2wedge

48 minutes ago, Mr. Buddy Garrity said:

This is what im thinking. 

Yup. Something easy. QC or consultant....something like that is my thought. 

On 5/14/2022 at 9:05 PM, Uncle Pig said:

Quite certain he’s hanging it up to watch his son play

Or taking a job with TCU,

20 hours ago, sooner said:

This is what I was wondering as well.  You look at that schedule and you question, where do we come away victorious? 

By all accounts, I've heard there is a ton of excitement around this hire. Everyone seems to have taken to him and is optimistic about the future with Lackey at the helm. We will see I guess, but I wouldn't bury Liberty yet. There are athletes in that area. If he can get them to come out, stay out of trouble, and buy into his program, he may be successful. I expect WOS to take a downturn, so maybe that helps also. 

19 hours ago, Eagles12 said:

Heard Pavlat was moving to Splendora.

From one dumpster fire to another. 

Is this the same Jason Smith that once was the owner of a Beaumont based semi pro football team? Circa 2003 or 2004?

1 hour ago, mrtomcat said:

how did i not know this?  anthony morgan was from hardin?  when i worked in panola county, they talked about that young man like he was a football god.  i did get to watch him play vs coldspring in the title one year. cant remember when exactly.  he was the best under 6'0 qb i had seen at that time.  how in the world did hardin run off the morgan knowing they had a kid like that coming up.  good lord have mercy

Yes, the Morgan Family is from Hardin and the surrounding area and Anthony's dad was the AD/HC in Hardin for a couple of years. I believe Anthony was in JH during that time. He didn't get Hardin to the promised land soon enough to his dad was sent packing and took a job on staff in Carthage. The rest is history. I believe Anthony is actually living in Hardin now working in the oil and gas industry. He was very fun to watch and was a heck of a football player. 

How did the people in Hardin let this happen? Well, that question could be asked about many things over the years. I didn't see Anthony play in JH so I don't know if he looked like he was going to be as good as he ended up being or not. 

1 hour ago, PrairieMan said:

The other thing is from my understanding (from Hardin people), he is already 15. If that's bad information then my apologies. But lets be honest that 13 to 14 and 14 to 15 development from a physical standpoint can be pretty big depending on the kid. Not to downplay the kids abilities, but lets say he's more developed and he's playing against 13 and 14 year olds who haven't yet, it can be a substantial advantage. I watched him throw, he was pretty good. He hit open targets and the game I was at there was plenty of them. Let's just say he wasn't having to thread the needle at any point. There were plenty of plays were nobody was within 5 yards of receivers. 

Threading the needle will come as he continues to develop. The mechanics are off the charts for an 8th grader, he's a coaches kid so he has that working in his favor, and he absolutely loves the game so he works harder than anyone else in the room during the offseason. He has all the ingredients of a big time player. Will it all pan out? Who knows. But it will be fun to keep an eye on. 

2 hours ago, oldschool2 said:

That's not a new concept.  If we're being honest, who would blame either of them?  Nobody. 

Matter of fact.. it's happened at Hardin before.  

The biggest fish that ever got out of the pond at Hardin was Anthony Morgan, and he had to go because the dummies at Hardin ran his dad out of town on a rail. He ended up winning multiple state championships at Carthage and the rest was history. 

Barrier has a significantly higher ceiling than Morgan. 

On 5/13/2022 at 8:44 AM, mrtomcat said:

who is this kid at hardin throwing the football around?  my buddy went and watched the 7 on 7 the other day and he says they beat el campo and another beaumont area school, before losing to somebody in their section to go to state.  the kid they had last year could not throw it 10 yards, so surely its not the same kid?  did they have a move iN ?

His name is Brady Barrier and he is Head Coach Ned Barrier's son. He is incredibly talented, already bigger and more skilled than any QB Hardin has seen in a while. I know this is probably going to generate some comments from the peanut gallery, but he is going to be a very special player and has a chance to be big time. Not asking you to believe me today, but I'll be available to discuss more in depth in 3 years or so when everyone else knows. 

