How area coaches are approaching challenging task of filling out nondistrict TXHSFB schedule during COVID-19 (again)

North Forney’s Randy Jackson has been a head football coach for 21 years, which means, at this point, he’s figured out a lot of the nuances that come with the industry.

Finding non-district opponents for last season and this upcoming one, however, has been a new challenge.

“I think it’s like everything else with COVID-19,” Jackson said. “It’s uncharted waters.”

In the past, under normal circumstances, Jackson and the other Texas high school football coaches would learn what their district alignment looks like and then quickly find handshake agreements with opponents that pit the teams against each other for two years. One game at home, the other on the road.

The pandemic changed that. For example: after last year’s realignment, North Forney was scheduled to play West Mesquite in its season opener the following two seasons. Instead, it had to play state contender Frisco Lone Star last season, and this fall North Forney will open up with Woodrow Wilson.

Jackson said his non-district schedule for this upcoming season was finalized about a month ago. Other teams still haven’t finalized their non-district schedule in what’s become another unique fallout from the pandemic.

Last July, when the University Interscholastic League announced a modified return to football, schools were forced to reassess their schedules. Different areas had different health regulations, putting games with teams in some counties — such as Dallas County teams — in jeopardy.

Teams at the 4A level and below also started a month earlier than 5A and 6A teams. Some originally scheduled games involved significant travel, such as the highly anticipated season opener and first meeting between Southlake Carroll coach Riley Dodge and his father, Austin Westlake head coach Todd Dodge. That game was canceled, but ultimately the teams met in the 6A Division I state championship months later.

With varying factors contributing, many teams were forced to redo their non-district schedules, creating a mad dash for coaches to find opponents.

“It’s just been chaos,” Pilot Point assistant Travis Marsh, tasked with finding new opponents, told The Dallas Morning News last year.

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And the chaos continued into this offseason. That’s because the mad dash, for many teams, involved finding an opponent for last year and last year only. This season’s schedule was kicked down the road.

Even in normal years, scheduling non-district opponents can come down to a science, Melissa coach Matt Nally said.

“You look at this program and you say, ‘That team has an unbelievable running back, well I’m fixing to see an unbelievable running back in Weeks 6 and 9, so I want to see how my defense is going to handle this kid and who’s going to come strike this kid,’” Nally said.

It can be that specific, or a team can schedule a non-conference opponent because they want to play a good team and get tested before district. They could also play a historically underperforming program in the hopes of getting a win.

Those aspirations, however, usually come with two-year agreements. Finding an opponent late last year, and finding a new non-district game on a one-year agreement this year, can put those aspirations into hyper focus, making the pool of possible opponents even smaller.

It can be a headache for coaches, and it’s a scenario first-year Arlington Bowie coach Joseph Sam didn’t want to recreate for others.

Sam, a former defensive coordinator at Mansfield Legacy, was hired at Bowie on March 11 after spending two seasons as the head coach at Fort Bend Hightower. By that point, former Bowie head coach Danny DeArman — now the head coach at Joshua — had already solidified his non-district schedule for this upcoming season.

After he was hired, Sam received phone calls from the non-district coaches Bowie was scheduled to play to see if those agreements were still on. Sam told them they were, even though games against DeSoto, Mesquite Horn, Lewisville and Midland Lee expect to be a tough first-year challenge — something Sam said he isn’t afraid to face.

“In a normal year, even if I was new, I would have to respect the [two-year] agreements,” Sam said. “So I was thinking, why should it change?”

Next February, when realignment resets the landscape of Texas high school football once again, it’ll also give teams a chance to return to two-year agreements for non-district schedules.

“I hope it’s not one-year deals,” Nally said before a brief chuckle, “just because of the fact that it’s such a headache.”

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