HIGH SCHOOLS
Preparations vary as football teams wait to start the season.
A return to routine is a long way off for many folks, with the recovery from Hurricane Harvey’s disastrous effects expected to take months and even years in the hardest-hit communities around greater Houston. § Football will return much faster — bringing with it some sense of normalcy. § “That’s been the buzzword all around — returning to normalcy,” Cinco Ranch coach Don Clayton said.
With most area school districts starting or resuming classes by Monday, most football teams will pick up their regularly scheduled games in Week 3, with some rearranging or adding contests later.
But how districts and teams proceed in the short term varies greatly.
Several area districts, including the Cy-Fair and Klein ISDs, opted to cancel all athletic activities this week, so their football teams aren’t allowed to scrimmage; others, like Katy ISD, are allowing scrimmages; and the most fortunate area schools, like Dawson, are playing non-district games.
“It’s a district-to-district deal, and everybody’s doing the right thing for their kids,” Klein coach Shane Hallmark said.
The waiting game
Like so many coaches and student-athletes across the Houston area, Foster coach Shaun McDowell and a group of his players were cleaning out a home a few blocks away from their campus Tuesday.
It’s the right thing to do — and a positive way to channel their energy sans pigskin.
“We’ve been organizing for the last couple days, getting all the students and parents to hit different neighborhoods, split up and attack it kind of like a gameplan for football,” McDowell said. “We’re trying to get everywhere and help out as much as we can.”
Lamar Consolidated ISD schools don’t open until Monday, so after scrapping tentative scrimmage plans this week, the Falcons settled for a return to practice Thursday and a Sept. 16 season opener.
They’ll face Seven Lakes in their regularly scheduled game at Traylor Stadium.
Cy-Fair ISD opted against scrimmages to level the playing field for its 10 varsity teams.
While several schools could have scrimmaged, others couldn’t have, for a variety of reasons, and Cypress Creek had a bye week slated for Week 1, so its schedule wasn’t as severely disrupted.
Now they’ll head directly into their district openers without any scrimmage time.
“All of us in Cy-Fair will be on the same page,” Cy Creek coach Greg McCaig said. “Nobody will get an unfair advantage.”
Easing back in
Katy ISD’s teams are scrimmaging this week.
The goal there, and in other districts, like the Spring and Conroe ISDs, is to maintain the typical progression of football activities, especially with conditioning, while preparing for the real thing.
Cinco Ranch is scrimmaging Spring and The Woodlands on Friday at George Stadium.
“Everything’s based on kids being available, and being here for our kids, and we know some are displaced and others have gone out of town until they can get back into their houses,” Cinco Ranch coach Don Clayton said. “So we decided we’re going to practice first, and then we felt like if we were going to try start games back up next week, we needed to have a scrimmage if we could.”
North Shore coach Jon Kay feels the same way.
But after his scrimmage with Eisenhower fell through, because Aldine ISD cancelled all athletic activities, he still was scrambling Tuesday to find somebody to warm up against for his Mustangs.
Lamar coach Tom Nolen didn’t know if he’d be allowed to scrimmage.
His exhibition with Klein dissolved after Klein ISD axed all activities and Houston ISD put a decision on hold while trying to figure out how many students even were capable of scrimmaging.
“Our main focus right now is getting our arms around our kids and getting them back in school,” said Marmion Dambrino, HISD’s athletic director.
Ready to rumble
Dawson is among the lucky teams playing this week.
After consulting with Deer Park coach Chris Massey, they’ll meet as scheduled at 7 p.m. Friday at The Rig.
The only difference is now it’s a season opener.
Pearland, on the other hand, will scrimmage Clear Creek — which it was supposed to scrimmage Aug. 25 before Harvey’s arrival — because Spring Branch ISD isn’t ready.
Clear Creek ISD is in a similar (unusual) situation.
Clear Brook and Clear Lake didn’t hold spring football, so they opened camp Aug. 7 and scrimmaged before Harvey, enabling them to play games this week, while Clear Springs, Clear Creek and Clear Falls are scrimmaging this week because they had spring ball and started camp a week later.
Clear Brook will face La Porte at 7 p.m. Saturday at Bulldog Stadium.
“We’re blessed,” Clear Brook coach Mike Allison said. “A lot of our kids and families were affected, just like everybody else, but our kids put in a lot of work, and they want to get out there and put it to use.”
Jason McDaniel is a Texas Sports Nation contributor.