Josh Dillon (5) and the Jesuit Rangers take on South Garland tonight. (Staff photo: Chris McGathey)

The Jesuit Rangers will open the playoffs tonight with a 6 p.m. bi-district tilt with South Garland at Garland’s Homer B. Johnson Stadium.

Jesuit (18-2-0) finished second in District 9-5A, while South Garland was third in 10-5A.

The winner of tonight’s game will take on the Mesquite Horn-Belton winner in area later this week.

Austin Smith (left) is a Hobey Baker Award finalist.

In last week’s edition of Preston Hollow People, I wrote about Colgate hockey player Austin Smith. Smith, who played for Jesuit for two years, was drafted by the Dallas Stars in 2007.

And while he is one of ten finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, the hockey equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, Smith has signed with the Texas Stars, a Dallas minor league affiliate, and will make his pro debut tomorrow night in Oklahoma City. Fans can vote for Smith to win the Hobey Baker Award at the official site.

Smith finished the season with 57 points on 36 goals and 21 assists.

Speaking of financially related DISD matters, the Dallas Morning News is reporting that prospective members of W.T. White cheerleading and drill team had to pay $5 before being allowed to tryout. In the article, district spokesperson Jon Dahlander characterized the fee as minimal and said the practice was used by other school districts in the past.

Paying to tryout for a public school sport strikes me as odd, but even more so since the fee is attached only to cheerleading and drill team tryouts. If you’re going to tack on a price tag, do it across the board.

Who knows, maybe the money will go toward a scholarship for students with perfect attendance? Win-Win, DISD, Win-win.

The winning Lady Bulldogs team includes Coaches LaTosha Ridgway, Chris Walker and, Eliza Lavi Hochman and athletes (top row) Alexandra Lavi, Erin Wernick, Hadas Cohen, Dania Tanur, Talia Klein, Sophie Lynn, Tamar Cohen, Rachel Goodman (bottom row) Jori Epstein, Emily Rohan, Ali Feinstein, Mina Pulitzer, Ilana Wernick, Gabby Steinbrecher and (not pictured) Niv Avneri, Sarah Barnett, and Clara Moskowitz. Associate Principal, Naomi Schrager (top row, second left), also joined the team in Miami.

This past weekend, Yavneh Academy won the 2012 Captain Hyman O. Galbut Miami Invitational Women’s Basketball Tournament in Miami, FL.

“I’m so proud of our girls. The team has grown strong together, and our program has been strengthed greatly in the last few years,” said Lady Bulldogs Head Coach, Chris Walker, in a press release. Earlier in the season, the Lady Bulldogs won the David A. Yaffee Memorial Tournament in Houston. “To end our season on this note is a dream come true.”

Way to win big bulldogs!

March Madness is an exciting time to follow college basketball, but it’s even more fun when you can cheer on a hometown hero. While last year’s NCAA tournament featured a handful of local legends, this year’s has only one: ESD grad Phil Pressey, who is a dominant force for the No. 2 seed in the south, Missouri. h/t Dallas Morning News.

James Hairston handles a kickoff for LSU last season.

Have you been following the story of Mo Isom, the female LSU student who is trying to earn a spot on the Tigers’ football team as a kicker? I ask only because one of the team’s established kickers, James Hairston, is a Jesuit graduate.

Erin Maxwell hit a short jumper with four seconds left to lift Ursuline to a 44-43 win over district rival Bishop Lynch in the TAPPS Class 5A basketball state championship game Saturday in Mansfield.

I just got word from sports editor Chuck Cox and photography director Chris McGathey that Beren Academy, the team that had to file a restraining order to get their TAPPS semifinal game moved up to this afternoon, has defeated the Covenant School, 58-46.

The Ursuline Bears and Covenant Knights will both be playing in the TAPPS state basketball semifinals today.

In the girls Class 5A semifinals, Ursuline (20-15) will play TAPPS 1-5A rival Plano John Paul II (24-9) at 6 p.m. at Mansfield Timberview. In the boys Class 2A semifinals, Covenant will take on Houston Beren Academy at 2 p.m. at Fort Worth Nolan.

Ursuline split the regular-season series with John Paul II.

The winners will move on to Saturday’s state championship games. The girls’ title game is at 4 p.m. at Mansfield Summit.

The parents of the Beren Academy players filed a lawsuit, so their sons will get to play Covenant at 2 p.m. tomorrow in the TAPPS Class 2A semifinals. ESPN’s Randy Jennings — a former colleague of mine from DFW Suburban Newspapers — has the details.