Goslin

Well, 4 coaches in 12 years haven’t got you past 2nd round of playoffs. Guess none of those guys were the right guy? Man yall LOVED Coach Abseck until last weekend when the news broke. So much for loyalty on The Hill.

Dude, BH enrollment is only a hundred or so under the 6A threshold right now and there’s more folks moving into Riceland every day. They’ll be well over the 6A threshold by the time UIL redraws the Districts for ‘26. Not hot air, just facts.

I think we both did.

Oh, and speaking of clowns, GCCISD hasn’t had a Superintendent arrested since the late 1980s. When’s the last time the BHISD Superintendent was arrested? 2008? Y’all truly are New Baytown.

There’s quite a few folks on here and elsewhere saying that’s exactly what happened. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. No thanks on the GCM job offer, BTW. If I enjoyed no-win situations I coulda just stayed with my 1st wife and had that with a lot less work.

It isn't Deer Park doing something nice for LaPorte. It's LaPorte and Deer Park keeping Barber's Hill out of 24-6A. GCM is dropping down to 5A from 23-6A in 2026 while Barber's Hill will be moving up. 23-6A is right down I-10, closest to them and they'll have an empty spot BUT Barber's Hill is scared to go there. They want to go to 24-6A and would like to be able to point to relationships they have with other 24-6A schools when begging UIL to keep them out of 23-6A. LaPorte and Deer Park know that, hence Deer Park "doing something nice for their neighbor". Now, they'll definitely play Barber's Hill out-of-district when asked. I mean, why not when everyone knows Barber's Hill can't beat Deer Park or LaPorte?

Get real, Baytown doesn't want to be Barbers Hill, where your HFC just got fired because he refused to give your Supt's son playing time the kid didn't earn, and the whole town is OK with it. Baytown has more class than that.

Absolutely true. Everything else comes from that. If you don't have/can't build a program that kids WANT to play for, then it doesn't matter if you're in the bigger building with the better facilities and the newer equipment. If you build a program kids WANT to play for, the wins will come. Here's a couple of examples. My son said that some of his friends at school were talking about the upcoming rezoning, scared to death that they might not get to play for REL. The mom of one of his friends from youth league who is zoned to GCM told me her son started crying when talking to her about how he wanted to play football, so please don't send him to GCM. It doesn't matter how the zones are drawn or what the facilities are like or what the enrollment numbers are if you can't fix that.

NO U

Damn, I sure struck a nerve! Now who was it that fought all the way to the State Supreme Court over haircuts? Have fun in 23-6A in '26! I know your opponents will!

Real interesting response. There's been quite a few folks on this forum swearing up and down that Barber's Hill is 100% homegrown, and that Baytown kids don't go there to play. I've shown them the numbers straight from GCCISD but they just refuse to admit it. REL went 6-4 this year, BTW. Guess their talent didn't want to cut their locs. Coach Finn is 37-33 since he got there, they've won at least a few more than they've lost these last few years, so don't lump them in with perennial losers like RSS/GCM. I wouldn't say for sure that players wouldn't follow Abseck, though. I never said anything about anyone following Abseck to Baytown, he's not taking a 50% pay cut to coach GCM, that job wouldn't pay his mortgage. If he were to take an assistant job in one of the programs in 23-6A or 24-6A though? You might see a few folks make a move is all I'm saying You're 100% correct that the real question is why BH hasn't already found anyone for the HFC position since they're so great and have so much money to throw around? Why have they burned through 4 coaches in 12 years?

$179,917 was the exact sum. Highest-paid Coach in Houston and $25k over the #2. Again, that’s just straight pay, not counting perks plus this was reported back in Dec ‘23 so don’t know if BH staff have had a COLA or raise or anything like that in the past year. [Hidden Content]

It’s true, was reported in the Houston Chronicle last year. That’s just the official number as well. I know someone who lived by the Coach that Abseck replaced and that guy got a car as well as the salary plus other “perks”.

Honestly? Part of its bragging rights about being the program that pays the most. Also, they have to sweeten the pot because Coaches are wary of taking a job at BH and why wouldn’t they be? Just look at Coach Abseck. He’s stuck with a mortgage on a $700k home in BH now, he was planning on being there until retirement, then had to find out he was being fired from the coaches BH was calling for interviews, and all because he did what a Coach should do which is refuse a parent’s request for playing time for a player who hasn’t earned it.

Well, they’ll need all the help they can get. It really hurts them losing Abseck because what they need is someone who players/parents are loyal to who can keep those Jr School athletes in place, keep their parents from transferring them out to the Open Enrollment Districts in 23-6A GCM’s feeder Jr Schools had all their talent transfer out to Open Enrollment districts, many in 23-6A, once it became clear what District GCM would be in for the next couple years.

Dude, BH couldn’t even beat Deer Park last season, they’re never going to be able to beat both King and Kingwood.

No chance. GCM is dropping back down to 5A in ‘26. That leaves the closest District to BH with an empty spot. UIL had no problem throwing #800 GCM into the lion’s den so they’re not about to give BH a break.

