Texas Sports Productions will begin broadcasting football on August 26th.
At least, that’s the plan.
Plans have been difficult as sports try to navigate their way through the coronavirus pandemic. The answers are not easy, especially when so many don’t agree on the questions or the facts.
I’ve been assembling schedules for high school football teams in our Texas Sports Productions coverage area. It’s been a fascinating exercise as athletic directors try to create schedules with wiggle room in case games are postponed due to an outbreak within a team. Some schedules feature an extra open date. Some schedules feature a mid-season zone playoff, with games scheduled to fill out the season in case it’s possible to play them. One district has games scheduled on a Friday, the following Thursday, the following Tuesday, the following Monday, then on Saturday, to squeeze in enough games in the allotted timeframe.
It’s especially interesting working around the fact that classes 4A through 1A start on the afore-mentioned August 26th by direction of the UIL; the classifications with the largest schools, 5A and 6A, will be allowed to start four weeks later, although many are waiting an extra week.
An exception will be Ben Bolt High School in Jim Wells County. The Badgers have announced they will not play football in 2020.
Many reactions online have been reflexive. Some say the Badgers should play and not live in fear. Some say the Badgers should not play, and neither should anybody else. Some say the players can transfer to a Corpus Christi school because there are a lot of high schools there. (Ben Bolt is a one-hour drive from Corpus Christi.)
I’m acquainted with the situation in Ben Bolt. For my day job, I configure multi-function Xerox machines for networks. Ben Bolt is in the territory of South Texas Sales, a Xerox agency I’ve contracted with for several years. I’d like to offer a few thoughts on their situation based on reflection rather than reflex.
The Ben Bolt-Palito Blanco Independent School District is in Jim Wells County. Ben Bolt straddles Highway 281 and is south of the county seat Alice, a 14 mile drive from the courthouse. Palito Blanco is an 11 mile drive from Ben Bolt. Ben Bolt High School has 178 students as listed by the UIL and plays Division 2A sports.
Jim Wells County enjoyed an economic surge during the Eagle Ford boom, but has been smashed by the collapse in oil prices. The major oil companies that led Alice being called Hub City have almost all left that city. Alice has shrunk as a result. In the 1980s, Alice played playoff football games against Judson; in the 1990s, they faced Austin Westlake in the playoffs multiple times. Now, instead of playing in the current Class 6A like those schools, they are playing 4A sports. While Judson and Westlake each have over 2,500 students (even though Judson ISD has opened two new high schools in the last 15 years), Alice High has an enrollment of 1,225. Starting a couple of years ago, free lunches were offered to every student in Alice ISD.
At Ben Bolt-Palito Blanco ISD, the challenges are more pronounced. BBPBISD benefited tangentially during the Eagle Ford boom, but was always a poor, rural district. The Eagle Ford bust has hurt Ben Bolt tremendously. Palito Blanco used to have its own elementary school, but that’s been closed; all the schools are in Ben Bolt now, on a pair of campuses separated by a half-mile, meaning long bus rides for the Palito Blanco children – when class is held on campus.
Ben Bolt is trapped in the no man’s land created by mixed messages from various governing bodies. The UIL says small schools should go ahead and practice. Jim Wells County wants all students to remain in online learning until October. The Texas Attorney General says the counties have no authority to dictate whether schools must teach online or not.
On top of this, Ben Bolt, along with relatively nearby Premont and Riviera Kaufer, is in a UIL district with Santa Maria and La Villa, two schools in the Rio Grande Valley. The RGV has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. Is travel to the Valley wise? Is travel from the Valley wise?
The Ben Bolt Badgers have a respectable football program, although not a money maker; they’ve won 5 or more games 10 of the last 11 years, including a run to the third round in 2016. This is not a perennial 1-9 team looking for an excuse to quit. Head Coach Gary Cunningham and the BBPBISD school board did not stop fall athletics as a copout; Quenton Martinez of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times wrote a fine article about the reasoning behind the decision. We as outsiders must not pretend we know better.
In the mean time, the other schools in Texas press on with football, and Texas Sports Productions is ready to provide coverage. For us, the variables on how schools will PLAY football are compounded by the variables in how to BROADCAST football. The UIL, for this year only as it stands right now, is allowing live video coverage on Fridays for the first time, and we are pursuing this. Even as we explore how to do it at all, we are factoring in how to do it safely. Although little is finalized as I write this, based on conversations I’ve had with fellow TSP personnel, I am confident in our ability to do this well, and do this safely.
We anticipate things will change. We are planning for potential changes and braced for surprises. It’s a lot of effort, and we all work through the shadow of a complete shutdown. Will it be worth it? We shall see. As we work, and as players, athletic directors, and coaches work, we comfort ourselves that we are planning and preparing for the best case scenario.
Besides, we know what do to for the worst case scenario. We saw that in March for baseball and basketball. We’re watching Ben Bolt endure the worst case scenario now.
All we have to do is stop.
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