• The KillerFrogs

uil realignment notes

Frog92

Active Member
You've never lived until you have ridden a yellow dog back in 1989 from San Angelo to Pecos in a mid week basketball game. Arrive back home around 230AM with classes the next AM.
We were young, no problem. But it is hell on supportive parents. My dad was our only fan for an away non-district basketball game one time about 150 miles from home. We won, he joined us to eat in Abilene at Zentners on the way home at coaches invitation. We were still on Christmas break. He was at work 7:30 the next morning.
 

Pharm Frog

Full Member
that one 2- district i mentioned the closest of five games was over 350 miles
Closest my son and daughter ever had to that was the trip to Guymon from Edmond OK. As bad as it was for us, it was horrible for Guymon because Edmond Deer Creek and Piedmont were it’s closest district schools.
 

Froginbedford

Full Member
you have't visited houston inside the loop lately have you?

paying the mortgage right now simply off builder risk policies from some gc's buildoing 2-3 row houses on a way too small plot of land and charging 400-500k for the damn things

go down to see our daughter on the weekends and the trail by the bayou is packed, but those people either don't have kids, they are way too young for high school, or they are going to the private schools.
You're right, I haven't been in Houston in years....But the dynamic of loss of school-age population holds up....Those with kids obviously there can't afford to live in such luxury...or they opt to go the private school route....Same in the other metro areas in Texas, I suspect....FWISD, DISD, AISD, HISD, SAISD have all taken hits and have far fewer top-enrollment (6A now) schools than they did in even the 1980s (5A was tops then).....
This is a big part of it that gets overlooked - the "suburbs" can build schools that are massive and continue to absorb student growth from a larger footprint instead of creating a second school and splitting their student body up.

That is not possible in areas with older schools buildings that do not have a footprint to expand beyond the metal buildings in the practice field concept.

When you look at High Schools like Waxahachie, Eaton, etc - they are massive buildings that feel a mile long with room to grow if needed.

Imagine how much more competitive FWISD schools would be if we had 1 or 2 HS schools for every kid within 15 miles of downtown?
I think it could very well be an intentional choice of the specific case of FWISD to operate 3A, 4A and 5A schools, leaving Paschal the only 6A school....Numbers-wise, there was no reason to build Benbrook High School which resulted in halving Western Hills....Those two schools could be reconsolidated....Carter-Riverside, Diamond Hill, and North Side could be combined for a good 5A, maybe even 6A school, following the 9-10, 11-12 model...one campus house the lower grades, another other house the upper grades, the third campus could be the site of specialized programs....Same model could be used by recombining Poly and Wyatt, and by consolidating Dunbar and Eastern Hills....But evidently FWISD has decided that bigger is not always better as well as being afraid of public backlash to closure/repurposing of historic campuses such as Carter, Diamond Hill, North Side, and Poly....And I suspect that the creation of Benbrook High was an attempt to stop the exodus of west siders to the evils of Aledo (sort of kidding).....
 

Aircav07

Member
You're right, I haven't been in Houston in years....But the dynamic of loss of school-age population holds up....Those with kids obviously there can't afford to live in such luxury...or they opt to go the private school route....Same in the other metro areas in Texas, I suspect....FWISD, DISD, AISD, HISD, SAISD have all taken hits and have far fewer top-enrollment (6A now) schools than they did in even the 1980s (5A was tops then).....

I think it could very well be an intentional choice of the specific case of FWISD to operate 3A, 4A and 5A schools, leaving Paschal the only 6A school....Numbers-wise, there was no reason to build Benbrook High School which resulted in halving Western Hills....Those two schools could be reconsolidated....Carter-Riverside, Diamond Hill, and North Side could be combined for a good 5A, maybe even 6A school, following the 9-10, 11-12 model...one campus house the lower grades, another other house the upper grades, the third campus could be the site of specialized programs....Same model could be used by recombining Poly and Wyatt, and by consolidating Dunbar and Eastern Hills....But evidently FWISD has decided that bigger is not always better as well as being afraid of public backlash to closure/repurposing of historic campuses such as Carter, Diamond Hill, North Side, and Poly....And I suspect that the creation of Benbrook High was an attempt to stop the exodus of west siders to the evils of Aledo (sort of kidding).....
FWISD could have gone the other way and kept high schools together, had far fewer high schools and most be 6A. They went the other route, and now have 13 traditional high schools, plus 5 or 6 “specialty” high schools. All this dilutes the talent pool, or what’s left, to make athletics non-competitive. Case and point: Southwest was nearly as large as Paschal back late 90’s, early 2000’s until FWISD bought the old Trinity Valley campus and created South Hills HS. Southwest is now a small 5A, and Paschal is within 100 kids of dropping to 5A, too. In late 2000’s, southwest and South Hills had 5 kids that signed power 5 football scholarships. Put them all on the same team and you’re immediately almost guaranteed 2 rounds in the playoffs. So really, FWISD had a choice, and they chose small.
 

Froginbedford

Full Member
FWISD could have gone the other way and kept high schools together, had far fewer high schools and most be 6A. They went the other route, and now have 13 traditional high schools, plus 5 or 6 “specialty” high schools. All this dilutes the talent pool, or what’s left, to make athletics non-competitive. Case and point: Southwest was nearly as large as Paschal back late 90’s, early 2000’s until FWISD bought the old Trinity Valley campus and created South Hills HS. Southwest is now a small 5A, and Paschal is within 100 kids of dropping to 5A, too. In late 2000’s, southwest and South Hills had 5 kids that signed power 5 football scholarships. Put them all on the same team and you’re immediately almost guaranteed 2 rounds in the playoffs. So really, FWISD had a choice, and they chose small.
Don't believe in conspiracy theories, but I think Paschal as the heir to the original Fort Worth High School has always been looked upon as the pet by all FWISD school boards and administrations....I think a conscious effort was made in the case of creating South Hills High in order to bump Southwest enrollment downward and by some mystical reasoning keeping Paschal as the premiere school by ensuring special programming justified by the largest school district enrollment....Jus' sayin'.....
 

stbrab

Full Member
Grew up in Jal, New Mexico. It was typical for us to drive 150 miles in football…we had two teams in our district that were at least that far, Texico and Ft. Sumner. In basketball even worse. Ruidoso and Cloudcroft were also in our district…200+ miles. If we played at one, we played both and stayed over the weekend. Playoffs were worse. Back then…70s…it was home and home. Played at Kirkland Central for the State Championship my Sophomore year…600 miles. Played at Clayton for the Championship my Junior year…450 miles. Snowed both times.
 

Frozen Frog

Active Member
I have several issues with the realignment at the 6A level. The West Texas schools with part of DFW is just dumb! There is a situation where a Richardson school would play an El Paso school while a Houston school plays someone from Garland. Those two school districts border each other. Also this mega school crap needs to end. How much longer before some of these schools exceed TCU in enrollment? The UIL needs to eliminate the big/little school separation in the district and apply it to the regional level for sports. Take the 16 largest schools in a region and have them play for the D1 group. The 16 smallest play for D2.
 
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