sticky Posted October 4, 2006 Report Posted October 4, 2006 Third school could change dynamics By Doyle Barlow Baytown Sun Published October 4, 2006 Football supremacy in Baytown will be on the line Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Stallworth Stadium when Lee and Sterling square off for the 40th time. The winning school gets to claim the title as the best football team in the city, and even more importantly, gets a year’s worth of bragging rights over their crosstown rivals. It’s a fact. If you win “The Game†you win a lot more than just a game. But the battle for football supremacy in Baytown stands to look a whole lot different in a couple of years. That’s when Goose Creek ISD will open a third high school, and in so doing, change the dynamics of high school football. What’s going to happen? Will the three schools all play each other? If Sterling stays in Class 5A and Lee drops to Class 4A, will the Ganders and Rangers never play? What’s going to happen with Baytown football? The answer? According to Goose Creek athletic director Tom Ed Gooden, right now, there is no answer. “Everything is still up in the air,†Gooden said. “Every since I’ve been here, I’ve heard rumors just like everybody else. I’ve heard Sterling is going to stay in 5A and Lee is going to be in 4A. I do know the new high school is being built to handle 1,800 students, and that’s a 4A school.†Gooden said the main thing would be how the students who don’t go to the new high school are divided. If they are divided equally, there could still possibly be enough to make both of those 5A schools, although most early reports say Sterling will get a bigger percentage of the kids than Lee, which is at capacity now. “Where do you put the other students?†Gooden said. “How do you balance that? You still have to figure out what’s best for all the students in Goose Creek.†But even if one of the schools is in 5A and two are in 4A, that doesn’t mean they can’t play each other in football. It’s not unusual for 4A and 5A schools to face off, and in fact, Lee opened their season against Class 4A Beaumont Central this year. “It would be hard to take a matchup like Lee and Sterling away,†Gooden said. “Class 4A plays 5A, it happens all the time and I’m not opposed to it. “That’s not a decision the A.D. makes. That’s something that the community has a lot of say in and I can’t see Lee-Sterling week or Sterling-Lee week going away.†Of course, Gooden also wants to see the new high school in the mix. “I would hope that the new school would grow and progress to where they could compete with the other two,†he said. “People in Baytown need to be supportive of all the schools except for that one week when they play each other.†But that’s all a couple of years down the road. Right now, Gooden is just looking forward to Friday night at Stallworth Stadium. “I’m real excited about Friday night. It should be an interesting game,†Gooden said. “There’s a lot of distractions and it’s one of those games that’s a lot more fun for the community and the kids than the coaches. It ought to be fun.â€
Recommended Posts