Where to send kids to school for best public school football program? (Dallas: renting, home)

[padcrasher]

Nothing compares to Southlake in the area. Allen is able to compete because their school is 6000 students compared to SLC's 2400.

At the youth level, Southlake will field as many teams as Colleyville, Grapevine, and Coppell combined. That's a district of 6000+ students with as many players as these other two districts with a combined total of 23,000 students. It's a high participation rate, you may have a class with 21 students and have 3 to 6 of boys playing. In last year's playoffs SLC may have taken every single age division championship vs Coppell and Grapevine/Colleyville if I recall.

A few years ago we played this Coppell team with an "rising star" QB who's family had just moved to the area. It didn't go well for them to say the least. More than one parent from the other team commented on how well SLC executes blocks and tackles for being so young. Sure enough, I see next season this family had sold their house and moved to SLC. The kid is QB'ing here now...lol

[Willsson]

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[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by padcrasher

Nothing compares to Southlake in the area. Allen is able to compete because their school is 6000 students compared to SLC's 2400.

At the youth level, Southlake will field as many teams as Colleyville, Grapevine, and Coppell combined. That's a district of 6000+ students with as many players as these other two districts with a combined total of 23,000 students. In last year's playoffs SLC may have taken every single age division championship vs Coppell and Grapevine/Colleyville.

A few years ago we played this Coppell team with an "rising star" QB who's family had just moved to the area. It didn't go well for them to say the least. More than one parent from the other team commented on how well SLC executes blocks and tackles for being so young. Sure enough, I see next season this family had sold their house and moved to SLC. The kid is QB'ing here now...lol

That's probably an argument against choosing Southlake- they have sooo many athletic kids that the football coaches can "pick and choose" (or import from Oklahoma) the cream of the crop, leaving the decent/good/pretty good players on the sidelines.

It just depends on what OP wants for his kids and REALISTICALLY how good they will be. Like I said, if they're going to be NCAA quality, get to a school where the recruiters go like Southlake. If they're just going to be "really good", find a school where they can enjoy the community/traditional aspects of Texas High School Football so they're not discouraged when they only get to play 3 minutes their senior year or when they're the back-up to the COUNTRY's #1 or 3 recruit.

[padcrasher]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

That's probably an argument against choosing Southlake- they have sooo many athletic kids that the football coaches can "pick and choose" (or import from Oklahoma) the cream of the crop, leaving the decent/good/pretty good players on the sidelines.

It just depends on what OP wants for his kids and REALISTICALLY how good they will be. Like I said, if they're going to be NCAA quality, get to a school where the recruiters go like Southlake. If they're just going to be "really good", find a school where they can enjoy the community/traditional aspects of Texas High School Football so they're not discouraged when they only get to play 3 minutes their senior year or when they're the back-up to the COUNTRY's #1 or 3 recruit.

SLC fields some of the smallest, slowest teams among the good football programs. They make up for it by execution, and making less mistakes than the other teams. But it is true at the QB position they seem to get the cream of crop. Considering the school's size, it's probably easier to make the team at Carroll if you have a strong work ethic than it would be at 6000 student Allen where they can pick and choose among dozens of natural athletes.

[Philip T]

Wow. 8 years old. About 3rd grade. First round of TAKS tests.

And shopping for school districts by . . . . football.

Always good to see the youngsters' educational priorities set early.

You all will do well, here.

Welcome to Texas!

[OpenBook777]

We've already ruled out Southlake just due to its snotty reputation (sorry to offend anyone that disagrees). Considering my boys are still young, we are 'testing' football to see if it's a good fit for them. Allen has an exemplary school district (the scores are even better than many Frisco schools) so it's worth exploring. The school size is a big issue. Here's a thought: if I put them in Lake Highlands or Wilson, they may have a chance to shine (I actually graduated from LH in 92' but have learned that the school is less desirable now). So, is it more realistic to think smaller school, less recruits but a chance to get noticed? Or, bigger school, better coaches, a chance to excel and get the best training in a public school setting and possibly noticed? LH doesn't seem to have the better academic scores like Allen and that's concerning. We all know, one hit could end a football player's dream so academics are, of course, important.

Tofurkey, thank you so much for that link! And TurtleCreek, you are a wealth of information. I appreciate the time you've all taken to respond.

