I had a pretty good idea about Texas, and more specifically the Dallas-Fort Worth area, before traveling there last week for vacation.

At least I thought I did.

For a state where football is king - I did pass by some downright immaculate high school football stadiums along the highways - it was hard to tell from what people wore.

I spotted just two people wearing Dallas Cowboy jerseys the whole trip - in which I hopped around from Dallas to Arlington to McKinney back to Arlington again.

Compare that to the almost 50 Josh Hamilton jerseys I saw. Others didn't have Hamilton's name, but rather shirts that had his trademark celebratory "claw" hand gesture.

I know baseball is in season and football is not.

But even in a football-crazy part of the world, Hamilton, the Athens Drive graduate and former No. 1 overall pick in the MLB Draft, definitely stood out as the DFW area's biggest star.

Even if his team plays in the shadow of a $1.3 billion football stadium.

Beilinson ranked: Panther Creek tight end Dan Beilinson, a Duke verbal commit, is ranked as the No. 23 football prospect in North Carolina by Rivals.com, a recruiting website.

Every year, Rivals ranks the top 30 players in the state based on projections of how they will play at the next level.

Vandermaas-Peeler trains with RailHawks: Athens Drive graduate Cooper Vandermaas-Peeler had the opportunity to train with the Carolina RailHawks.

During the final week of July, Vandermaas-Peeler was invited to the team's practice along with Monbo Bokar - a recent graduate of Jordan High School in Durham.

Both Vandermaas-Peeler and Bokar will play for ACC schools next year, with Vandermaas-Peeler heading to UNC-Chapel Hill and Bokar going to N.C. State.

They also both played for the CASL under-18 team.

"Having seen the CASL U-18 team in training and playing, I know they're very good," said RailHawks coach Martin Rennie in a statement.

"It's nice for us to have some of their players out here and I hope they enjoyed it. They certainly did well. They've got a lot of potential. Hopefully, being a part of a professional organization for a little while will help them see the standard that they need to attain in order to become professionals themselves."

It was the latest honor for Vandermaas-Peeler, who was the N.C. Gatorade Player of the Year his senior season for Athens Drive and was named to the U.S. under-18 team that competed in Israel last December.

"I wanted to prove I'm supposed to be here," Vandermaas-Peeler said in a statement.

"I thought I did well. The guys are pretty big, so I've just got to keep working. To be able to train at a higher level, even for a couple days, really helps me going into the preseason at Carolina."

In early July, Vandermaas-Peeler and Bokar led CASL's Chelsea Academy to a fourth-place finish in the U.S. Soccer Developmental Academy finals. CASL went 19-3-3 thanks in part to Vandermaas-Peeler, who played midfield, and his five goals.