Allen's new football stadium

A couple of things I learned reading about Allen High School's new football stadium (arttist rendering is picurred here) now under construction and expected to open next year:

• The stadium will seat only 18,000. For some reason, I thought it would be about twice that.
• There are three larger high school football stadiums in the state, Alamo Stadium in San Antonio (23,000), Mesquite Memorial Stadium (20,000) and Farrington Field in Fort Worth (18,500).
• In terms of enrollment, Allen High School is the third largest in the state. The first two are in the same football district as Allen, Plano and Plano East high schools.
• At least twice, the Allen School Independent School District considered closing because of lack of students.
• In 1960, Allen High School's graduating class contained 18 students.
• 400 persons entered a lottery in hopes to being able to purchase the 70 available season tickets to Allen High School  that went on sale at the beginning of last season.

Top 25 Texas High School Football teams

I ran across this nifty Internet set that ranks high school football teams all over the nation and the Texas section offers an option where the teams are ranked regardless of class. Here is its ranking of the 25 best high school football teams in the state (the last number in parenthesis is the team's ranking last week):
1. Austin Lake Travis (4A) 10-0 (1)
2. Southlake Carroll (5A) 8-1 (2)
3. Dallas Skyline (5A) 9-0 (4)
4. Allen (5A) 7-1 (5)
5. The Woodlands (5A) 9-0 (9)
6. Coppell (5A) 8-1 (7)
7. Missouri City L.V. Hightower (5A) 9-0 (10)
8. Abilene (5A) 8-0 (14)
9. Longview (4A) 9-1 (8)
10. Cedar Hill (5A) 9-0 (6)
11. Katy (5A) 8-1 (11)
12. Desoto (5A) 8-1 (12)
13. Tyler John Tyler (5A) 8-1 (3)
14 Spring Klein Collins (5A) 9-0 (20)
15. Euless Trinity (5A) 7-2 (15)
16. Round Rock Stony Point (5A) 8-1 (16)
17. Katy Cinco Ranch (5A) 9-0 (18)
18. Denton John H. Guyer (4A) 9-0 (19)
19. Gilmer (3A) 9-0 (21)
20. Waxahachie (4A) 9-0 (17)
21. Lufkin (5A) 7-2 (13)
22. Dallas Highland Park (4A) 8-1 (23)
23. Angleton (4A) 9-0 (25)
24. Flower Mound Marcus (5A) 5-3 (29)
25. Austin Westlake (5A) 7-2 (24)

An early Christmas present

This is a must read -- Rick Reilly's story about "the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas."

A radical new look in high school football

I'm not sure I completely comprehend this new A-11 offense, but what I gather is it is a further enhancement of the spread offense that exploits a loophole in football rules to allow all 11 players on a team to become eligible pass receivers.

Here's the theory behind it. If you don't have a quarterback under center to receive a direct snap and instead place him at least seven yards behind the line of scrimmage, you have a kick formation, the kind used for field goals and punts. In kick formations, interior lineman are not required to wear numbers 50 through 79. Any player wearing 1 through 49 or 80 through 99 is eligible to receive a pass under the current rules of the National Federation of State High School Associations.

The A-11 formation was devised by coaches at Piedmont High School in California who were trying to stay competitive with bigger schools with bigger players. Piedmont's scheme features a center flanked by two guards who are essentially tight ends. Two players, either of whom may be the quarterback on a particular play, line up seven yards deep and three wide receivers split on either side of the line. Under football rules, seven players must begin each play on the line of scrimmage and only five are allowed to go downfield to receive a pass, but the A-11 disguises who those people are. To keep defenses completely off balance, prior to each Piedmont play, only the center initially goes to the line of scrimmage. The two “guards” and the split receivers each stand one and a half yards off the line. Then, just before the ball is snapped, Piedmont shifts into formation for the signaled play.

Rules at the college and pro level prohibit the use of the A-11, but Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, known for his wide open offensive approach was quoted as saying the A-11 “presents some ideas all of us should think about.”

The A-11 has not been greeted with universal acceptance even at the high school level, however. It is has been approved in 40 states, Texas not being one of them.

Trinity Tonga Time

Yesterday, I mentioned a New York Times story about all the football players with a heritage to the Pacific Island of Tonga playing for the Euless Trinity High School football team, after which a friend pointed me in the direction of this video showing the team's pre-game whatever. Actually, it's pretty scary.

Perhaps Euless Trinity should be renamed Bali High

The New York Times points out today that Euless Trinity, the mid-cities high school that has the top-ranked football team in the country, has an abundance of players from the Pacific island kingdom of Tonga. Twenty-four Trinity players have made the all-state team since 1980 and 13 of them are of Tongan descent. Sixteen members of the current roster are of Tongan descent.

The story also points out the Polynesian influence in areas of the community other than the football team -- the churches, the community organizations, even foreign language broadcasts on the local cable TV sections. What the story fails to do is really explain why Euless has been a magnet for people from Tonga, other to say that the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is located near there. But it doesn't explain why DFW is any more of an attraction than major airports in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Denver, New York, Houston, etc.

Still, it's an interesting revelation that, to my knowledge, has been mostly overlooked by the local media.