Largest 3A enrollment--Palestine

[Old Cardinal]

As I understand it, Palestine(899) will be the largest 3A school, via the alignment. I remember Aderian Peterson running wild up there in football. Can anyone give us a rundown on projections for Palestine in all sports?

[VWG]

Palestine will tie Wichita Falls Hirschi as the largest 3A. They turned in 899 as well.

[Old Cardinal]

What are your projections for WF Hirschi?

<small>[ February 14, 2004, 09:25 PM: Message edited by: Old Cardinal ]</small>

[VWG]

Old Cardinal:
What are your projections for WF Hirschi?It's hard to say. WF Hirschi was a perennial playoff team in the 80's and I believe into the early 90's. The last several years they've been on the skids as far as football is concerned. The good news is that they are now a big fish in a little pond. To my knowledge, Hirschi has never been in class 3A, and this should help. They have a new football coach and play at a great stadium, WF Memorial Stadium. Seats approx. 15,000 with new sport turf. They share this with the other WF schools, Rider and WF High.
I think that they have a great shot at the playoffs in football, but it will be a fight with Vernon, Graham, and Iowa Park in the district. Other sports, I would say they would be a lock in the playoffs in basketball and baseball as well. Baseball team plays in a tough district with WF Rider, who I believe is in the top 10 this year in 4A.

[Cameronbystander]

WF Hirshi was in our 3A district in 1972. It included Brownwood, Stevenville, Weatherford, Graham, Burkburnet, Vernon, and Iowa Park. I don't know how long this lasted.

[ThaRealBulldog]

Palestine is loosing the #1 player in the nation according to espn, Adrian Peterson - RB. So of course they will not be as good this upcoming season.

[3afan2K3]

ThaRealBulldog:
Palestine is loosing the #1 player in the nation according to espn, Adrian Peterson - RB. So of course they will not be as good this upcoming season.Thats not true

<small>[ February 15, 2004, 11:28 AM: Message edited by: 3afan2K3 ]</small>

[Old Cardinal]

I was thinking that Adrian Petersen will be a Senior this coming season, I may be wrong. All I know is that Cornell(Defensive Coordinator) left Dan Hooks to Head Coach Palestine several years ago and when the grades came out he lost nearly the whole team that year! Grades seem to be a problem up there. I sure wish someone knowledgeable would give us the straight poop? If the "best runner in the nation" is coming back to play for Palestine in 3A football, they will be a team to deal with on the gridiron.

[ThaRealBulldog]

3afan2K3:

ThaRealBulldog:
Palestine is loosing the #1 player in the nation according to espn, Adrian Peterson - RB. So of course they will not be as good this upcoming season.Thats not trueHow is that not true? Do you know more than espn?

[ThaRealBulldog]

Adrian Peterson signed with OU so I know for a fact he is graduating this year.

[Gobbla2001]

Real Bulldog - I think he was replying to your comment "Of course they won't be as good" or whatever...

Personally, from what I heard, Peterson wasss their game...

[Old Tiger]

Old Cardinal:
As I understand it, Palestine(899) will be the largest 3A school, via the alignment. I remember Aderian Peterson running wild up there in football. Can anyone give us a rundown on projections for Palestine in all sports?I think in OC's terms since Palestine has the largest enrollment that they are going to win state. :p just kidding

[duckbutter]

Palestine will make the playoffs but will only go 2 rounds at the most. Returning several starters but still won't be all that good. Peterson carried the team this yr and the still didn't do to well.

[Roll'em up]

To comment on WF Hirschi-- Yes they have been 3A as already stated above. You guys need to understatnd that they may be competitive in this district, but they certainly will not be district favorites anytime soon. Yes they are getting a new head coach, but he is taking over a program that has been on the decline since Coach Edelman left 3 years ago. I have heard they only have 15-20 kids in offseason. Also, If you go back through the last 5 years or so, you will find that Iowa Park, Graham, and Vernon have all beaten the Huskies pretty easily.
In basketball they may be able to compete in this district, I know they have a quality coach here, but baseball....NO WAY. This program has only had a couple of winning seasons in the last 10 years. I don't even think great coaching can win in this situation. Since losing City View kids, the baseball program has really gone down hill talentwise.
Yes 3A will be better for them, but don't start giving them wins just yet. I really think it all weighs on the job the new Athletic Coordinator/head football coach can do to revive all sports.

