2014-2016 Prelim TAPPS Realignment out on Wed 9/25

freeagent

freeagent

Six-man pro
TAPPS will release its preliminary realignment (general and football) for 2014-2016 this Wednesday, September 25 on its website (http://www.tapps.net). While I would love to tell you that I have a preliminary copy in my greasy fingers, it would be a lie.

Anyway, just a couple things from the past ... which may be a predictor of the future.

TAPPS football alignment is based on BOYS enrollment only (TAPPS rules do not permit girls to participate in football). There are three divisions for 11-man football (D1, D2, D3) and two for six-man football (D1, D2) although this could change (until last cycle, there were four 11-man divisions).

The cut-off number for football has been flexible the last couple cycles, I believe to allow some of the larger six-man schools and smaller 11-man schools to avoid switches back-and-forth. For 2012-2014, the cut-off number was 77 boys. The largest 31 schools participating at the time of realignment were placed in Division I and the remaining 30 schools were placed in Division II.

Enrollment number is based on an average of three numbers. Fall 2012 enrollment, Spring 2013 enrollment and Fall 2013 enrollment. The latter number is counted twice and those four are added up and divided by four for an average enrollment number for redistricting purposes. A school that is growing will come up with a number that will trail its current enrollment while a school losing students will have a number that will be higher than its current enrollment.

While checking the http://www.lscsn.com site (for basketball), there was an interesting post based on current (Fall 2013) enrollment numbers from the TAPPS membership directory. Wonder how this will affect the numbers we see on Wednesday:

(Note: these will NOT be the numbers we see on Wednesday, and I could see that there might be some errors or "typos" on numbers posted as the TAPPS directory numbers are not official numbers. And these are TOTAL enrollment numbers, not BOYS only numbers. You could have a school with a lotta girls, after all.)

http://directory.tappster.com/bransonsoft/default.asp

* Current 6 man schools
** Current 11 man schools

Up to 3A?
Boerne Geneva - 168. *
Schertz John Paul II - 167 **
Marble Falls Faith Academy - 154 **
Pasadena First Baptist - 136 *
Brownsville 1st Baptist - 131. Currently 1A
Waco Vanguard - 131 *
Rockwall Heritage - 121 *
Dallas Covenant - 119 *
Kennedale Fellowship - 119 **
Denton Calvary - 114 *
Dallas Lake Hill Prep - 112 *
Abilene Christian - 111 *
Galveston O'Connell - 110 **


2a/3a bubble (based on this year's numbers)
CASA - 108 *
Hallettsville Sacred Heart -107 **
Austin Hill Country - 105 *
The Woodlands Prep - 104 **
Bryan Brazos - 103 **
St. Gerard - 103 **


Down from 3a to 2a?
Baytown Christian - 95 *
Fort Worth Bethesda - 92
Dallas First Baptist - 88 **
Tomball Rosehill - 83 **
Bulverde Bracken - 80 *
Carrollton Christian - 73 *
Richardson Canyon Creek - 51 *


Up to 2a?
Amarillo Ascension - 106 Currently 1A
McAllen South Texas - 102
San Antonio Castle Hills - 87 *
Lake Jackson Brazosport - 77 *
Mission Juan Diego - 75
Lubbock Christ The King - 74 *
Wichita Falls Notre Dame - 74 *
Conroe Calvary - 70


Down to 1A?
Kingwood Northeast Christian - 49 *
Waco Texas Christian - 45 ** (dropped 11 man during summer)
Rockwall Christian - 43 ** (rumored to be becoming a charter school next year; dropped 11 man during summer; note this is NOT the Rockwall Heritage Christian school above which plays 6 man ... I think this school is located in Rowlett.)
 
Oops. A correction from the 2012-2014 realignment.

BOYS Enrollment only was used for 6 man football only.

Total Enrollment was used for 11 man football and Division I 11 man football and 5A all other sports were similar. Same with Division II 11 man and 4A. Remaining 11 man schools were placed in Division III (1A-3A in other sports).

Will that be the decision this time around? Maybe, maybe not.
 
So sixman cut off is 77 more or less ......and Boerne is bigger than all the 11 man schools.....yep that sounds fair and Dallas has been well over a 100 for a long long ...... long time.
Why have rules?
Posted earlier this year just like UIL teams jumping down, Dangerfield has done it a couple times.
 
loveofgame":3ttnskbi said:
TAPPS has a little explaining to do with a few teams depending on how this turns out..
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Couple of things, guys.

1. UIL has several different ways a school can compute its ADA (average daily attendance) number for six-man football. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that any school (especially those around the 99.9 or now 104.9 number) is going to check each and every computation and submit the lowest number for their classification. So, that tells me there are UIL six-man schools that would be "above" that number if they used the normal ADA "snapshot" number from October. TAPPS does the same thing with an average number, using boys enrollment only, and flexibility on the top number.

2. While I'm not on the inside at either Dallas Covenant or Boerne Geneva, both of those schools have had astronomical growth in the past several years -- perhaps Geneva, who was 1A/D2 sixman just two years ago, even greater than Covenant. My guess is both of those schools will be serious 11 man numbers in the next realignment. Making an unexpected or earlier than planned jump from six to 11 man isn't always a smart thing. Both schools are located in "high growth" areas; Covenant in North Dallas/I-635 and Geneva just north of a very well-to-do area of San Antonio.

3. It's difficult to compare a six-man public school in a rural area to a small six-man private school in a metropolitan area or larger city. It comes back to the saying I have -- our small public schools play six-man because they HAVE to, we in private schools play six-man because we WANT to. Kids at our schools that want to play football can go to other larger private schools or public schools to play 11 man; some of our schools just don't have an athletic focus.

