colliding? Or just a strange coincidence?

Whatever it is, Wimberley head coach Weldon Nelms finds himself in an unusual situation as his Texan football team prepares for tonight’s Class 3A, Division II Area playoff game against Iowa Park.

For the second week in a row, Nelms will be coaching against a program that he used to guide.

Last week the Texans advanced past Glen Rose, a school that Nelms coached at before his first stint at Wimberley in the early 1990s. Nelms left Wimberley in 1994 for Iowa Park, only to return to the Village on the Blanco four years later.

Another bizarre connection in tonight’s is the fact that Iowa Park head coach Chris Ellis used to coach for Nelms at Wimberley during Nelms’ first stop and was with Nelms for 10 years at Iowa Park.

The two coaches thought they would never run across each other in the playoffs, unless it was a state title game.

Wimberley used to be in Region IV and Iowa Park has always been in Region I. But realignment placed Wimberley in to Region I, and now Nelms, and a number of his staff members, are matching wits against close friends on the opposite sideline.

Iowa Park and Wimberley have met twice before in non-district play, with Iowa Park winning, 24-21 in 2004, as the Texans returned the favor with a 27-10 win during their 2005 state championship season.

While at Iowa Park, Nelms and Ellis helped turn around a losing program that had lost 15 straight games, and turned it into an annual playoff contender. Ellis has now led the Hawks to five playoff berths in his 10 seasons at the school.

While both coaches run similar defenses, the Hawks still favor the ground-oriented offense the Texans used to apply in Nelms’ early years. Now Nelms has the Texans lining up in a spread offense that is allowing the talents of quarterback Brooks Blakemore and running back Dennis Smith to shine.

Smith carried the ball 35 times for 217 yards in last weekend’s 49-44 win over Glen Rose, while Blakemore completed 7-of-10 passes for 164 yards. Smith scored four times, while Blakemore also ran in for two scores, including the 35-yard game-winning score in the final seconds.

Iowa Park will be well-rested after a bye last week. The Hawks closed the regular season with a 48-0 win over Vernon. The Hawks’ 5-5 record is deceiving, considering six of Iowa Park’s games have been decided by seven points or less.

Fullback/linebacker JD Cuatt leads the Hawks’ offense with 529 yards rushing and has 40 tackles on defense, while linebacker John Elliot is the team’s leading tackler with 69 wrap-ups this season.

Offensively, the Hawks are averaging 316 yards per game, while the Texans average 186 yards on the ground.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Brownwood’s Gordon Wood Stadium.



• The Wimberley Texans (7-4) face the Iowa Park Hawks (5-5) tonight in a Class 3A, Divison II Area playoff game at Brownwood’s Gordon Brown Stadium. Twitter updates at www.twitter.com/smdailyrecord.