Gobbla2001
12-08-2005, 01:42 PM
Former 11-man powers find that size really does matter
Population shifts to east Texas have robbed former state football powers of students, statewide success
Thursday, December 08, 2005
State football championship week is not new to Throckmorton, situated midway between Abilene and Wichita Falls. The Greyhounds also went for the big prize in 1986 and have fared well in the playoffs in a half-dozen other seasons.
But what is new — and bittersweet — is that 14-0 Throckmorton's championship showdown against 14-0 Turkey Valley in Abilene on Saturday is for six-man supremacy in Texas. Past deeds in 11-man play by both schools are now history and, if demography is the key word, not likely to be supplemented.
Population shifts in Texas — overwhelmingly to the eastern half of the state — have steadily diminished enrollment in Northwest Texas schools. Not only Throckmorton (now with an enrollment of 68 students) and Turkey Valley (82), but larger schools with impressive football traditions have been affected. Borger, a 1962 state runner-up in Class 4A (now 5A) and Sweetwater, the 4A champion in 1985, are now mid-level enrollment 3A schools.
"We see the trend (declining enrollment at schools in the Panhandle and western portion of Texas) every two years, at realignment time," said Charles Breithaupt, University Interscholastic League athletic director.
Breithaupt pointed to Class 5A, which has five of the eight districts in Region I all within the Dallas-Fort Worth Mextroplex area. Once you get past the El Paso, Amarillo-Lubbock and Abilene-Odessa-Midland districts, every other Region I district is located well to the east, he said.
Most poignant stories of population declines are in communities like Throckmorton, which produced Dallas Cowboys Hall of Famer Bob Lilly, and Turkey Valley, the incubator of quarterback Kirk Saul, whose 590 passing yards against Chillicothe in 1986 remains a state 11-man single-game record.
The list of several dozen schools now playing in six-man after decades of 11-man competition includes Wheeler (Class A state champion in 1977, 1979 and 1987, runner-up in 1978, 1997 and 1998), Aspermont (1999 state runner-up in Class A), Rule (the 1973 Class A runner-up), Groom (1975 Class A finalist) and Newcastle (1951 Class A finalist). Others, with memories of one or more legendary 11-man teams, include Paducah, Chillicothe, Crowell, Spur, Lometa, Garden City, Ropesville, Kress, Jayton and Lefors.
UIL schools falling below enrollments of 100 students have the option of switching to six-man play. Charting the futures of football programs, Breithaupt said, can divide communities.
"Community pride is a factor, and some people are reluctant to make the radical change to another sport — which is what six-man is," Breithaupt said.
Chester (enrollment 60) in East Texas is the smallest UIL member still competing in 11-man, although at least a dozen others below 100 continue 11-man play.
Charles Hundley, the former Marble Falls ISD superintendent now in the same job at Crowell, was involved in that school's switch to six-man. Home of NFL running back Dick Todd — whose 318 points keyed a 1934 regional winner — Crowell lost 36 consecutive 11-man district games from late 1998 through 2003.
"We felt we had to make the change for our kids," Hundley said. "An informal survey in our school district, the only one in Foard County, showed we had 40 cows for every kid in school. Farms and ranches in this county have gone to advanced technology; fewer and fewer people work on them. Our high school enrollment is 80. We don't see it going up any time soon."
Controversy over Crowell's football future was minimized by a town meeting in October 2003. After many of the 125 people in attendance expressed opinions, school trustees weighed the issues and voted unanimously for six-man competition.
Hundley said Wildcat football prospered immediately in six-man. The school made the playoffs in 2004 and reached the second round this season. The varsity had 18 players, and participation numbers increased both years.
"When kids know they have the chance to win, they want to play," Hundley said.
Crowell's initial approach to the new game duplicated some other schools. Galen Smart, a six-man coaching icon in Northwest Texas, left retirement and hired Boyce Dye, a Texas Tech graduate with six-man playing experience, as an assistant coach.
"The kids love them both," Hundley declared.
Hundley said the plight of schools in the western section of Texas — "the big empty" is his euphemism for the area's population decline — is an untold story, not only in athletics, but in overall education.
"At one time, when I was in Abilene, I thought any school district with fewer than 300 students should consolidate with another," he said. "Now after coming to Crowell (in 2002), I think every county should have at least one school."
Hundley espouses a popular view that athletes should have a fighting chance to win.
Breithaupt says "a fighting chance" offers abstract challenges for some schools located outside West Texas. He cites Prairie Lea (enrollment 44), in Central Texas, as an example.
"Prairie Lea recently resumed six-man play, after being away from it for more than 40 years," Breithaupt said. "Located near Luling, it is the southernmost school in the state playing six-man.
"The travel, to places like Calvert, Cherokee, Lometa and Buckholts, is an enormous challenge. But the school is committed to playing."
