Cougar14.2

As far as 5A-D1, it's hard to think Manvel won't take a step back after losing their stud qb that transferred in from Louisiana last season. Their backup qb was also a senior last year, meaning whoever wins the job will be seeing his first varsity action under center. Good luck in that murders row of a district I expect to be even better than last year. In 5A-D2 I think we are right where we should be. I would question 3-5 and #9 though. Lovejoy lost their primary offensive weapons. Liberty Hill graduated about 5,600 of their approximately 6,300 rushing yards and can't really defend teams with plus athletes. Huntsville has won most of their games recently with suffocating defense. They weren't ranked near as high as some of the other DTs in the state but those Bobino brothers carried that defense and are gone now. If you can win individual matchups on the outside you can carve that Hornet defense up like Crosby did in '19. They do bring back their qb who I really like and their leading rusher but they're still not going to threaten good teams with offensive explosions. I don't get Rouse at #9 at all? Yes, they bring back pretty much all of their offensive weapons but what did they do that makes DCTF think they're one of the best teams in the state? They lost by 27 to third place A&M Con. and barely beat a 4-6 Leander Glenn team by one point. *You know it's getting close to football season when fans start to concern themselves with ranking that mean absolutely nothing.

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5A-D1 1. Denton Ryan 2. Manvel 3. College Station 4. Highland Park 5. Longview 6. Cedar Park 7. CC Veterans Memorial 8. Colleyville Heritage 9. Frisco Lone Star 10. Mansfield Summit 5A-D2 1. Aledo 2. FB Marshall 3. Lucas Lovejoy 4. Liberty Hill 5. Huntsville 6. Lubbock Cooper 7. Ennis 8. Mansfield Timberview 9. Leander Rouse 10. Grapevine

There’s a lot of truth there Traden. We do usually go one or two rounds, only been past the second twice in 7 years. We went 4-1 against five of the top seven teams in the state who were 47-1 at the time we played them, head is slightly inflated. I disagree with you on your last point though? I’m telling you how superior Crosby was to every 5A-D2 team in the state except one when it counted, not just the viewing area. It took a freak ACL accident in a year Crosby had already beaten WOS and Manvel, and a bankruptcy which was just a tough year in general around town for BH to beat Crosby. I know 2011 was but I don’t remember any of our other games even really being that close recently, and that’s with two coaches coming off multiple state championships at their previous stops. Abseck was the OC when Cedar Park rolled Crosby in the semifinals in 2014. Our ‘14 squad was one of the bigger ones we’ve had recently, especially in the trenches. We looked like jv kids against Cedar Park size wise and they we’re just as fast as us. Until that happens at BH I won’t be worried no matter who the coach is. Crosby and BH are both growing fast. We’re getting more Crosby level athletes and transfers, y’all are getting more BH level kids. All that being said, Crosby could start 0-3, get hit with injuries and struggle to make the playoffs this year. That’s the way it works for a program on our level.

Dude, they just had freaking Tom Westerberg. Like THE Tom Westerberg. In terms of talent this is like Gary Joseph going from Katy to Clear Lake, I think we’ll be fine. Coach P and his predecessor already proved they have no issues taking out state championship coaches at BH.

That’s fair. I like it better saying those were the two biggest wins of the TW era. The one in ‘18 broke Crosby’s 13 consecutive year playoff streak(even though it was the Santa Fe loss), and the one in ‘19 caused Crosby to have its only .500 season in a decade. Those are pretty decent bragging rights against one of your rivals.

Branch is, transferred from GCM his sophomore year. Donta Allen transferred from GCM in 2014 and was our bellow running back until he got hurt the last game of the season against CE King. GCM currently has a good TE I wish would come over. Seem to have a pretty high hit rate on the GCCISD kids, makes you wonder how good Baytown could be if they went back to two schools?

Meaning Reggie Branch(over 3,300 total yards) 1st team all-state, Deniquez Dunn(2,740 total yards) and Jaylen Herman(1,286 receiving yards) would’ve all been ineligible to play at BH last year since their hair touches their shoulders. And you wonder why TW left, imagine what he could’ve done with kids like those?

2018 they won 49-30 and 2019 they won 28-7. They’re 2-8 vs Crosby the last decade including the 34-7 parting gift for TW last year. As long as we’re healthy and financially stable I expect similar beatings in the near future with what Crosby has coming through the pipe. Crosby is going to be bumping right up against the 5A-D2 cutoff line and will for sure be there in 2024, and the kids are starting to look like it.

