Scroll down to the bottom for the picture of the new stadium that is in the works for Allen High School.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_yl...football020311

And back here in wonderful NC, we are currently cutting teachers and coaches! And talking in our county about cutting middle school sports or having volunteer coaches (parents) from the community to coach all sports to save money. Also, have the teams carpool to games to save transportation money. Can you see a HS football team rolling up in a caravan of parents driving their kids to play a Friday night game? Juicy juice and star cakes for halftime anyone? How does one get a job in Texas?!!!!

I used to coach at a big time 5A school in Texas, as a volunteer. It's like anywhere else, just apply and it helps to know someone.

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Chris Hughes
chughes@carolinapreps.com

It's a different culture down there too. Don't Know it for fact but would suspect that the biggest difference is oil money

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I think they value football in Texas more than we do here. They put money into the programs, pay their coaches extremely well, and produce some of the best players in the country. I agree about the oil money also. Coaching at North Meck back in the day was about as close as I've gotten to bigtime football and it doesn't come close to SC, Ohio, or Texas. I haven't been able to find a website like we have here and definitely don't know anybody there that could help. Anyway, I can dream of working in a place like Southlake Carroll!

This is a nice stadium, I wonder what a jr. college stadium looks like.

Things are a little tighter ($ wise) right now just like everywhere else in the country. Texas is probably faring a little better than most other states. As of the impact of oil, that may have been the case many years ago (particularly in West Texas places like Odessa) but oil money directly impacting most schools is not a big factor. Texas HS football is one of those things as we say in Aggieland, "If you are in it, you can't explain it, and if you are not, you can't understand it ..." I am originally from SC, but spent 12 years in Florida, another 4 in Durham and the last 22 + here in Texas. I have followed or been involved with HS football everywhere I have lived, but honestly have seen nothing that compares with TX.

Steelers71, Southlake is a great place but I don't think we are even in the top 30 highest paid coaches in Texas and it is VERY expensive to be a homeowner in Southlake. (The average & medium home price is just shy of 1/2 million - it is one of the wealthiest places in Texas & the country). When I moved here Southlake had a population of around 3,500 and now is near buildout approaching 30,000. It is not your typical Texas high school situation that so much is written about -- most of those were from small towns & rural areas. Southlake is in the heart of a massive metro area and many of the families are transplants from other areas of the country. I live about 3 miles from the high school and 5 miles from the stadium ... over the last few years (even the successful ones) I have seen Southlake lose some of that charm from the smaller town/school that I saw 20 years ago.

I posted this a while back but this is a pic I took one afternoon stopping by the stadium (which is now 11 years old - has held up very well).

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Texas high school football is on a whole different planet compared to NC football... The book Friday night lights (and the movie) shows how texas high school football is portrayed... i never been to texas to see a high school game but i know that NC can't right now hold a stick to them...and plus it helps when you get ESPN to broadcast games in your state... which i am sure its a give and take for the schools and ESPN... unlike in NC where they are worried where the almighty dollar will go and demand that local college football games not be played or broadcasted on friday night during the season (ECU tried a few times to play on friday nights and failed due to NCHSAA regulations) and ESPN wanted to cover some NC high school games as part of the high school showcase in NC but failed because of NCHSAA regulations)..

Thanks for the info. AggieDad. That stadium is sick! It would be cool to coach down there but I'll take my NC Football. It would be nice to just coach football and get paid like they do down there but you also have to worry about the moving vans and signs in your yard every week too! We have good football here and good coaches too.

How does school classification compare to NC? Is their 3A comparable to NC as it relates to size of student body?

No i am sure they are larger.... they have 5 or even 6 classifications (which is what NC needs).... plus they treat football atheletes like stars (remember friday night lights... its based on a true story)

If you were asking about a comparison of Texas to NC, I can give you the Texas info. We have Classes 1A through 5A. In addition there is a 6-man classification for schools with enrollment under 99.9 (and yes there are some remote schools that are that small). The last total number of schools I saw was somewhere in the number of 1,100 schools (I know SC has 200 but not sure how many NC has). For Playoffs, each of the Classes has a two tiered bracket so that, for example, there is a 5A - Div I and a 5A - Div II champion (so a total of 10 State champs for the 5 classes, other than 6-Man). The Div I and Div II alignments are defined in the preseason for Classes 1A through 3A. In Classes 4A and 5A, the Div I and Div II distinction is determined once the playoff teams are know. The 2 teams that qualify in a district (synomous with conference in some states) that have the highest enrollment play in Div I. The 2 playoff qualifying teams in that district that have the lowest enrollment play in Div II. I hope that made sense.