[PrincessKick]

Originally Posted by Philip T

Wow. 8 years old. About 3rd grade. First round of TAKS tests.

And shopping for school districts by . . . . football.

Always good to see the youngsters' educational priorities set early.

You all will do well, here.

Welcome to Texas!

You posted what I am sure more than one person thought. Thankfully there are multiple good ISDs (academically) for kids interested in sports.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by OpenBook777

. Here's a thought: if I put them in Lake Highlands or Wilson, they may have a chance to shine (I actually graduated from LH in 92' but have learned that the school is less desirable now). So, is it more realistic to think smaller school, less recruits but a chance to get noticed? Or, bigger school, better coaches, a chance to excel and get the best training in a public school setting and possibly noticed?

Last time I'm going to say this and then I'll drop it. Do you REALLY think your 8 and 12 y/o's are going to be NCAA material? Really? Now, I've never met or seen your kids but you really need to consider whether they are in that top .2% or whatever minuscule portion of high school football players make the leap to NCAA? Not trying to be rude, trying to bring you down to earth.

Originally Posted by OpenBook777

LH doesn't seem to have the better academic scores like Allen and that's concerning.

This is not exactly true. The overall academics in Allen are better than LH because Allen enjoys the luxury of a much more affluent and homogenous student body. If you compare the SAT scores of white students (who tend to be the more affluent portion of the LH student body) with the white students at Allen, LH has the 8th highest SAT (1141 math + verbal) in North Texas, within a few points of the Plano ISD white kids. Allen ranks 23rd (1098), behind Woodrow, Bryan Adams and the entire Richardson ISD. So Allen's overall score is higher because their percentage of economic disadvantaged and Hispanic and black students is much lower than LH & those subsets tend to perform worse across the board on the SAT than white and Asian students.

When comparing urban/city schools with suburban schools, you have to look beneath the averages to see the whole academic picture. My friend's sibling is a recent LH graduate, went to UT Bus Honors and now going into 1st year at Harvard Law.....so I wouldn't exactly say LH is worse than it was in 1992, just the demographics have shifted to where about 50% of the student body is economically disadvantaged and it's close to being minority-majority if it isn't already.

[loves2read]

The Mid-Cities used to be mainly HEB but now you can include areas like North Richland Hills and even Southlake, Grapevine, Colleyville since the Metroplex itself has grown so much

Trinity HS has won state finals but the reason it has an excellent program is that it has an excellent coach heading it--Steve Lineweaver is an exceptional man--not just a coach--and from what I have heard from teachers and parents with sons on his teams he is what anyone would want for a high school football coach--someone who stresses human values over stats and manages to bring out the best in young men as people--not just athletes--
Trinity has had winning teams under other coaches but I don't think it has had a finer football coach than Lineweaver--
that being said---Trinity has excellent academic programs--has good IB strand for students who want an academic future--has great music program and other features like pre-med/nursing prep programs--also has access to the work-study programs at HEB with classes in automechanics/cosmetology/food prep for students who don't see college in their futures...

Being a football player might once have meant not being a good student/wanting to excel in academic areas--that might still be true for some students and their parents but more and more of the young athelets coming into quality programs know the value of education and want to accomplish both--
I am not saying that all football players have that ambition--but not all atheletes period do--you can't single out football players alone for that lack of foresight--
look at the quality athletic programs in better high schools and it is pretty impossible for someone to play football and not pass high school
and if you want a Division 1 scholarship for your athletic dreams--that means you have to be competetive academically--
too many college coaches have been burned wasting scholarships on weak students--they don't do it any more--
weaker students gravitate to junior colleges or lower NCAA rankings but it takes (mainly) a top student to gain a top athletic tier--

what they do after that--you can't blame high school for...

[KittySkyfish]

*Thumbs up Philip T and TurtleCreek*

Your sons are (as you say) "8 and 12, never played football, but want to start in the fall"...and you're already dreaming about their exposure to recruiters? That is so upside-down. Why not treat football like a fun game and focus their energy on their academic excellence? They'll have better chances with college scholarships than recruiters.

Football

• 6% of high school seniors (1 in 16) will play football in college
• 1.7% of senior football players in college (1 in 50) will get drafted by a National Football League team.
• .08% of high school seniors (8 in 10,000) will eventually be drafted by an NFL team.

The Odds of Playing College Sports