Questions about Private Schools in 6-Man Football

Coach Adams said:
Just a couple things on this topic.

  1. K-12 enrollment numbers do not mean anything when playing sixman. The HS enrollment numbers are used for classification in TAPPS and UIL.
  2. TAPPS has no pass/no play just like UIL.
  3. Public funding money supports UIL schools. They can pass bonds for field/stadium improvements. There are some very nice UIL stadiums (Borden County, Zephyr, Rankin, Garden City) to name a couple. UIL schools get that oil money too. TAPPS schools are tuition based. Most sixman schools can't use their budgets for athletic facility upgrades. But, some are fortunate enough to have donors that contribute. I would say public or private school any donor that wants to give a couple million dollars can do so.
  4. TAPPS schools cannot give scholarships. It's against the by-laws.
  5. There are some larger schools that play sixman in TAPPS due to lack of numbers on their roster. They have their own division. Public schools choice if they would like to schedule them.
  6. Whether a public or private schools wins or losses against either there are no underlying reasons. Even traditional powerhouses in UIL have down years. And, private schools can have outstanding classes in certain seasons that are dominant no matter who they play. It all comes and goes in cycles.
BTW, here is a link to the TAPPS most recent alignment. https://tapps.biz/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Classification-Recap-With-Names-2.pdf There are only five schools with over 1000 HS enrollment. And, none play sixman play football.
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I think you left our Charter Schools.
Also we (independents) DO pay attention and research attendance numbers since we basically follow UIL rules. Finally you are wrong about 1000 attendance schools playing six man. I know, we unknowingly played one.
Not to be argumentative but I coached youth sports for 50 years so I’ve seen almost everything, including teams with team owners, fleets of charter buses painted to match major colleges with uniforms to match. It’s all out there. Texas is the most important Sixman venue, but certainly not the only one. I believe Kansas’s version of the UIL just approved it there.
Finally, if you really believe that there are not nor have there been Sixman teams where the schools, I invite you to research the various Charter schools and review the testimonies given to the Texas Legislature by their Administrators and leaders.
 
What does the size of a town have to do with the size of a private school? I know none of the private schools have anywhere near 1,00 students in their high school. The Tarrant County schools that play six-man are slightly over 100 are below in their high school. Covenant maybe the largest and they had 107 turned in.
 
Klaactu said:
Look at the schedule for Calvert and Richland Springs. Richland lost their first game of the year to a private school out of Marble Falls (I believe).
Understand: I not saying someone is cheating, but, at least to me, a 6-man team from a private school in a 4A High School and up size town has an advantage.
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Richland Springs lost to Marble Falls Faith Academy during 1st game of this season. Faith Academy recently spent 5.9 million enhancibg their sports complete including a new football field.
 
Texas Rebel said:
Richland Springs lost to Marble Falls Faith Academy during 1st game of this season. Faith Academy recently spent 5.9 million enhancibg their sports complete including a new football field.
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I’m not sure what you are getting at here. Spending $6,000,000 on a field or complex or new buses or whatever doesn’t automatically make your players better.
I am a Live Oak fan and follower but I believe Marble Falls has the best football team in all private schools, TAPPS , TCAL, whatever. I truly believe they would give May and Motley a run for their money.
If you have good players you have good players regardless of what the name is on the side of your school building.
Any school has the option of playing another team except district. In district the numbers are close.
 
FCSA football said:
Not if you realize that some of those schools I have referred to have multiple campus locations but only one football team.
Just saying……
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The never ending saga of coming up with excuses why one school football team is better than another. Follett has 146 enrolled. Total not just high school. Why are they so competitive year after year? Something in the water? Aliens from another planet? Good coaching? Who knows. It is what it is. Why don’t we just sit back and enjoy the games and let the kids play.
 
Falconfan24 said:
The never ending saga of coming up with excuses why one school football team is better than another. Follett has 146 enrolled. Total not just high school. Why are they so competitive year after year? Something in the water? Aliens from another planet? Good coaching? Who knows. It is what it is. Why don’t we just sit back and enjoy the games and let the kids play.
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I agree !!!
 
Klaactu said:
Look at the schedule for Calvert and Richland Springs. Richland lost their first game of the year to a private school out of Marble Falls (I believe).
Understand: I not saying someone is cheating, but, at least to me, a 6-man team from a private school in a 4A High School and up size town has an advantage.
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Eleven man teams play teams above their enrollments numbers every year all over the state of Texas in non district games so why all the concern about a larger six man school ( public or private) beating Calvert and Richland Springs. Those eleven schools don't seem concerned that they lost the game other than they wished they had won. Burkhart( Richland Springs) used to schedule May(larger school) every year for the first of the year but dropped them like a hot potato when he noticed how good May was getting. Marble Falls has a better team and athletes than most if not all UIL six man teams. It's good to see other schools having success. No conspiracy here, just leave it at that.
 
