Speaker 1: 0:00

This episode brought to you by Tequila Comos luxury tequila refined Ask for it by name at Pogos, specs or your favorite liquor store. And Stuart Arango oral surgery Learn more at SAoralsurgeonscom. And Kathy L Wall State Farm Agency Learn more at KathyLWallcom. Welcome to the Bubble Lounge. I'm Martha Jackson, and happy spring break everyone. I hope you're having a wonderful week off and enjoying time with family and friends.

Speaker 1: 0:34

Well, spring is one of the busiest times at Highland Parks for our sports. We all tend to think that once football is over, that we kind of have a slow time coming up, but that's absolutely not the case. Spring is a very busy time for most of our sports. Soccer is on fire right now. The girls just won their district championship. These are on a winning streak, having only lost one game this entire season. They are crushing it. We also have swimming and diving, who are really doing an amazing job. Ruhan Zhu just won fourth place at state in the 100 meter breaststroke, and Angelina Wong is a regional champion and won fifth place at state in the 100 meter backstroke. But that's not all. Moving on to wrestling, carter Bumgardner, ryan Wright, noah Morse, eli Hoth all competed in the state meet.

Speaker 1: 1:25

If there's one thing we know about Highland Park. We produce exceptional athletes, but that's not the only news that we have going on right now. You may have heard, highland Park is leaving 6A and going back to 5A. This is a really big change for us, in a very complicated process. So I invited coach Lonnie Jordan, athletic director of Highland Park ISD, to come and join me today to explain what all this means for Highland Park.

Speaker 1: 1:48

Hey, friends, if you love this episode or you're a fan of the Bubble Lounge podcast, follow us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Just tap the follow button at the top of the screen if you're a fan of the Bubble Lounge. And, even better, send me a text message with the word bubble to 469-757-2500. Just open your messages, type in my number, 469-757-2500, with the message bubble. Once you send me a text, I will add you to our list and send you a text message whenever a new episode is published. So follow us on Apple Podcasts and make sure to send me a text so you'll never miss an episode. Thank you for being here, coach Jordan.

Speaker 2: 2:28

Well, thank you, Martha. I appreciate you guys having me out.

Speaker 1: 2:31

Well, it is the spring and there is a lot going on at Highland Park in regards to sports, and we've got a lot to talk about today.

Speaker 2: 2:38

It is. You know springtime is the busiest time of year in athletics. So it's funny that you know, when we finish up a fall season and football ends and volleyball ends, you know people will ask me well, what are you going to do now? You have all this time off and you know, once we come back from Christmas break, we have more programs, more kids involved. You know more parents that are passionate about their kids. I mean, it is a Highland Park is alive right now in athletics and so it's a lot of fun. It's very busy, but there's certainly something for everybody to do.

Speaker 1: 3:17

Well, I've noticed that on social media. I can't even keep up with the post right now because it's just constantly. You know, this team is winning and this is doing this and they have a game tonight. There's so much to keep up with.

Speaker 2: 3:27

Yeah, so we've got. I mean, you know, we've got baseball tournaments going on on campus. We've got groups that are leaving in tournaments off campus. We've got soccer games on Tuesday nights and Friday nights. We'll always have some type of home venue. You know, softball has been playing a lot of games. Track and field is active right now. We've got tennis teams that are that are playing, and so it's just. It is a busy, busy time and it's a lot of fun for kids and parents.

Speaker 1: 3:55

Well, and it just never stops, does it? Well, there's some really big news that Highland Park is going back to 5a from 6a, and everyone wants to know about it. I've had a lot of people ask me to do this episode, including Lieutenant Lance Coppa from Highland Park, so we can't let him down.

Speaker 2: 4:10

Absolutely, not Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 4:12

Well, tell us what's going on. First of all, can you explain about the UIL, because I found a lot of people don't know what it is. I've been reading up on it a lot lately.

