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Monday, November 10, 2008
Privates: Gaining Ground
Houston, TX
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Channel 55 showed a private school football game on TV this year, which private school coaches said had never happened before. Until the following week.
On Oct. 9, St. Pius X beat Saint Thomas, and on Oct. 16, Second Baptist defeated Northland Christian.
“That’s the first time I have seen that,” said St. Pius X coach Robin Kirk.
Ch. 55’s Todd Freed agreed.
“I would think that it is the first time a private school has been televised, much less have back-to-back games,” Freed said, who won a Lone Star Emmy for his high school coverage with Ch. 55. “I don’t recall any others since we have been doing our show in the last eight years.”
So, are private schools in Houston making inroads with the quality of football they are playing? Are they underappreciated?
“We had seven kids last year get football scholarships at St. Pius (four for Division I),” Kirk said. “It’s evolved to where we are starting to get more notoriety.”
Private school kids have been heavily recruited over the past few years including St. Pius’ Ian Symonette (Miami) and Terrance Farmer (committed to Alabama), Episcopal’s David Nwabuisi (Northwestern) and Kellen Theroit (LSU) and Strake Jesuit’s David King (Oklahoma). Next season, Houston’s number one recruit will be Second Baptist quarterback Conner Wood.
While private schools are producing talent one local private school has jumped into the public school district.
Strake Jesuit, an all-boys Catholic school -- plays in the University Interscholastic League. Strake athletic director Bill McDonald said that although there are private schools that compete with public schools in the same districts throughout the United States, this was a first in Texas. The Crusaders went into the UIL in 2004.
“After a long process of applying, petitioning and supporting both legislative and litigation efforts, we were able to open the door to the UIL,” McDonald said. “The move was prompted mostly by the maneuvering of some private schools to move to TAPPS. Our subsequent application to TAPPS was denied and we had no other league to play in the State of Texas.”
During the legal process, Strake officials looked at other parts of the country where public and private schools were in the same districts or groupings. They thought it could work in Texas.
“We saw that there are a lot of states that have public and private schools together,” McDonald said. “But each state is totally different with different situations. A lot goes into if they should play together and how. Ultimately, what we did was what was best for us. It may not be able to work for other schools, but it has been a great situation for us. We got what we had hoped for -- we would be able to compete like anyone else in the UIL.”
Strake was an independent team for three years before joining the UIL, meaning they had no district championship or playoff position to play for.
“In 2001 while an independent, our team was 10-0 playing four public schools,” McDonald said.
There have been championships while competing against UIL competition. The cross country and golf teams have won the district title in the past three years, McDonald said, with each squad being the regional champion in the 2007-2008 year. And last year, the soccer and basketball teams each won district titles.
The only anomaly is that since there are no girls at Strake, the sports for females in the district have a bye when they play against the Crusaders.
“If you talk in terms of before UIL and after UIL, it is a success because we have an arena for our teams to compete,” McDonald said. “It is competitive and fair, and one we are glad to be a part of it.”
Houston Christian coach Mike Johnston has a unique point of view in that he was head football coach at Katy High School from 1982-2003, and has been the head football coach at Houston Christian since then. At Katy, his Tigers won the state championship in 1997, 2000 and 2003. He said that athletics are not the primary reason for most to go to private schools. It’s academics.
“I think that after being here for five years, I feel like sometimes there are things at public schools that are getting so standardized, and maybe that inhibits the zeal and initiative teacher have in the classroom to teach,” Johnston said. “I talk to a lot of teachers in public schools and I think maybe teachers have been strangled in the way you present information to kids.”
Private schools cost quiet a bit more, but they do offer some scholarships. But the biggest run that the public schools have against private schools is that public school coaches say the private school coaches recruit their best players -- and that causes the spurned coaches to be on a long burn. But private school coaches counter that there are transfer rules in public schools -- did somebody say the magnet system in HISD? -- where public schools recruit against other public schools for the best players. And then there are the maverick parents, who look at different schools to see where their child will better fit in -- called “shopping junior around,” one coach pointed out -- and have a better chance to either play with a winning team or try for a college scholarship.
Multiple public and private school coaches did not want to go on the record with those statements, but none denied them.
But Johnston said it has worked against private schools, as well.
“There was one player that we wanted to get, and he would have made me a much-better coach,” Johnston said. “He visited us, but he went to (a public school), and we sure could have used him.”
One phenomenon that has assisted private schools is that people with pedigrees are going to coach there. None are more huge than the football coach at Westbury Christian, where former Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward is head football coach. Ward eschewed the NFL for the NBA, and finished his NBA career in Houston.
Ward said he had no intention of ending up at Westbury Christian, but landed there for one of the reasons many think people attend a school based on religion.
“My deal was God-led,” Ward said. “This is not what I was searching for or looking for, but God gave me the opportunity to be a part of the school that was developing and gave me an opportunity to start coaching football. I coached in the NBA for a couple of years, but I wanted to have a more hands-on coaching experience. Westbury Christian was a school that I wasn’t looking for. But I ended up meeting the executive administrator here at a playoff basketball game, and a relationship developed. That’s how I ended up at Westbury Christian.”
Westbury Christian lacks facilities, but has plenty of substance, Ward said. Athletically, the school previously was known for its basketball, which has had some very good players.
“(Football) is upstaged (by basketball) here, but we are building the foundation that has grown,” Ward said. “We have been able to bring some recognition to the program though our play, and have had opportunities in the community with our kids doing community service. Also, people I have come into contact with, with my years in the NBA and college have helped financially to bring resources in. Others have donated gear for us to have, and others have donated money to get new uniforms so we can boost the morale. The kids have responded well.”
Ward also brought in a former pro player on his football staff to add star quality, with assistant coach Mark Boutte, who played at LSU as well as the Redskins and Rams.
Others are trying the former pro player to increase the glamour potential at private schools. Among them are Houston Christian, who has Travis Hill, formerly of Pearland and Nebraska, who played in the NFL as the No. 2 draft choice of the Cleveland Browns and finished with Carolina. Also in the HCHS staff is secondary coach Cohen Landry, who played at Ole Miss and with Buffalo and Atlanta.
Even Craig Biggio, the future baseball Hall of Famer with the Astros, is coaching football at St. Thomas High School with his son, and has some football responsibilities.
Kirk said the coaching is helping land better players.
“I think in athletics, schools are starting to play at a certain level and getting good,” Kirk said. “Parents are willing to spend the money for that, and another reason is that they think their kids will be safer. I think we are running into a situation where people are getting real concerned about the quality of the education in some public schools. I certainly do not want to run down the public school system. They do a great job of teaching. But people are concerned about the education, the social life that their kids will have and what your kid will learn outside the classroom.”•
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