[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\nIf Detrick Propes were to play football these days, he fears that he might get penalized a lot more than when he played in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n
Propes loved to hit.<\/p>\n
Growing up, he played football in a park against other little kids without pads.<\/p>\n
By his junior season in high school, he was a hard-hitting middle linebacker for Plano East, and he wasn\u2019t afraid to dish out the hits. During a game against Berkner, Propes ran unimpeded toward the Rams\u2019 kickoff returner. The ball rolled in front of the Berkner player and into his chest. But moments after gaining control of the ball, Propes delivered a hard hit.<\/p>\n
That hit drew a strong reaction from the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the best hit ever,\u201d Propes said. \u201cEveryone in the crowd was yelling, \u2018Woo.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Hard hits like the ones that Propes delivered were a big reason why Plano East had a feared defense and achieved sustained success over the two years that he played on varsity for the Panthers \u2014 1986 and 1987. The Panthers finished 14-7 over that span, including a record of 8-3 during Propes\u2019 senior season.<\/p>\n
Propes\u2019 legendary high school career was celebrated at Tom Kimbrough Stadium on Oct. 3. Propes, a Class of 1988 graduate, was inducted into the Plano East Football Hall of Honor at the end of the first quarter of Plano East\u2019s game against McKinney Boyd.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very nice honor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Propes is the second member of the 1987 team to be inducted into Plano East football\u2019s Hall of Honor this year. Kenny McEntyre, a Class of 1989 graduate and defensive back for the Panthers before going on to play in the NFL and later starring in the Arena Football League, was inducted Aug. 29.<\/p>\n
The original plan was for Propes to play high school football for Plano West, but he changed his mind and wanted to play for Plano East after watching his older brother play for the Panthers.<\/p>\n
Propes played running back and free safety in middle school, but his coach told him that he wasn\u2019t good enough to play middle linebacker. That was all the motivation he needed to work even harder at plying his craft so that he could play linebacker.<\/p>\n
Once in high school, Propes finally had someone who believed he was capable of playing middle linebacker: coach Roy Stone. Propes was moved to middle linebacker in the ninth grade for the Williams High School football team. He was promoted to the Plano East varsity team by the end of his junior season, and he never relinquished his spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a great coach,\u201d Propes said of Stone. \u201cHe tried me at that position, and I\u2019ve loved it ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plano East had a stout defense with Propes, McEntyre, middle linebacker Elton Drake, Billy Staples, free safety Russ Bailey and defensive end Weldon Anderson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had the best defense in the nation,\u201d Propes said. \u201cIf we would have beaten Carter in the playoffs, the\u00a0Friday Night Lights\u00a0movie would have been about us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Propes relished the rivalry that Plano East had with Carter, especially with one particular player for Carter \u2014 linebacker Jessie Armstead.<\/p>\n
Armstead was selected by the New York Giants with the 207th overall pick in the 1993 NFL Draft and went on to play professionally for 12 seasons before retiring in 2004.<\/p>\n
\u201cJessie was a really nice guy,\u201d Propes said. \u201cMe and him were always competitive. When I saw him, we would have a competition to see who the best middle linebacker was ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
A big reason why Propes succeeded at middle linebacker was his dedication to the weight room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got the record for the Super Fighting Panther award,\u201d he said. \u201cYou got points for speed and lifting weights. I was the strongest. I was benching 375 pounds. I was strong. I was born like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Propes continued to wear black and gold in college when he played for Tyler Junior College.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved that black and gold,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Detrick Propes, Class of 1988 graduate of Plano East High School, was inducted in the school\u2019s football hall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":{"0":"post-17576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-plano","8":"tag-plano","9":"tag-plano-headlines","10":"tag-plano-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}