It takes the fingers of one hand to count the number of 10-0 area teams headed to the UIL playoffs.

Add the thumb, and private schools are covered.

Euless Trinity, No. 1 in the Associated Press state poll and at the top of several national polls, is the only area Class 5A unbeaten. Trinity dealt Allen, Cedar Hill and Colleyville Heritage their only defeats and has won 24 straight games.

Three area unbeatens are in Class 4A:

• Carter, which dropped from 5A to 4A this season, breezed to the 11-4A title but now finds itself in a difficult Division I Region II bracket that contains Highland Park, Texarkana Texas High and Waco Midway.

• Rockwall-Heath, champion of 10-4A, makes its first-ever playoff excursion in Division II Region II, where 9-1 Ennis and 10-0 Denison lurk.

• Everman, District 8-4A champion, compiled its second straight perfect regular season, giving it four 10-0 marks in eight years. A potential date against 10-0 Aledo looms in the second round, should both teams win bi-district games.

In the private schools ranks, unbeaten Dallas Christian begins the TAPPS II playoffs this week.

Randy Jennings

Area teams that won four games but managed to qualify for the playoffs:

CLASS 5A

CLASS 4A

Euless Trinity is the defending Class 5A Division I champion, the top-ranked team in the state and No. 1 in some national polls. But that didn't earn Trinity an easier road to a third state title in four seasons.

That's because, as usual, Region I is loaded in both Division I and II. It features one quarter of the 5A teams in the playoffs but more than half of the top 10 teams in the final state poll.

The Division I Region I teams include Trinity (10-0), No. 8 Plano (9-1), No. 5 Allen (9-1) and No. 4 Odessa Permian (10-0), which is no doubt savoring another shot at Trinity – the team that ousted it from the 2007 playoffs.

In Division II, Region I has two more state-ranked teams: No. 3 Abilene (10-0) and No. 9 Arlington Bowie (9-1). The region also includes Colleyville Heritage (9-1) and Cedar Hill (9-1), whose only losses this season were to Trinity.

Matt Wixon

Most consecutive years in the playoffs for area UIL teams:

The winners of 5A Division I and II titles by region since 2004:

Greg Riddle

Mesquite Horn coach Rodney Webb watched many of his players celebrate after his team's 28-19 win against Mesquite, which gave Horn its first playoff berth.

He also noticed some of the players with blank stares.

"Some of our kids were really excited, but it's almost as if they didn't know how to act," Webb said.

Horn's win, only its second ever against Mesquite, was a confidence boost as it prepares for bi-district play. Horn plays Copperas Cove in a 5A Division II game Friday.

Webb, in his first season after a five-year stint at Royse City, wanted Horn players to find time to enjoy the accomplishment.

"The kids have a very mature attitude about where they are and being in the playoffs," said Webb, who led Royse City to four playoff appearances. "But I told them, 'You don't want this moment to pass without savoring it a little.' "

Damon L. Sayles

Looking to see some of the area's top recruits in action in the first round of the playoffs? A good place to go would be Friday's South Grand Prairie-Allen game (7:30 p.m. at Mesquite Memorial Stadium).

South Grand Prairie has three players in Rivals.com's top 100 state recruiting rankings: wide receiver DeWayne Peace (committed to Michigan) and defensive linemen Joey Searcy (committed to Minnesota) and Randall Dent (undecided). Allen wide receiver Uzoma Nwachukwu and defensive back Steven Terrell are both in the top 40 on the state list, and both have committed to Texas A&M.

Greg Riddle

Here's a look at where some of the area's other top recruits will be playing in the first round of the playoffs:

If you think the players in this year's playoffs are exciting, just wait until next year. Many of the area's top playmakers are juniors, and a few sophomores are also making big contributions for playoff-bound teams.

PLAYOFF-BOUND JUNIORS

PLAYOFF-BOUND SOPHOMORES

Keith Whitmire