Population shifts to east Texas have robbed former state football powers of students, statewide success
Thursday, December 08, 2005
State football championship week is not new to Throckmorton, situated midway between Abilene and Wichita Falls. The Greyhounds also went for the big prize in 1986 and have fared well in the playoffs in a half-dozen other seasons.
But what is new — and bittersweet — is that 14-0 Throckmorton's championship showdown against 14-0 Turkey Valley in Abilene on Saturday is for six-man supremacy in Texas. Past deeds in 11-man play by both schools are now history and, if demography is the key word, not likely to be supplemented.
Population shifts in Texas — overwhelmingly to the eastern half of the state — have steadily diminished enrollment in Northwest Texas schools. Not only Throckmorton (now with an enrollment of 68 students) and Turkey Valley (82), but larger schools with impressive football traditions have been affected. Borger, a 1962 state runner-up in Class 4A (now 5A) and Sweetwater, the 4A champion in 1985, are now mid-level enrollment 3A schools.
"We see the trend (declining enrollment at schools in the Panhandle and western portion of Texas) every two years, at realignment time," said Charles Breithaupt, University Interscholastic League athletic director.
Breithaupt pointed to Class 5A, which has five of the eight districts in Region I all within the Dallas-Fort Worth Mextroplex area. Once you get past the El Paso, Amarillo-Lubbock and Abilene-Odessa-Midland districts, every other Region I district is located well to the east, he said.
Most poignant stories of population declines are in communities like Throckmorton, which produced Dallas Cowboys Hall of Famer Bob Lilly, and Turkey Valley, the incubator of quarterback Kirk Saul, whose 590 passing yards against Chillicothe in 1986 remains a state 11-man single-game record.
The list of several dozen schools now playing in six-man after decades of 11-man competition includes Wheeler (Class A state champion in 1977, 1979 and 1987, runner-up in 1978, 1997 and 1998), Aspermont (1999 state runner-up in Class A), Rule (the 1973 Class A runner-up), Groom (1975 Class A finalist) and Newcastle (1951 Class A finalist). Others, with memories of one or more legendary 11-man teams, include Paducah, Chillicothe, Crowell, Spur, Lometa, Garden City, Ropesville, Kress, Jayton and Lefors.
UIL schools falling below enrollments of 100 students have the option of switching to six-man play. Charting the futures of football programs, Breithaupt said, can divide communities.
"Community pride is a factor, and some people are reluctant to make the radical change to another sport — which is what six-man is," Breithaupt said.
Chester (enrollment 60) in East Texas is the smallest UIL member still competing in 11-man, although at least a dozen others below 100 continue 11-man play.
Charles Hundley, the former Marble Falls ISD superintendent now in the same job at Crowell, was involved in that school's switch to six-man. Home of NFL running back Dick Todd — whose 318 points keyed a 1934 regional winner — Crowell lost 36 consecutive 11-man district games from late 1998 through 2003.
"We felt we had to make the change for our kids," Hundley said. "An informal survey in our school district, the only one in Foard County, showed we had 40 cows for every kid in school. Farms and ranches in this county have gone to advanced technology; fewer and fewer people work on them. Our high school enrollment is 80. We don't see it going up any time soon."
Controversy over Crowell's football future was minimized by a town meeting in October 2003. After many of the 125 people in attendance expressed opinions, school trustees weighed the issues and voted unanimously for six-man competition.
Hundley said Wildcat football prospered immediately in six-man. The school made the playoffs in 2004 and reached the second round this season. The varsity had 18 players, and participation numbers increased both years.
"When kids know they have the chance to win, they want to play," Hundley said.
Crowell's initial approach to the new game duplicated some other schools. Galen Smart, a six-man coaching icon in Northwest Texas, left retirement and hired Boyce Dye, a Texas Tech graduate with six-man playing experience, as an assistant coach.
"The kids love them both," Hundley declared.
Hundley said the plight of schools in the western section of Texas — "the big empty" is his euphemism for the area's population decline — is an untold story, not only in athletics, but in overall education.
"At one time, when I was in Abilene, I thought any school district with fewer than 300 students should consolidate with another," he said. "Now after coming to Crowell (in 2002), I think every county should have at least one school."
Hundley espouses a popular view that athletes should have a fighting chance to win.
Breithaupt says "a fighting chance" offers abstract challenges for some schools located outside West Texas. He cites Prairie Lea (enrollment 44), in Central Texas, as an example.
"Prairie Lea recently resumed six-man play, after being away from it for more than 40 years," Breithaupt said. "Located near Luling, it is the southernmost school in the state playing six-man.
"The travel, to places like Calvert, Cherokee, Lometa and Buckholts, is an enormous challenge. But the school is committed to playing."