LH Panther Mom
10-26-2006, 08:37 AM
Two of 3A's five controversial four-team districts are in Central Texas.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Heading into Week Eight of the 2006 season, as many as 100 Texas high school football teams are already out of playoff contention. As members of eight-team districts (or in a half-dozen cases, nine-team leagues) they've already been beaten three or four times in for-keeps play.
Some quality, but eliminated, squads in the competitive claustrophobia of Class 5A (which has 22 districts with eight or more teams), 4A (12 crowded leagues) and 2A (10 swollen circuits) may look enviously at Class 3A, whose 31 districts include five circuits with only four teams each.
Ricardo B. Brazziell
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Ricky Beaty and Wimberley begin district play Friday against Bandera. The Texans are the defending Class 3A Division I state champions.
Warfare for the three playoff spots from each thinly populated 3A district begins this week — including two in Central Texas, 25-3A and 26-3A — and squads with losing records will probably reach the postseason.
Two top University Interscholastic League officials agree that Class 3A has a problem. But both executive director Bill Farney and athletic director Charles Breithaupt say the classification's dilemma has no easy solution.
"Texas population shifts continue to be from west to east," Farney said. "There aren't that many 3A schools in West Texas anymore, and the enrollment spread (414 to 947) is already stretched. We try to keep the top figure as near to twice the lower number as we can."
Breithaupt said four-team districts are not the ultimate answer. If 3A football membership remains at or near its present 174 schools (5A has 246, 4A has 229 and 2A's count is 221), he said one solution for the UIL's next biennial realignment in 2008 would be to set up as many six-school 3A districts as possible, reducing the overall number to 26 or 28. A dozen teams could receive first-round playoff byes under that scenario.
Wimberley and Llano in 25-3A and Luling in 26-3A are, as members of four-team leagues, opening district play Friday. Coaches of the three Central Texas schools have varying opinions about the present alignment situation.
"The UIL knows my feelings. I've fussed enough to them (about realignment)," said Wimberley's Weldon Nelms, whose Texans are the Class 3A Division I state champions. "Surely the UIL could have come up with a better solution — for example, shifting teams like Hutto and Liberty Hill from Region III, which has several eight-team districts, to give our region (IV) more six-team districts.
"For us, scheduling seven non-district games involved enormous travel this season and next," Nelms said. "Our schedule includes Texarkana Liberty-Eylau, Abilene Wylie and Houston St. Thomas. We had to get other opponents for our sub-varsity teams because of the distances involved.
"I've never heard of a 1-9 team making the playoffs, but it could happen this year," Nelms reflected. "There's a question of fairness. Competitive teams in larger districts will miss out."
In Llano, head coach David Yeager said the Yellowjackets considered themselves lucky to schedule seven non-district games.
"We were numb when we first heard the alignment last winter. But the UIL surely has problems we coaches don't know about," Yeager said. "But after Week Five, we had to do a selling job motivating the kids. They're used to starting district play with the sixth game."
Luling head coach Michael Stewart said he'll only like the concept of having three district games if the Eagles make the playoffs. Aside from non-district scheduling, he said, motivating players for seven games that don't count is tough at times.
"There's probably no easy solution to 3A's problem," Stewart said. "Changing the enrollment cutoffs at the bottom or the top will just make it tougher for smaller schools to compete."
Farney said enrollment differentials have far greater impact on football than on other sports. The effects on sub-varsity and middle school football programs are sometimes greater because talent feeder systems are the life blood of varsity programs.
High school football analysts frequently say every game in balanced districts is significant. Now, competitive parity or not, Friday's openers — 6-1 Wimberley at 2-5 Bandera and 5-2 Llano at 0-7 Ingram Moore in 25-3A, 4-3 Luling at 4-3 South San Antonio West Campus and 5-2 La Vernia at 2-5 Marion in 26-3A — mark the start of a time span in which every contest will decide which six teams reach the playoffs and which two will head to the weight room for offseason workouts.
