Inside Story - Marcus Stiggers and Chris Sanders

The daily grind for Marcus Stiggers is endless. Despite working the graveyard shift, he’s still up and at ‘em…..8 a-m on a Sunday morning, passing on his knowledge of the game he fell in love with so many years ago.

25 years ago, just a few yards away at the “boneyard””, Stiggers passion for the game was on display every Friday night. He ran the wishbone for Lake Highlands and his pure speed and vision made the wildcats offense almost impossible to stop.

The wishbone triple option is an offense where the defense dictates who gets the ball. The quarterback must make quick reads everywhere on the field to put the offense in the best situation. Stiggers was a master at that as he ran for just under 2000 yards and 20 touchdowns his senior year.

Meanwhile, up north in Flower Mound, another quarterback was being set loose. But instead of using his legs, this one used his arm. Chris Sanders of Flower Mound Marcus was built like a linebacker, but had an arm like a bazooka. The Marauders bucked the popular trend of a power running game and instead adopted the spread offense. That was just fine for Sanders.

Sanders and the spread were a match made in heaven as he threw for 42 hundred yards and 41 touchdowns on the year - unheard of numbers in high school football back in 1995. So while Lake Highlands was running up the score on the ground, Marcus was doing the same through the air. And each signal caller kept a close eye on the other.

The two offensive machines finally met in the state semifinal that year. Sanders and his aerial attack picked apart Lake Highlands to the tune of a 42-14 victory. Many felt that game was the beginning of area teams switching to a more pass happy offense. And as Sanders hopes to groom his own son into an elite quarterback, he reflects on the significance of that game.