PrairieMan

Tarkington just finished up Spring league with the following schools: West Hardin, Hardin, Hull Daisetta, Liberty, Anahuac Overall did pretty well, lost to Anahuac by 2 and 3. Won the rest of their games by double digits. They only had 2 of their 4 returning seniors play. Not sure of the results of the other games. Tomorrow they start Summer league at Cleveland with the following teams, but they only play the ones with the asterisk, not sure why they don't do double headers anymore: Cleveland*, Cleveland (red), Huffman*, Anahuac, Shepherd*, Splendora, Dayton* Still no coach announcement though.

I don't know much about Crockett, but we know they will be athletic, likely more so than the rest in the district. Coldspring has a stud that will be a Junior. Tarkington lost their main scorer and the person that was likely going to step into his role has confirmed to have moved. Still bringing back 4 kids that were juniors last year and a good group of sophmores to be but who knows how they are going to mesh especially going through a coaching change. New Waverly loses it's best player but I will be honest I'm torn between them and Tarkington at the 3 & 4 spots. The rest have only proven to be inconsistent so who knows what the bottom four look like, but that's my best guess. 3A - District 23 1. Crockett 2. Coldspring 3. New Waverly 4. Tarkington 5. Trinity 6. Anderson 7. Shepherd 8. Onalaska

If your CPA throws himself on the ground, kicks chairs and does throat slashes at you, you might want to look into being more organized for both of your sakes.....

I'm not here to give an opinion on his basketball knowledge. I just know from watching multiple games in various situations, this dude is a clown on the sidelines. Some of you are going to justify it as "passion", but to me he is way over the top. Ever since I watched him give teenagers the throat slash in a playoff game, I lost respect for him and take some enjoyment in watching him lose his mind with every loss I happen to be at. Don't know him personally but he has ZERO class on the sidelines.

Ouch! Maybe from a football standpoint. But you can't say the same about basketball and baseball. He is a three sport athlete at Tarkington and you can't really argue with the success that the baseball and basketball programs at Tarkington have had compared to Splendora. Don't get me wrong, they haven't won any state titles but they both made it two deep in the playoffs for how many years in a row? Splendora boy's sports didn't make the playoffs in ANYTHING.

I'm not so sure that I'd be putting kids business on the street (message board) on the "I heard". That's just me though.

Well the off and on varsity starter from last year was a sofphmore, Pavlat, he will likely be the day 1 starter. The JV QB, Johnson, should be moving up as well, as he was a sophmore also. The JV will likely start a next year sophmore, Edwards, that played some on JV last year and was that groups starter in middle school.

Also as this is a Tarkington thread. Coach Taylor has already made a great hire for the school. Yesterday the school announced that Coach Kennedy, who previously coached at Liberty and recently was hired as head coach at a 6A school near the hill country has taken the Head volleyball coach position at Tarkington. He is a young guy with lots of knowledge and energy, this will be great for upcoming girls and people that want to see the volleyball program return to its Glory days that they had under Coach Johnson.

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.

Tarkington is open right now

Ah, that makes more sense!!! I do remember now that there was a person on the Tarkington thread who kept gauging coaching success on strictly overall records and state titles. That's my bad, sometimes sarcasm is hard to read...

So you're telling me that if he doesn't win a state championship at HJ in seven years, his time there is going to be considered a bust? I think that's rather presumptuous considering their record is 9-30 since 2018. I will make no guarantees regarding their future football success as I know nothing about HJ's talent concerning their up and coming youth. However, I will guarantee you this, those kids and the parents there, of course except the few whose kid doesn't get to play that are always mad at everyone, will love him and love playing for him. He is a great person and great coach to help kids become young men.

Definitely ran spread. Had a very athletic wide receiver that played for him at Tarkington and is playing football at Henderson State. Great kid, Cole McLawchlin.

Absolutely not. I don't know anyone from HJ. That was just based on thought process. Thanks for playing though.

Just a reminder....

So in theory you think a coach isn't willing to bet on himself to go for new facilities, bigger school, closer to home and more money? All the coaches I know are taking that opportunity 99/100 times. You don't think everyone of them wants to prove they can go out there and establish their own program? The only way you get somebody to pass up on that opportunity is if they were already involved in the building process or maybe they are from there. Do you know for a fact that he didn't think long and hard about it. Do you think this process happened overnight? I would think if you asked him, he would tell you this was a hard decision because I think he had tremendous support here. I only know of one situation that was not positive and it was because a kid wasn't getting PT and at the end of the day, every program has that situation come up. Come on man, I know how bad you want to "pin" this one on Tarkington because in theory everyone leaves there because they hate it. I understand that this doesn't fit your Tarkington is horrible place with horrible people agenda but you're going to have to dig into another situation for your proof on this one.

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.

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.

Couldn't agree with you more! I think it's a combination of things. I think like we've talked about previously, other factors come into play. When those Jr High kids come up to high school, the most talented ones get pushed into varsity too quick on the football side of things. Football is by far the hardest sport to step in as a Freshman and make a difference in my opinion. But because talent is sparse like we've mentioned, the high school coach has a tendency to want to push those kids up thinking they are going to be difference makers and more often than not, it tends not to work out. Then the lower level teams, JV and Freshman get destroyed because those couple kids were two way starters with big impacts to that team. So the decent kids that need the time to develop and need to put in the extra work to get better decide they got better things to do than run out there and get beat by 30 every night just so one day they can play varsity. I'm not saying it's a good thing by any means. What you wish is those kids would want to put in the extra work since they did have some success together, but for whatever reason it tends not to happen. That was one thing Carpenter did with those kids that did have the winning season and won in the playoffs. Most of those kids stayed together through all levels of football and when it came "their" time, they were ready and did well.

