8 hours ago, THSfanatic said:

106 Total Wins.   2nd most in franchise history.   A Cy Young winner.   Not a bad year at all   ?

The Astros have a good hitting club but surprisingly their starting pitching has been dominate

17 hours ago, TIMRIGGINS said:

I think the answer can be long and complex but I will do my best to state my opinions on this matter. 

In my opinion there is a nation wide movement of kids getting away from football. As we learn and understand more about the long term affects of football injuries more people are encouraging their kids to try something else. When I was in school everybody played football but you don't see that today. You see kids playing basketball and baseball only where that use to never happen. Why is that? Well, its easier on the body to play baseball and basketball and its easier on the parents at a young age to find teams to play on. There are about 16 million travel baseball teams so its easy to get in. There aren't just a ton of little league football teams and out of those that are playing a lot of them aren't teaching football the right way which again, leads to injury.  Kids have a lot of things they can do that don't involve football....

The smaller towns you listed are dealing with kids leaving. People graduate from those towns and they don't come back because there isn't anything to come back to.  Those that are stuck in those small town have to travel for work or they take really low paying jobs that causes them to live in the poverty level. Out of those two options the parents that have to travel to the bigger areas to work can just drop their kids off at a bigger nicer school and they have more opportunity than their neighbor down the street because they are going to a bigger school.   The other option I mentioned is to stay in those small towns and work the lesser jobs and earn less money. The majority of those families struggle and those kids either start working very early or are really behind because they never could afford to play high level little league sports. 

The bigger towns are hanging in there because they are striving on tradition and still a decent number of kids (including those from surrounding smaller towns). As far as the small schools that are good year in and year out....their down time will soon be coming. There just isn't as many kids playing as there use to be....

I know I was all over the place but I hope it makes sense. 

The smaller towns are still competing against schools with the same enrollment numbers, so I don't see how people leaving (moving away) has an impact on the success of their football program?  If enrollment goes down, their classification drops.  There are schools and towns just like them that are encountering the same issues, but still find a way to be successful on the gridiron. 

With the smaller towns and schools, the single biggest factor is coaching.  Yes, talent is important, but a coach that can inspire the kids, knows how to engage, and how to truly coach can dominate the other small (4A and down) schools that don't have this.  And even more so if a small town/school finds a way to get a coach like this to stick around and not be enticed to move on to "bigger and better things" in the larger towns/schools.

1 hour ago, HulaKat said:

Stands are small; I usually get up in the tree line on the hill behind the stands to have better look at things.

I have seen several people fall or slide down the hill trying to mountain climb to a vantage point to see the game.  If it's wet or raining it really is a safety hazard. They should have an ambulance standing by on that side of the field more for the fans than the players ....

16 hours ago, GraysonFan said:

Look at areas of the state with population growth, which leads to more players to select from and more money to pay for coaching, facilites, and training.

What?  Just because an areas' population is growing doesn't mean their school(s) have more players to select from and more money to pay the coaches.  That's why we have classifications.  All schools are competing against other schools with a similar number of players to select from with the exception of the very top of 6A with the likes of Allen and a few others.  And more money to pay coaching?  With the growth they have to higher more coaches and build more schools.  They may have more tax revenues coming in, but they're expenses have also gone up substantially.

1 hour ago, hornetblue said:

Rear of the Steer

But get there EARLY!!!

17 hours ago, Ijustwatch said:

East Texas use to be loaded with schools that competed for State Championships in just about evert classification.

I'm old so im not sure what class they are all in now but what they use to be in.

What has happened to?

Nacogdoches

 

Nacogdoches?  Seems like they are as they've always been.  When did they ever compete for State Championship?