When the Texas High School Coaches Association announced the academic all-state honorees on Dec. 10 alongside the Texas Army National Guard, the Sealy Tigers had two land on the first team and second team each, and five more earned an honorable mention in their final year of high school.

Rhys Reichardt and Jackson Osborne represented Sealy on the first-team academic allstate. Blake Zaskoda and Mark Arriaga registered a spot on the second-team academic all-state and Adrian Arriaga, Kade Killough, Josh Paz, Grayson Brandes and Ricardo Villagomez all garnered academic all-state honorable mentions.

Tiger head football coach Shane Mobley said any state-wide honors are certainly impressive but for it to be awarded because of his players’ efforts in the classroom, it carries more weight.

“When you can say you were first-team academic all-state from the Texas High School Coaches Association, to me that’s the highest honor,” Mobley said. “We preach it during the season and most of those kids go to multiple sports – Rhys Reichardt goes from football to baseball – but when you sit there and say you’re all-state, any kind of honors at that point in time, especially in the state of Texas, that’s huge.”

All of the student athletes made their impact on the football field, but Mobley added that this list doesn’t necessarily honor the standout athlete but the standout student who balances athletics.

“We had a lot from volleyball, we had some cross country kids and that’s not just a testament to our kids but that’s a testament to our teachers and the parents,” the head coach said. “Those are some really high honors but make no mistake about it, that’s something right there that the kids should be proud of and the greatest thing about it is you don’t have to play in every game, you don’t have to be the all-American.”

As a parent of student-athletes himself, Mobley said these parents deserve to enjoy a moment of pride for the hard work their student-athlete has put in as well.

“When it comes to academics, that’s the most important thing,” Mobley said. “As a parent, be extremely proud because that’s the greatest pride. District championships are huge but if you can say we have seven, eight, nine, 10 kids on our team, volleyball says we’ve got six, cross country says we’ve got three – and it takes a pretty high GPA overall, so you’re competing with everyone in your school – and when you have 200 kids in your class and you’ve got a high GPA, that’s impressive.”

For the first-team honorees, Reichardt finished the season with 18 tackles including a string of quarterback pressures against Wharton, and Osborne held things down on the offensive line – and added an 11-yard rush – and totaled 65 tackles on defense as well as a pair of tackles for a loss.

On the second team, Zaskoda provided key special teams play by serving as the holder for many of the extra points and field goals attempts and Mark Arriaga registered 13 rushing yards on six carries.

Paz was one of the honorable mentions who benefitted from Zaskoda’s holds where the kicker converted 27-of-29 point-after tries and both field-goal attempts to score 33 total points. Adrian Arriaga recorded a 7-yard catch, Brandes registered two tackles and linemen Killough and Villagomez paved the way for the offense in the trenches.