WOSgrad

Not only did Drayton mortgage the future, but the Astros have made some horrible decisions in the draft since Jerry left town.

I see this team getting blown up(Oswalt, Lee, Tejada and even Pence and Berkman being traded).

Wow! It actually took longer than 24 hours from the start of the topic to this post....we must be doing something wrong.

A new stadium! Hey scooter, you think their ticket prices are steep? Just be glad you don't have to pay property taxes there.

1985 Regional Semis.....Houston Yates 19, WO-S 6........It was tied 6-6 until about midway through the 4th quarter and the Stangs were leading 3-1 in penetrations (this was before OT in high school football) at the time.

Congrats, Stew. This man was responsible for ending my baseball career. In Pony-Colt, he threw three ptiches.....I didn't see any one of them...I knew it was time to hang it up!

If you make it into Houston, traffic is fine. Drove from Katy into Downtown and west bound traffic wasn't even that heavy.

Coop, why you not in Dayton? There's a little thing he does on the weekend called a "weathercast."

That's true. Didn't I read that they played last year? Maybe this was something that LA did after last year (move the season back a week). At any rate, I would be highly upset if a team up and dropped on me 2 weeks before the season started. I'm surprised that they were able to find someone to play on such short notice. Yes, they did play last year. Lousiana's Week 1 and Texas' Week 0 started on the same weekend (August 31) last year. I agree, if that is the reason, Vinton officials shouls have been a little more on that ball. As for the opponent, it looks like Sabine Pass was the only team in the area which had an open date in Week 0 AND did not already have 10 games on their schedule. In that respect, the Pirates were lucky.

This is just speculation on my part, but in looking at the Louisiana schedules, it looked like Lousiana High School season started September 5, not August 28th, like it does in Texas. It could be that Vinton would not have been allowed to play a game on the 29th as it would have been too early for them. I agree with Gasilla, though that cancelling it this late is curious. But perhaps the Vinton officials did not snap to that until recently.

Have mercy!

Wow! setxsports is becoming the TSRN of Southeast Texas!

;D Grad where are you in this scene? I just wasn't an important enough person, I guess.

87, if I had to pose between Kay Parkhurst and Cullen Pendleton, I would have had that scowl on my face, too.

Oh, I'll help my man, dirk out. How about bitter? Will envious do? Troublemaking? Spineless? I am sure that dirk will think of more but had other things to do. You make a comment about the Mustangs scrimmaging in their first day in pads followed by the number to the UIL trying to imply that something was illegal and then when you are called on it you go to the "AW SHUCKS, I was just funnin" card. I guess spineless is the best choice.

Well if your from Huffman it probably does, good luck. Well let me ask it this way, who would you put at #5 instead of Huffman?

LOL! Coop, Larry Beaulieu doesn't make enough to cover the Katy ISD taxes without having to take out a second mortgage.

Here in Katy, 6 schools share one stadium. Although word has it another one is on the way(greeeeaaaat...ever higher property taxes.

Sorry, AAW, you are on your own on that one. I don't think anyone around here is brave enough to try and separate Coop from his computer.

Best Team - WO-S (1987) Best Game - LaMarque vs. Denton Ryan (4A DII Championship 2003) Best player - Deon Beasley

I guess given recent football success and TAKS problems that the above would be an easy generalization to make...but not necessarily accurate. In the same years that Coach Hooks and the football team was racking up victories, folks like Jim Ramsden, Ken Rush, Claire Shiffman, Bob Coombs, Dr. Carol McGill, Glen Finley, Barbara Dardeau, Mr. Booth (i'm sorry I don't remember his first name) and many others were coaching Mustangs off the football field to victories in academic, band choir and vocational competitions throughout the state. Unless you walked the halls on Newton Street, you have probably not heard of a lot of these folks simply because, well, there isn't a whole section of the Orange Leader devoted to debate tournament results. During the years I was going to school, and as I understand well into WO-S' tenure in 4A, we didn't just win the UIL Academic Meets during the spring, we dominated them. So enough about the emphasis not being on academics within WOCCISD. In reading the threads that have touched on this, I think if you take the individual reasons and mesh them all together, you will come up with the reason for the decline in WO-S' enrollment. The collapse of Levingston and American Bridge in the mid-80's certainly led to a mass exodus from the Orange area. The next biggest industry in Orange, petrochemicals, has been stagnant, if not declining, as well. Last year, the Schulman plant was shut down and other plants on Chemical Row have reduced their employees either through attrition or limited job cuts. And quite simply, you aren't going to stay where you aren't able to work. Of course, I am not going to be naive enough to say that the current situation within the school district doesn't have something to do with the reduction of enrollment in the district. Particularly now that because of the district's rating it MUST provide vouchers to any student to pay for out of district tuition should his or her parents wish to have their child attend school in another district. And it is a situation that must be corrected by Dr. Collins and the trustees very soon, or their successors if they are unsuccessful. But one factor that I have not seen is the reduction of population in the area as a whole. I'll use my senior year of 1985-1986 as a reference. That year, the Golden Triangle had enough 5A enrollment schools to fill a single eight team district. Today, of those eight schools, only West Brook is able to maintain a 5A enrollment in essentially the same makeup it had back then. Heck, three of those schools no longer exist! In the same time, there has been only one new high school, Ozen, which has not been the result of a merger of two or more high schools. Hopefully, the promise of the expansion of plants in the area with boost the population of all of the school districts, including WO-S.

Well, that is what I thought 10 years ago about going to 3A. I am sure that there are some 4A teams which would still agree to play the Mustangs. The question is whether Coach Hooks (or his successor) would ever schedule teams two classifications higher. Take this years predistrict for instance. I know that there are some who are complaining about the strength. However, as he did when the Mustangs ceased playing 5A teams while in 4A, Coach Hooks will (and maybe has) at some point determine that playing schools with much bigger enrollments is actually hurting the team rather than toughening them up.

Gotta agree with my bro, e. The Eagles took some lumps last year as a young team, but they appear to be ready to make a run in 19-4A. I expect to see them in the playoffs come November.

Livingston

Congratulations and Good Luck to Coach Landry....I'm sure the entire Landry clan is happy about this one.