Texas High Schools Without Football? (Houston, Dallas: get credit, public school, live)

[jeffari-al-texani]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

Krum, up near Denton. Last I heard, they only play basketball.

MANY small private schools do not have a football team.

Krum is adding a football program...starting up with a freshman team this year...

[Kibby]

It's a fact that schools with a larger pool of athletes have an distinct advantage - that can't be denied. That said - money and facilities (money is more important) also play a large part.

One of my kids was a 5A state champion, got a full ride to a major college on an athletic scholarship (the fact that she was also Valedictorian of her class didn't help with scholarships), and became a NCAA National Champion. I've been around this stuff for years and live in North Texas where we not only have strong athletic programs but also strong academic programs. I've been involved in both and that's the key.

Some of the stories are horrific when you read about some of these elite football, volleyball, soccer, baseball/softball programs and the lengths that parents (and schools) go to in order to have a "winning team" or to get your kid an athletic schlorship which we actually never wanted at all. The reality is that in college athletics, the coach "owns" the kids. Mr K knew that and did not want her to take that route.

We didn't do that (club sports & pushing the kid) - most of the kids in my daughters school didn't do that. The "money" in athletics goes to a football program and that's just the way it is in Texas ... some schools go way overboard on that. Some have a great program without that garbage. Coach Robert Hughes,retired basketball coach (most winning BB coach in the USA) of Dunbar HS in Fort Worth is a great example of a good program. Kids started dreaming of playing for Coach Hughes in elementary school and knew they had to have good grades and a good work ethic to do it.
He wasn't just a good coach but also a good teacher and a "life" coach - that's what athletics is all about in my opinion. It's not just about "winning" but about the kids - it can be (should be) about team work and playing by the rules. Sadly, it's not always that way.

My kid played an individual sport, she had decent coaching but would have probably made it without the coaching - some kids just have raw talent and she was smart enough (and driven enough) to make it on her own. There wasn't then (or now) much in the way of school support - her sport was supported by parents and that's really the way most school programs work.

There are a lot of really "good" things about school athletic programs and band programs associated with athletics (this is where our other kid ended up to the shock of us all) - but there are also a lot of "bad" things also.

At the end of the day ... it's the parents who decide all that. They are the group that has the power to make it good or bad. They have the power over the school administration. None of this is a cookie cutter deal - these things are what the parents put into it. Parents need to be aware and as involved as possible in what is going on in their kid's schools/teachers/administrations and programs. Stay involved in what ever way you can be. Pay attention to what's going on. It's good for you, it's good for your kids. Those days are fleeting but they form both a lasting bond and a lasting foundation for life.

[Philip T]

Originally Posted by nmnita

out of curiosity why would you want to find high schools without football< in Texas or anywhere else for that matter? Football is about as American as Apple pie..You don't have to be part of the program, but it is Texas for sure.

Nita

Since it is a choice that a local community and school can make, I figured it might speak to the local culture and community values.

[scarmig]

This may seem shocking, but some Texans don't like sports, don't relate sports to education, and have even programmed all the sports stations out of their TV guides!

I know, I know. Unfathomable!

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by Philip T

Well, that is a fair question -- maybe us.

But of course, that may vary by various folks depending on what they think school is for.

Ran through my mind this morning driving through Cedar Hill (Texas, of course). I look up and see their "bragging rights," on the side of their water tower -- Some sort of State Football Champs in 2006, yada, yada, yada. That kind of stuff always reminds me of Al Bundy -- yunno the mythic Polk High days from Married With Children ( Al Bundy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ). And wondered how Cedar Hill does in the Academics end of things?

I started noticing this when Heather's (aka Mrs. Philip T) Hillbilly Hometown in East Texas was winning some sort of State Champion Status in Football a couple of years ago, as well. The next year their local Elementary was deemed Academically Unacceptable. You REALLY have to have a messed up operation when they cannot teach 3rd Graders to read.

So I come back today and look up Cedar Hill ISD -- yep, in the bottom half of Texas School Districts. Not dogging them for that -- somebody has to be the dummies, but I am seeing a connection here maybe?

And once you factor in that the US is pretty low educationally by Industrial Nations standards, and then Texas is in the Bottom Half of the US, and these Football First! Schools look like they may trend towards the bottom half of Texas . . . we are talking about getting down to Dumpster Diving and licking the bottom of the Dumpster educationally with a Football First! School.

Point of that being, I was wondering if the Corollary were true -- Do High Schools without Football trend towards the Upper End?

Is your wife from (Go Bulldogs!) Kilgore? If so, then I think that the academic rating of "unacceptable" is probably independent of football. I'm sure it has more to do with the percentage of educators at the elementary school that were actually educated in Kilgore themselves.