All I'm saying is if you're only looking at record that's a pretty unfair way to judge a high school football coach coming up through the ranks. For instance, Carpenter was handed a mess of a program for his first head coaching gig at Tarkington. Not only was he fighting the normal talent issues but there was also a total lack of discipline and mindset from everyone involved. He cleaned house and there were some tough years. Once he got it back up on its feet, he then took a decently talented team, beat a bigger school, took them to playoffs, beat Mexia and lost in the second round. Then you want to mock his 6-6 record at KO. Did you even bother to look at the schedule? Did you happen to notice the ringer of schools that they ran through before district even started? It included the state champions who they scored more points on than anyone else did all year long. Also they played the only team that beat North Shore all year and they played a really good Spring team without their QB. I'm just saying, lets stop looking at everything as if it's in vacuum. Different situations for everyone. Coach Bass is young and will be the HC somewhere and will win football games, I guarantee you that much. His attitude and leadership here at Tarkington were very impressive. He was handed a similar mess with the previous regime running off some of the talent. and finally if you don't respect Coach Snelson for the football coach that he is, then that's all I need to know about you. Ask any Texas football coach about the man that he is and the coach that he is.

You're relentless, I'll give you that! Have you seen all school age groups recently play to make these statements? Just wondering what your basis is other than the obvious underlying hatred. Their 8th grade group from last year lost 2 games all year long in football and lost only one game in basketball. Those kids are now Freshmen in high school and some were forced into the spotlight onto varsity because of how many starting seniors graduated last year. Their graduating QB left to play baseball for West Point, a couple baseball players went to play college ball and they had one of the better basketball teams that's come through in a while led by 5 starting seniors who should have beat Dibol in the playoffs had their 6th man and maybe second best shooter not had been flagrantly fouled where he broke his arm. Oh by the way no foul was called because the ref said the kid hit the ball and turned into 2 points their direction.....but I digress.... haha flashback to this year - They had a sophmore who started most of the games at QB, a Freshman WR and another WR that hadn't played football since he was in middle school. The starting middle linebacker who was a sophmore got hurt and thus pressed another freshman into the starting role. Starting freshman safety. The current 8th grade team had some decent skill position players but they were weak on the offensive line. Not trying to make claims about how unbelievably talented they are but there is SOME talent here.

I don't know who you are but you are clueless if your basing their coaching abilities off of the records that for the most part you entered wrong by the way. (How does a coach play 84 games in 3 seasons???) Brandon Carpenter is currently the head football coach of Klein Oak Zach Bass is the current OC of BW Don't forget the aforementioned Coach Snelson who is currently one of the top coaches in the state. As I mentioned in my other post, many other factors at play. Considering that both of them came into programs that were in total disarray due to the previous regimes. So what this proves more than anything is, good coaches that help turn around the program end up leaving for greener pastures and unfortunately they haven't done a good job of hiring the next guy which ends up turning the program up on it's head again and for a school like Tarkington, that can mean dark years before the next light can be seen. That's why this next hire is so important for a school like them.

Yeah but that came from a person who couldn't be further from Tarkington. Your post reads as if the community or other posters on here from the area think that. Which is the source of your constant thoughtless bashing of the kids. I will repeat, NOBODY from the area made this claim. I can guarantee you that most of the kids that are currently enrolled in Tarkington don't have parents that went there. So rationale should tell you that people have come and gone. Why haven't more "athletic" kids moved in is the question then, right? Well, we can all agree that the high school sports teams aren't bringing them in. So the people that are moving in to the area are coming in for a number of reasons, my guess is led by the fact they want their kids to have a yard or maybe a few acres to go outside, breathe fresh air and maybe raise a farm animal or two. So like I said previously, very few people here are looking for a football dynasty. They just want to see their kids become respectable adults and maybe a couple wins from whatever sports team their kid is on. That's just the mentality of the majority and even for me who is a sports fanatic and been here most of my life, it drives me crazy that we aren't more competitive or that kids aren't willing to put extra time in to improve their chances of getting better on Friday night. But for the most part that frustration goes away on Saturday morning when I go to the store and see kids hold open the door for adults and say yes sir and no sir to me when I ask them questions. By no means am I saying those things can't go hand in hand but that's the trade off that most people here are willing to make.

Please send me the quote where anyone from or around the situation that said that Tarkington had the talent to win the state title in football? Won't be able to because nobody did. Just looking for a good man that can come in, get the kids excited about playing ALL sports because every ounce of talent is needed in all of them to be competitive. Then maybe that person can motivate them to use their spare time in the summer and such to put in the extra work. Try to grow some focus on preparing the younger kids for high school ball and for the ones that are already there, put in a system that gives them the best chance of winning some games. They have some athletic kids, just need to be pushed and taught the right way to go about their business. Nobody here is looking for state titles, we aren't mistaken, this isn't Argyle. We want to give our kids the ability to pursue sports in whatever capacity they want to, achieve as much as possible and then go out into the real world and be good people. You should maybe spend a little less time polishing your youth football trophy and a little more effort into learning how to have a real conversation.

hahaha!!!! Thank you for reiterating my point. reiterating - say something again or a number of times, typically for emphasis or clarity Based on your comments, I figured I would save you some time.....