One Coach Not Afraid to Speak His Mind

[TXMike]

Read his comments re UIL

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/11/18/3537617/texas-high-schools-need-to-end.html

Texas high schools need to end 16-game football seasons
 By Mac Engel

tengel@ star-telegram.com

 From the This Can't be Right Folder: Aledo running back Johnathan Gray just finished playing his 56th game for the Bearcats on Friday night. By comparison, Buffalo Bills running back Fred Jackson just played in the 57th game in that same time span.

One is a professional. The other is a kid.

That should not be right, but it is.

This is about the time where NFL coaches begin to warn everyone that their heralded rookies are getting ready to slide because they aren't used to playing 16 games.

Poppycock.

Most NFL rookies are plenty used to playing well into December; it's just been a few years since they have done it. A Texas high school kid who plays for a state title will play the same number of games as in an NFL regular season.

The kid will never agree with this, but this is a bit too long. The UIL needs to add another class to try to accommodate this massive, and ever-growing, state.

"I know a football coach shouldn't say this, but we need to shorten it by two weeks," Aledo football coach Tim Buchanan said before his team played Mansfield Summit on Friday night.

Buchanan isn't thrilled, nor is he mad, that his Aledo team with an enrollment of 1,469 played a Mansfield Summit school that has an enrollment of 2,035 on Friday night in the playoffs.

"You do have to play by the rules and the hand that you are dealt, but I still say if the UIL would do their job and get out there and do what is best for high school sports we would come up with a better plan than we have right now," he said. "Those guys make a lot of money. And if they worked as hard at their jobs down in Austin as the coaches do to develop kids we would not have the same issues that we have."

"You can put that in print."

Will do.

Texas is not the only state with a long season for football.

Taking a look at the very big, football-mad states gives you an idea that none of it is too dissimilar:

Florida has eight classes, and a max of 15 games.

Ohio features six classes and eight-man football, and a max of 15 games.

Pennsylvania has four divisions and a total of 15 games.

California is a mess with the state cut into 10 sections and a max of 14 games.

Ask a coach in one of those states and I am confident they will tell you their system has problems, too.

Texas is too big, there are too many schools, and there are too many people to think that a new plan would be entirely equitable and create a more balanced world for all of the schools in the state. There are going to be travel problems for the schools out west, and enrollment disparities for the schools in the big cities. But another level would help. A little.

How is Frisco, with its enrollment of 1,443, in the same district as Carrollton Creekview, with its figure of 2,062? Or Granbury at 2,046 with Joshua, which sits at 1,302? Those disparities are the size of another school.

There are examples of this all over the state, and as people continue to flock to Texas it's only going to get worse.

Now is as good of a time as any to add 6A.

The way it is now, schedules overlap and basketball teams and baseball teams suffer. The schools with the smaller enrollments are stretched thin, whereas the larger schools often have a surplus of kids who are single-sport and don't sweat overlap.

It would reduce the schedule by a game or two, but there would no longer be overlap into basketball season and baseball season.

"I have a saying that life's not fair, but this system is not fair to everybody," Buchanan said. "I'm just saying there is a better system."

It's not fair, but whatever the new system is, it better be as profitable as the one currently in place. UIL budgets are set based on the revenue generated from the Texas high school football playoffs. If the schedule is going to be altered in any way, the bottom line better stay the same.

Adding another class may mean one or two fewer games, but it may just help give everyone a more even shot.

[Arbitrator]

 

Coach Buchanan: I'm happy to see that there a few coaches left such as yourself who are definitely exercising the "gray matter" and offering viable ideas for Texas high school sports. It is apparent that all of those    tu doctors in residence over there on  Manor Road seemingly have one thing in mind and that is to propogate whatever power it can and to unilaterally fund itself by the imposition of a 15% taxation rate on the playoff-bound high school teams of Texas, football as well as all of the other  Manor Road sports. Their penchant for power and their greed for money seems to be their hallmark and should, no doubt, be part of their standing mission statement!

And now they are furiously attempting to erradicate TASO by bringing high school officiating back into the dark ages by hitting every official up for a $50.00(possibly more) per year tax rate for a cool intake of an estimated annual 500-600K. And then, if you would factor in all of the sales of all of it's pretty hats, shirts, game discs, bandanas, blankets, not to even mention their slick $5.00 programs with the  Good UIL Dr's front page bio with his impassioned plea to the general public of what an absolutely wonderful cost-effective job that they are providing and how no other state can even come close to comparing its athletics to what Texas has to offer; then that is even more money that they stash into their well. Heck, they'll probably do so well that the Forty Acres will probably bestow a hefty pay raise upon  Good Time Charlie and the rest of the tax welfare recipients over there on  Manor Road.

The sad fact of the matter is that the Coaches who do not have the power and the clout of  Manor Road seem to have a far better feel for what the game is and should be, moreso than that of those over-educated tax revenue leeches whose newfound preamble is to generate massive revenue indiscriminately from anyone who might have some cash or a credit card in their possession.

Coach Buchanan: Please keep up the good work and kudos for having the tenacity in standing up to the foul-stench idiocy emanating from  Manor Road. We need many more coaches and AD's, like yourself, to stand up to them and let them know that the ideas of the coaches are even more valid and forthright than that of all the revenue-generating tripe that  Manor Road so aptly resonates!   

[TexDoc]

I don't agree with the coach on his concerns about the number of games and the size disparity of schools at the upper end.  You're looking at 11 players on the field at any given time.  Many schools with 1500 players can play any school of any size in the state, and beat the snot out of them.  I think once enrollment hits above 1500, size of the school makes little difference as far as quality of teams they put on the field.

As for the number of games, that's been going on for many years.  Since the UIL lets so many teams into the playoffs now, the 16 week season is unavoidable, and very few teams make it past 14 games.  No really that big of a deal.

I do share the coach's concerns about UIL leadership.

[Joe Stack]

It isn't like its really increased all that much. Even prior to 1981 when they only took the district champ into the playoffs, there was still 5 rounds.

[clearwall]

Im with Doc. There are two teams in each class that will play those 16 games. The vast vast majority of teams will only play 13-14, so the argument is pretty weak. However, there are also a TON of areas that the UIL just sucks on. Officiating, taxation, bright ideas among them

[NorCalMike]

Glad to see the writer knows that California is a mess. Actually ten teams will play 15 game season if they make it to the state bowl game.