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Lufkin Hudson, Pollok Central and Nacogdoches Central Heights


MattStepp

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I know none of these 3 ISDs play football, but they are all decent sized schools (especially Hudson) not being from the area I'm sure there's decent reasons why they dont play football....is there any discussion locally of picking football up or is it a non-starter?? Never thought places like Brock, Peaster and Ponder would start football, but here we are lol 

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They state many reasons why they are not in favor of picking up football….the expense is not one of them.  The other reasons would work against the mentality it takes for a school/community to support a football team…for example… it’s too rough, etc….  It is hard to understand when some of these communities are right next to a traditionally powerhouse football school district.

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I can remember when Mt. Enterprise didn’t play football. A lot of the community folks had the same feelings about it as their neighbors in CH, Pollock and Hudson. A couple of years after I’d heard that, they picked it up and they’ve been moderately successful ever since. 

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13 minutes ago, Cowboys1970 said:

At one time Central Heights considered it, but I've heard no more of about it.

Several years ago there was an article in the Daily Sentinel about Central Heights starting a football program  ... it said they would play a JV schedule only the first two years .... it never materialized ... and I can't find anyone who remembers it ... not even at the Sentinel  ...  I do know we get a lot of transfers at Garrison in Junior High from CH from kids wanting to play football ...

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On 12/20/2021 at 5:13 PM, trueblue82 said:

I can remember when Mt. Enterprise didn’t play football. A lot of the community folks had the same feelings about it as their neighbors in CH, Pollock and Hudson. A couple of years after I’d heard that, they picked it up and they’ve been moderately successful ever since. 

There were a couple of years where ME didn’t field a team due to not enough players, but Mount has played football since at least the 60’s.  They had to play a JV schedule when they started back up; I think that was end of the 80’s to 90’s.

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I think these schools don't want a football program bullying over their other programs.  They have success in other sports and have seen that football programs in texas generally take over the athletics department, especially if they are going to be successful.  Think people in these communities want to stay good at the sports they are good at.  In small towns, a football program usually requires most of the good athletes.

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11 hours ago, HulaKat said:

There were a couple of years where ME didn’t field a team due to not enough players, but Mount has played football since at least the 60’s.  They had to play a JV schedule when they started back up; I think that was end of the 80’s to 90’s.

I remember scrimmaging them in ‘89. I thought I remembered one of our coaches telling us it was their first year playing football. 

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After a cycle as an independent, it appears that Cross Roads ISD is getting back into the UIL football mode ... or at least they turned numbers in - which could be taken either way - yes or no ... just an observation ...

 

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Good friend of mine was the AD at one of those schools for several years and every time I would ask him about the chances of them adding football, his response would always be the same..."better chance of hell freezing over"!!! I'm pretty sure the sentiment hasn't changed in the past several years since he has moved on so that pretty much sums up the community's sentiments about the subject!!!

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I doubt it will ever happen. When you live in this area, the amount of people that have an issue with having a diverse school district is astonishing. Lufkin is very diverse. 50/30/20 being Hispanic, white, and black. Some of these smaller communities surrounding us are scared a football program would bring diversity to their school. They do not want that. They will use every excuse under the sun, but most of us know why. I live in the pollok central school district myself. I graduated from Lufkin in 2007, and my wife graduated from central in 2011. But we pay the $1,000 a year tuition for our kids to go to school at Lufkin. Just our preference. These pollok folks live in their own world lol. 

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I agree that there is still some of that thought process alive and kicking in many areas but I don't think that is the main driving force in these areas...what I DO think is that many of the parents believe that the smaller schools offer their kids a better chance at playing and succeeding at sports that Lufkin is not normally known for being great at...softball, baseball are the sports that come to mind first as those smaller schools have won multiple state championships and usually have deep playoff runs if they don't win it all.

The bottom line is, for whatever reason, it is the parents choice and freedom to change their place of residence or pay a tuition, as you have chosen to do so their child can attend the school of their choice. 

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15 minutes ago, blesseddaily said:

I agree that there is still some of that thought process alive and kicking in many areas but I don't think that is the main driving force in these areas...what I DO think is that many of the parents believe that the smaller schools offer their kids a better chance at playing and succeeding at sports that Lufkin is not normally known for being great at...softball, baseball are the sports that come to mind first as those smaller schools have won multiple state championships and usually have deep playoff runs if they don't win it all.

The bottom line is, for whatever reason, it is the parents choice and freedom to change their place of residence or pay a tuition, as you have chosen to do so their child can attend the school of their choice. 

Lufkin baseball is light years ahead of pollok central. They aren’t very good at any of their boys sports. Very rarely. Central doesn’t make deep runs in anything other than softball every blue moon. They aren’t a power house at any sport. Now Hudson, yes… Baseball and softball anyways. But that’s because it’s all they focus on lol… Lufkins two most successful programs are Golf and band. Most people don’t realize that. Baseball and football right behind. Now softball in Lufkin does struggle. Basketball is back and forth. The boys basketball in Lufkin are normally pretty good. I do understand what you’re saying though. Each their own. Those small community kids never leave. Their grandmas, grandmas went to school there and still live on the same street. Those schools don’t get their kids good exposure for life after high school. Lufkin has put out more D1 kids from academics to athletics the last 25 years than Hudson and central have combined the last 50. 
 

Most of us around know the reason they don’t want football in those schools. I’ve even been told from people very high up on the chain. But that’s none of my business. I could care less. Just giving my opinion on what Stepp asked. 

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23 hours ago, trueblue82 said:

I remember scrimmaging them in ‘89. I thought I remembered one of our coaches telling us it was their first year playing football. 

I remember playing Mount Enterprise back in 1958 or 59. I can just see the blue jerseys with red stars on the shoulders. They looked just like the ones that the college allstars used to wear when they played the pro's  in  Chicago each year.

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One thing I think is kinda cool, although I don’t know if they still do it: Hudson has a band program, but no football games to perform at. Neighboring Apple Springs plays 6-man football, but doesn’t have a band program. So Hudson’s band goes to Apple Springs and performs at their home games. 

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1 hour ago, trueblue82 said:

One thing I think is kinda cool, although I don’t know if they still do it: Hudson has a band program, but no football games to perform at. Neighboring Apple Springs plays 6-man football, but doesn’t have a band program. So Hudson’s band goes to Apple Springs and performs at their home games. 

Dont know if they still do it but it was really cool.......

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