Grid slate heavy on home games, Thursdays

[KFDM COOP]

Grid slate heavy on home games, Thursdays

By Dave Rogers

Published April 20, 2008

Home cooking could become a habit this fall even if regular game dates don’t, thanks to the fall football schedules put together for Baytown’s three high schools.

Both Robert E. Lee and Ross Sterling will play six of their 10 regular-season games this fall at home. For Sterling, the total is really seven, as they’re listed as “visitor†for this year’s Battle of Baytown against Lee.

Goose Creek Memorial will play half its first 10-game schedule within the friendly confines of Baytown.

Put them all together and that’s 17 varsity football games scheduled for Stallworth Stadium this fall.

Considering the regular season is only 11 weeks long, well, stadium workers had better get ready to be ka-chinged into a higher tax bracket.

And cancel those weekend trips to visit grandma and/or the deer lease.

With only two schools last fall, there were only nine Stallworth Stadium games for Lee and Sterling’s varsity teams, so the traffic and workload at Goose Creek school district’s showplace stadium is definitely going to pick up.

And you can forget booking Stallworth for your family reunion the weekend of Sept 11-13.

The Patriots (Thursday vs. Bellaire Episcopal), Ganders (Friday vs. Rosenberg Terry) and Rangers (Saturday vs. Sam Rayburn) have home games at Stallworth all three nights.

Without a senior class, Memorial’s first slate of games are bound to have a bit of a subvarsity feel. Playing into that are three Patriot home games on Thursday nights (Aug. 28 vs. Pasadena; Sept. 11 against Episcopal; and Oct. 9 against Barbers Hill).

Most football coaches prefer to play on Thursdays rather than Saturdays.

There are several reasons, including not having to alter pregame routines as much when switching from Friday to Thursday as when switching from Friday to Saturday.

The biggest one, however, is a Thursday game allows the varsity coaches the rare opportunity to scout future opponents on Friday and Saturday.

So, Lee has two home Thursday games (Sept. 18 vs. Terry; and Oct. 23 vs. Channelview) while its only Saturday game is on the road and mandated by its host for the evening (Sept. 27), Katy Seven Lakes.

Memorial’s only Saturday game is also on the road, a season-ending (Nov. 1) game at Humble’s Turner Stadium against Kingwood Park.

It’s scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. and it’s one of only two day games scheduled for GCCISD teams this year. Sterling got the other, a 3 p.m. Nov. 1 outing at Beaumont West Brook.

Speaking of travel, Lee will be burning the most of next fall’s high-priced diesel fuel. The Ganders have to take three lengthy trips – to Katy’s Rhodes Stadium to play Seven Lakes Sept 27; to Beaumont (Oct. 17) and to Port Arthur (Nov. 7)

Sterling’s only notable road trips are to New Caney (Oct. 3) and West Brook (Nov. 1). A jaunt to Pearland (Sept. 5) is the only trip in excess of 30 minutes Memorial will be making.

If you like your home games early and often, Sterling’s your ticket in 2008.

The Rangers don’t go on the road until October, playing their first four games (Aug. 29 vs. La Porte; Sept. 5 vs. South Houston; Sept. 13 vs. Sam Rayburn; and Sept. 19 vs. Pearland Dawson) at Stallworth, followed by their open date. Throw in the Lee game and Sterling will be playing three of its final six games at home, too.

Lee’s schedule of six home games is evenly distributed: one on the road, two at home, one on the road, two at home, one on the road, two at home; while Memorial alternates home and road games throughout its schedule.

Getting Port Arthur at home (Oct. 17) might be a break for Sterling. And there doesn’t seem to be a huge disadvantage to the Rangers having to play North Shore (Oct. 24) and West Brook (Nov. 1) on the road, because those two teams figure to be a tall order no matter where they play.

While Memorial appears to be catching a slight break by playing both Dayton (Sept. 26) and Barbers Hill (Oct. 9) at Stallworth, Lee’s chances to beat West Brook (Oct. 17) and Port Arthur (Nov. 7) get tougher by having to play those two after long road trips.

Of course, it’s all speculation at this point trying to decipher the pros and cons of teams’ schedules.

One thing is certain, though.

Whether you like or dislike this year’s schedule, it will totally flip-flop next year, with the home teams for each matchup being reversed.

[82 5A State Champs]

The Bruins also have six regular season games at home next season. Seven, if you count the scrimmage against Lufkin as it's also at Durley.