Lake Travis is playing Katy Friday Saturday night in the final of the Texas State 6A D2 football championship, and Westlake will play North Shore in the 6A D1 final.

While we don’t normally cover high school football in these pages, it’s worth noting that several key players on both Lake Travis and Westlake are from their very strong rugby programs.

For Lake Travis, defensive end and rugby No. 8 Derrick Womack has been a big part of the team’s success, and linebacker and flyhalf Patrick Medina is a linebacker for the football team.

“We have a good relationship with the football team,” said Lake Travis Coach Rick Medina. “We usually, though, get the football players after their senior season. But we’re getting more commitments from football players who want to play rugby, and the fact that rugby tackling techniques are starting to catch on in football helps us.”

Still, Texas is a football-first state in many ways, and in fact Westlake Rugby Coach Jason Spodick, who used to also coach football at the school, is now rugby only. The relationship between the sports - despite the obvious benefit to football players in terms of tackling skills, ball skills, and fitness - is a work in progress.

The Westlake defense is led by the rugby players, said Spodick proudly. Westlake stopped Allen's 57-game winning streak in the semifinals, and Ryan Rees (scrumhalf, cornerback and kicker), Ryan Markus (wing, cornerback), and Bryce Boivert (center, linebacker) are all starters for Westlake football.