Chad Morris named Allen Head Coach

NorthTexasWeLove · April 4, 2021

It's a monopolization of Texas HS sports. No other way to really put it. They should be embarrassed they aren't reeling in titles in everything on an annual basis. Their talent pool is triple in size compared to even its largest peers. Great, they are prideful and their city/town pride can be a focal point around one school. That's their claim, a shaky one at best.

Mean Green Matt · April 4, 2021

2 hours ago, Coach Andy Mac said:

What Allen has done is a travesty. It is shameful that their concept is allowed from the Texas legislature. It is not good for families and most of all the kids.

Allen ISD test scores are almost identical to Frisco which took the complete opposite approach.

VideoEagle · April 4, 2021

While I've never lived in Allen, I worked there for from 88 till 2012. Many of my coworkers talked about the decision to limit to only one high school. The reason was civic unity when compared to Plano. The people who lived in Allen looked at how progressively more divided Plano became as more and more high schools were added. Generally, the newer high schools were in the newer and more socio-economically advanced areas which only increased to divisions between the parts of town. I can't remember his name, but a (now former) Principal made a very passioned speech to the school board to never allow a second high school to keep Allen from ever having the extreme divisions Plano had (and still has). Multiple Moms with whom I worked who knew district officials swore it was not about sports but rather community unity. And, on a Friday night Eagle Stadium is going to have a very high percentage of the total number of high school kids and their parents in one place cheering one team. The academics at Allen are among the best in the state. Niche ranks them as #9 out of 1,029 school districts in the state of Texas.

When explosive growth slowed in Allen and moved to Frisco, that school board looked at Allen and did NOT want to repeat the giant school strategy. In multiple new articles, they said they felt students in Allen had no individual identites in such a giant school and they wanted to avoid that. Because of the explosive growth, almost ALL of Frisco is upper socio-economic - there are no "bad" parts of town. The school board at the time announced they never wanted any high school to be larger than 4A (which because of classification changes is now 5A). Their system works well, too. Niche ranks them as #7 in the state!

Two very different approaches to adding high schools with almost identical results.

GrandGreen · April 6, 2021

Latest numbers I found, was that Allen when you include the separate freshmen school is 6450. The second highest student population is at 4790 at Skyline magnet school

I disagree with the above, Frisco and Allen do not have equal results.

This also is about much more than athletes. You restrict the opportunities for academic honors, student council, UIL events, etc.

Community unity, yes I think Austin, Dallas and Houston ought to take that approach. Allen would have a good time playing those teams.

Stan R · April 6, 2021

On 4/1/2021 at 11:50 PM, Cooley said:

So when will they open more high schools in Allen.? Neighboring Frisco has opened a new 5A school every year. For the past 10 years.I can never respect Allen with their desire to put sports ahead of the general student population. In fact they underform compared to other schools of smaller size.

Completely agree. Inexcusable as a strategy to value sports over student population. This is coming from a huge sports fan too.

Stan R · April 6, 2021

On 4/2/2021 at 6:59 AM, NorthTexan95 said:

Frisco ISD just has a completely different plan. They want too keep schools at 2,000 or less. It's very expensive to build all those schools and some of them are really close to each other.

That's ok if it is expensive... They can afford it (!!) and if they can, then it is the right decision.

NT93 · April 6, 2021

7 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

Latest numbers I found, was that Allen when you include the separate freshmen school is 6450. The second highest student population is at 4790 at Skyline magnet school

I disagree with the above, Frisco and Allen do not have equal results.

This also is about much more than athletes. You restrict the opportunities for academic honors, student council, UIL events, etc.

Community unity, yes I think Austin, Dallas and Houston ought to take that approach. Allen would have a good time playing those teams.

Here are the numbers the UIL used for realignment in 2020. https://www.uiltexas.org/files/alignments/20_22_Rank_1_31.pdf

Edited April 6, 2021 by NT93

MeanGreenDan · April 6, 2021

On 4/3/2021 at 6:17 AM, UNT 90 Grad said:

Of the many parents I know that have kids going to Allen high school, I see a lot of pride. I don’t recall any of them complaining that the school district doesn’t seem to care too much about their kids.

We moved away from Allen for this very reason.