I don't know TAPPS rules about multiple campuses,. But the schools I know in Dallas/Ft.worth with multiple campuses each campus has it own athletic program. Dallas Prestonwood and Flower Mound Coram Deo both play 11- man while Prosper Prestonwood and Plano Coram Deo play 6-man. Same with all the Newman International Schools, some play 11 others 6. So, I don't know of any that combine campuses to play.
 
Again, I've been out of the loop with private six man for a couple years. But many private schools are PK-12 schools, so comparing a school's enrollment for 13+ classes vs. a UIL school 9-12 enrollment is really apples to oranges. When I was involved in Seguin Lifegate's program. we had a K-12 enrollment from 120-160 kids, but 9-12 enrollment was about 30-45. In fact, when we started the program in 2003, our HS enrollment was under 30 and one of the selling points I made for the program was that it would increase and retain enrollment in the high school grades. And that's what happened.

I'm not sure what the TAPPS no-pass, no-play rule currently is, but it used to be that you could fail one core course (math, science, history, english) and be eligible, but individual schools were allowed to have more stringent policies. We used to follow that policy, but when we made a change in principal a year or two after I became AD, I brought it up to the new principal and he agreed with me that we should have a no-pass, no play policy.

Private schools may offer financial aid, but TAPPS (and I hope other leagues) do restrict it for athletic purposes. First, with the exception of some very high-profile private schools, most private schools aren't awash with cash. Teachers work for as little as $15,000 to $20,000 a year with little or no benefits at some of these schools. Coaches may be volunteers or receive a modest stipend. The TAPPS bylaws used to say something like unlike public schools who have designated enrollment zones, private schools must encourage parents to choose their school on factors beside residency, such as academic programs or religious affiliation. What is not allowed is an inducement for a student to attend a school for athletic reasons. Can folks "cheat" on this? Yeah, but as long as you're not a fool about it, you're okay. I think TAPPS requires you to report how much financial aid that you provide to your students (general population vs athletes). That can be really crazy in cases where the school, as a policy, offers free or deeply discounted tuition to the children of its employees (common) or church members (the latter is rare).

By the way, there have been some private schools which have decided they would recruit athletes to improve the visibility of their school. Problem is that those schools end up ticking off the parents (and kids) that were there since "day one." shlepping chocolate chip cookie dough, running concessions stands, doing grunt work, and then all of a sudden these out-of-town studs come in for free and it's not a question of trying out for the team, it's trying out for water boy at the end of the bench for their kids. Some schools never recovered from this and have been consigned to the dust bin of "former schools" when the paying customers all left.

And hey, don't tell me public schools don't recruit. I've seen the cases where a major employer is "encouraged" to hire a daddy so he moves to town with his star athlete kid. Or the school district who hires momma at the school cafeteria so that, as a district employee, can send their child -- oops, star athlete -- to the school (even if they live in another district). Heck, I remember a story (we're talking 5A schools) where a private school coach was the guest in the home of one of his athletes when a nearby public school coach stopped by (the coach didn't know the private school coach, and the coach was from a different district than the student athlete resided). Story went something like "no, don't worry about where you reside. We'll find a way to make you eligible to play for Big City High."

As for enrollment number, TAPPS used to have a grade 9-12 enrollment cap (by the way, TAPPS does not generally have rules for elementary/junior high athletics). I think it used to be 20 or 30 higher than the UIL rule, and for awhile it was based on boys enrollment only. But part of the problem is that there are schools that are not as athletically orientated. For example, Famous Cooking School might have an enrollment of 250 high school kids, but they can only get 16 boys out for football. 11 man would be out of the question, but 6 man is realistic. TAPPS takes this on a case-by-case basis.

But whadda I know. (Gee, it's been awhile since I said that.)
 
freeagent said:
Again, I've been out of the loop with private six man for a couple years. But many private schools are PK-12 schools, so comparing a school's enrollment for 13+ classes vs. a UIL school 9-12 enrollment is really apples to oranges. When I was involved in Seguin Lifegate's program. we had a K-12 enrollment from 120-160 kids, but 9-12 enrollment was about 30-45. In fact, when we started the program in 2003, our HS enrollment was under 30 and one of the selling points I made for the program was that it would increase and retain enrollment in the high school grades. And that's what happened.

