Today’s UIL district realignment means the waiting game is finally over for some new schools.
Schools face various timetables and trials in fielding first teams
Brad Butler has been waiting on Thursday for two years.
The same giddiness the Texas high school football community wakes up with the morning of the University Interscholastic League’s district realignment is twofold for the Shadow Creek head football coach. “Now finally we are going to belong in a district and we are going to be able to compete for the playoffs,” Butler said. “Now it truly will become real for us.”
Real is the key word here. Shadow Creek High School, just a quick trip up Highway 288 from Manvel, opened as part of the Alvin ISD before the last UIL realignment in 2016. It meant Butler would be spending the next two years building the foundation for his football program via an independent or junior varsity schedule.
But there was no district title to compete for. No playoff spot, either. Not even bragging rights against a rival.
That changes once Shadow Creek discovers which Class 5A Division I district it will be placed in Thursday morning.
And the program’s coaches won’t be the only ones eagerly anticipating the publishing of the districts alignments.
Houston area’s ISDs have kept growing.Klein Cain in Klein ISD, Bridgeland and Cypress Park in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, Paetow in Katy ISD and Fulshear in Lamar Consolidated ISD are among the new schools in the area since 2016.
Each of the schools’ football programs will have the carrot at the end of the stick in a playoff spot available next year. That comes after spending the last year — in some cases two — trying to find games, build a team with no seniors and recreate Friday night lights where they may not shine as bright.
Shadow Creek was built to relieve Manvel. And much like the Mavericks, the athletics program hasn’t wasted time finding success. The volleyball team made the playoffs the year the school opened. The boys basketball team currently is one of the state’s best Class 5A teams.
It’s the new-school effect seen throughout Houston. Dekaney won a state title in football before it turned 5 years old. Cypress Ranch won two baseball titles before its 10th birthday.
There is usually slow growth with any new school’s football team, but Shadow Creek gave juniors at Manvel the opportunity to switch schools if they were zoned to Shadow Creek.
Butler had juniors on his team the first season at the school opposed to a team full of just freshmen and sophomores, taking its lumps.
Prospects prior to playoffs
Shadow Creek will actually have three players sign Division I letters of intent before the program even has a chance to make the playoffs — Malik Rodgers (Air Force), Donavan King (New Mexico State) and Kelechi Anyalebechi (Incarnate Word).
Shadow Creek’s 2016 schedule consisted of games against KIPP Sunnyside, at Saint Mary’s Hall in San Antonio and at Silsbee. In 2017, a trip to Leander to face Glenn was on the schedule.
Those first years can be rough, though.
The year a school opens usually determines the path the football team takes. Opening in an odd year likely means the program only has to wait a year for a full varsity schedule. Open in an even year like Shadow Creek and it’s a two-year wait.
Sometimes the attention and awareness aren’t as vibrant around the upstart football programs. Finding games with teams that have a gap in the schedule is another issue. Only fielding a junior varsity makes that task easier.
Having a team with no seniors is another issue. Bob Barrett opened Klein Collins in 2001 as a defensive coordinator. The Tigers only fielded a junior varsity team that year but played a full varsity schedule in 2002 with no seniors and promptly went 0-10.
Having some kind of experienced leadership helps.
“You’re playing teams like The Woodlands and you’re playing Danny Amendola and you’ve got your juniors out there that have never seen a varsity game before and we’re playing against that,” said Barrett, who is now an assistant at Kingwood.
Former La Marque coach Mike Jackson was just hired at Grand Oaks — Conroe ISD’s newest school that will open in the fall. The football team won’t play a full real varsity schedule until after the 2020 realignment.
Jackson will go the way of Manvel and George Ranch when those schools opened by having a varsity squad that plays schools with smaller enrollments in an independent schedule.
More of a realistic feel
The difference between a Thursday night junior varsity game and Friday night varsity game is immense. Jackson wants his players to feel that for the next two seasons.
“It’s not like you’re playing a 6A game, but the bands are playing and the drill team is dancing,” Jackson said. “The excitement is there. You can’t replicate that feel unless you do it.”
Jackson remembers coming to a Chavez program in 2006 that had 16 total wins in its first six seasons. The program jumped into a full varsity schedule the same year it opened in 2000.
That doesn’t scare Lake Creek. It’s exactly what the new Montgomery ISD school will do this fall. It’s rare but not unheard of.
Lake Creek also will give juniors the opportunity to switch from Montgomery High School if zoned to Lake Creek. The football numbers will be there.
New coach Pat Kennedy can preach about that carrot at the end of the stick immediately. No waiting needed.
“It is what it is,” Kennedy said. “We’re going to move forward and play football. We’re going to strive for excellence and be the best we can be.”