Size Matters?

Ok, I got off on a strange tangent today because a friend at work asked me where to find UIL classification info for TX high schools. As I looked at all the info, my head was just spinning at the size of these schools and how many schools there are. I know the population in TX has exploded in the last couple of decades, but it is really amazing the number of schools here and their size. It made me think how on top of the incredible facilities and the year-round training, these coaches also have such big pools to choose players from.

For reference I thought I'd compare some of these numbers with LA. Consider that the 4A/5A dividing line in TX is 2085 kids. In LA it is 1099 kids. I looked up some school enrollments in LA:

Airline - 1457
C Shreve - 1198
Southwood - 1562
Byrd - 1996
Barbe - 1806
W Monroe - 1887
Central B.R. - 1146
Covington - 1558
Neville - 873

So, these schools fall in line with a solid 4A school in TX, for instance Lake Travis' enrollment is 1751. Some of the TX numbers get crazy, of course you know about these schools in 8-5A, Plano, Allen, etc. But there are many districts full of enrollments over 3k. The suburban high school hasn't really been fully realized in LA, but over here it's another world. Consider some suburbs here; Conroe has 4 5A schools with enrollments over 2500. Klein has 4 over 3k. Katy has 6 5A schools alone and Garland has 7. Allen has over 3x the enrollment of Airline, and Plano East has 3x that of W Monroe. Combine these numbers with the resources at hand and you can see why these programs are so amazing.

And look at the sheer number of schools. There are 247 high schools in LA, and 1487 in TX. There are 10 5A districts in LA, and 32 in TX. If you combine 5A and 4A in TX since all of these would qualify as 5A in LA, there are 64 such districts in TX. Look at the number of high schools in these cities. The numbers are total high schools, and then divided into 5A/4A/3A:

Houston - 42 24/18/0
San Antonio - 34 20/12/2
Dallas - 23 4/17/2
El Paso - 21 9/12/0
Fort Worth - 15 1/11/3
Austin - 13 5/8/0

Can you even fathom there are 42 high schools in Houston proper, not including the suburbs? And 24 of those are 5A? I remember reading stories about why a couple of these suburban schools could be considered the best high school coaching gig in all of America. These numbers and one look at the facilities, and you can believe it.

S