A story in this month’s print edition tells of how Coppell responded to the deaths last fall of two Coppell High School seniors, including Jacob Logan, a football player who drowned after jumping off the cliffs at Possum Kingdom Lake. Solomon Thomas, a top national recruit for 2014, was one of Jacob’s closest friends:
That afternoon, Solomon Thomas was at home in Coppell, catching up on homework. Although he was a year younger than Jacob, the defensive end was among the many who considered Jacob his best friend. The two shared something the others did not. They both had a black father and a white mother. “We just clicked,” Solomon says. “He got me, and I got him.”
The friends started calling themselves “hybrids” and came up with a hand signal (hands facing forward, thumbs together, fingers straight up) to represent. The meme took off with CHS students. At one football game, a group of boys painted their torsos to spell “hybrid” on the front and “nation” on the back. In Coppell, a town that’s about 65 percent white, Jacob and Solomon made being biracial cool.
To pay tribute to Jacob, the Tom Landry Classic (an annual doubleheader of games between top high school teams in the area) named its defensive MVP award in honor of him. Friday night, following Coppell’s 32-24 win over Longview at Eagle Stadium in Allen, Solomon was selected as the award’s first recipient. His three sacks and six tackles were key factors in the team’s comeback victory.
“It means the world to me to hold this award,” Solomon said. “Jacob was one of my best friends. This team has the best bond in America. We are brothers.”
CHS running back Gavin McDaniel, the younger brother of Notre Dame’s Cam McDaniel, received the Classic’s offensive MVP award.
