By Chuck Licata, Managing Editor/Writer at TexasHSfootball.com
If anyone ever doubted the impact and magnitude high school football has on the state of Texas, one only need look at this week’s South-by-Southwest (abbreviated as “SXSW”) Festival being held in the state capitol city of Austin.
Amongst all the musical, film and Hollywood celebrities and “impact players” attending SXSW (and yes, even the President of the United States made an appearance), there was Texas High School Football.
SXSW is known for being “a launching pad for new creative content.” And that’s what Brian and Autumn DeMarco, the new co-owners of TexasHSFootball.com, are all about.
The two were joined by a large gathering Saturday (March 12) at Darwin’s Pub on 6th Street – right in the heart and pulse of the SXSW celebration – as they held their Official Pre-Launch of the web site.
“Our SXSW prelaunch event was a great way for us to introduce what’s coming down the road to fans of the website as well as our amazing advertising partners,” stated Brian DeMarco, a former NFL lineman with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Cincinnati Bengals. “It’s truly an honor for us to be partnered with some of the best brands in the country like —XENITH, Big Game Football, Redline Athletics, TRKR Labs and The Right Profile. We’re also very proud to be partnered with one of the best media companies on the planet with iHeart Radio.
“I’m grateful beyond words for all of their support and for the fans of TexasHSfootball.com. It is truly an honor to be in this position and I’m looking forward to a very exciting year – both in-season and off-season – in 2016.”
Autumn DeMarco was thrilled with the excitement surrounding both the event and SXSW.
“A big ‘thank you’ to everyone who came out to support our event during SXSW,” said the TexasHSFootball.com co-owner and director. “We are fortunate to have some amazing people involved with the site. I join Brian in sending regards to our advertising partners for their generous donations. We also want to thank Rance Olison, former NFL player with the 49ers and Chiefs, and now President of the central Texas NFL Alumni for helping us get former players to the event. We’re also grateful to Darwin’s Pub for a providing a great location and terrific service; the TexasHSfootball team for their hard work, because this event would have not been the success it was without them; and, last but not least, thank you to our amazing fans and supporters who came out to show us the love and support.
“This was an important event for us to show the evolution currently underway at TexasHSfootball. It was successful in building the anticipation of whats to come. We look forward to unveiling the new modern and fan interactive site soon. This was quite an amazing start to the new TexasHSfootball.com.”
So “amazing,” in fact, the DeMarcos, Principal owner David Phillips and the staff heard back from a couple of their sponsors, thanking them for the opportunity to share in the fun.
Dewayne Bernhardt, Owner Redline Athletics (Pflugerville & Houston locations) and Regional Directer said, “RedLine Athletics was thrilled to be a part of an event with such buzz and notoriety surrounding it; to have the opportunity to meet and talk with all the people involved was a real privilege for us. Our partnership with TexasHSfootball.com has had a real positive impact on our development, and we are excited for what the future holds.”
That thought was seconded by Andrea Owen, Spa Manager at Victory MedSpa.
“Myself and my entire team at Victory Med Spa wants to thank TexasHsfootball for including us in the exciting prelaunch event during SXSW,” Owen declared. “We were excited about teaming up with them for this event, and we look forward to future collaborations. We believe it will be an extremely fruitful and rewarding relationship. We also look forward to bringing the Victory Med Spa brand to the Texas High School football fans.”
After the event, Brian DeMarco talked about the future of the site – and the impact he and Autumn want the site to have on “one of the greatest things about the great state of Texas.”
“Autumn and I have been really blessed to be a part of TexasHSfootball,” DeMarco said. “When David Phillips brought us in almost a year ago now we knew we had our work cut out for us. TexasHSfootball has been around for 15 years now with little change to the site. But what amazed us with the website was the great and loyal following. Even though the site was dated, it still had hundreds of thousands of page views per month, which was really great for a website of its size.”
“What Autumn and I have done is surround ourselves with some of the most talented people in the digital media space to develop a cutting edge digital media web site which will help us deliver full, rich content that covers high school, college and NFL football, all through the eyes of Texas. There are high school players in Texas on just every major college team in the country, and there are at least 5-10 guys from Texas on every NFL team. Making this Texas connection for us is the central focus to our new website. After all, not only is Texas the greatest state to live in – it’s also the best football!”
Information about the upcoming launch as well as local and national news can be found at www.TexasHSFootball.com.
