coach barbay....

[trojandad]

all this winning streak is well and good and fun as can be, but there is this real world we all have to return to when it's said and done....coach barbay's interview with the chronicle told how his father would have his playoff games staggered on whatever day needed in order to attend his son's playoff games & how newton's playoff games while he was growing up were such a family affair.....well, this year his dad's not there to call, or message, or even to peek up in the stands to grin at.....

while people in coldspring are so elated, there's one man in that community that has a bitter sweet view of things.....that must seem like being on such an island, and anyone that knows him knows that nobody will hear him complain (outside, maybe, his family, and i doubt then).....i surely pray this accomplishment can be appreciated and shared with his father....he's a good son....

[Aesculus gilmus]

The Gilmer ISD superintendent who decided to hire Jeff Traylor in 2000 had come here from Coldspring in the mid-1990s.

When WOS87 claimed that Coldspring was 50 miles from "true" East Texas, I had to disagree. One of my earliest memories is of a family vacation when we got literally stuck in our '64 Chevrolet Impala on a freshly-oiled county road a few miles outside of Coldspring. I remember looking up at the tall pine trees on both sides of the road as our tires sunk into the oil and thinking "well, at least I'm still at home" because I considered anywhere there were piney woods, just as there were in my yard, to be home.

[trojandad]

Originally posted by Aesculus gilmus
The Gilmer ISD superintendent who decided to hire Jeff Traylor in 2000 had come here from Coldspring in the mid-1990s.

When WOS87 claimed that Coldspring was 50 miles from "true" East Texas, I had to disagree. One of my earliest memories is of a family vacation when we got literally stuck in our '64 Chevrolet Impala on a freshly-oiled county road a few miles outside of Coldspring. I remember looking up at the tall pine trees on both sides of the road as our tires sunk into the oil and thinking "well, at least I'm still at home" because I considered anywhere there were piney woods, just as there were in my yard, to be home.

i'm completely with you, the talk on here of us not being "east texas" is the first time in my 50+ years i've even heard this kind of talk....i'm hearing we're more "southeast texas" but, to me, thats beaumont/orange/vidor and our terraine ain't what theres is....a friend of mine who owns about 1000 acres near here has been clearing it for development and, low and behold, found a turn of the century mule track, a rail line that manual rail cars used to run on back before timber trucks were conceived, these tracks would have rail cars pulled by mules into thick timber tracks, loaded with logs then pulled out to the river (trinity) and dumped in the river to float down to the mills on the river....revealing these tracks looked like something out of "raiders of the lost ark" special effects.....if that isn't a vestige of east texas, i give up...

[Aesculus gilmus]

That's interesting. I've been camping before at the Double Lake Recreation Area in the Sam Houston Nat'l Forest near Coldspring. In fact, I wondered when I made that camping trip if I was traveling down the same road we'd gotten stuck on three decades earlier. Once again, it felt like "home" to me.

Now not all of East Texas has pines, but everywhere there are pines, I call that East Texas.

You remember everything as a child, particularly if it is an unusual event. The other reason I remember the name of that town so well was because it was a direct opposite contrast to a town in Arkansas I'd already been to--Hot Springs. I'm sure that's why so many mislabel Coldspring as "Cold Springs."

I think it'd be pretty funny if Coach Barbay pulls off the upset. No one up here thinks it's possible, but they still have to play the game.

[trojandad]

Originally posted by Aesculus gilmus
That's interesting. I've been camping before at the Double Lake Recreation Area in the Sam Houston Nat'l Forest near Coldspring. In fact, I wondered when I made that camping trip if I was traveling down the same road we'd gotten stuck on three decades earlier. Once again, it felt like "home" to me.

Now not all of East Texas has pines, but everywhere there are pines, I call that East Texas.

You remember everything as a child, particularly if it is an unusual event. The other reason I remember the name of that town so well was because it was a direct opposite contrast to a town in Arkansas I'd already been to--Hot Springs. I'm sure that's why so many mislabel Coldspring as "Cold Springs."

I think it'd be pretty funny if Coach Barbay pulls off the upset. No one up here thinks it's possible, but they still have to play the game.

whether he does or doesnt, one thing we can agree on, he sure comes from a family used to winning state against schools from far bigger communities than their own.....thats exactly the attitude we need as long as uil keeps making the counts they do on our school......

[Aesculus gilmus]

Originally posted by trojandad
whether he does or doesnt, one thing we can agree on, he sure comes from a family used to winning state against schools from far bigger communities than their own.....thats exactly the attitude we need as long as uil keeps making the counts they do on our school......

Don't let that discourage you. (I'm sure it doesn't.) I just looked up your enrollment. 503, while small, is still way bigger than Kirbyville at 432, which was everyone's favorite to come out of your region until you beat them.

I remember Tatum winning state in 3A DII in 2005 with an enrollment in the 390s.

I joked the other day that instead of Divisions I and II being based on enrollment, the UIL should base it on geography if they EVER want to award another title to a team from outside of East Texas. Maybe the dividing line should run from Houston up I-45 to Dallas and then follow I-35 to the border.

[trojandad]

Originally posted by Aesculus gilmus
Don't let that discourage you. (I'm sure it doesn't.) I just looked up your enrollment. 503, while small, is still way bigger than Kirbyville at 432, which was everyone's favorite to come out of your region until you beat them.

I remember Tatum winning state in 3A DII in 2005 with an enrollment in the 390s.

I joked the other day that instead of Divisions I and II being based on enrollment, the UIL should base it on geography if they EVER want to award another title to a team from outside of East Texas. Maybe the dividing line should run from Houston up I-45 to Dallas and then follow I-35 to the border.

thats the uil counts.....coldspring town has a population of 691 while kirbyville proper has a population of 2,085......if you drive through the two, its night and day.......which is why the counts for us forever confound me......other governmental agencies take local counts, such as East Texas Council of governments (ETXCOG), their counts for us are always in the 300's and have been for over a decade.....kirbyville, according to cog, has more than 432.....heck, corrigan-camden, a perenial 2a contender north of us, had had over 500 count according to cog for years and years.......uil's numbers are just magic, even to others not living here.....