KFDM COOP Posted January 20, 2008 Report Posted January 20, 2008 Spring sports face GCM transition By Dave Rogers Published January 21, 2008 Ninety freshman and sophomore football players wrapped up their first full week of off-season football drills for Goose Creek Memorial Friday. But what about athletes in other sports who are headed to Baytown’s third high school next fall? “We told all of our coaches that the kids going to Memorial next year, if they’re still competing for Sterling, they’re Sterling Rangers,†said Tom Ed Gooden, district athletic director. Sterling football coach Herb Minyard, baseball coach Paul Tadlock and tennis coach Jan Strubbe said basically the same thing. “No one ever said this is going to be an easy situation,†Minyard said. “I visited with the kids (who are transferring to Memorial) to make sure they had their paperwork filled out correctly, but I did not actively recruit. “If we have Goose Creek Memorial baseball players, so what? They’ll wear blue and silver this year, red and black next year.†Minyard said he had 187 ninth-, 10th- and 11th-grade football players on his football roster at the end of the fall semester. Said Minyard: “Now I’ve got 95,†after those opting to attend Memorial next year transferred to new coach Bret Boyd’s afternoon athletics period. “I’ve got 40 sophomores and 50 freshmen,†Boyd said of his numbers. Naturally, a spring sport coach would play the best players available this year in order to win as much as possible. “I personally don’t look at it any different than any spring,†Strubbe said. “We look to get kids out (to the regional and state tourneys). Whether they’re going to Memorial or Sterling next year is not an issue.†But what about the younger players? Coaches like to plan for the future, set up next year’s teams. Ninth- and 10th-graders leaving for Memorial obviously don’t fit in next year’s plans at their current school, so might coaches give them short shrift this season? “I don’t really want to know†which players are leaving for Memorial, Tadlock said. “I don’t want to be accused of not playing a guy because he’s leaving, or have somebody say a kid didn’t make the cut because he’s leaving. “I’m trying to stay out of the politics part of it.†Gooden said the district had made one concession for this unusual situation. “Some of these sports are ‘cut’ sports, where they’re limited in how many they can carry because of uniforms, etc. We’re doing away with those limits this year,†the AD said. “We’re allowing those coaches to keep more kids in the program. It will be true for baseball and softball and is already true for basketball. We’ve got more kids playing on our freshman and sophomore teams than normal, so we’re not going to get caught short next year.†In the transition to new attendance zones, there are some athletes at Lee that will be moving to Memorial. “We do have some volleyball girls at Lee that will end up at Goose Creek Memorial,†Gooden said. “They’re still in Lee’s off-season program just because we don’t have a volleyball coach (for Memorial). There’s no one at this point able to take them.†The AD said those girls not having a special athletics period like the Memorial football players was not an issue, because a lot of the girls were involved with second sports at Lee, “and they play volleyball only in the fall. “And the ones that are not, play club volleyball,†Gooden said.
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