American-Statesman link (http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/other/10/26/26sportsbygeorge.html)
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Heading into Week Eight of the 2006 season, as many as 100 Texas high school football teams are already out of playoff contention. As members of eight-team districts (or in a half-dozen cases, nine-team leagues) they've already been beaten three or four times in for-keeps play.
Some quality, but eliminated, squads in the competitive claustrophobia of Class 5A (which has 22 districts with eight or more teams), 4A (12 crowded leagues) and 2A (10 swollen circuits) may look enviously at Class 3A, whose 31 districts include five circuits with only four teams each.
Ricardo B. Brazziell
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Ricky Beaty and Wimberley begin district play Friday against Bandera. The Texans are the defending Class 3A Division I state champions.
Warfare for the three playoff spots from each thinly populated 3A district begins this week — including two in Central Texas, 25-3A and 26-3A — and squads with losing records will probably reach the postseason.
Two top University Interscholastic League officials agree that Class 3A has a problem. But both executive director Bill Farney and athletic director Charles Breithaupt say the classification's dilemma has no easy solution.
"Texas population shifts continue to be from west to east," Farney said. "There aren't that many 3A schools in West Texas anymore, and the enrollment spread (414 to 947) is already stretched. We try to keep the top figure as near to twice the lower number as we can."
Breithaupt said four-team districts are not the ultimate answer. If 3A football membership remains at or near its present 174 schools (5A has 246, 4A has 229 and 2A's count is 221), he said one solution for the UIL's next biennial realignment in 2008 would be to set up as many six-school 3A districts as possible, reducing the overall number to 26 or 28. A dozen teams could receive first-round playoff byes under that scenario.
Wimberley and Llano in 25-3A and Luling in 26-3A are, as members of four-team leagues, opening district play Friday. Coaches of the three Central Texas schools have varying opinions about the present alignment situation.
"The UIL knows my feelings. I've fussed enough to them (about realignment)," said Wimberley's Weldon Nelms, whose Texans are the Class 3A Division I state champions. "Surely the UIL could have come up with a better solution — for example, shifting teams like Hutto and Liberty Hill from Region III, which has several eight-team districts, to give our region (IV) more six-team districts.
"For us, scheduling seven non-district games involved enormous travel this season and next," Nelms said. "Our schedule includes Texarkana Liberty-Eylau, Abilene Wylie and Houston St. Thomas. We had to get other opponents for our sub-varsity teams because of the distances involved.
"I've never heard of a 1-9 team making the playoffs, but it could happen this year," Nelms reflected. "There's a question of fairness. Competitive teams in larger districts will miss out."
In Llano, head coach David Yeager said the Yellowjackets considered themselves lucky to schedule seven non-district games.
"We were numb when we first heard the alignment last winter. But the UIL surely has problems we coaches don't know about," Yeager said. "But after Week Five, we had to do a selling job motivating the kids. They're used to starting district play with the sixth game."
Luling head coach Michael Stewart said he'll only like the concept of having three district games if the Eagles make the playoffs. Aside from non-district scheduling, he said, motivating players for seven games that don't count is tough at times.
"There's probably no easy solution to 3A's problem," Stewart said. "Changing the enrollment cutoffs at the bottom or the top will just make it tougher for smaller schools to compete."
Farney said enrollment differentials have far greater impact on football than on other sports. The effects on sub-varsity and middle school football programs are sometimes greater because talent feeder systems are the life blood of varsity programs.
High school football analysts frequently say every game in balanced districts is significant. Now, competitive parity or not, Friday's openers — 6-1 Wimberley at 2-5 Bandera and 5-2 Llano at 0-7 Ingram Moore in 25-3A, 4-3 Luling at 4-3 South San Antonio West Campus and 5-2 La Vernia at 2-5 Marion in 26-3A — mark the start of a time span in which every contest will decide which six teams reach the playoffs and which two will head to the weight room for offseason workouts.
American-Statesman link (http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/other/10/26/26sportsbygeorge.html)