23 minutes ago, PlayActionPass said:

I'm not going to put a number to the wins and loses, but the biggest hurdle that faces the new coach is developing toughness, mentally and physically. 

Especially if he going to run the double wing. Tarkington has been in some form of the spread for 3 years now and the results have not been stellar, but the one thing they have lacked since Stan Howard left is toughness.

Taylor can get them right, and at least make them competitive, but the community is going to give him a couple of years. The ceiling at Tarkington is 5-5 and the occasional playoff appearance. That's it. Set those expectations and they can be somewhat respectable. 

On 5/6/2022 at 5:40 PM, BlueOwl said:

Who cares about Lumberton elementary’s growth? This page needs bedelmon back to spice up the topic of conversation. 

Talk about a guy who made a fool of himself on the daily. That is a blast from the past!!!!

3 hours ago, mrtomcat said:

you mentioned something that i have asked the board several times and yet cant get a solid answer from anyone

two things have always confused me and that is

how does liberty win at softball every year it seems they make a deep run or win it all

and how does hardin win at volleyball so much that our girls in southeast texas or no match it seems? why if we beat them at every other sport 

One word in both situations, PROGRAM. 

Karen Slack has built quite the program at Liberty, and her success is aided by the Texas Dirt Diva's organization being right there in her back yard. Chandler has dome increcible things with that select softball program to develop players feeding into Slack's program.

Randy and Regina Snell have done the same in Hardin with volleyball. It's expected to win and the girls coming up know that. 

In both situations, stability is present in leadership of the two programs........stability gives the ability to build. When you understand your job is safe even if you underachieve once in a while, you feel open to building there. When you think you are going to get run off the next time you are below .500, you're always looking for the off ramp. 

1 hour ago, 89Falcon said:

Hearing it will be from within. 

Sure seems like it at this point. Best you could hope for right now, if you brought someone in from the outside, is an early June start. 

HJ hires.......Tarkington poised to hire......Huffman, you're on the clock.

11 hours ago, Uncle Pig said:

Excellent hire! Kids will absolutely love playing for Coach Bass, and he is one helluva football coach; as mentioned above he is a great man as well! Go Hawks!

He might also be what is needed to pull some of that Beaumont talent out to HJ. This could be a turning point for the Hawks. 

Zach Bass according to KFDM. Great get for HJ! 

On 4/26/2022 at 1:05 PM, marshman said:

Totally false statement. No one wants to see the program fail. 

I said "some". 

1 hour ago, PrairieMan said:

Thanks for your great insight into the situation. When a bigger school comes calling close to your home with a substantial pay increase, I highly doubt many 3A programs are going to hold any coach from moving on. The Tarkington basketball program has a bright future from a talent standpoint. As usual, some know it all who doesn't know anything about the situation puts in their two cents. Make sure you let your friend Falcon whatever his name is know about the situation so the two of you can team up on bashing Tarkington kids, parents, whatever makes you feel better about yourself....... 

By the way, I'm in complete agreement with Barrett on the type of man Coach Sizemore is. Great person and a good coach. However, it will be interesting to see how he does when he has to build a program from scratch so to speak. He was handed a very disciplined strong senior group from Coach Scharer due to Covid situation and they probably came up a bit shy of expectations. Then last year's team had some really good highs and some really bad lows. Wish him nothing but the best and hope he has great success at his new job. 

If Sizemore had talent coming up, support from admin and parents, and a winning culture in Tarkington, he would have definitely thought about staying rather than taking on the task of building a program from scratch. Me and you both know that, but alas, he is gone. In coaching, money is elusive. You may have it for a couple of years, then you will be fired based on the performance of 15-17 year olds. Stability and the chance to win are more valuable and ensure you can feed your family for the long haul. If coach was 3 years from retirement, I would understand your thinking, but he's actually on the other end of that equation. He's setting himself up to torpedo his overall HC record by taking over a new program, which affects his ability to get another job when the time comes. 

I am hearing that the ball should start rolling on this one this week. It's a shame that it has taken so long to get started, but at least it seems it's moving forward....finally. 

