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well this year they will likely win their conference and go into the playoffs in football, basketball and baseball - as well as win state in several of the "country club sports" - so not sure what your point is.

Well the thread was discussing HP football originally and as usual the thread was sidetracked, no big deal.

1983 Cotton Bowl wrote:At least two of the best players SMU has ever had came from HP. And of course more recently Matthew Stafford. But on the whole, I don't see HP as turning out a large crop of D-1A talent year after year.

I can think of three really quick off the top of my head. But they don't turn out a large crop of D-1A talent year after year compared to who? Certainly better than the average 4A school, I would think.

Here are some numbers.

Ignoring 3A on down, there are about 600 5A and 4A schools. Those 600 schools produced 345 D-1A signees this year -- an average of .575 recruits per team. Adding back in 3A, 2A, 1A, Private I bet you get down to about half a recruit per year per team.

Now somebody with Rivals access tell me how many D-1A signees there were from Highland Park in the last decade. I am going to guess it's more than one every two years.

Not a lot of effort gone into the research here, sure not going back 10 years but working from memory and checking a couple of current rosters this is what I get:
Charlie Berry - SMU can't remember his year
Class of 06
Matthew Stafford - GA
Reid Prince - Baylor
Chris Olson - Tech
Alex Cole - Navy (included them because they seem to hand us trouble)
Class of 07
Kelly Turner - SMU
William Webb - walked on to UVA and then SMU
Class of 08 on current rosters
Seth Gardner A&M
Winston Gamso A&M
Luke Woodley A&M
Thomas Draaper Baylor
I'm sure there's more out

Whoaa, forgot about Zach Boyd - SMU from the class of '08

pretty sure all of those 08's are walkons that are not on scholarship - and webb is in that category as well.

What class was sepulvada - the ex HP and baylor punter that now punts for Steelers?

That 06 class had Callahan who is at Princeton also.

Think he was in Charlie Berry's class, but not sure. Think you are right about the walkons except maybe Woodley. Garner was playing baseball at Ark for a while. Morgan Hudnall -SMU- was another 06

Bill Foran who went to Purdue as a qb, decided to transfer to Princeton when he they wanted to switch him to safety the first day he arrived at Purdue. Decent Princeton qb

Obviously HP has produced D1 signee's but lets compare the amount of signees they have had with other schools with similar winning percentages, and My origional point will be demonstrated.(not going to do that work myself)

Your point was that Highland Park lacks "athletes" but instead relies upon a system that produces without them. I'll grant that there aren't a lot of LaDanian Tomlinsons coming out of the Bubble, if that's what you mean by "athlete." But a football team isn't comprised of very many LaDanians. You need a lot more Dave Richards or Chris Olsen types to win.

Anyway, so to follow your point, how does HP compare to Plano, Amarillo, Temple, Corsicana, Mart, Brownwood, Hondo, Wichita Falls, Cuero in terms of D-1A ready talent? Those are the Top 10 all time winningest programs in Texas football history. Or do we need more recent 4a-only competition to compare?

(By the way, as an aside, the walkon angle to this ignores the fact that the overwhelming majority of HP players come from very wealthy families where being a walkon at Texas A&M versus going full ride at La Tech is the chosen route. Every one of the 2008 walkons listed could have gotten a full D-1 ride somewhere).

Ithinklast20yearswouldbe the appropriate sample size, because dominance in the 30-50's in not really relavent, compare them with Trinity, Southlake, ect

But Trinity and Southlake have double the student population as HP from which to select. For a fair comparison, you'd have to stick with 4A powerhouse schools.

By the way, just got an email from the HPISD and here are this year's college football scholarship recipients:

Jake Howeth - NW Missouri State, football
Kyle Stouffer - Central Arkansas, football

No details given on walkon plans for other players.

Calallen High School has been to seven state semifinals and one state final in the past 20 years. They are 4A and enrollment is much smaller than HP (about 1200). Why not use them for comparison purposes?

CalallenStang wrote:Calallen High School has been to seven state semifinals and one state final in the past 20 years. They are 4A and enrollment is much smaller than HP (about 1200). Why not use them for comparison purposes?

Amy Acuff was a decent athlete

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight 145 lb (66 kg)
Event(s) High jump
Club UCLA Bruins
Team USA Track & Field
Achievements and titles
Worlds See table
National finals Outdoor: 1995, 1997, 2001, 2003-2005
Indoor: 2001, 2004-2008
Olympics 2004
Highest world ranking 2nd (2001 Grand Prix)
3rd (2006 World Cup)
Personal best(s) 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in)
August 15, 2003
Amy Lyn Acuff (born July 14, 1975, Port Arthur, Texas) is a track and field athlete from the United States. A high jump specialist, she competed in the 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008 Summer Olympics as a member of USA Track and Field. Her best Olympic performance came at the 2004 Games, where her jump of 1.99 m earned her fourth place in the final.

She established herself domestically with wins at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 1995 and 1997. At the age of 22, she became the Universiade champion, edging out Monica Iagăr in the 1997 high jump final. Acuff was the winner of the 1998 Hochsprung mit Musik meeting in Arnstadt, Germany, becoming the first non-European winner in the history of the event. She went on to win at the national championships in 2001, 2003, and 2005.

Her personal best is 2.01 m, which she achieved in Zürich on August 15, 2003.

While in high school in 1993 she was named the named the national Girl's "High School Athlete of the Year" by Track and Field News.[1]


[edit] Competition recordNational Scholastic Indoor Champion: 1991, 1992
Pan-Am Junior Champion: 1993
NCAA Indoor Champion: 1994, 1995, 1997
NCAA Outdoor Champion: 1995, 1996
U.S. Outdoor Champion: 1995-1997, 2001-2007
U.S. Indoor Champion: 2001, 2004, 2007-2008
International events (finalist or qualifier) Event Rank Height
(m) Location Date
World Junior Championships 9 1.85 Seoul 1992-09-19
World Championships 8 1.93 Gothenburg 1995-08-13
World University Games 1 Sicily 1997-08
World Championships 6 1.92 Athens 1997-08-08
IAAF Grand Prix Final 6 1.93 Fukuoka 1997-09-13
World Championships 9 1.93 Seville 1999-08-29
Summer Olympics 17 1.80 Sydney 2000-09-28
World Indoor Championships 4 1.96 Lisbon 2001-03-09
World Championships 10 1.90 Edmonton 2001-08-12
IAAF Grand Prix Final 2 1.96 Melbourne 2001-09-09
World Indoor Championships 10 1.92 Birmingham 2003-03-16
World Championships 9 1.90 Saint-Denis 2003-08-31
Summer Olympics 4 1.99 Athens 2004-08-28
IAAF World Athletics Final 6 1.95 Monaco 2004-09-18
World Championships 8 1.89 Helsinki 2005-08-08
World Indoor Championships 13 1.90 Moscow 2006-03-11
IAAF World Athletics Final 5 1.94 Stuttgart 2006-09-09
IAAF World Cup 3 1.94 Athens 2006-09-17
World Championships 12 1.94 Osaka 2007-09-02
IAAF World Athletics Final 5 1.94 Stuttgart 2007-09-22
World Indoor Championships 6 1.95 Valencia 2008-03-09
Summer Olympics 9 1.89 Beijing 2008-08-21