Once late August arrives in Texas, attention tends to turn to one thing: football. But this year is different. With the opening of several multimillion-dollar arenas, so-called minor sports such as volleyball and basketball are stepping into the spotlight at schools across the Greater Houston area. Three new facilities, built in the past two years, are setting a standard for school districts throughout the state. Katy ISD’s Merrell Center, Cy-Fair ISD’ s Berry Center and Clear Creek ISD’s Bill Krueger Field House are state-of the-art venues that are placing focus on the sports and the teams that play in them.
Live in Texas for any length of time, and you’ll recognize the outsized importance of high school football. It may not be a religion, but it’s not far off for some folks. “Friday night lights” is more than just a book title here, and folks here are SERIOUS about their football. While football will always be #1 in Texas, other sports are beginning to be treated with an increasing importance, and some- myself included- would say that high school sports have assumed an importance that is totally out of whack.
The problem with this is that for too many people, high school sports IS high school. Completely forgetting the primary mission of their children’s high school, which is still to educate children, they pour their energies into living vicariously through what happens on the athletic field. The latest example of this trend are the glittering jock palaces that some of the most affluent districts are building. Yep, we may not be able to pay our teachers wages that reflect their importance, but we can certainly afford to building glittering new athletic cathedrals. Nice demonstration of respecting what’s truly important, eh?
“The greatest thing about it is that it shows the students on the volleyball and basketball teams that this district really embraces them and cares about what they are out there doing,” Clear Lake High School girls basketball coach Terry Farrell said of the 2,800-seat Krueger Field House.
Having had two stepsons who attended Clear Lake HS, and since I work three blocks from the school, this is something I have some strong feelings about. Both Adam and Eric were debaters, and the debate team, at that time one of the best in the state, got the equivalent of a large Coke and a bag of chips from the school. Funding was always an issue, and yet activities like football, basketball, and volleyball always seemed to have plenty of money.
Yes, I understand that debate is something that appeals only to a select few “nerds”, and the bigger sports are something that appeals to the entire community. Besides, have you ever sat through a debate round? I have, and let me tell you, it’s not the sort of thing you’re going to leave work early for so you can get a good seat. To the people involved, it means the world, but debate is not exactly a spectator sport.
It was pretty clear early on that Clear Lake HS had de facto first-class and second-class activities. If you played football or basketball, you knew that funding would not be an issue. Sure there were booster clubs that helped out, but the school’s Administration made certain that the “major” sports got what they needed. More “obscure” activities, such as debate, were for all intents and purposes told to go pound sand.
And what of academics?
“This district prides itself in academics, which is a great thing,” said Carrie Taylor, Clear Creek district spokeswoman. “So we were really pleased to see the fieldhouse vote pass since a lot of times money doesn’t go toward athletics in this district.”
Taylor said the need for the facility had become apparent, and she attributes that to the overwhelming support of the school board and community.
“We are growing so much,” she said. “We are opening a new school next year and probably another one a few years after that. While academics are so important, athletics are also a great way for kids to excel and possibly get scholarships for college.”
It’s also a great way for parents to be able to pound their chests as their progeny demonstrate their athletic prowess before the entire community. Yes, I would agree the Clear Lake HS in particular, and CCISD in general, do have an excellent reputation for academic excellence. I would argue, however, that this excellence has more to do with the demographics of the area that any district policies. After all, when you consider that the Johnson Space Center is four miles from Seabrook on NASA Parkway, it doesn’t take a Ph. D. to see that the children of engineers are everywhere. Combine that with a highly-motivated Asian population in this area, and you can begin to understand where CCISD’s reputation for academic excellence begins- at home.
The facilities also underscore the difference between well-to-do districts and those that are strapped for money. Houston ISD struggles to merely pay teachers, much less fund new athletic facilities
Still, in Clear Lake, “the coaches and student-athletes here understand that we are very fortunate to be in a district where the funding is available and the support is there to build us such a nice facility,” said boys basketball coach Lynn McDonald. “I know it isn’t like that at every school so we feel very lucky to have such a nice place to play and practice.”
And what does it say about us when we’re willing to countenance a system in which a nearby district, like HISD, struggles to make ends meet and pay teachers a decent salary? CCISD is building jock palaces, while HISD is struggling to maintain it’s buildings and buy textbooks. Something is very wrong when we are willing to look the other way while the system currently in place allows one district to be awash in money, while just a few miles away another is cutting corners wherever it can just to make ends meet.
I’m not saying that these jock palaces are a bad thing, but they certainly demonstrate how thoroughly misplaced the priorities of some of the larger, more successful school districts in this area are. Instead of spreading the wealth across a wider spectrum of extracurricular activities and academic programs, our tax dollars are being used to support our culture of jock worship. I have no problem with students winning athletic scholarships; I’m just not at all certain that our tax dollars should be used for something like that when it provides such a poor return on investment.
Then again, when’s the last time a debate team rallied the community?