Speaker 2: 4:21

Okay, so so the UIL is our governing body. It's a university inter-scholastic league. They they set all our rules and guidelines and constitution for our athletics. They also do it for fine arts, and so when you hear about UIL contests or UIL state championships, that's a group of folks in Austin that have been elected to be where they are and and they oversee all the things that we do from a public school perspective in regards to, you know, to competition, and so it's a great organization. They've, you know they're, they're active lobbying for the things that are important for for athletics in the state of Texas, and so we have.

Speaker 2: 5:12

I've got I mean, I've got a lot of respect for, for them and the job they do. They. They help to keep athletics a level playing field for all schools, whether you're, you know, whether you're in Highland Park or in the Valley or whatever, we all have the same set of rules. They are also they work side by side with the TEA. So from an education perspective, the UIL is heavily involved in that. You know, all of our coaches have to be full-time teachers and then are employed by the district, and so there's a lot of rules around that as well. But, but nevertheless, the UIL sets our calendar, they set our, they set the state championship dates, they run all of the state championship tournaments or games and then they work back off the calendar to create start dates for each program and creating equity and that sort of thing. So it's a great organization. We're lucky to have them and happy to answer any more questions you have about them.

Speaker 1: 6:13

Well, how does this compare to club sports?

Speaker 2: 6:16

Well, it's completely different. We, you know, our, our rules and regulations are set at the state level. And then, obviously, you know, you know, going back, I know I've mentioned it but but our coaches have to be certified through the UIL, all of our. You know, if you're going to play at a school in the state of Texas, then there is a process and procedure that you have to go through in order to play for that, for that school. You have to live in the attendant zone there's, there's paperwork and waivers that need to be filled out. There's committees that sit and judge whether or not a move in can play for for your institution. And then, obviously, in a club setting you don't have those types of guidelines.

Speaker 2: 7:00

Right, they're gonna I mean, they're gonna take the best kids they can find from whatever communities they're in. So one of the things that's that's that's kind of special about the UIL is that it is it's helping to create kind of a timeless athletic atmosphere. We want our communities to rally around their school, and so we want kids that are in our communities, neighbors and classmates. We want those folks playing for Highland Park, and so the UIL helps create that. But a club sport, you know, they pop up in their organizations. You know they're everywhere. Obviously those coaches are paid directly by the families of the kids that are on their teams. You know they have whatever their tryout process processes are, that they typically do. But again they'll pull kids from everywhere and then there would be a fee for those kids to be a part of that. And then you know, here we can't you know our coaches can't take money from boosters, so they have to be paid through the district in association with their with their teaching assignment.

Speaker 1: 8:09

Right, that was a really good explanation. Thank you for that. So you were talking about just being on a level playing field and the UIL recalibrates all the schools every two years. Is that correct?

Speaker 2: 8:21

That is correct. Every two years we go into what's called a realignment process and with the growth of schools or the decline in enrollment of schools across the state of Texas, you know those need to be adjusted. Every couple years. You've got new schools popping up, you know that are opening, and so they have to find a place where they fit in.

Speaker 2: 8:42

Again, all of this goes into a regional format. Well, obviously there's a district and then a regional format, and then they can base how to create state championships off of that, and so every two years you go into a, you know, a realignment and we've just completed that. It is also helps to create as much equity as they can amongst the schools in that division, and so we've been 6A and competed very well at 6A level, and now we're back down to 5A. So our numbers, our enrollment, dropped from the last two years and that put us in 5A, and so we're really excited. We've got some new schools that we'll be playing and you know excited about creating new rivalries and playing some different communities, and so it'll be a lot of fun. It'll be a lot of fun moving forward.

Speaker 1: 9:36

Well, I just find it interesting that a matter of just 81 students can make us into 6A and bring us back to 5A. I mean that is a very low number of people.

Speaker 2: 9:45

Yeah, well, when we were right on, we were right on the bottom edge of 6A, and so we were one of the smallest schools in 6A. And of course you go back to the UIL trying to create equity. We're playing, we had 20, and I don't have the number in front of me let's say, 2,400 students or 2,500 students, whatever Highland Park was two years ago, and we're playing schools that have 6,000 students or more and the cutoff, just it's not arbitrary. They really look at all the enrollments across the state and they have snapshots of everyone's enrollment, and so, nevertheless, we fell at the bottom of 6A and so it was really quite an accomplishment for us to compete at the level we did over the last two years. And so now we drop down into 5A and we'll be one of the larger 5A schools.