The very last thing I would do is get on here and make something up. That's why even though a bunch of people find me abrasive on this site I have half the post you do and twice the reputation. Don't get butt hurt bro, it is what it is. Matter of fact, you asked where I was and YOU revisited the hair thing. Just giving you what you're asking for. And by the way, with your lexicon you're the absolute last one who should be talking about BH academics.

Lol, 5 with 4 of them being boys. Oldest son graduated in '18, two middle ones will be a sophomore and a 7th grader next year. Also have a freakish nephew who just moved back from Las Vegas I kind of help raise that will be an 8th grader next year. Lots of football for me the near future.

I know they can. Some of the people at work showed them with hair touching their shoulders, makes you wonder why they only chose to enforce the rule with one particular kid though? High standards don't have anything to do with hair, see the greatest theoretical physicist of the last century Albert Einstein. Nor do high academic standards have anything to do with where you live. Those ritzy Austin school districts don't have those rules limiting expression and would roll over BH academically. I view at as teaching exclusion is OK. Doesn't matter to me either way though. I would never move to BH and my son has dreads so he's going to have to continue kicking BH's arse in his Crosby uniform.

I can't remember a kid from BH ever transferring to Crosby? If he did he didn't play. I remember the Colliers transferring to BH and they were the best players in in their respective sports in BH history. I may be missing a football guy from the 60s or 70s though? I did say TW had some kids lined up that went elsewhere or decided not to come, including one to Crosby. Kids may have not been able to play at their other schools and that was the reason they were coming to BH though? I doubt he'll have the hair issue because there just aren't that many black kids that even go to BH. The kid that got singled out was probably only one of less than 10 in his entire grade? I haven't seen a lower income apartment in Highland Park either and it doesn't seem to be an issue with them. Your sentiment permeates the BH psyche though. I was talking to one of my BH coworkers and he agreed with you, "We don't need that riff-raff with long hair walking around our hallways and we don't need that trash from some apartment complex. It's why we moved to BH to get away from all of that." So point taken.

The last two coaches showed up six rings between them and outside of TW getting to the third round once, they haven't really been able to do anything with BH's personnel. Abseck is showing up with only one ring and a very good argument can be made that the team he took over in 2015 when he won his title was built by Joe Willis who left for Colleyville Heritage after CP's 2014 loss in the title game to Ennis. No doubt had BH not hired TW previously the chatter would've been just like it was when he made the jump. I think the "alumni" are just seeing more rinse and repeat from BH so it's not as big a deal as it once was. If TW with all of his clout and connections couldn't get it done then I don't think many are expecting much more from Abseck. Great hire by BH, just like TW was but the underlying issue is that whoever BH hires can still only work with what he's been given. CP only has about 250 more kids than BH but there's a drastic difference in talent Abseck is going to have to prove he can overcome.

If we're healthy I think PAM is going to have an awful tough go of it when they come to Crosby. This will definitely be the most inexperienced team I've seen Crosby put on the field in over a decade but we get Carthage and Manvel before PAM so I expect the Crosby staff to have made some adjustments by the home opener which will be a pretty crazy environment for the Titans to play in. Really looking forward to the matchup between the PAM dbs and what I think will be Crosby's strongest position group in our receivers.

I think there was agreement by most of the Cen-Tex pundits that this past season Cedar Park had their best team in school history. They ended up playing the best 4A/5A team I can ever remember seeing for the state title and of course got run out of the stadium but look at the personnel, especially in the trenches, that Abseck was working with. CP used to be the 5A version of Katy in terms of play-style but under Abseck they opened up the offense and look more like the recently Dodge coached Westlake teams:

I think BH is chasing the SLC, LT, HP, Westlake and to an extent Prosper models but the money there is just on a different level. Not to mention a place like SLC has former Dallas Cowboy kids playing for them on a regular basis to go along with the finances. BH's growth may hurt more than help in the near future with them being pushed to 6A probably even before Crosby. Deep Park has 4,000 kids, all the things you would need to be successful on the field and has had decent coaches but still can't seem to find their way. DP is almost a mirror image of BH in terms of demographics and is located in a not good, but great area for the purposes of talent acquisition but have still seemed to struggle to upgrade their personnel? I think they're going to have to do it the old fashioned way with hard work, good coaching and pretty much homegrown talent. BH would greatly benefit from some of the transfers in that NE quadrant of the beltway but for whatever reason they just don't come. *For reference, BH High is the closest district school to Crosby High by distance. However, Crosby High is closer to North Shore, CE King, Channelview, Atascocita, Summer Creek and all three Baytown high schools.

