NFISD woes keep 19-4A schedule uncertain

[KFDM COOP]

NFISD woes keep 19-4A schedule uncertain

By Dave Rogers

Published March 2, 2008

Good news for Goose Creek Memorial and its neighbors who will compete in District 19-4A the next couple of years:

The nine member schools held their first District Executive Committee meeting Wednesday and approved the sports schedule previously agreed upon by the league’s coaches and published in this paper Feb. 2.

This is good news because District 21-5A, to which Sterling and Robert E. Lee belong, has yet to call its first DEC meeting. (As of Friday afternoon, Channelview officials appointed by the UIL to organize the “organizational†meeting, hadn’t set a date.)

But the situation in 19-4A isn’t all roses.

Far from it.

Uncertainty regarding the future of the financially-strapped North Forest school district means the nine-school schedule approved this past week might have to be trashed.

It appears likely the two North Forest district high schools, Smiley and Forest Brook, both 19-4A schools will be forced to merge before the start of school next August.

Friday night, North Forest’s school board rejected a merger for the third time in two weeks, voting to fire 45 employees as part of a $7.7 million deficit-reduction plan.

But the district reportedly has a $17 million deficit and shrinking enrollment that has left Smiley and Forest Brook less than half full this year.

“Anything can happen between now and next year,†said Tom Ed Gooden, athletic director for Baytown’s school district.

To that end, the 19-4A DEC actually put together an alternate eight-school schedule at their meeting, which would be used if Smiley and Forest Brook merge before June 1.

The current nine-school schedule would require nine playing dates to complete, with every school getting a bye, one per week. An eight-team schedule requires only seven playing dates, with no byes.

To drop a school from the agreed-upon nine-team schedule would result in every team getting two open dates.

“If one of their schools went down (closed via merger), you could have the situation where schools might have back-to-back byes, or some other unfair situation,†explained Ed Warken, athletic director at Galena Park.

“So we decided to do something that would affect each team evenly.â€

What the coaches came up with and their principals agreed upon was a backup football schedule that would call for each of the 19-4A teams to have an open date in week 2 (Sept. 11-13) and week 10 (Nov. 6-8).

Even if North Forest had voted to merge the schools Friday, it would be too late for teams to find a non-district opponent to fill the second bye.

So, if the Smiley-Forest Brook merger occurs, the season will end a week early for some teams and the playoff teams will have a week off between the end of district and the postseason.

“It depends on who you talk to if that will be good,†Gooden said. “Some coaches might like getting a week off to scout for the playoffs and get injured players healthy. But say you get on a roll at the end of district, you want to keep going, not take a week off.â€

Both Gooden and Warken said it would be premature to release a copy of the backup schedule, to avoid confusion.

But it’s clear everyone hopes for a resolution soon.

Warken says that if a merger occurs after June 1, 19-4A has agreed to stick with its original schedule, warts and all, for football and volleyball.

Since volleyball is a double-round robin sport, its schedule would go from having two byes to four byes if a merger happened too late to go to the backup plan.

But Warken said the backup schedule could be used for winter and spring sports, beginning with basketball.

An eight-team district would really help basketball. Under the nine-team schedule, district play for girls is scheduled to begin Dec. 2 and those teams would play six games before Christmas.

With eight teams, district basketball play for girls wouldn’t begin until Dec. 19 and district basketball play for boys wouldn’t start until January.

“An eight-team schedule would allow everybody to play more non-district games and tournaments before district starts,†Warken said.

It’s a small world, after all.

Problems at North Forest ISD are causing headaches all over.

Dave Rogers is sports editor of the Baytown Sun.

[BhGrizzlyAdams]

?? would someone PLEASEexplain to me why the state doesnt step in and scrap this district??!! > >

[ncplaya]

By the two schools combining, it wouldnt put them at 5A numbers?  How would that be handled?

[bronco1]

By the two schools combining, it wouldn't put them at 5A numbers?  How would that be handled?

Smiley is at  1115

Forest Brook  923

Total--------2038

Which would make it a big 4A, although the numbers will drop before next school year if they merge.

It is my understanding that they can't get along and a merger would be a bad learning environment.