Speaker 2: 10:44

And so when you look at it across the board, whether it's football or basketball or track and field, the thing that really changes for us is going to be how our program's depth lines up with the folks that we're playing. So the athletes in 5A are very, very good, and the top tier programs are still going to be they'll be as good as the top tier 6A programs. I believe that the difference is is they're not going to have the amount of depth that, say, an Allen or a Prosper have, and so it puts us again on a level playing field where you know we've got great athletes that compete at a very high level, but the depth, you know, doesn't always match up. Well, now, in 5A, I think that it will, and so it's really exciting to get to line up and compete against these other towns that are about our size.

Speaker 1: 11:45

Yeah, yeah. Well, it sounds great. I'm really looking forward to the season starting. But one thing that I found interesting that I was reading is that a team can choose to stay at the higher level even though, student body wise, they're eligible to level down and they have to go in front of the UIL and be voted on. But I found that just kind of interesting.

Speaker 2: 12:07

Well it is, and I think originally you know that a lot of things factor into a realignment and it doesn't affect us as much. But if you're in a multi-school district and you've got two 6A schools and two 5A schools and they get put in different districts, that's a lot of organization within that school district. And then when you start thinking about travel, you know that's an added cost to a school district. And so when you get put into different districts and travel may be one of those things that's just not financially doable for a school district. And so they gave them the opportunity to opt up so that they could keep all of their schools in a geographic district.

Speaker 2: 12:59

And so you know you may be alluding to say DeSoto. Right, well, desoto is a single, it's a one horse town, right, single school district. But they do. I mean, once you allow a school to opt up, you have to allow all schools to opt up. And so, yes, that rule exists and DeSoto has been competing. Of course they're the defending state champions in football, they've done great in basketball and track, and so I think they wanted to keep their alignment where it was as far as their kind of geographic competition. They've got some great rivalries there, and so I think they've decided to do that. Plus, when they look at the option of okay, if you go down to five A, you may be going to Lufkin or Tyler or wherever that is, then they start factoring in just the cost of travel.

Speaker 1: 13:49

Right, right. Well, all of this redistricting sounds extremely complicated. Like I said to you before we started recording, I can only imagine the hours of meetings you've had and just the whole process. Can you walk us through what it's been like on your end?

Speaker 2: 14:03

Well, it was really. It was unique for us. The district came out and it was not something that we had expected, which a lot of times I'm going on 30 years in the business now and I think I don't know that I've ever been through a realignment and I said, well, that makes sense. So we got put into a district with Cleburne and Joshua and Middle Othien and Red Oak and then on out to Tyler and Lufkin, and so, if you watched or kept up with it at all, lufkin had appealed the decision to be put in our district. They were closer to a 17 district that was in Beaumont, and so they appealed and the UIL upheld it.

Speaker 2: 14:51

So the problem that gave us was when realignment came out on February 1st, we were not able to set a schedule because we didn't know if Lufkin was going to be on our schedule or not. We had to wait until February 21st and on February 21st the appeals committee for the UIL met. They allowed Lufkin out of our district and allowed them to enter a district in Beaumont, which created an issue for us in regards to filling out our schedule, because most everybody in the state of Texas already had their schedules filled at that time. We were able, however, to find a team up in Colorado that's going to come down and play us. So Cherry Creek, I believe, is the name of the school, very successful school in Colorado and in 2024, they will travel down here and play us at Highlander Stadium. So we're excited about that.

Speaker 1: 15:47

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Speaker 1: 16:34

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Speaker 1: 17:30

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Speaker 2: 18:43

Okay, well, martha, we have a lot of different districts that we will be competing in throughout the year, and so it really depends on what sport it is Football typically will have. They'll have district assignments come out that are specific only to football, and so our football district will be 7-5-A. Our opponents next year will be Burleson, centennial, cleburne, joshua, midlothian, red Oak and then Tyler, so we'll get to make a trip out to East Texas. That is the football district We'll be competing in, region 2. And so, anyway, we're excited about that. It's again a lot of new opponents, but it'll be a lot of fun to do that as well.