[jason]

ThaRealBulldog:

3afan2K3:

ThaRealBulldog:
Palestine is loosing the #1 player in the nation according to espn, Adrian Peterson - RB. <strong>So of course they will not be as good this upcoming season</strong>.Thats not trueHow is that not true? Do you know more than espn?"So of course they will not be as good this upcoming season"

thats what I was saying was not true

<small>[ February 15, 2004, 02:26 PM: Message edited by: jason ]</small>

[Diboll_Lumberjackk]

Maybe Adrian Peterson will withdraw his commitment with OSU an go straight to the NFL.=)

[Buckeye80]

All I can say is that I've followed High School football up here for quite a while, and you never really hear anything about the Palestine Wildcats in any sport. And with both Gilmer and Palestine being relatively close to Tyler (where all the news comes from here in the sticks), we have a pretty good idea about the program there as well as the majority of programs in East Texas.
From what I can recall, Palestine has never really had that good of a football program. I'm sure they had the occasional playoff teams, but have played "second fiddle" to the other perennial 4A schools like the old Jacksonville and Sulphur Springs programs and more recently Texas High and Kilgore.
They were by no means "horrible" and usually win a respectable amount of games each season. That is hard to figure out when they share a town of only 11,000+ with Palestine Westwood High School who is just horrible on the grid iron. It seems to me like at least some of the athletic talent from Palestine High would bleed over to Westwood, but it obviously hasn't.
One poster said that Adrian Peterson "was" the team last year, and from what I saw, he was right. IMHO, Palestine would not have won two games last year without him in the backfield.

[Matthew328]

Actually Palestine itself is around 17,000....at least that is what the city limit signs say....Peterson did carry the team last year...the 2002 team was a little better but again Peterson was the bell cow...they'll have a lot coming back so we'll see..the drop to 3A definatley helps....grades are a problem at Palestine as well, they can't seem to keep a lot of their good athletes eligible....as far as other sports Palestine is usually fairly decent in boys basketball....

[Buckeye80]

Matthew328:
Actually Palestine itself is around 17,000Yeah that's right. I remember seeing the sign now.

[VWG]

Roll'em up:
To comment on WF Hirschi-- Yes they have been 3A as already stated above. You guys need to understatnd that they may be competitive in this district, but they certainly will not be district favorites anytime soon. Yes they are getting a new head coach, but he is taking over a program that has been on the decline since Coach Edelman left 3 years ago. I have heard they only have 15-20 kids in offseason. Also, If you go back through the last 5 years or so, you will find that Iowa Park, Graham, and Vernon have all beaten the Huskies pretty easily.
In basketball they may be able to compete in this district, I know they have a quality coach here, but baseball....NO WAY. This program has only had a couple of winning seasons in the last 10 years. I don't even think great coaching can win in this situation. Since losing City View kids, the baseball program has really gone down hill talentwise.
Yes 3A will be better for them, but don't start giving them wins just yet. I really think it all weighs on the job the new Athletic Coordinator/head football coach can do to revive all sports.I think that Hirschi can make the playoffs in baseball. My outlook is that Hirschi should be able to be the 3rd place team in that district for baseball. Iowa Park has a great baseball program, and Graham makes the playoffs on a consistent basis.... but I haven't heard any great news about Breckenridge or Vernon's baseball programs. Hirschi might not be winning in 4A, but I think they can be a third place baseball team in their new district.
And I do agree that Vernon and Iowa Park... who have played Hirschi regularly in football, have dominated over the years. I do think that a new coach, with a new attitude, can turn things around at Hirschi. They've got the athletes to do it.

[Phil C]

Palestine won state in football in 1964 with Bill Bradley at quarterback who later played football at UT and ten years as a defensive back in Philadelphia and Minnesota. In one playoff game he threw the winning touchdown pass after time had expired. I don't remember the team though.