Only making sure I understand: 6A schools in isolated areas like Odessa and Midland want to be moved down a division, presumably so they don't have to travel as far to play other 6A schools. Correct?
Yeah. The only measuring stick used right now is enrollment. Geographical common sense takes a distant back seat. That said, Midland HS's enrollment this year was something like a thousand kids over the 6A cutoff. The way things have been going in the HS playoffs these past 10 years or so, the idea of having 4 regions for UIL (one of which has no business even playing 6A ball once they get to the state semifinals) is kind of outdated. Make it 8 or 16 instead. Sure, some regions will suck. And some are going to be way, way too tough. But I don't think it changes outcomes in December.
I must be missing something in all of this. Two High Schools in Odessa and Two in Midland. What cities and schools are they going to move to Ector and Midland Counties? I understand the problem, but this does nothing to solve it. Those 4 schools are going to have to travel no matter how you gerrymander the lines. Perriman wasn't yelling when they were winning.
Viper, The State Rep is going to pass a bill that mandates anyone moving to the Permian Basin MUST live in Penwell at least until the new school there is 6A, then move on to the next crossroads. Abilene is in better position since they have Baird, Turkey, Clyde, Buffalo Gap, Cisco, Ranger, et al to fill in.
Every time there is a bond election the AD in Midland has secret meetings with all coaches to make sure everyone is on board to reject. Though the schools are close to a century in age, they don’t want a third school built to drop at least one school to 5a.
For coaches it’s drop to 5a. I’m sure travel is a concern from the Administration building, but even they know traveling is part of life out west.
So they don't want to build a third school, because that would make each school smaller and they'd drop to 5A. Instead, they want to stay large and play in 5A. No, Midland, you can't have it both ways.
See pretty much any ISD who, at one point, was on the fringe of a major metropolitan area, dominating in football, and then got swallowed up by the exurbs.
Well, I am very uninformed and barely want to be, but ... even though West Texas football requires travel no matter what, traveling to the nearest 5A schools to come up with a district would be hundreds of miles smaller circle than finding enough 6A schools to make a district, right?
My hometown HS is at the south end of a 4A district that goes to the Okla. Panhandle. Distance to the furthest District school is 321 MI. The district includes other schools that are 258 MI & 183 MI away. For reference, Odessa to Ft Worth = 321 MI. / Midland to El Paso is 305 MI. Neither Ft. Worth nor El Paso schools are in their District. Their District schools include San Angelo = 132 MI, Wolforth (their furthest Districe game) = 135 MI. Pobrecitos Midland/Odessa HS's. Cry me a river. I understand it is no fun driving across that flat, ugly terrain, but honestly other schools have it MUCH worse.
Upon further, it looks like most it all non-teaching staff got the same message. The FWISD is shrinking in enrollment. Schools will have to be closed.
How about hiring some administrators from DISD to teach them how to recruit, cheat, and stack the deck?
Yeah I think the closest 5A school close to Midland/Odessa is in Lubbock. I don’t think this has anything to do with travel, though. South Lake, Keller, Cibilo Steele and others have home and home scheduled games with Permian Basin teams. Actually, the only school afraid of competition and travel is Midland High. I am aware of one coach who spoke with Landgraf and told him a third high school is needed and it should be 5A. Not sure Landgraf took that and ran with it, but no, travel is no biggie. Legacy (Lee), Permian, and even Odessa High schedule metro-plex and San Antonio area schools all the time.
Other than Robert Hughes' Dunbar basketball teams in the 70s, 80s, and Roland Macklin's Eastern Hills 1982 football team I can't think of any successes they've had. Arlington Heights in the early 70s had some talented football teams but were normally crushed after bi district/ city championships. Football coaching in fw was light years behind everyone else when I was there (class of 74). Baseball was always more competitive because of the youth programs, but going deep in the playoffs was rare.
Those 40 6A schools that are currently located in counties with fewer than 500K people aren't exactly raking in new talent. Giving them their own state title division just because they can't compete with the Duncanvilles and North Shores of the world seems to fly in the "participation trophy" face of so many of their arguments about kids getting soft. Heck, just split up your schools further and head down to 4A. It's a hell of a lot easier to compete with China Spring and Wimberley.
