Logic doesn’t win every argument or overcome all passion and pride in human endeavor.
But there are times when it’s practically irresistible.
We may have reached that point for two local high school football programs, Crystal City and Herculaneum, that have fallen on hard times.
(Editorial time-out: For those of you surprised or even dismayed to see a sports topic in this space, bear with me, this theme goes beyond sports, as I shall explain.)
Crystal City finished the regular season 0-9, the first winless season for the program in a long time (further back than I can check in the records). The Hornets were outscored 370-65, an average score of 41-7.
You can’t judge a football program by one season, but Crystal has trended down for some time. The last winning season was 2011 at 7-3. Since then, the Hornets have gone 11-48. In five years under the current playoff system, they are 0-5, including shutout losses of 39-0, 43-0 and 68-0.
Worse, the turnout numbers are declining. For their Sept. 29 home game against Herculaneum, the Hornets’ roster listed 22 players, more than half of them (12) underclassmen. But only 17 athletes were actually dressed for the game. As any prep football coach will tell you, that’s a painfully (or maybe dangerously) thin squad to throw into varsity battle.
Herky, a proud program that finished 8-4 as recently as 2014, sank to 1-8 in the regular season this year, their one win coming over – you guessed it – Crystal City. The Blackcats were outscored 334-94, or 37-10 per game.
Ugh.
Here’s where logic enters the picture. Another local grid program, Grandview, hit a brick wall a year ago when roster attrition forced the Eagles to cancel the last two games of their season (one of which was forfeited to Crystal City). The school district had two choices for 2017: scale back to a junior varsity-only schedule or shut down the program altogether. They chose the JV route with a plan to move back up to varsity play in 2018 in the I-55 Conference.
It was a logical move based on the circumstances. And it’s paid off. Grandview had 33 players on its roster (freshmen through seniors) and was 6-2 through last week. New head coach Dave Dallas expressed optimism his Eagles would be able to stick to the plan.
So maybe Crystal should retrench to JV-only for a year, like Grandview, right? Makes sense, but there’s another problem.
The Hornets aren’t just getting flooded out on the scoreboard; their artificial-turf field has suffered eight floods since it was installed in 2008. Flood damage forced the team to move all of its 2015 home games to other schools’ stadiums. Insurance has covered nearly all of the cost to replace the turf several times (for a price tag of about $551,000 just in 2016), but now the state insurance program is excluding the field from coverage of any future flood losses.
The school district is turning to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for federal dollars and possible relocation of the field to higher ground, but FEMA has much bigger problems (hurricane destruction in Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico) and is telling Crystal it will have to wait.
Here’s an idea: Crystal City can suspend its football program and form a “cooperative sponsorship” with Herculaneum that would enable Crystal athletes to participate as full-fledged members of the Blackcats. The Missouri State High School Activities Association allows such sports-specific partnerships for situations just like this, where a school with a distressed program, or no program to begin with, can find a home for its athletes who want to play.
De Soto has maintained a football cooperative sponsorship with the Kingston 42 School District for several years.
MSHSAA requires a two-year commitment on sponsorships, but is reducing that to one year starting in 2018. So, Crystal can look at this option as a one-year trial period while it figures out whether it has the location and the resources to construct a new field on higher ground.
The logic is there. But it may not trump school pride. (Yes, “trump” is a verb, too.) I’m guessing Herculaneum would be receptive, to help bolster its player turnout. Crystal, however, would have to swallow hard on reality.
I see similar logic behind a much bigger issue outside of sports. Over the years, the Leader has had reason to talk with firefighters about the best way to improve fire service countywide. Many recommend merger of the various departments and districts as a logical step to help everyone. By sharing resources, communities wouldn’t have to worry so much about being understaffed and underfunded. Redundancies could be eliminated, too, for tax savings.
Same thing with ambulance service. And probably we shouldn’t even bring up the topic, but what about merging Festus and Crystal City? Bet no one has ever thought of doing that (big wink).
Logic isn’t everything, although it’s hard to make sound decisions without it. Whether it can prevail in Crystal’s situation remains to be seen. But when it’s fourth down and 20 yards to go, you punt.