I'm not sure what the TAPPS no-pass, no-play rule currently is, but it used to be that you could fail one core course (math, science, history, english) and be eligible, but individual schools were allowed to have more stringent policies. We used to follow that policy, but when we made a change in principal a year or two after I became AD, I brought it up to the new principal and he agreed with me that we should have a no-pass, no play policy.

Private schools may offer financial aid, but TAPPS (and I hope other leagues) do restrict it for athletic purposes. First, with the exception of some very high-profile private schools, most private schools aren't awash with cash. Teachers work for as little as $15,000 to $20,000 a year with little or no benefits at some of these schools. Coaches may be volunteers or receive a modest stipend. The TAPPS bylaws used to say something like unlike public schools who have designated enrollment zones, private schools must encourage parents to choose their school on factors beside residency, such as academic programs or religious affiliation. What is not allowed is an inducement for a student to attend a school for athletic reasons. Can folks "cheat" on this? Yeah, but as long as you're not a fool about it, you're okay. I think TAPPS requires you to report how much financial aid that you provide to your students (general population vs athletes). That can be really crazy in cases where the school, as a policy, offers free or deeply discounted tuition to the children of its employees (common) or church members (the latter is rare).

By the way, there have been some private schools which have decided they would recruit athletes to improve the visibility of their school. Problem is that those schools end up ticking off the parents (and kids) that were there since "day one." shlepping chocolate chip cookie dough, running concessions stands, doing grunt work, and then all of a sudden these out-of-town studs come in for free and it's not a question of trying out for the team, it's trying out for water boy at the end of the bench for their kids. Some schools never recovered from this and have been consigned to the dust bin of "former schools" when the paying customers all left.

And hey, don't tell me public schools don't recruit. I've seen the cases where a major employer is "encouraged" to hire a daddy so he moves to town with his star athlete kid. Or the school district who hires momma at the school cafeteria so that, as a district employee, can send their child -- oops, star athlete -- to the school (even if they live in another district). Heck, I remember a story (we're talking 5A schools) where a private school coach was the guest in the home of one of his athletes when a nearby public school coach stopped by (the coach didn't know the private school coach, and the coach was from a different district than the student athlete resided). Story went something like "no, don't worry about where you reside. We'll find a way to make you eligible to play for Big City High."

As for enrollment number, TAPPS used to have a grade 9-12 enrollment cap (by the way, TAPPS does not generally have rules for elementary/junior high athletics). I think it used to be 20 or 30 higher than the UIL rule, and for awhile it was based on boys enrollment only. But part of the problem is that there are schools that are not as athletically orientated. For example, Famous Cooking School might have an enrollment of 250 high school kids, but they can only get 16 boys out for football. 11 man would be out of the question, but 6 man is realistic. TAPPS takes this on a case-by-case basis.

But whadda I know. (Gee, it's been awhile since I said that.)
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Probably one of the most “spot on” responses I’ve heard on a message board. Thanks!
 
Still, where should I go, which college would be more profitable, where would I be able to develop further? I still have time to think and decide, but I don't want to regret my choice. My parents and coach have entirely different opinions on this, which puts me even more in the position to make a choice. But the coach also suggested I try to choose from this list of colleges www.footballcolleges.com, but I still think I should ask people who have already gone somewhere. That's why I decided to ask people on the forum which colleges on this list are the best to go to and why.
 
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Obvious some hurt feelings over Richland Springs losing to Marble Falls in their opening game of the season. Not much conversation about Richland Springs losing to Strawn 100-54 in Richland Springs last game of the season. Hmm, Richland Springs got 46'ed instead of 45'ed. Watched all that Dublin traffic headed south during the third quarter. Right Johnny?
 
Texlonghorn75 said:
Obvious some hurt feelings over Richland Springs losing to Marble Falls in their opening game of the season. Not much conversation about Richland Springs losing to Strawn 100-54 in Richland Springs last game of the season. Hmm, Richland Springs got 46'ed instead of 45'ed. Watched all that Dublin traffic headed south during the third quarter. Right Johnny?
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But there was a lot of conversation about Richland Springs winning 9 State Championships so far. Number 10 coming this year.
 
Texas Rebel said:
Can you offer any proof supporting recruitment ? Then why hasn't the UIL investigated these allegations ?
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Ask the guy that started the thread (Klaactu), hes the one that posted about recruiting. I just happened to catch it and quote him on it.
* Even though it's no secret RS recruits year after year. I have plenty of proof, let's go back to the Hicks' brothers if you want to go back that far
 

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