Playoffs loom with Humble exit

[KFDM COOP]

Playoffs loom with Humble exit

By Dave Rogers

Good thing gas prices have taken a big retreat in recent days, because some local sports teams are going to start taking some unaccustomed trips pretty soon.

To the playoffs.

And to the throne rooms.

The UIL realignment last February that took three Humble ISD schools out of the district that includes Sterling and Lee has totally altered the landscape when it comes to qualifying for the playoffs.

A year ago, those three Humble ISD schools — Humble High, Kingwood and Atascocita — grabbed 26 of a possible 38 playoff spots in 13 of the 21-5A sports in which teams advance beyond district competition.

Those sports are: football, volleyball, team tennis, boys’ and girls’ cross country, boys’ and girls’ soccer, boys’ and girls’ basketball, boys’ and girls’ golf, baseball and softball.

A year ago, Kingwood qualified for the playoffs in all 13 sports, claiming district titles in nine.

You could see this sea change coming, but now that it’s here, it seems weird — in a good way.

Already this fall, Sterling has claimed a team tennis title that Kingwood used to monopolize. Sterling’s girls are on the threshold of their first outright volleyball championship in several decades.

And later this week, Sterling and Lee each will have decent shots at district titles in boys’ and girls’ cross country.

“Any time you take out three strong schools, ones that are good not just in basketball and football but the non-major sports as well, it certainly helps our chances for making the playoffs,†said Tom Ed Gooden, athletic director for the Goose Creek school district that includes Lee and Sterling.

Of course, football and basketball powerhouse North Shore moved into the Baytown 5A district, but that left another simple “addition by subtraction†equation.

District 21-5A now has six schools instead of eight, but it still has the same four playoff berths in most sports it did the past two years.

So Lee and Sterling teams definitely have an easier path to the playoffs now. But should it cheapen the accomplishment?

Do the changes make it too easy? Or do they finally make it fair?

There are plenty of schools in districts around the state that never had to compete against a sports factory like Kingwood, which year in and year out has been one of the state’s top all-around programs.

“You can look all around the state and not find a situation like we had where five of eight schools were pretty good in all things,†Gooden said.

And, besides he said, Lee and Sterling can use a break after their athletic rosters were hit hard by the opening of Goose Creek Memorial, Baytown’s third public high school.

“This is not a bad year for it to be a little easier for us to make the playoffs,†he said.

• • •

It wasn’t just the city’s talent pool of high school athletes diluted by opening a third high school.

Splitting the city’s high school football fans an extra way has made for some especially teeny turnouts this year for home football games in Baytown — with the notable exception of the gi-normous attendance for the Sterling-Lee game two weeks ago.

It’s hard to call the assemblage a “crowd†when, like twice this past weekend, fewer than a thousand people show up at 16,000-seat Stallworth Stadium?

Perhaps miniscule attendance should have been expected Thursday, when 0-5 Channelview and 1-4 Lee squared off.

And while Friday night was Goose Creek Memorial’s version of “homecoming,†you’ve got to admit that’s an unusual undertaking when your first class of old grads is still 18 months away from picking up diplomas.

Let’s hope the Mighty Mighty Mustangs of North Shore bring a cheering section for Thursday’s locally televised (KTBU, Channel 55) game against Lee.

Perhaps some townies could come out, too, for Baytown’s first high school TV game.

Needless to say, good seats are available.

[sahen]

Memorial and Lee may have had some small crowds but Sterling hasnt been hurt at all by the new high school, they have had the biggest crowds i have seen in a long time at games this year....the game vs. North Shore, the Stelring side prolly had about 2 or 3 thousand Sterling fans, the last time I can remember Sterling traveling that well was the last game of 1999 where if they beat Humble they wouldve been in the playoffs and had a district championship....