CardinalBacker

So let me get this straight.... you guys needed a pick in the red zone to win the State Championship in December.... Then you lost your head coach, offensive coordinator, at least 3D1 players and who knows how many other seniors, but you’re a lock to repeat? Crying Newton Fan is already my favorite part of football season 2019. I can’t wait to see the tears.

Yeah.... but at there was a WOS in it. When Lumberton and Splendora are the big fish, you know you’re in a small pond. I don’t have very high expectations this year. Hope I’m wrong.

Has there ever been a less interesting district than the one BC is in?

I know of one that apparently has, lol. Can anybody post pics of the improvements at WOS, or at least a link to some of them? Thanks!

I don't think it would be up to WOS where they ended up. Besides... they would all just be following Dan Ray to BC.

I think the Eagles will have their hands full with all of the above. If Silsbee is stacked as deep as Tiger fans think, I think they'll wear down the Eagles. I'm not sold on WOS or Gilmer this year, but think both will be real contests for Newton.

I think it'll be a tougher year for the Eagles. The odds of repeating after losing all of that talent AND the head coach are pretty long. I think the Eagles drop a game or two as described above and probably won't be able to string together the six wins that they'll need in the playoffs. Even so, they'll end up with a season/record better than all but a couple of schools in the area. That's my opinion, based on nothing but jealousy and cynicism. Good luck, Newton Fan.

Nvm... Go Stangs.

Right... the problem isn't the problem. The fact that I pointed it out is the problem. Are you sure I've never been married to you? The question isn't whether or not I care about kids from WOS.... the question is whether or not the people from West Orange care about the kids from WOS getting an education, or just want to win high school football games. I think the results speak for themselves. Okay, I'm done. Go Stangs. 112%

Good post.... thank you. After thinking some more, it would also seem like actual educational facility investment (new classrooms, etc....) would probably not need to be as proportionally large due to WOS’s declining enrollment. I’m curious as to how the editor arrived at his percentages, too. I’m in no way bitter that you guys are getting turf or a Jumbotron, lol. I admire your accomplishments in football and think we could and should demand more from our athletic programs over here. Just participating isn’t enough. Here’s my analogy... my kid started kindergarten with a girl that didn’t speak a word of English. Not a word. Her family had just gotten here from somewhere in Asia. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that she was the salutatorian at BCHS in 2018. That kinda makes me feel like I could have done a lot more as a parent in regards to the educational demands that I placed around my house. That particular set of parents had expectations and priorities and they were NOT gonna allow their daughter to fail. Kinda like you guys put expectations on Cornell and the boys. If somebody wanted to tell me about the 12th-worse performing high school in all of Texas, I’d just assume it was some crappy school in downtown Houston that the community didn’t give a darn about...Not y’all.

I saw the improvement at the elementary level, too... that’s a bright spot. I skipped right over the Orange County schools... the rest of us are doing ok. I was just thinking about all of the schools that outperformed you guys. There are a bunch of inner city schools in Houston, Dallas, and the SATX that have zero community support compared to WOS that finished ahead. I’ll bet there are schools down in the valley that were ahead of you guys in which the majority of the students didn’t speak English to start with. I get failing if you have an old school in the inner city with zero support from their community and all of the problems that living in an impoverished area. Drugs, crime, violence, extreme poverty. But you guys turn out, man... that’s what blows my mind. There’s not another school in Orange County that has nearly the community support that the Stangs have... for the football program, anyways. If those kids can be coached to absolute greatness (which is they have proven to be over the last few years), then I’d bet everything I have and all that I could borrow that they are teachable as well.

Why do you accept that failure? There are 1415 public high schools in Texas. Only 11 of them scored worse than WOS on their standardized testing.... and WOS responds by adding a Jumbotron? C’mon, Man! How can a school that fails so miserably in academics still have an entire V and JV team that passes their classes during football season. Like I said... sad times are in store for WOS when the grownups at the state level come take over the school system. Because it’s obvious that the school board and those that elect them, as well as the administration and teachers are collectively incapable of educating a group of talented kids. That stinks. What good is a Jumbotron when the kids you’re SUPPOSED to be educating can’t read what’s on it? That’s not a knock on the students over there... that’s a condemnation of the decision makers. There’s a reason that everybody that’s correcting me is from WOS.... Anyways, I’ve made my point Congrats on your turf and stuff.

I complained about the excessive price tag at NISD, and the underestimation of the anticipated cost to the taxpayers. How can anybody justify a bond issue in a school district that is in the bottom 1% of all schools in the state, but only 17% of the bond funds will go towards education, with the balance going towards the athletic program? When WOS is taken over by the state or merged into another District, it will be because the administration over there was more concerned about scoreboards and turf. Would you guys settle for #1404 out of 1415 in football? Lol. I'll be honest... those aren't even my kids and it makes me a little angry at how bad the WOS community has let them down. Those kids aren't dumb... they are being hung out to dry by their community.