No way BH ever competes for 4th place in 23-6A football. King and Kingwood compete for 4th in that District. Kingwood was 4th in District last year and ranked 84th statewide. King was 5th in District and ranked 127th. BH is ranked 188th. You’re right about the other sports and right again about GCM, but you know same as I do that football matters most to folks on The Hill.

5-5 is more like it with BH replacing GCM in 23-6A after next school year IF BH chooses their out-of-District opponents better than they did this last season. They’ll get blown out by North Shore, Atascocita, Summer Creek, lose to Kingwood and CE King, and win against Humble and Channelview plus 3 tomato cans in Out of District and that gets them to 5-5 6th in District year after year after year but no better than that. Lot of folks with locs on those Eastside teams really looking forward to playing Barbers Hill. Coach Abseck might not be able to see it right now but in the long run Supt. Poole may have done him a favor.

Nothing says “winning culture” like firing the HFC because he wouldn’t give the Supt’s son playing time Junior didn’t earn.

GCCISD couldn’t consolidate now even if they wanted to. They’re flat broke, last 2 bond elections failed. They don’t have the money to repair the foundation at RSS. They’re a total mess. Ive heard a couple people describe the GCM job just like you did, as a get your feet wet” job. Is that really accurate? I mean, GCM is a guaranteed loser. Ragsdale got moved to a District desk job I’m guessing until the end of the semester or until he’s found a new job, whichever comes first. What kind of school is going to hire a football coach with a 2-28 record over 3 years? GCM isn’t getting any better anytime soon, either. They’re in 23-6A one more year so that means 0-10, then they’ll drop back to 9-5A-1 and be 1-9 like they were their last 3 years there, so their new Coach is going to end up 2-28 over 3 years just like Ragsdale.

Oh yeah, for sure. Those “Competitive Leagues” sure weren’t gonna be free. Every School Coach I’ve ever talked to told me they want multi-sport athletes. Said they prefer multi-sport athletes for all the reason mentioned above about better overall health and development and also simply because it allows them to maintain a full roster in all sports. I’ve met more than one parent, on the other hand, who were convinced that their child had to play one sport year round and also play Club league rather than School Ball. For example, Mom&Dad have had Jr playing soccer since he was 5. Soccer is ALL he plays. When he gets to 7th Grade the parents want him only playing soccer in Jr High and nothing else, ESPECIALLY football because it’s “so dangerous”. Coaches tell the parent that to be on the Soccer team Jr has to be in Athletic period each day at School and part of that class is playing/practicing/learning whatever sport is in season then and in the Fall that’s football. Parent gets pissed, end up not putting the kid in Athletics in Jr High, and there’s one less talented kid in Athletics. Stupid but I just saw this very thing play out recently with kids my kids know and their parents.

It’s everything mentioned and more. Here’s another one. Kids playing one sport and one sport only year-round. 2 different sports my kid played in youth league, the coaches told me that for him to “move to the next level” he’d have to play/practice/train for that sport year-round. In both instances I told those coaches we couldn’t do that because my son had football. Both told me that they wanted him for their “Competitive” leagues but if he wasn’t ready to commit to year-round and give up football then he’d have to stay in Rec league until he aged out. My son was like 9-10 years old BTW. There’s kids that get locked into soccer or baseball or whatever at 7/8/9 years old and that’s ALL they play. Coaches/Parents are convinced that’s the way to go which I totally disagree with but whatever. There’s a lot of kids that could be great multi-sport athletes with one of those sports being football but can’t because mom/dad/trainer/coach are convinced that Jr’s only chance at a scholly to a D1 school is playing baseball year-round for the next decade.

It’s still a pretty severe mismatch. RSS and GCM are both total messes. Remember that GCM was 1-9 the season before Coach Ragsdale was hired and he went 2-28 over 3 years before he got fired last week. RSS is 15-45 since Coach Toomer was hired and they went 3-7 this year same as the last and were last in District this year only because GCM is no longer in-District with them to take that last place spot. Compare that to Coach Finn’s record of 37-33 at REL since he was hired and until this last season REL/RSS/GCM were all in the same district. I was at both the REL/RSS and REL/GCM games this season and in both Coach Finn went easy on them late in the game when the outcome was no longer in doubt. The RSS game was a better one than the GCM game but neither were really as competitive as the box score would have one believe. I get trying to go easy on RSS/GCM, BTW, and I get you trying to be fair to them. No one I know likes seeing them down so bad.

You know REL has the 5A-2 State Champ Richmond Randle in-District, right? Plus Iowa Colony and Fort Bend Marshall AND Texas City to fight with over 4th place? Not exactly an “easy” District. Where they’ve been the last half-decade, BTW, is a LOT better than RSS or GCM, regardless of schedule. REL has beaten both handily the last 5 years straight. Agreed with everything else you said, though, and I’ll add they’ve got some good kids coming up in their feeder Jr schools as well who are staying right where they are. Looking at the prospective GCCISD rezoning maps it looks like both possible outcomes are going to be kind to REL as well. Things are looking up over on Market St, especially with a HC who knows what he’s doing. At the start of this season it was decided that 9-5A-2 wouldn’t be covered here. I hope that next year the folks in charge decide otherwise. It’s gonna be interesting…