RaiderRed30

51 unanswered points in the state championship game. But Aledo should enjoy this because it will probably be their last time in Arlington for a while.

Saw him play basketball last year. He is better there than in football.

I know that I do not have much dog in the fight but reading this I think there are a couple of things to note: 1. Travel - Yes United did travel to Arlington to play a game, but it was on a non school day, so students lost zero education by going there. The same as when they travel to Allen over Christmas. As much as we do not think about it, these are still students so being in class as much as they can is best. Beaumont is in no man's land, similar to the Odessa/Midland & Abilene. Look at who they are scheduling, Hobbs and other New Mexico schools, or down a level. Houston is two hours away for most non district games. United & Westbrook can travel there but many schools are not gonna travel East when they can find schools closer, so if they want a home game they have to find a way. Silsbee is one of the few, if only, schools that will agree to come to United or Westbrook. Many local schools will not for various reasons and Houston schools are not. So travel wise Beaumont, both schools, are stuck. They want a home game for the parents/students/fans to watch, they have to be creative. 2. Money - The schools that travel across the country are not paying for it. Many are being sponsored by the host or another company. DeSoto and Duncanville the past couple of years have had 5-6 high level D1 players on each team so people want to showcase them. Beaumont has had 1 or 2 so you are not going to have as many organizations hoping to have them play. Some will but not the major ones. They have to look local and Beaumont does not have the money that you see in Dallas Fort Worth or Houston. If they want to travel it will be the old way of sales and fundraisers. But everyone is struggling. 3. Tradition - As others have mentioned there are certain schools across the state that have that respect level. Argyle, Kimball, Carter, Madison, Brock, Silsbee, Yates, and now Washington. Year in and year out they are going to be good, and on any given night can give you a game (a few years ago the 4A state champ almost lost to the 1A state champ just saying). The coach knows that the teams will fight for 32 minutes and will push their players. This was that type of game. Silsbee has the tradition and the respect, so yes they may be 4A, and yes if they lose it might not look good to the ones with little knowledge, the real basketball people will know it is not that big of a deal. They know Silsbee is better than 1/2 to 2/3 of 6A teams and will be one of the final 8 teams playing in 4A in March. 4. Game Planning - Coaches want to play teams that can prepare them for the playoffs and future opponents. Besides the above mentioned 32 minutes of fight, Silsbee may run schemes and systems that United might see down the road. So why not try and play them to give the players a taste of that pressure style. So looking at the whole 4A comment while it makes sense if they were playing most 4A schools, it does not work in this case. United by playing Silsbee was able to get a quality opponent to come to them that will prepare them for district and the playoffs.

According to UIL's list, both Bridge City & Hardin-Jefferson will be 4A D1 for Football. Here is the list: [Hidden Content]

Here is a question I am wondering, has any team ever faced 3 state finalists in one season? If Gunter wins tomorrow night, Comanche (8-5 on the year) will have played Albany (2A II), Tolar (2A I) and Gunter (3A II) this season. Another loss was to Jacksboro who lost to Gunter last week, which means it is possible that 4 of their opponents went as far in the playoffs as they could go. To add to it their all sports district in 3A includes Brock who just lost tonight in 3A I Semifinals.

With the Jesuits schools they have two rules to even the playing field: 1. Because they are only male schools their enrollment is doubled (not automatically 6A) 2. They are given the same attendance zone as the nearest high school. Meaning if a kid transfers in beginning with 9th grade and up if they don’t live in that zone they must sit out a year similar to all transfers. They attend in middle school they are eligible as freshmen. I am guessing Faith Family has to follow the second rule as well. Not making an excuse or agreeing just informing. Charter Schools are a confusing situation as they are public schools meaning UIL has to take them. The issue is transfers becoming so common. Look at Duncanville in the same area for boys and girls. I do remember a few years ago when charter schools first entered UIL El Paso had a 1A with a 7 footer at state. Now the rules state that school would have been 4A so there is change that is slowly trying to fix these problems.

If it's October 7th and you plan to stay in Abilene that night, I would recommend heading to Strawn for some Chicken Fried at Mary's before going over to Gordon to watch Gordon-Gorman. About an hour drive from Abilene but it should be a good game. Or best matchup in the state that weekend might be Cherokee at Richland Springs. Drive down then maybe spend the night in Brownwood or San Saba afterwards. Huge rivalry game and lots of bad blood it seems over the 3 year suspension of Jerry Burkhart, Richland Spring's coach. It's about 2 hours from Abilene.

In the first case we didn’t know the exact damage it would cause. It was a shock to everyone. In relation to Hiroshima and Nagasaki it was actually to prevent deaths (again didn’t know the full destruction and aftermath). Based on fighting in Okinawa and other places, the United States realized an actual invasion would have killed hundreds of thousands of American soldiers, as well as millions of Japanese civilians due to the Honor and Pride the Japanese had. And invasion of Japan would have been like the Siege of Bexar with every house and building having to be fought and cleared.

June 15 is the day the invasion actually started but yes like Normandy there were bombings in the days up to it including the Philippine Sea (which is rumored to have a ship sunk carrying mosquitoes infected with the plague). As for being as important as D-Day, this was the first Japanese land the US invaded. It led directly to the resignation of Tojo, the shift in strategy from Japan, and the realization that the war was lost. The US could now directly bomb the country something it hadn’t done other than once in 1942. The three islands eventually held 15 runways about 8-10 were used for B-29s. The night you were referring to was Operation Meetinghouse the first firebombing attack something that even the US did not know the damage it would cause. It continued until the Atomic Bombs were dropped (the first one actually left San Francisco before the test as Los Alamos). The reasoning for the use is pretty incredible since it was partly due to the Soviets, our allies, starting to invade Korea to meet us in Japan. Just think these 3 Battles should be discussed a whole lot more and remembered similar to D-Day because it was the start of the end of the War in the Pacific and in one islands case, directly led to a change in how the entire world operates regarding conflicts.

I think another question would be what happened on June 15, 1944? Just 9 days later and just as important as the invasion of Normandy.

Tarleton is going to be a force in most sports. Even with moving up from D2 this year. Know they are looking for one more football playing member. Maybe get Angelo State, Midwestern, Commerce, or even West Texas to move up. Think the conference will have a lot of balance.

So serious question, has either United (or Ozen) teams, boys or girls, ever been shooting teams? We are talking about the lights and it being dark, but if you aren't a team known for 3 Point shooting would you want it to be bright for those opponents that are? It's been mentioned on here that multiple opponents have complained, maybe that's good. Competitive advantage. What's best for the fans might not always be best for the team.

Aledo had a sophomore QB. They stopped Cedar Hill with 4 minutes left down by 3. Started making a few plays but threw an interception and then Cedar Hill scored to ice it. With this QB it might have been different game.

Mom's company transferred to Fort Worth and whole family moved. If you a QB moving to Fort Worth where would you move? The original starting QB tore his ACL first day of contact practice.

So now we get the Tongans vs the Blondes Saturday morning. Winner gets Duncanville-Desoto who are playing Saturday night with Cedar Hill-Rockwall Heath sandwiched in between. If it wasn’t for Covid I cannot imagine how crowded the stadium would be might rival the 06 game (which PNG fans will get angry but might be the most crowded non single site state title game ever). On a side I wonder how’s Gordon going to feel when he gets to college and finds out his O-Line is smaller.