1 hour ago, PrairieMan said:

Haha!!! Couldn’t be further from the truth. Not going to say much because I don’t honestly know how much is public knowledge. But in this case he is leaving to take a new HC job for more money and closer to where he lives.

This dude was the top assistant for Scott Barrett in Huffman for a while. Barrett thinks very highly of him as a coach and a man, so I would assume he is on to bigger and better things. Sorry Tarkington, your disfunction will not allow anyone of any stature to remain on the prairie. Might want to consider this as you move forward.

On 3/19/2022 at 4:24 PM, Separation Scientist said:

Your deflection fails. The word "suspects" is commonly used to identify a criminal in an investigation. You, I and everyone else knows that. "Suspects," once convicted, become "inmates", the exact word McNair used that caused the meltdown. All who live in the WOS ISD should rightfully take offense to a racially loaded term like "suspects" given the inordinately high incarceration rate of young black males. If "Chain Gang" is offensive, "suspects" certainly should be too. No way around that!

No one is yet willing to answer why T gets a pass. If T was a 0.500 coach, who goes out 1st or 2nd round, would he have still got the pass? Anyone want to man up (or woman up) and give a straight answer? Why has this question triggered the otherwise vocal WOS posters so badly?  T should not have called his players that racist term. 

  

 

Some of the WOS folks are hell bent on making sure this program is never successful again. It's a tragedy to watch. 

4 hours ago, Jerry West said:

Any more word about who's leaving or filling.  Heard today that Tarkington Boys job is now open.  My daughter who's a teacher told me that coaches/teachers are leaving the profession everyday at an alarming rate.  Is it worth coaching/teaching anymore for a 50k job and it takes you 100k to get your degree/certification.

Where did the coach from Tarkington go?

4 hours ago, Matthew328 said:

A lot of this is telling me they are going to promote the interim on a full-time basis

Nothing against him, but they’d be wise to take a real good look at outside candidates. This is a great job in a town primed for a population explosion, and a quick trip to 5A. Not the kind of job for a young guy, getting his first HC gig in his hometown. Huffman will be doing this again in 2 years if they go that route. 

So it's almost been two weeks since Coach Mac announced his resignation and this job is still not posted. They appointed an interim athletic director yesterday and plan to begin the search. Still, the job is not posted on the ISD website. It's midway through April, coaches are antsy regarding their status with the program, and every day they wait is another day closer to candidates deciding it's too late to pursue a new job. I don't understand the logic, unless they don't want to rock the boat too much prior to the bond election coming up next month. Even with that, you're going to have to hire prior to the election because it is not until late May. Huffman's got to make a move pretty quick. 

15 hours ago, Cougar14.2 said:

Maybe Coach Poth? Coach Prieto is already an AD, is winning big, has a bunch of talent coming though the program and won't at all be impressed with Huffman's facilities in comparison to Crosby's. Coach Mac was there 16 years and had a .601 win percentage, two 10-win seasons and only one district championship.

Right now it's not a job that's going to move the needle for a high level coach. It's absolutely a solid job but if y'all don't hire from within then you're probably going to end up with a smaller school coach looking for a pay day or coordinator/lower level AC looking for an AD job. Even the last three BH "splash" hires were guys coming from AC positions that got the AD bump.   

Honestly, I wouldn't be opposed to this strategy. There are some damn good head coaches out there who have the AC title and would like the step up to AD. A top level coordinator at a good 5/6A program would be a good hire also. The only way Huffman gets this wrong is hiring from within. I am sure there are some good coaches on their staff, but after 19 years with one voice, its only natural that it gets stale. Huffman needs to bring in someone energetic that builds culture throughout the entirety of the athletic program. They need a guy with the desire to promote the athletes in that program and get them looks from colleges. Huffman has struggled with that in years past. I'll say it again, this has the potential to be a program shifting hire, and it could go either way. Sky could be the limit, or if they get it wrong, Huffman could settle in to being a baseball/softball school with a mediocre football program. I truly hope those in the room when these decisions are made understand that. Just because someone is from Huffman, or has been at Huffman doesn't mean they are the best candidate for the job. Maybe it will finally be posted soon so the process can get started.