TIGER TRACKS
The first game of the inaugural soccer season at Rock-dale High School hasn’t been played, yet coaches and administrators are already noticing that some University Interscholastic League rules need to be amended in order to accommodate smaller 3A and 2A schools.
RHS coaches said 42 boys and 39 girls signed up to play soccer this year. Because basketball, baseball and softball games are scheduled on Tuesdays and Fridays, the same day as district soccer games, the RHS soccer team roster was downsized to 26 boys and 20 girls.
The UIL did not take into account that many of these smaller schools like Rock-dale, which is in it’s first year as a UIL competitor, have students who play more than one sport.
Statistically, soccer programs have been in larger school districts where kids only play one sport.
A lot more 5A and 6A schools have soccer programs than 3A schools like Rockdale. In class 5A, 251 schools have soccer alone, compared to the 186 schools in classes 1A through 4A altogether that have teams.
In 2011 when I graduated from Milano High School, soccer started to gain popularity. Many of my friends were obsessed with Germany and Brazil in the 2014 World Cup. My friends were upset because the U.S. lost to Honduras and didn’t qualify in 2018, especially those who were avid video gamers who played FIFA on their Xbox.
According to the English newspaper The Guardian, sales for FIFA went up 35 percent between 2010-2012, and have seen consistent growth since 2009.
Richard Luker, a researcher who created the ESPN Sports Poll, which is the industry standard for sports fan research, found that 34 percent of people who play FIFA became professional soccer fans and 50 percent gain interest in professional soccer as a result of playing.
These fans are many of the students who are now playing for Rockdale.
School coaches and administrators of districts with small enrollments like Rockdale will have plenty to say at the district executive committee meetings this summer. The UIL will need to accommodate schools like Rockdale where many student-athletes play two or more sports as soccer continues to grow across the country as well as in tiny Texas towns.
These are the kind of progressive, growing pains I look forward to keeping track of in the future.
–wt–RHS 2017 graduate Josh Springer became a champion for the second year in a row. This time, it was with University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Crusaders at the Stagg Bowl in Shenandoah. UMHB beat the Mt. Union Raiders from Alliance, Ohio, 24-16 to claim the NCAA Division III championship.
Springer, a free safety, had three tackles in five games his freshmen season in Belton. He was the starting safety for the 2017 state champion Rockdale Tigers and had 138 tackles his senior season. This was the Cru’s second championship in three years.
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