Don't get me wrong, Kilgore is a great place (if you're a Laird) but there tend to be some lax attitudes towards academics in deep East Texas.

[Philip T]

Originally Posted by jimboburnsy

Is your wife from (Go Bulldogs!) Kilgore? If so, then I think that the academic rating of "unacceptable" is probably independent of football. I'm sure it has more to do with the percentage of educators at the elementary school that were actually educated in Kilgore themselves.

Don't get me wrong, Kilgore is a great place (if you're a Laird) but there tend to be some lax attitudes towards academics in deep East Texas.

Not exactly Kilgore, but the whole area trends towards those values.

And yeah, the repeated generation inbreeding does not seem to help the matter.

My (joking) long-name for the condition is "Inbred Flatland Hillbillies."

[That is joking -- before all the nancy and special-princess folks start whining -- I genuinely like the area and folks, thereabout.]

Heather's mom has a better description for the condition . . . we were walking around the town square and I was being my typical jackass-self and laughing about the locals.

Mom looks over her shoulder and says "Not all these trees branch."

Huh?

Heather says -- "Did you understand what Mom just told you?"

Um, no, I guess not.

Heather starts the translation for me -- "Mom is a medical administrator in the area and knows the linage of much of the area back for a few generations -- there is a high degree of incest and inbreeding . . . . . "

Okkkkaaayyyy. Guess I will keep my pie-hole shut the rest of the walk.

---------------------

Back towards your start. Yep. It is a lack of seriousness on the academics. I tend to blame the men. But with the military background, maybe that is just my view of the world? It is sort of like a permanent adolescent state. While the women do run everything, it seems to leave the men with a goofy sense of responsibility. Heather had me watch Steel Magnolias as a primer, and it does seem correct.

Suppose if I were King for the Day, I would line up the City Fathers, Teachers and Admin and Parents of Failing Students of the School Districts in such areas on the town square and kick them all in ass once each for each kid that failed the test -- whilst screaming, "FOOTBALL? Let's Try A New Game -- I Call it Foot in the ASS!" Suppose I would never be elected mayor, huh?

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by loves2read

Plano has good academics and a quality football program--mainly because of the way the district is structured so that the senior highs don't bleed off the good players into separate schools but feed them into specific ones...
magnet schools usually would not have football programs--like the Dallas School for the Arts...

and FYI--Krum has passed the bond money to build a football stadium and should have added football this year--as well as girls' volleyball...according to Wiki and there is football at Krum now according to the high school web site

Flower Mound and the surrounding areas do as well. I do think, as you mentioned Maget schools could be the answer for those who put academics ahead of everything, but good football schools do not breed poor academics..I believe the academic achievements are based on the social economics of many areas and parents attitudes. Any district can have great sport programs, but not all districts produce "Blue Ribbon" schools.

Nita

[Kibby]

but good football schools do not breed poor academics..I believe the academic achievements are based on the social economics of many areas and parents attitudes.

This is really the key isn't it?

We seem to have become the nation of "excuses", find someone (anyone) to "blame". Instead of accepting responsibility, pulling together, fighting the problems ... we "blame". Same thing for the rest of the world - it's all about "blame.

In the case of education (poor academic achievment)

football or athletics are to blame
teachers are to blame
government is to blame
lack of money is to blame
racism is to blame
testing is to blame
lack of testing is to blame
blame blame blame blame blame blame

None of that is to say that some/all of the above don't play a part in education - of course they do, but the "core" has to be the desire to learn. A student with the thirst for education and learning will succeed regardless of a poor teacher or a poor environment. The "thirst" has to be encouraged and fostered.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink - particularly when the horse's mother never taught him about the water.

[Philip T]

Originally Posted by Kibby

This is really the key isn't it?

. . . .

A student with the thirst for education and learning will succeed regardless of a poor teacher or a poor environment.

. . . .

That is not really true and I am not trying to take it out of context, but there are some pretty minimum standards that we -- as the folks of the State of Texas fail to make sure the kids get, upfront . . . .

Some kids show up hungry.
Some show up thinking their name is Shut Up.
Some show up and get idiot teachers.
Some kids have to worry about getting raped or beaten on the way home or at home.

Could go on and on, but you get the idea. Have seen all that in real time and real life and much more.

Texas tolerates and fails to clean up the trash and so we live in garbage.

That the permanent-adolescent male leadership thinks everything is okey-dokey and steady as she goes just so as we got us some sports enables the mess to continue.

[txstate]

Low Blow my mom graduated there in 79' academics what are you a comedian now.

Originally Posted by Canine*Castle

You mean they truly focus on academics?