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The other day, I phoned a friend – a former Skyline linebacker who lives in Atlanta – to tell him about our school's big win over Round Rock.

"We're still playing?" he said, a tinge of amazement in his voice.

"Yeah."

"Are you kidding me?" my friend asked. "We're never playing this time of year."

He's right. At least he used to be right.

Reginald Samples has changed all of that.

For more than a decade, Skyline has been a perennial playoff team, in part because we play in such a bad football district. Getting to the playoffs 14 consecutive years isn't a big deal when you lose in the first round every year.

Actually, Skyline hadn't ventured past the bi-district playoffs since 1995. On Saturday, my Raiders are playing Plano and all of its tradition in the Class 5A Division I Region II final.

Skyline, the only Dallas ISD team still playing, hasn't been this deep in the playoffs since 1972. It doesn't really get much better than that.

Let me be honest, I still carry the wounds from my senior year at Skyline.

We had one of the most talented teams in school history – six players played Division I football, and nearly three times that many played college ball – but we didn't make the playoffs after finishing 6-3-1.

The worst part: We were shut out three times. We missed the playoffs when we tied Roosevelt, 0-0, but it advanced on penetrations.

Twenty-two years later, it should be clear I'm still having issues with closure. Apparently, I'm not alone.

"All of a sudden, folks I've never heard of in my life want to talk, and people I don't know want tickets," Samples said with a laugh Thursday morning. "It's crazy around here, but you have to be humble and enjoy it. I'm just glad football at Skyline is waking up."

While there's plenty of credit to spread around, from DISD athletic director Jeff Johnson to the coaching staff at Skyline feeder Lang Middle School, it all starts with Samples.

When Skyline hired Samples in 2005, he became the school's sixth coach since 1992. Gerald Brence is Plano's only coach in the same time.

Samples, who made a moribund Lincoln program a perennial power during his 13 seasons, thought Skyline could be a perennial Class 5A power like Carter was in its prime.

Skyline has 4,593 students; only five schools have more. More important, Skyline is a federally funded magnet school with career clusters ranging from law to air conditioning repair, allowing it to draw students from all over the Dallas area.

When Samples arrived, he used discipline and a rigorous off-season program to pare the program to 115 kids. Now, he has about 150 kids in the football program.

"I don't really like more than that," he said, "because then you can't coach them all the way they need to be coached."

Samples has made playing football at Skyline a privilege. New players don't receive an athletic period during the school day until they complete a probationary period.

Once he laid the foundation, Samples convinced his players they didn't have to be constrained by the past. It's the same blueprint he used at Lincoln, 1-19 in the two seasons before he arrived.

So this season has been about breaking barriers such as ending Carter's 33-game district winning streak and six-year reign as 11-5A champs and winning a playoff game for the first time in 12 years.

"It has taken a lot of hard work," said Keldon Hampton, a junior running back, "but the young players who come up from now on are going to see what we have going on."

LOUIS DeLUCA / DMN

Skyline, here celebrating a playoff win over Rowlett, faces Plano in the Class 5A Division I Region II final on Saturday.

The freshman team has won consecutive district titles. A winning tradition is being forged. That's how it should be.

There's an abundance of athletic talent in DISD. All you have to do is look at the number of athletes who receive Division I scholarships each year. It's a joke Sunset won the district's last football championship in 1950.

Samples, whose 2004 Lincoln team lost the Class 4A Division II championship in double overtime, thinks he can end that streak one day.

He took the Skyline job because he figured the enrollment and facilities would give him an opportunity to compete with suburban programs. This year is only the beginning.

"I can't say getting 2-3 rounds deep every year is going to satisfy me because I'm always gonna want to win the whole thing," Samples said. "The only thing that I know will satisfy me is looking at the scoreboard at the end of the game with those zeroes showing and we've won a state championship."

Who knows, maybe I'll have to call my friend again in a couple of weeks.

LINE OF SUCCESSION

Skyline's last six coaches and their records at the school dating to 1992:

Class 5A Division I Region II final: Skyline (12-1) vs. Plano (12-1), 2 p.m. Saturday at Mesquite Memorial Stadium (KFXR-AM 1190; tape- delayed at approx. 11 p.m. on Ch. 21)