I hear what you're saying, but I think you might be a pretty good example of the way of thinking that I'm criticizing. Athleticism isn't a substitute for intelligence or an education... We shouldn't be raising kids to think that their athletic abilities will somehow translate into a successful life. For every Deionte Thompson, you have about 40 kids that never play another snap after graduation, they just don't have an education to help prepare them to succeed through their lives. Athletics is supposed to enrich kids' educational experience. Whether you're the star skilled player, a lineman, a backup, a trainer, the kid playing the tuba, or the guy wearing the horse costume- You guys do a exemplary job on the field... there's no debating that. It's just pitiful that it apparently comes completely at the expense of a quality education. Are we all just willing to accept that WOS has become a place for kids who excel at football and have no hope for a future outside of football? Because it seems like that's what the voters in West Orange are okay with. Every time the discussion of turf has come up, we hear how "the kids deserve it." Really? I think they deserve a chance to learn to read and write. Why don't the grownups feel that way?

Local newspaper editorial on the WOS bond issue/jumbotron. [Hidden Content] Is it tone-deaf of all of us to celebrate a new scoreboard and turf when the perennial football powerhouse ranked #1404 out of 1415 high schools in the state academically? That's not a knock on the kids.... it's a failure by the community and the school district to get their priorities lined up reasonably. How long do you think WOS faithful would put up with missing the playoffs? It's just sad.

[Hidden Content] I didn't want to start a fight on the post celebrating WOS's new jumbotron on the football page, but I think the question is fair.... Has the community failed the kids over there in West Orange? WEST ORANGE COVE CISD Within the only Orange County school district that failed (WOCCISD), there are four schools that were graded. Texas School Guide ranks all of the schools in the state against each other. ∙ WO Stark High School failed with a grade of 51. Out of 1,415 high schools, they ranked # 1,404. ∙ WO Middle School failed with a grade of 53. Out of 2,068 middle schools, they ranked # 2,035. ∙ WO North Early Learning Center (Pre-K) failed with a grade 58. Pre-K schools are not ranked. ∙ WO Elementary School received a grade of 66 which I believe relates to a “D”. Out of 4,549 elementary schools, they ranked #4,394. ∙ So the high school is in the bottom 0.78%, the middle school is in the bottom 1.6%, and the elementary school is in the bottom 3.4%…compared to all of the schools in Texas! ∙ Both the high school and the middle school dropped in rankings, the elementary school showed slight improvement, up to the bottom 3.4% from the bottom 3.24% last year. VOTERS ∙ There are 10,343 registered voters in the WOC school district. ∙ Less than a year ago, the voters approved a $25.75 million bond issue for capital projects in WOCCISD. Only 17% of the funding is aimed at academics, while 72% of the funding is aimed at sports programs. Of the remainder, 3% to security and 8% to busses. ∙ In November of 2018, the bond issue was approved by just fewer than 20% of the registered voters. ∙ In May of 2019, on average, less than 5% of the registered voters elected three Trustees for the school district. Does anybody actually believe that the kids over there are unteachable, or does everybody over there have their priorities that screwed up? How can a high school finish #1404 out of 1415 in the state academically, but compete at the top of 4A D2 on an annual basis? Are kids getting pushed through academically so they'll be eligible to participate in athletics, and the end result is an abysmal educational experience? I'm envious of the successful history that they have in athletics, but it seems to me that the school system needs to be shut down or taken over by the state at this point.

It’s awful quiet out in HJ... this will be Dubois 2nd season and I wonder if they’ll get things moving in a positive direction this fall.

My understanding is that plan is more to address “inequalities that have existed til today which have affected ALL people of color.” I take it to mean you’re a “victim” of your skin is dark enough, lol. It would all be a bad joke if people weren’t seriously in favor of it.

How can we make sure that the reparations are paid back only descendants of slaveowners? Also, are the payments to be made to African Americans who can trace their lineage to the pre-civil war south? I'm not sure how a person whose folks came here later, or whose folks never lived down South would be owed much of anything. Plus, my sister-in-law married a boy that's half-black (Halfrican). Does he get a half-payment and her kids get a quarter? These are the kinds of things that need to be answered. If you ask me, Reparations have been getting paid on the first of the month for many, many years and that tab ought to be pretty well squared. It also hasn't helped a bit.. Just like the EIC payments they pass out in tax season..... folks would blow through it and nothing would change.