To give you a sense of the size of the classes, there are 245 teams in 5A. That includes 56 schools that have an enrollment of over 3,000.

______Enrollment #

5A 2065 & up
4A 990 to 2064
3A 430 to 989
2A 200 to 429
1A 199 & below

The largest district enrollment wise is District 8 that includes Plano and Lewisville schools. Take a look at the enrollment numbers:

District 8
Allen_________________5049
Lewisville_____________3573
Lewisville Flower Mound_3170
Lewisville Hebron_______2857
Lewisville Marcus_______3107
Plano_________________5240
Plano East_____________6171
Plano West____________4190

I would be interested to see recent info on NC for comparison.

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Rules to Live By:
1. Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
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Right now in NC....

4A - 1415 and up
3A - 1027-1415
2A - 700-1026
1A - 1-700

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Chris Hughes
chughes@carolinapreps.com

Here are the largest schools in NC.

Myers Park (Charlotte)	2751
Enloe (Raleigh)	2694
Wakefield (Raleigh)	2556
Millbrok (Raleigh)	2436
West Mecklenburg	2417
Leesville Rd. (Raleigh)	2404
Apex	2337
Panther Creek (Morrisville)	2336
Garner	2280
Cary	2236
Ardrey Kell (Charlotte)	2234
Butler, David (Matthews)	2200
Broughton (Raleigh)	2176
Lumberton	2157
Garinger (Charlotte)	2140
Mallard Creek (Charlotte)	2112
Olympic (Charlotte)	2098
Independence (Charlotte)	2089
Providence (Charlotte)	2084
Wake Forest-Rolesville	2080
Lake Norman (Mooresville)	2077
Pinecrest (Southern Pines)	2075
Green Hope (Morrisville)	2048
South Mecklenburg	2036
Northwest Guilford	2004

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Chris Hughes
chughes@carolinapreps.com

That's interesting, Chris ... Myers Park would be the 98th largest high school in Texas.

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Rules to Live By:
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There could easily be some 4000 student schools in NC, but they keep building new schools. I would guess that some 30 new HS have been built in past 5 to 7 years.

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Chris Hughes
chughes@carolinapreps.com

Based on the numbers in the posts subsequent to your original question it looks like NC 3A falls in the 4A class of Texas. There are 245 teams in the 4A class. It appears the NC 3A class would be larger than the smallest 16 teams in TX 4A but smaller than 126 of the largest TX 4A teams (another way to state it is to say that NC 3A is smaller than 52% of the Texas 4A schools.)

__________________
Rules to Live By:
1. Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
2. Convince Yourself Everything is Small Stuff!

You can't mean 4000 high schools .... did you mean 400??

__________________
Rules to Live By:
1. Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
2. Convince Yourself Everything is Small Stuff!

I appreciate the detail response, exactly what I was looking for.

I meant there could be some "4000 student schools" in NC if not for all the new schools that have been built to keep numbers low.

__________________
Chris Hughes
chughes@carolinapreps.com

Right now there are roughly 400 football playing schools in the state.

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Chris Hughes
chughes@carolinapreps.com

How many state champions does NC crown for the 400 football playing high schools? Do they have 2 per class for the 4 classifications?

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Rules to Live By:
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2 per class, 8 all together which is way too many. I would like to see 6 champions instead.

I like like to go with 3 classifications and subdivide with 2 champions, or go 6 classifications with 1 champion.

__________________
Chris Hughes
chughes@carolinapreps.com

i dont mean to get too far off topic...but wasnt there talk about NC going up to a 6A? If so, has there been any reason to think NC would make that change anytime soon?

I agree with Chris that 8 champions for 400 schools is too many. That is a champion for every 50 schools. SC is even more dramatic with 6 (someone from SC correct me if I am wrong) for 200 schools - or a champion for every 33 schools!!! It just waters it down to where it isn't nearly as meaningful -- guess it goes with the culture of making sure everyone is a winner. Texas has a champion for every 110 schools. (it is even higher if you look at just
4A and 5A - where it is one for every 123 schools). If NC expands to 6 classes and goes to one champion per class as Chris suggested, you would be at one champion for every 67 schools, imo, a much more appropriate level and would make the championship much more meaningful.

__________________
Rules to Live By:
1. Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
2. Convince Yourself Everything is Small Stuff!