4. Either way, you can only play six at a time.
 
The 168 for Geneva is total boys and girls this year, not the boy average used for realignment. Geneva is not even close to being bigger than the 11-man schools. The Geneva boy average TAPPS will use for classification is 71. The last TAPPS cut off for 6-man was 77.
 
It's called math! You have more to choose from, you have better odds so if I start with a 168 and you have 71 I have better odds on numbers of quality players of the six I play and even better odds I can sub more players.
Why have Div 1 and 2 ?
Number of boys doesn't matter you can only play six, Fred and Seguin need to butt heads with DC , Abilene and Boerne after a couple 100-0 scores might just change your tune.
Ask those boys what they think when they stand 8-10 deep look across at 45 to 50 guys!
 
football jersey":3uo3egp6 said:
It's called math! You have more to choose from, you have better odds so if I start with a 168 and you have 71 I have better odds on numbers of quality players of the six I play and even better odds I can sub more players.
Why have Div 1 and 2 ?
Number of boys doesn't matter you can only play six, Fred and Seguin need to butt heads with DC , Abilene and Boerne after a couple 100-0 scores might just change your tune.
Ask those boys what they think when they stand 8-10 deep look across at 45 to 50 guys!
Click to expand...

Well, sounds like Castle Hills is going (back) into 2A/Division I with those numbers of 87 ... first, congrats to the school administration for doing a quality job of attracting new students; I know during the last realignment Coach Rabon and I were talking and he was surprised CH was still D2, but I pointed out that the school with the largest boys enrollment in our new district wasn't Castle Hills, it was Lifegate (27, I think).

Lifegate's number didn't change significantly (my opinion is that the school administration (1) doesn't want to actively solicit high school students and (2) current facilities are at capacity and there is no support for building additional facilities), but Castle Hills did. I gotta think of those 87, nearly half are boys and my guess is that the D1/D2 boys number break is going to be in the mid-30's (it's been in the low 30's in the past, but with several D3 11 man schools switching to six-man, I expect that number to rise a bit), so Castle Hills -- and Geneva will be D1 schools next time around. Even if 2012-2013 CH boys enrollment numbers were in the low 30's, I think the average will bring them up to D1 level. But I haven't seen the numbers and I could be wrong.

I have to think that 2013 may be the last year for Geneva's six-man JH teams; while I haven't talked to Scott Stolle about this, it's probably time to start that program on 11 man for 2014 and varsity 11 man in 2016. Ditto for Dallas Covenant, who has already started JH 11 man.

Heritage has been an on-the-bubble-school for years, but I think that the new schools coming in at the D1 level may keep Heritage D2 for at least another go-around.

I've had people ask me if TAPPS would consider a large-school six-man division (which might include Houston Emery Weiner as well), but my thinking is that there would not be enough schools to make this a competitive division; maybe 10-12 schools tops and either one state-wide at-large district or two districts. Plus, those schools would still have to find non-district games and many of them would be against what would be D1/D2 teams since many of those schools are far removed from the vast majority of larger UIL schools in west Texas.

And yes, jersey, my friend ... it does help if those six you play at any one time aren't the same six all the time. Depth gives you that opportunity, but I'm not sure depth of 45-50 bodies helps you at six-man any more than depth of 20-30 bodies. Does mean you have to drive a bigger bus, I guess.

But hey, whadda I know.
 
I've had more players dressed than Bracken Christian School when we played the last three years. They beat us 58-8, 51-19, and 34-27 last week. If I do the math that's 3 losses. That all that mattered at the end of the night we lost. Not that we had more players.

We played Lifegate and Brenham Christian two years ago and it was a mismatch in our favor. Due to the fact they each lost some big time players from deep playoff runs the previous year. Prior to my arrival Brenham Christian and Pine Drive had blown us out the year before. And our enrollment and dynamic of our student population has not changed much over the past 5 years since I've been here.

We've also in my opinion have played teams that had better athletes than we had and we won because our kids executed better and had more discipline.

Don't get me wrong there is a fine line between enrollment numbers. That's why they have divisions. All we can do is wait and see how TAPPS splits the divisions. I can tell you one thing because how the state of Texas is you won't see too many 11-man size schools want to move to sixman unless they thinks that's what's best for their community.
 
I've also heard that Waco Live Oak will be coming into TAPPS. Strong football program will be a great addition. Anyone know what do their numbers look like?

On a side note...when I was at Apple Springs I loved UIL realignment day. It was fun awaiting teams placements in divisions, regions, and districts. Can't wait to see what TAPPS releases for 2014-2016.
 
In Division II, i'll be expecting a lot of the same. The only people I see being touched by it will be the Heath Fulton/Longview Trinity District.
 
EastTexasCoach":2y4tzpz2 said:
I've also heard that Waco Live Oak will be coming into TAPPS. Strong football program will be a great addition. Anyone know what do their numbers look like?
Click to expand...

I expect they will be Division I. Same with Dallas Lakehill and Giddings State, if they remain 6 man. Not sure where Dallas Fairhill goes. And of course, we have Carrollton Christian and Richardson Canyon Creek, both should be D1 numbers. I hear rumors about at least one more school making that change in 2014.

So that tosses at least four to five, possibly six or seven schools in the D1 side of the equation that weren't there in 2011., which is why I come up with the idea that the D1/D2 break for boys is going to be somewhere closer to the mid-30s than the low 30s since the idea is to put about half of the schools in D1 and the other half in D2.

I would prefer to go with a four-district format (especially in Division II), but numbers might predict a five-district format.
 
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