Allen High School - 2021 (Odessa, Southlake: private schools, move to, suburban)

[turf3]

Well, let's say you want your kid to play varsity sports for whatever reason.

How many high school boys on a football team? 45? so if there are 1900 boys in grades 10-12, each boy has a 0.2% chance. If you go to a school with 400 boys in grades 10-12, that chance is 11%. If you want your boy to play football, Allen is a terrible choice.

All the extracurriculars are going to be the same. The stars will get the playing time, the solos, the leading roles in the plays. Everyone else will be relegated to ”participant” or cut out altogether. The chance of a boy who's 5-8 and 150 lbs at age 15 to ever play varsity football? At Allen, it's 0.0000000000%. In a small school, it's actually not unlikely.

[BLDSoon]

Originally Posted by 75214Dad

While I don't think most of these parents understand "the rules", and so this isn't the motivation they have for a 7 year old, there are significant advantages for athletes to get into highly selective colleges.

In 2018 Amherst enrolled 676 athletes- more than Alabama!- for a total of 36% of the undergrad student body. Alabama by contrast is only 2% athletes. The people who understand this aren't looking for a scholarship, or an NFL draft pick, they are after an advantage in admissions to the top university possible.

My impression of Allen, though, is that their kids are more likely to play D2 athletics, or even JUCO, than to use the leg up in admissions for a prestigious D3 school. Probably has a lot to do with being able to afford the sticker price, plus an unrealistic understanding of their chances at professional success in sports.

Okay,

But even with selective college admissions, I hardly think being that being the athletic kid that came from that school/city full of athletic kids is really a stand out for admissions unless, again.., you were really good. And “really good” at Allen will involve a whole lot of work time and money unless you already have some natural talent. Being an athlete in a pool full of super athletes doesn’t seem like a great strategy for admissions to selective schools.

[turf3]

It's all about having a winning football team that always goes to State because they've got a huge pool to draw from. The interests of the individual student don't enter into it, except for the 0.00001% that will be NFL prospects.

[Sooners9354]

I’m from Wylie I go to the New Collin College Campus in Allen I see a lot of Allen High School students there, doesn’t Allen High School have Collin College at their campus? I’m confused, I drive by that stadium everyday it’s huge I never heard about Allen until Junior high, my theater arts teacher had a son who went there and did theater, I didn’t know about Kyler Murray till High School when I watched his High school highlights I was amazed by his talent, it’s unfortunate A&M didn’t give him a opportunity he could’ve been Manziel 2.0 for them but luckily Oklahoma gave him a shot, there a lot of Former Allen HS football players in the NFL right now, Bobby Evans, Greg Little, Cedric Ogbuehi, Just recently drafted Levi Onwuzurike, and Jalen Guyton.

[turf3]

Big woo, so 5 or 6 guys who played football at Allen got into the NFL. What does that mean for the remaining 4000 or so students at Allen High School? I'll tell you: zip, zero, zilch, nada, nuthin'.

[TheOverdog]

Being an athlete in a pool full of super athletes doesn’t seem like a great strategy for admissions to selective schools.

You might think that, but remember that admissions consultants are limited in number and time and have personal preferences. It's like that 'be the best student in an average high school' strategy - it sounds good on paper but the actual stats say that something like over 1000 high schools in Texas sent zero people to UT or A&M or better in the past few years, while Plano ISD sends over 1% and Allen is probably around .5% of their students every year.



Athletics is the same.

[jgn2013]

Originally Posted by castlebravo92

Ain't that the truth. A little anecdote. Overheard some parents at a bday party a few years ago plotting out their son's select baseball team (7U) - basically they wanted a core group of kids to take all the way up until they were basically the core nucleus of the Allen HS varsity team. For baseball.

It's worse if your kid wants to play football.

That's nuts, but not surprising.

Athletes are less well rounded these days. I'm 35, but even among my peers, we all grew up playing football, basketball, baseball, track and soccer. Specialization didn't really happen until the end of middle school or high school and quite a few people played multiple sports.

We also spent more time just outside playing for fun instead of always competing in organized/team athletics.

So many young athletes end up with overuse injuries because they're constantly working the same muscles playing the same sports. The ones that survive in the current climate are the types that would succeed in most environments.

[jgn2013]

Originally Posted by turf3

The whole thing seems like a bad idea. Kids who are not the very tippy-top stars, in anything whether it be sports, music, art, etc., will be either left out or at the bottom of the pile. If you go to a school with 250 students in the whole high school, like I did, and you want to play football, you'll have a real good chance to play football. You won't have to be the greatest athlete to play. If you think of high school sports as providing a value in themselves to those who participate, and not just as a stepping-stone to possible future greatness, you won't want to put your kids in Allen. Of the fellows I graduated high school with, not a one even played ball in college. Every single one would have been too small, too slow, not talented enough. Yet a very large number of them report that high school football was an important and valuable experience for them. Should every single kid who isn't a giant, fast as lightning bruiser at 14 be kept out of that just because he is attending a giant school?

Great points.

I'd also point out the late-bloomers. Some kids just develop slower but perhaps have more raw natural ability. The big mega schools like Allen will have kids that grew up in PeeWee, Middle School etc, football running the same plays and concepts that the big boys do over at the high school. This is true of any remotely good Texas football program where the high school isn't sharing kids across a city.

The gifted athletes get left behind in favor of the upper-middle class kid that is polished because of the $$$ his Dad spent on training.

I think back to times when DISD schools would put out all kinds of D-1 caliber athletes in hoops and football but the high school teams would be middling at best. Contrast that with an Allen, Southlake or HP that has kids with polish but aren't necessarily THAT naturally talented. There's definitely an urban/suburban split now as the best teams in every sport seem to come from the most well off areas.

[jgn2013]

Originally Posted by turf3

It's all about having a winning football team that always goes to State because they've got a huge pool to draw from. The interests of the individual student don't enter into it, except for the 0.00001% that will be NFL prospects.

And when they go to state.......they get more practice time so there's a bit of a snowball effect.

That's why you'll see teams go on a run and be in the playoffs for a number of years. They may win a couple of state titles during that time span and remain competitive because of the extra practice and preparation for playoff games. You don't see as many random teams just pop up one year, have a ton of success and then go back to mediocrity.

[bagholder]

Originally Posted by Sooners9354

I’m from Wylie I go to the New Collin College Campus in Allen I see a lot of Allen High School students there, doesn’t Allen High School have Collin College at their campus? I’m confused, I drive by that stadium everyday it’s huge I never heard about Allen until Junior high, my theater arts teacher had a son who went there and did theater, I didn’t know about Kyler Murray till High School when I watched his High school highlights I was amazed by his talent, it’s unfortunate A&M didn’t give him a opportunity he could’ve been Manziel 2.0 for them but luckily Oklahoma gave him a shot, there a lot of Former Allen HS football players in the NFL right now, Bobby Evans, Greg Little, Cedric Ogbuehi, Just recently drafted Levi Onwuzurike, and Jalen Guyton.

Kyler's family moved to Allen when he started HS because his dad wanted him to play 6A football and Allen was already a top program. And many other football families likewise target allen if their kids have talent. So then, other kids in allen will lose their starting spots and will have to move to frisco, mckinney, anna, etc. if they want playing time.

Kyler's dad is also a private football trainer and most of his clients are in collin.