Schedule for Zephyr's Bulldog Bonanza

[smokeyjoe53]

Seems to me there are good & bad points to either system. If I was a public school teacher or administrator, I think my time & energy would be better served trying to correct a system that instead of serving all tends to drive away quite a few.
I'm sure I'm wrong in my assumption that a lot of private or church schools clientele is derived from Christian conservative families. If this is true what does it say about the leanings of public schools?
I don't blame the teachers, my wife taught in the public school system for many years and frustration with the state mandates was one of the leading factors in career change for her.

 

[Old Bearkat]

When our oldest started school in the Granbury system in 1990, we were very disappointed in the quality of the curriculum and most of the teachers and ALL of the administrators. We put up with it until he was in the 5th grade and finally gave up when my second son's school tried to hrie a new teacher fresh out of Tarleton as a math specialist who flunked her bonehead math course in college twice and barely passed it on the third try. In that spring, we started looking at the various private/parochial schools in Granbury and Ft. Worth.

We ended up sending our boys to St. Peter's in Ft. Worth for the last year we lived in Texas and would have sent the boys on to Bishop Nolan has we stayed. When I took a job with Exelon in Illinois, we talked to friends in Illinois about the local public schools and found out almost every one in the area we were moving to made the Granbury system look first class. We ended up sending the boys to Holy Family for K-8 and Joliet Catholic for high school. We never regretted that decision, though it did cost us dearly in terms of money, but was well worth it in terms of the education all 4 boys got.

I know that the level of sportsmanship at all three schools was much better than the public schools we played against. At the elementary/jr. high schools the coaches were volunteer parents (including myself) and despite immense frustrations for all of us, I never once heard any coach or kid curse anyone in a game or practice. I saw more of that behavior from the public schools. If you and the school set inviolable behavior standards and enforce them, they will be met. JCA had professional coaches, though I will say most Texas coaches are much better trained, who did a good job nonetheless and insisted upon proper behavior at all times. We did have kids kicked off varsity teams for bad behavior during games. Public school behavior up here is mostly good, but it can get really nasty, especially in the city (Chicago).

 

[loveofgame]

There's a reason why private schools are starting to get more kids also, this will hopefully send a message to public school educators and admin, mostly admin and the "rule setters", I believe.

 

[Shane]

There are bad apples to be found in both public and private schools (coaches, players, parents, etc...), and there are great examples of sportsmanship and good ol' fashioned Texas friendliness in both too. I'm thankful that my kids get to go to a private Christian school for several reasons. Mostly, I'm thankful for the overtly Christian environment that my kids are a part of every day. It's not a perfect environment. Every problem or issue that public schools have to deal with will be dealt with on our campus as well. But rather than dealing with the problems on a daily basis, we might only have to deal with some of them on rare occasions. And the administrators and teachers are capable of actually dealing with problems in an effective way - up to and including expelling a kid when it's necessary. All of my family and friends that are educators in public schools are wonderful people that would like to be able to do the same thing, but many times their hands are tied by politically correct rules and limitations in the public schools. It's a shame.

The school my kids go to now isn't much different at all from the public schools that I grew up in. 30-40 years ago, we had daily prayers every morning, we pledged allegiance to the flag - one nation under God, and there were real consequences when we didn't live up to the high expectations that teachers had for us. It's not like that anymore in most larger public schools these days.

But it does appear to still be that way in most of the small schools that we are blessed to get to compete against in 6-man football. That is another reason that I'm thankful that my kids get to go to a small private school here in a "big city". Abilene is a big city to me, as I grew up in a little 3A school farming community in the Panhandle. (Tulia - it's 2A now) Our non-district games are my favorite part of our football season. That's when we get to spend time in some of the best towns in Texas, and we get to host some of the best people in Texas here at our field at our home games. I love going to small town public schools and hearing prayers and Christian music during half-time, and I love visiting with the friendly people from the other side of the field at the concession stand. It's West Texas Friday nights at its best.

I know there are always gonna be a handful of people that have a chip on their shoulder about private schools for one reason or another. I don't like it, but I can't do anything about it either. It is what it is. Thankfully, the VAST majority of the people I am fortunate enough to get to know at the 6man fields around West Texas aren't like that at all. They're just like me - just happy to be at a 6-man game and happy to visit with some other fellow West Texans.

We meet good people in the bigger towns during district and playoffs too. Don't get me wrong. But we have to fight traffic to get there. It's just not the same as dodging deer and hogs in the Farm to Market roads after the game. I like small towns better.

As for the paranoia about school funding.... That's just silly. We ALL pay property taxes to fund public schools, whether we also pay again for private school or not. And as much as I'd like to get to have a voucher for my tax dollars to spend where I wanted so I wouldn't have to pay for school twice, I'd just as soon we left things the way they are. I don't want the government or the TEA to have any reason whatsoever to feel like they have the right to dictate to private schools what we can and can't do. They've screwed up the public school system bad enough. I'd rather not give them any kind of inroad into private schools. If we had vouchers and tax money went to private schools, then they'd be trying to make our rules for us within the first 48 hours of the first voucher check cashing. No thanks. LOL

I appreciate the good folks at Zephyr for inviting our kids to play at the Bonanza. It's a great event, and they have a first class facility. They do a GREAT job as hosts too. We've played there several times over the last few years, and it doesn't get any better. The only thing I'd wish for is a night game. Those 3pm games are HOT!

 

[crusaders12]

I send my kids to a private Christian school because of the Christian influence, it provides a better education then what they would receive at the local public school and they have a better chance competing in the sports program. No Christians schools are not perfect but the one my kids attend is superior to the local 5A school.

All that being said, the subject of this discussion is about football. The public schools playing private schools in football will not ruin the public school system, I promise. I'm sure the Zephyr ISD, the town of Zephyr as well as Early and Brownwood will benefit from these games, the fans will cheer, the players will play. When it comes down to it, that's all that matters.

I wish everyone the best, may the best team win, public or private.