Basketball vs Football..What A Story

[KFDM COOP]

Basketball vs Football

From ESPN:

Basketball, not football, rules at this Texas school

Associated Press

BROCK, Texas -- As the Friday night lights shine at most high schools in this football-centric state, the campus in Brock remains silent and dark.

"Around here, football is often called the f-word."

-- Richard Tedder, schools superintendent in Brock, Texas

Even the hint of football has caused some hard feelings in this small town about 40 miles west of Fort Worth. A school board member who favored adding the sport and even offered $100,000 to start the program was voted out and said he was shunned by some for months.

"Around here, football is often called the f-word," said Richard Tedder, schools superintendent since 2004.

Brock High School, steeped in the tradition of a basketball program nearly 100 years old, is among a handful of schools in Texas' second-smallest classification without a football program. While not alone in its gridiron void, Brock certainly isn't among the majority in a state that boasts nearly 1,200 teams.

"It's a rarity," said Dave Campbell, who founded Texas Football magazine and has covered the sport since the early 1950s. Football is "kind of one of the major factors that can unite a town, unite a community."

But football has a history of dividing those who live in and around Brock.

Residents rejected a football proposal in 1991, but four years later, the school board voted 4-3 in favor of one.

"It caused a pretty big rift in the community and led to some new people being elected to the board in the spring," Tedder said.

The new board overturned the decision 6-1.

Phil Lumsden, who lost his re-election bid after the 1995 vote, said when word got out that he had written a $100,000 check to help start a football program, some people didn't talk to him for months.

"Basketball here is what football is to most other schools. The history of Brock really runs through the basketball program."

-- Scott Drillette, Brock High School principal

"The reason is that they thought it would affect their basketball program and possibly some of the recognition and some of the monies," he said.

The superintendent estimated it would cost at least $1.5 million for a stadium and equipment, plus yearly expenses of between $200,000 and $300,000 for coaches' salaries and maintenance. And there might not be enough athletes to go around, Tedder said.

"I think the community feels that football may stretch kids to the point that we might not be successful in all our programs," he said. "They don't want to sacrifice tradition for the uncertainty of the success of a football program, and they realize the finances of it."

Since the first boys team was formed at the school in 1911, basketball has united Brock. The tradition has only grown deeper in recent years with five state championships among the boys and girls teams since 2002.

"Basketball here is what football is to most other schools," said principal Scott Drillette, who moved to Brock from nearby Aledo, a 4A school with a strong football tradition. "The history of Brock really runs through the basketball program."

Lumsden said a football team would get more students involved in extracurricular activities at a school that has more than doubled in size in 15 years -- from 113 students to 236.

Some of the basketball players "could dribble a ball before they could walk and their families put a lot of time into it, and they wanted their kids to follow in their footsteps," he said. "I don't see anything wrong with that, but you have to do something for those other kids."

"State baseball is all that matters [to me] now, because it's going to be a while before we get football."

-- Kyle Combs, Brock JV baseball player

Anthony Daniell, a sophomore catcher on Brock's junior varsity baseball team, is among the Brock athletes who don't play basketball. He said he and most of his teammates would play football if given the chance because it would be played during baseball's offseason.

Several of his teammates used to play youth football in nearby Weatherford but soon outgrew the program, which caters to elementary and middle school students.

"That's kind of what you did in Brock because Brock didn't have peewee football. You went to Weatherford and played for the Weatherford Warriors," said Kyle Combs, a junior pitcher on the JV baseball team. "Almost everyone on the team would probably play football."

But if history serves as a guide, those players will have to wait. After years of pressure, meetings and petitions, the school board has no plans to add football.

"State baseball is all that matters [to me] now, because it's going to be a while before we get football," Combs said.

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press

[SHS_ATW]

im glad i dont go to that school

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

that school sucks.

[tvc184]

Very un-Texan like. It must be a bunch of carpet baggers or snow birds from the north.

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

probably Oklahoma rejects trying to start a basketball cult.

[gringo]

Think I'd have to move.

[fatboy]

Absolutely no way I would live in a place that did not support all the students by providing them opportunities to compete in as much as possible for the sake of their own selfish reasons.

[Guest Orangeboy]

At least those guys like baseball, they made the state tourney a few year back. But no ffotball in Texas is pretty rediculous.

[OUFan22]

probably Oklahoma rejects trying to start a basketball cult.

I think the lack of football at any school is wrong, whether it is in Texas or Oklahoma.

Boomer Sooner!

[bmtdc1996]

Don't see anything wrong with what they have going on up there.  Not "un-Texan", not "un-American".  Take a look at their website.  They appear to be a VERY competitive school in all sports.  Several trips to state tournaments in basketball, softball/baseball, cross country/track.  I applaud the coaches and kids as well as the school district.  Don't get me wrong, I love football as much as anyone but it is not the end all part of any schools identity.

[jmspears3]

Lufkin Hudson is the same way No football