Speaker 2: 19:30

Now our other programs, our other sports will be lumped into different districts, and so our basketball and volleyball, which is what has been posted at this point, so right now, as we have this meeting, we have football districts for the next two years and we've got basketball boys and girls and we have volleyball districts for the next two years.

Speaker 2: 19:51

So our volleyball and basketball districts will be District 12-5-A and we'll compete against Carleton Creekview, carleton Smith, carleton RL, turner, frisco, lone Star, frisco Reedy, frisco Wakeland and then the Colony up in Lewisville, and so that's more of a geographical district for those programs, and so we're excited about that. Now our other sports have not been announced yet. So we're waiting, and I think this week and it's March 7th today so I'm hoping that by tomorrow we'll have an answer on districts for Water Polo, cross Country and then Team Tennis, and then, as we get further into spring so by April 1, I think we'll have districts for Swim and Dive, wrestling, soccer and then our softball and baseball program. So we're still you know there's some anticipation about that to find out who those programs will be playing.

Speaker 1: 20:49

Still a lot of work to be done. I wish you guys could see the amount of paperwork that he brought and the charts and the graphs and all the papers he has in front of us right now. It's a lot of information and, like I said, this looks very complicated to me. Well, so what about non-district games? How does that work? Because there's always a couple of extras thrown in and we mentioned Cherry Creek earlier from Colorado's coming down. What others are going to be in the mix?

Speaker 2: 21:15

Well, I don't have all my schedules in front of me right now. I know that we're playing from a football standpoint. We've got Rockwall Heath, we'll play first week of the season next year. Right, we have Lovejoy, which will be a great matchup between Randy Allen and Todd Dodds it's a lot of fun to watch. We've got Cherry Creek coming from Colorado, and then we'll play Jesuit. So you know, they're there again still 6A, but we've got. We're working on scheduling a game at SMU versus Jesuit for the next year. So that'll be a lot of exciting, a lot of exciting football. As far as volleyball and basketball, we haven't set those schedules yet as far as what non-district will be, but you know. But typically that gives you the opportunity, because you can't do anything about your district schedule once that's set. But your non-district schedule gives you an opportunity to play teams that are closer to where you, so you don't have to travel as much. And then maybe, you know, keep some old rivalries going, and so it's going to be. It's going to be a really fun two years.

Speaker 1: 22:32

Well, how does that work, though? Do you? Do you reach out to the other coaches and invite them to come down?

Speaker 2: 22:37

Yes.

Speaker 1: 22:37

Like there's a little back and forth there, I'd imagine there is.

Speaker 2: 22:40

It's a lot of negotiation, you know. And then you have to determine OK, what year are we home and what year are we away? We try to balance our schedules as much as we can. We. And again, it doesn't matter where you are. If you're Rockwall Heath or Allen Park, you want to have five home games if you can, and it doesn't always work out that way, but but we work really hard to do that. There is a lot of negotiation that goes into it, a lot of phone calls. You'll have a list. It's kind of like a war room and you know, when you finish, when you finish a football season and you start going into off season, it's, you know, the coach's office will look a little bit like a war room as you're going into realignment because you've you've reached out to certain schools, other schools have reached out to you. Some people will not play, you you know. And then, and then of course you get into situations where you have to go out of state sometimes to find opponents.

Speaker 1: 23:32

Wow, like I keep saying, very complicated process. So, coach Jordan, you've been a football coach before. You spent a lot of time out on the field. We love our football here in Texas and the division looks like a lot of really tough teams that we're playing. You had mentioned Lovejoy. They actually have a new coach now. Some people might not know who you're referring to, but Todd Dodge is the former coach for Southlake Carroll, which was always a really tough team. So Lovejoy, I feel like, is going to be a tough one to watch out for. But how do you feel we're going to measure up this year?

