🏈 Updyke: The gift that keeps on giving...

[Sgt. Lincoln Osiris]

I've coached a number of soccer games in your stadium. Good Lord! You guys need a new field! That is the biggest crown I have ever seen! That exposed drain on the sideline isn't a real danger to football players, but it is to soccer players.

Granted it's been about nine - ten years since I've been in your stadium, but on the plus side, most of your parents there are pretty good and calm people, not banshee idiots like a certain school east of Auburn.

You haven't seen Tuscaloosa County HS old football field. If it ever substantially snowed here, you could sled from the hashmarks to the sideline.

I coached ball at Sipsey Valley for the first 4 years it was open. And they didn't finish the stadium till a year after I bowed out of coaching, so we had to play on that old County High field (now Echols Middle School). A tackle anywhere near our sideline could cause major injury to folks on the sideline because of the downhill momentum of an inside out tackle. Which is why you would see any number of us scatter like roaches when a tackle was coming near us.

Tuscaloosa now has a semi-pro team that is set to play on that field. Yikes.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

@planomateo and @Birdman37 , I have been living and teaching here in Sylacauga now for the past 18 years. I have seen this small, city school system make some of the most dumb, asinine decisions that would make your head spin. They spent $60k on 2 different occasions for stadium restroom and concessions renovations. Lipstick on a pig!! Pursell Technologies was willing to donate land so the system could build a new school and athletic facilities. All they asked in return was to use the grounds as a showcase for their fertilizers and mowers. What did our BOE do? Rejected it!!! Then they crammed a new middle school, not a new HS, into a 20 acre tract of land with room enough to only add a football field. They had 2 other tracts at a cheaper cost besides the Pursell property!!!

Farm Links isn't enough of a proving ground for them?

 

[UAgrad93]

Thats probably what all schools with that type of money should do, seems like most of these schools with huge budgets have more cents than sense.

We are a 5A, just barely for the longest, now middle of the pack I believe. Dr. Joe Morton, was the superintendent that installed the rotation cycle. He went on to Montgomery and became The Boss over state education. I think the biggest problem is when "booster clubs" individualize by sport and try and throw their weight around because they don't answer to the school. Coaches go to them and say, "the kids need new uniforms or we need 25 new Wilson footballs at $70 a pop and the last 2 gates we had were awful due to the weather and opponent." DONE!

 

[UAgrad93]

Farm Links isn't enough of a proving ground for them?

This was before Farm Links. About 3-4 years before Farm Links really hit the scene. What floored me was our BOE!! "They, Pursell, have ulterior motives. They want somethi else!"
Well, no shit!! They wanted to maintain 2 football fields, softball fields, and baseball fields and show that shit off as a selling tool. Just like Saban displaying his rings and a state of the art football facility to show these hotshot recruits. It would have taken a shitload of work off of the coaching staff!!

 

[It Takes Eleven]

We are a 5A, just barely for the longest, now middle of the pack I believe. Dr. Joe Morton, was the superintendent that installed the rotation cycle. He went on to Montgomery and became The Boss over state education. I think the biggest problem is when "booster clubs" individualize by sport and try and throw their weight around because they don't answer to the school. Coaches go to them and say, "the kids need new uniforms or we need 25 new Wilson footballs at $70 a pop and the last 2 gates we had were awful due to the weather and opponent." DONE!

In Cobb County, GA, when they built the school they paid for the grading of the field and the goal posts. Every other cost was borne by the football booster club (stands, concession building, fieldhouse, grass and upkeep, etc.) I was the president for two years and we had about a $250M annual budget AND the school got the gate. About five or six years ago, Cobb passed a SPLOST that paid for field turf for all county schools, which was the first significant sports support from the system.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

This was before Farm Links. About 3-4 years before Farm Links really hit the scene. What floored me was our BOE!! "They, Pursell, have ulterior motives. They want somethi else!"
Well, no ****!! They wanted to maintain 2 football fields, softball fields, and baseball fields and show that **** off as a selling tool. Just like Saban displaying his rings and a state of the art football facility to show these hotshot recruits. It would have taken a shitload of work off of the coaching staff!!

Gotcha. They have quite the palace in that course now. I think Club Car tests their equipment there, too.

 

[JoshB]

We are a 5A, just barely for the longest, now middle of the pack I believe. Dr. Joe Morton, was the superintendent that installed the rotation cycle. He went on to Montgomery and became The Boss over state education. I think the biggest problem is when "booster clubs" individualize by sport and try and throw their weight around because they don't answer to the school. Coaches go to them and say, "the kids need new uniforms or we need 25 new Wilson footballs at $70 a pop and the last 2 gates we had were awful due to the weather and opponent." DONE!

The school here is 7A and has more money than they know what do with (while all the others starve around them I might add) because of Fort Rucker mainly. Football gets a ton of support from the booster clubs (QB club mainly) while the other sports are meant to fend for themselves. The lack of support the basketball team gets is really deflating. I know basketball will never be king in this state but man how can you expect the kids to even want to go out there when 25 people show up to a 7A basketball game? Routinely the visitor side was twice as full as the home side.

 

[planomateo]

:shock:



"The fire in September severely damaged the Magnolia Avenue tree," said Gary Keever, Auburn University horticulture professor. "The appearance of the tree is unacceptable, and we don't believe it will recover within a reasonable time period."
...
"The College Street tree has failed to become established as you can see by dead branches at the top," Keever said. "If it had not been for the fire, though, we would have pruned those branches and continued nurturing both trees."

 

[Sgt. Lincoln Osiris]

:shock:



"The fire in September severely damaged the Magnolia Avenue tree," said Gary Keever, Auburn University horticulture professor. "The appearance of the tree is unacceptable, and we don't believe it will recover within a reasonable time period."
...
"The College Street tree has failed to become established as you can see by dead branches at the top," Keever said. "If it had not been for the fire, though, we would have pruned those branches and continued nurturing both trees."