2024 Five Tool High School Festival Preview

Four schools from around the state, Bixby, Deer Creek, Edmond Memorial, and Westmoore, will open their seasons in DFW at the 2024 Five Tool HS Festival. The festival hosts 27 of the best teams from both around DFW and across the country, with teams like Mater Dei coming all the way from California. Let’s quickly look at who each of the four schools will be facing off with this weekend.

Bixby

Starting with Bixby, the Spartans will play two games on Friday against Prosper Walnut Grove and Houston Memorial, before a 10 a.m. matchup with Prosper HS on Saturday. Let’s take a closer look at the teams they’ll be facing this weekend, starting with a Prosper Walnut Grove squad that doesn’t have much history, because this is their first season in existence. The Wildcats haven’t had much luck in scrimmages this February, but feature multiple quality players who should be able to hold their own against the Spartans. Next, Bixby will face off with a solid Houston Memorial squad that ended their 2023 season with a loss in the Area round of the 6A playoffs. Finally, Bixby will face off with a Prosper team that got the better of them at this same tournament a year ago 13-10, so the Spartans will no doubt be set on avenging one of the few losses they had last season. The Spartans began their season at this same festival in 2023, and are hoping to get off to a better start than last season when they went 0-3 in the metroplex, as they look to become the first back-to-back state champions in 6A since Owasso won three straight from 2007-2009.

Deer Creek

Deer Creek also heads back to DFW for the second season in a row, after going 1-2 at this festival a year ago. The Antlers are matched up with Prosper and Lovejoy on Friday and then will finish the trip with a Saturday matchup against Allen. Prosper will be well acquainted with some of the best teams in Oklahoma this season, taking on both Bixby and Deer Creek. Moving to Lovejoy, the Leopards went 27-9 last season, before falling in the regional quarterfinals to Patrick Mahomes’ alma mater, Whitehouse. Finally, the Antlers will end the weekend with a matchup against Allen, who was bested in the regional semifinal by eventual state champions Flower Mound last season. Deer Creek swept through their regional last season, before Owasso got the best of them in the first round of the state tournament, defeating them 3-1. This is the Antlers’ first season under new head coach Andrew McGuire, and they’ll look to a big weekend in DFW to set the tone for his inaugural season.

Edmond Memorial

Moving next to Edmond Memorial, the Bulldogs rode a great young core of players to a 2-0 start at the Westmoore regional last season before a heartbreaking pair of losses to the hosting Jaguars ended their season. They’ll begin the weekend with a pair of games against Rockwall and Rockwall-Heath on Friday before a matchup with Mckinney Boyd on Saturday to wrap things up. Both representatives of Rockwall had their seasons end in the 6A regional semifinals last season, with Heath falling to Cypress Woods and Rockwall falling to The Woodlands. Mckinney Boyd is coming off a rough 2023 season and will look to make an early statement on their improvement at the Five Tool Festival, so by no means can the Bulldogs pencil game three in as a win just yet.

Westmoore

Last but certainly not least we have the aforementioned Westmoore Jaguars. The Jaguars head to DFW this weekend looking to make an early statement that they aren’t going anywhere after two straight state tournament appearances. Westmoore opens the weekend with two games against Allen and Frenship on Friday, followed by a tilt with Flower Mound Marcus to cap off the weekend. Allen now joins Prosper as yet another squad that is going to face off with two of Oklahoma’s finest this weekend, with games against Westmoore and Deer Creek on the docket for the Eagles. Frenship fell to Byron Nelson in Areas last season in a three-game series that featured two different 1-0 games. Finally, the Jaguars’ weekend will end with a matchup with Flower Mound Marcus at the Marauders’ home field. Marcus went an impressive 24-9 last season but fell in the bi-district round to Allen.