2013 TCAL Districts

[freeagent]

Just got some info today on TCAL 2013 districts.

11 man -- NEW. Three schools; Houston Mt. Carmel Charter and Tomball Christian Home School go from 6 to 11 man and are joined by a new member, Dallas Prime Prep Academy.

6 man Division I -- will not play districts but play at-large schedule. Top 8 teams (as determined by maxpreps.com rankings) will be seeded for playoffs based on end of Week 8 rankings. (D1 = 14 schools). From what I can figure from the brackets, playoffs will start Week 11; finals Week 13

Bryan Allen
Bryan BVCHEA Home School
El Paso Faith Christian
El Paso Home School
Granbury Cornerstone Christian
Greenvile Phoenix Charter
Houston Clear Lake Christian
Houston George Sanchez Charter
San Antonio FEAST Home School
San Marcos SMACC Home School
THESA Home School
Waco Live Oak Academy
Waco Methodist Childrens Home Charter
Williamson Co WILCO Home School

6 man Division II: Seven districts; playoff field of 16 teams starting Week 10 (finals week 13). Each district sends 1st & 2nd place to playoffs and two wildcards based on highest ranked remaining teams (maxpreps.com rankings used). D2/2013 = up to 25 teams; D2/2014 = up to 27 teams. Separate districts are set for 2014.

2013 Districts

District 1
Stephenville Faith Home School
Comanche & Dublin Premier/Paridigm Charter schools (expected to merge into 1)
Johnson County Home School

District 2
Tyler HEAT Home School
Tyker Kings Academy Christian
Marshall Christian
Athens Christian Prep (not sure; would be an at-large team in 2013)

District 3
Fort Bend HCYA Home School
West Columbia Charter
Crosby Victory & Praise
Pasadena Faith Christian

District 4
Bastrop Tribe Consolidated
Lochkart Gospel Lighthouse
Bryan Harmony Charter

District 5
Cleburne Christian
Weatherford Express Home School
Wise County Home School
Arlington Newman Charter

District 6
San Antonio Atonement
San Antonio Sunnybrook Christian
San Antonio River City Christian

District 7
Corpus Christi Annapolis Christian
Corpus Christi(?) Abundant Life Christian
Corpus Christi WINGS Home School
Victoria Cobras Home School (may not start TCAL until 2014)

Central Texas ECHO Home School will NOT field a team in 2013

Corsicana Agape is actively recruiting a coach. If they can find one, they will be assigned to District 2

There is a new school playing JV only in 2013; Leander Sterling Classical, will go district in 2014.

 

[bulldawgs]

That would be an oversight on my part. Waco Methodist is Division I. Sorry about that.

Thanks
Jimmy Stanford

 

[coachbill]

Sterling Classical is in Leander.

 

[YoungGun]

Did Johnson County Home School play at all last year? I can't find a record on this site or MaxPreps for them?

 

[freeagent]

Did Johnson County Home School play at all last year? I can't find a record on this site or MaxPreps for them?

I think Johnson County is the home school only group of Cleburne Christian; the home school families are setting up their own program as I understand it.

Changes above have been noted on original post.

 

[Dallas804]

Lifegate, you are correct. CCA decided to restrict participation to only their full time students. 90% of the football team for the past 3 years have been either home schooled kids or part-time students at CCA. As a result of the change in policy, Johnson County Sports Association has been formed.

 

[1oldcoach]

Just curious why isn't Johnson County an at large team like the Athens team. They weren't a team last year. Just curious?

 

[Super6man82]

I would agree I think they would be at large.
Also got an email that said johnson County would be D1 since their athletes come from the Fort Worth area.
Tcal rule states if your a homeschool team and you pull from any metro plex area you have to be D1.

 

[bulldawgs]

Be happy to answer all of this for you.

First I would like to cover At Large. Athens is an at Large team, because they currently have only 5 young men that have expressed an interest and they are not sure if they can field a team this year much less honor a District Schedule. I have confidence that the Lord will bless them and they will get to playing ball again (hopefully this season). Rather than leaving them off I wanted to leave that door open for their return. Their last coach left things in a mess and it takes time to come back from that. They are in a District beginning next season as I am confident they are overcoming. I have spoken with the new Athletic Director personally and believe his program is back on track for football. TCAL is very blessed to have several programs coming in and we look forward to continued growth. These other new teams were placed in Districts because they have either been successfully fielding teams or have the numbers to be confident of honoring a District Schedule.

Next you are misinformed about there being a Metroplex rule. There is not any rules specifying a metroplex or metropolitan area. Johnson County is of course not in the Metroplex but it is the next county over. If such a rule (any team that is within an adjoining county of a large metropolitan area or close to one would have to be DI) did exist, then the only D2 schools would be the two teams from Tyler, Marshal, Athens, Stephenville, and Commanche since everyone else is close to a Metropolitan area which would require they all be DI.

Now I am not sure who sent you the email, but I can assure you that they were obviously misinformed as well.

I encourage anyone that has a question about T-Cal football to please shoot me an email and I will do my very best to get it answered as quickly as possible.