Speaker 2: 24:05

Well, I'll be honest with you, it is. It's a very exciting time to get to again to play new opponents and being in the new landscape of 5A. I haven't been, so this will be my first go around in 5A. I've been a 6A coach for a long time. I coached some smaller schools, but to be in 5A is exciting for me.

Speaker 2: 24:30

I know the last time that Highland Park was there, we experienced a lot of success, and so I know a lot of people are really excited about not just football but across the board, about our ability to match up with a level of competition that's out there, and I'm excited about it. I don't have a crystal ball in it and I hate to prognosticate too much, but I feel really good about the way that our kids compete and, as we mentioned earlier, you're going to be on a level playing field with a bunch of programs in regards to numbers of kids, and so, as we do that and the experience that I've gotten here at Highland Park over the last year not to mention the years that I was able to compete against Highland Park I've really got more of an inside view of how our kids compete and it's amazing the work ethic they have the tenacity, the grit and so we're going to get to take that out of 6A and put it back down in 5A. And it is exciting. But I'll tell you there are some great programs in 5A that would compete against anybody, compete very well against anybody at the 6A level. And then, just from a district standpoint, when we finish up district play and start going into the playoffs, from a football standpoint our by-district game is going to be against teams down in Austin. So Cedar Park, georgetown, colleen, leander, that's the direction we'll go for our by-district competition and that'll be the way football is. If you're the district champion, then it'd be a home game, so they'd have to come to us and so hopefully, for whatever reason, it wouldn't be flipped and we'd have to go down there. So hopefully they'll travel up to us.

Speaker 2: 26:23

Once you get to the area around, it's a neutral site and so our area competition is going to be the Friscoes, dallas, carrollton. So we'll be back up this way and then you start going out kind of north and west. So by the time we get to the third round of the playoffs, you're looking at Alito, denton, ryan, richland Hills, white, settlement, brewer. I mean, there's some good, good programs out that way. Even the El Paso schools and Andrews, I mean there's a lot of football that is played at a very high level, and so that'll be the third round of the playoffs before you go back to any kind of semifinal rounds, and so. But how exciting is that to get to travel and see new people and play programs that are you know, I mean from traditionally speaking, they're competing at the highest level maybe they ever have, and so I think it's going to be a lot of fun for Highland Park to get to match up against those programs.

Speaker 1: 27:25

Well, there's no doubt that there's definitely going to be some significant travel involved, and we're not always used to that here at Highland Park. But, guys, we can make it fun. Every time we have our students on the show, they say how important it is to see the stands filled. They want you at their games, they want you at your competitions and it's really important to come out in person and support these guys. So again, please don't let the travel scare you away from actually going to the games.

Speaker 2: 27:51

Oh, absolutely yeah, we want everybody there, and so again, it's our community against their community. That's the beauty of UIL athletics and what we're trying to do, and when we show up, we want everybody to know how. And part just got there.

Speaker 1: 28:05

And to find out more, to get the schedules. Once everything is set, where is the best place we can have people go?

Speaker 2: 28:10

We will post schedules Now. As soon as we have schedule set, we'll post them on scotsillustratedcom and so you can go there and you can choose whatever sport you're looking for and there'll be a tab for schedules so you can go down and look at those. I can get our conferences posted up online and so I'll work on that this week to see if by spring break maybe we can't have the conferences posted up there. You can also go if you just want to look at statewide organization. You can go to the UIL, go to their realignment tab and then, and then you can look down and find where, how in park is and who will be playing.

Speaker 1: 28:48

And I'll include links to all the things that we're talking about here. Well, Coach Jordan, I cannot thank you enough for taking time out of your very busy schedule and joining me today. This was such wonderful information that I know is going to benefit a lot of people.

Speaker 2: 29:00

Well, this is a lot of fun. You guys are always great. I appreciate the job you do, the work you do for our community and the way you support our kids, and thank you so much for having me out.

Speaker 1: 29:10

Absolutely. That's been another episode of the Beva Lounge. I'm Martha Jackson and we'll catch you next time.

Speaker 2: 29:15

Go Scots.