Hall of Famer Matt Bryant... Shane Dronnett, Steve Wooster. Ok, maybe Future Hall of Fame Nominee. Either the way, he played for a long frickin' time.

We're not that far apart in our opinions. I'll use one more stupid scenario, then I'm done. Imagine, just for the sake of argument, that steroids were allowed for use in football, but only for white players. Black players would be punished for using the stuff. Suddenly, you would have white players (who use steroids themselves) turning in black players for using the stuff. White fans celebrating every time that a black athlete got suspended for "cheating." A normal person would be on the sidelines going, "ummmmm, nobody should be using steroids, but I keep seeing these black athletes getting smacked for doing the same exact same that the white ones do, and it doesn't make any sense to me." I disagree with the assumption that things will keep happening whether we like it or not. When you look at how far we've come over my lifetime, it's pretty remarkable how much so many people have cleaned up their acts. I was at Lamar in the mid-nineties when the OJ trial was going on. They were on TV asking that racist cop if he'd ever used the "n-word" and I was like "N- word? I know an "a-word," a couple of "b-words", a "c-word"..... but I can't remember an "n-word." When I finally realized what they were alluding to, I was like "seriously? It's the "n-word" now?" I grew up in East Texas... I remember George Jefferson, SNL, and Archie Bunker all using it. But suddenly it's "the n-word?" I mean, to us it wasn't a nice thing to call somebody... worse than dummy but not as bad as a curse word. Luckily times change, and we all move forward. Most of us do, anyways. It's not a word that I use anymore. It's like wearing work boots in the house.... It just doesn't feel right. But I also notice it when ANYBODY says it.... and it bugs me every time. It's just a strange time that we're living in. I was watching Joe Rogan's podcast last week and they were discussing how a conservative guy got his Youtube channel de-monetized for calling somebody a queer. The guy the he was criticizing was homosexual, no doubt about that. This guy shouldn't have been calling anybody out for their sexual orientation, and I get that. But when you describe yourself as LGBTQ, and the Q stands for queer.... how mad can you really be? I just don't get it.

Do you feel the same way about every black ref that has ever uttered that word? Or any athlete of any color that has ever uttered it should be forbidden to play in the future? The word is either bad or it's not. You can't judge a word's offensiveness by the color of the speaker's skin. I don't need to hear about a soft "a" or a hard "er." If you're from down South, "cheatin' on your wife" means the exact same thing as "cheating on your wife." It doesn't matter what your enunciation is. The difference is this. Nobody is getting in trouble for cursing around the house or with their friends. There are real consequences for people who drop the n-word in ANY circumstances. If they're not black, of course. Paula Deen lost a ton of her opportunities a few years ago for admitting that she'd used the word back in the 1980s. Imagine a situation where only black people were punished for saying the f-word. Everybody says it, but black people would instantly lose their jobs, their, careers, and their reputations.... because they said a word that EVERYBODY else says without punishment? And trust me... Every white person out there has said it. I'd appreciate a response from any white person posting who can HONESTLY say that they've never used that word in some context. So, when I'm over here reading this story and seeing how this guy is getting hammered for a using a word that I've used personally, and so many of my black friends continue to use to this day.... It just kinda rubs me the wrong way. It doesn't seem right. I'm NOT fighting for the right to use that word. I think it's offensive and shouldn't be used. I just think the hysteria that breaks out when SOME people use it would be funny if people weren't really getting hurt as a part of the process.

You can say anything in a petition... doesn't make it a fact. But the charges of financial impropriety, IF TRUE (and they probably are), then the plaintiff would appear to be in the right. I have a bigger problem with the charges of racism. Seriously.... when's the last time a "person of color" was removed from their duties when "racism" wasn't charged? Fire a white dude for being an all-around waste of time and money and it's over. If you fire a black dude you'll face claims of racism... whether the guy was a waste of time and money or not. Do you know that people were actually trying to sue Dupont when they closed the Beaumont works on grounds that the terminations were racially motivated? EVERYBODY lost their jobs, but one "protected class" lined up to beat that dead horse. You'd have to be be blind to think that those things aren't considered at hiring time. I'll go one further... It's 2019, and nobody should be using the N-word. NOBODY. If you have a problem with a 59 year old white guy using that word, but no problem being called that (or calling people that yourself) by your friends.... let's be honest. You don't have problem with the word, you have a problem with white people. All that being said, it sounds like the TASO is running wild. Or at least as wild as you can with a $100k a year in dues. I hope the plaintiff prevails if his pleadings are true.

Noticed Silsbee ranked ahead of WOS for the first time ever, I'm pretty sure... (Sips tea and waits for fireworks).