Thank you and God Bless
Jimmy Stanford
T-Cal Football Commissioner
[email protected]

 

[Super6man82]

So you can have as many kids from the metro plex area on your team and be D2 as long as you have your team outside of that county?

 

[bulldawgs]

Again, if such a rule was in place there would only be 6 teams in DII, since everyone else lives close to a Metroplex. I do not know how to make it any clearer. There is NO rule regarding where a kid lives at or the population of an area where a team is based. Instead, we look at roster sizes and number of high school boys in a school plus homeschool co-op plus homeschool family and make our determination based upon that as to what the proper classification is. So to answer your question, you can actually be based in a large metropolitan area and use only kids from that area and still be D2 depending on the above considerations. There are numerous D2 programs listed that fit that very example. The irony is that people often think that Metropolitan areas have an advantage because of the population. Reality is actually the opposite. Kids from metropolitan areas actually have more choices and often gravitate towards crowded man. Certainly if you are connected with T-Cal and feel that something should be included in the football plan, then you are welcome to make that request from the DARC. They review all rules changes requests.

Thanks again,
Jimmy Stanford
T-Cal Football Commissioner
[email protected]

 

[YoungGun]

I'm curious as to why Johnson County homeschool was not placed into the district with cca. They are in the same county, wouldn't it make sense for them to be in the same district? Also, if realignment is to be revisited every year, why are the realignments for 2014 already out?

 

[bulldawgs]

Good questions. Johnson County was not in the same district this year because it would have left the other district with only 2 teams We tried to make as few changes as possible this year while still trying to maintain balance. District 1 was going to have only 2 teams so a decision was made to place Johnson County there this year. Next year they will be in the same district. Districts have in the past been revisited every year. Starting in 2014, we will be revisiting districts only in even years to keep in line with TAPPS and UIL. Teams entering after districts are set or in odd years will now have to wait for realignment to be placed in a district. Until then, they will play an At Large schedule. Final alignments for 2014 are not yet out. What was sent was tentative alignments to help with brainstorming and give everyone a chance to come up with ideas, pros and cons. We are trying to make the districts actually represent certain geographic areas. We anticipate adding teams and some teams may even change divisions, so certainly the final 2014 alignments will look a little different when the DARC releases them next February. Thanks again for the questions.

 

[Coach Adams]

Curious about Tomball Christian and Mount Carmel moving to 11-man. Is that for sure going to happen? I have them both on my schedule and need to know if I should be scrambling to fill those playing dates.

 

[freeagent]

Curious about Tomball Christian and Mount Carmel moving to 11-man. Is that for sure going to happen? I have them both on my schedule and need to know if I should be scrambling to fill those playing dates.

ETC ... that's what the info T-CAL provided to me says. If I was you, I might be making a call to them tomorrow to confirm.

 

[Coach Adams]

Yea John I wanted some confirmation TCAL ommish before I started trying to fill the dates. We at Emery always enjoyed playing Tomball Christian and Mount Carmel. Would hate to have to take them off our schedule. If we do I can only hope to fill those games with teams with the same competition and sportsmanship that Tomball Christian and Mount Carmel provided in our games. Our staff and players fully respect their players and coaching staffs.

 

[bulldawgs]

Tomball has been blessed with enough growth to make the move. Mt Carmel has expressed a desire to move up when we added some teams to play against. This is a transition year for both of them. Through the process we discovered it was difficult finding 11 man teams with an open date during the middle of the redistricting schedule for UIL and TAPPS. For this reason we have decided that they can continue to fill their 6 man schedule this year but that playoffs and District will have to be 11 man. We only ask that they inform the other coaches that they have enough young men to play crowded field football and allow the other coaches the opportunity to decide if they want to play or if they wish to include some stipulations. I know the process is far from perfect but transitioning from 6 man to 11 man presents some unique challenges.

Thank you,
Jimmy Stanford
T-Cal Football Commissioner

 

[yung'en]

I have been told by both schools that they will play a full six-man schedule in 2013. So I guess this will take Tomball and Mt. Carmel out of any district/playoff contentions?

 

[bulldawgs]

For post season and during the District weeks they will be playing 11 man along with Prime Prep. Next year they will be expected to fill a full 11 man schedule.

 

[truckguy11]

As a big fan of the Tomball program, I don't see how they can give justice to both a six man and an 11 man program. Making the switch from 6 to 11 will be a major change and take a lot of effort to be a competitive team. I know they will miss teams like Emery and Allen Academy. They were building great rivalries and it is a shame to lose that part of each program. It seems like a better arrangement could have been hammered out or a little more time to transition would have been a better choice from TCAL. It was a real shock to the program but it will recover. The Tomball family will miss the relationships that have been developed over the last three years and look forward to a new chapter in the book. Also missed will be this web site and the platform it presented as a means of knowing what was going on in sixman football. I hope TCAL gets the information on the 11 man game up and running soon on their website. There is currently nothing on their web site about any of what is going on. Oh well, I know they are doing what they feel is right for everyone but it's ashame the communication from TCAL is not on a par with the quality of coach and player involved in every organization that represents them.