"Austin area" almost makes you feel it's Abseck for sure since based on the two previous coaching hires the other two possible candidates actually work IN the Austin city limits. Probably reading way too much into the wording though? I highly doubt they go with the curveball in this situation but Liberty Hill is also in the Austin area.

Is there a live stream for this one? Texan live is audio only it says.

If $175k really won't touch what he's currently making then he's probably not bringing way more into the program than he draws? With the way he's winning the community is definitely more apt to donate funds or approve bonds though. Carthage's stadium holds 6k so call it $50k per game average the district clears for a total of $250k for the five home games. Give them another $100k for merchandising and playoff games which totals $350k for the football program. The football program doesn't pay his salary but if it did that's about 50% of what it would gross annually. Like you said, he's worth whatever the community allows the board to pay him. I just think it's interesting that his individual salary is over 3X what the average household income is in Carthage.

Sounds like that might be right according to Stepp? I don't think BH could go wrong with either Wager or Abseck but if I had to question one it would be Abseck. He's only been a head coach 6 years and was basically handed the machine Chris Ross and Joe Willis built. He's done well maintaining it but can he come close to replicating those results without CP's money and athletes, TW couldn't? I remember Crosby playing Hutto in the regional final and thinking how we were about to get killed because of Hutto's size. The next round we played Cedar Park who was on a completely different level size-wise. The next year Abseck took over and won a title with a bunch of those returners. Wager has gotten to coach kids like Myles Garret so he too has been gifted with a bunch of talent and has a very good record but he's also been brutalized by the who's who of DFW coaches. Hard to fault him when the guys he's losing to include names like Lineweaver, Samples, Mathis and Westerberg though. His Martin teams have never been as talented on the whole as any of those other coach's teams but he's managed to still win one against them here and there. Not to mention he's the main catalyst for turning Martin into the solid program it's been the last decade or so. I know BH has kind of missed on hiring coaches to to drop down a class and take over their program but if it is down to these two I would think Wager is the better fit.

So they bumped Surratt up over $40k the last two years? I read an article where they gave him a $20k raise last year to $155k. He got another $20k+ added to his base salary this past year too?

After hiring TW away from Allen I don't think it will be a shocker even if they land Surratt. The two guys that would turn heads for me, albeit for different reasons, are Jeff Riordan and Hank Carter. Riordan because of previous ties and Carter because it would mean BH probably went to the $175k range to land him, although it may make sense for Carter to take a raise move to a place with a cheaper cost of living.

Lol, Highland Park is what it would look like if River Oaks had it's own high school. Riding through the Highland Park/University Park areas the first thing I noticed was the amount of Range Rovers per capita and secondly that the average home price is probably $3M which meant we needed to find HWY 75 and head back south to Oak Cliff. A football obsessed community with J.R Ewing as one of your neighbors is a pretty good recipe for the decades of success HP has had.

Going to be very interesting to see if George Ranch drops down to 5A-D1 for the upcoming alignment now that Richmond Randle is opening? Randle is only three miles from George Ranch which probably means GR will take a bigger hit than Rosenberg Terry and Lamar Con. Katy Paetow is projected to have an enrollment close to 2,800 kids so I expect them to move up to 6A and the new school Katy Jordan to replace them. Manvel is on the borderline and will probably barely make the 6A cutoff but if they don't you're potentially looking at a 10-5A-D1 consisting of; Manvel, George Ranch, Foster, Angleton and Hightower. Unrelated - 15+ years ago when I was going to school in the Dallas area we used to consider Frisco the sticks. I believe they only had two high schools in town. By the end of 2022 Frisco ISD will have 12 high schools with at least a 5A enrollment in an area smaller than Crosby ISD's attendance zone. I was going to one of my son's games a couple years ago and turned into Frisco Heritage High School. I didn't see any players so I asked if I was at the right field at which time I was told "No, you're looking for Frisco Independence". Independence was one block away. Both are 5A-D1. That's what type of suburban growth the larger schools in SETX are competing with.