Prestonwood wins Fort Worth Southwest Christian Tournament and PCA SUCCESS

Looked like some stiff competetion.

TimeToStepUp don't hate these guys can play with most 4A & 5A teams around the METROPLEX.

So why don't they? Scheduling is done by the coach.

Prestonwood might have the most talent of or any HS team in area or state. It can't be any fun to just walk over less talented private schools. I know these kids would love to play the big 5a schools but that doesn't look like its going to happen anytime soon. To my knowledge they have run ruled
every team they have played....

I know that they have tried to play most of the Plano Schools but have they have been refused for some reason or the other. It takes schools that would like to play Prestonwood also. I think they would play any team that invited them to play as talented as they are. I believe they were 4-1 last year against 4A and 5A Public Schools. I think they returned 7 starters and had a few great additions this season. I hear they are a much improved team this year.

quote:

Originally posted by Natural:
So why don't they? Scheduling is done by the coach.

Natural in my opinion they have the same challenge as all private schools not playing in UIL. No one will schedule them. I'm sure TCA has the same challenge. They get in a few tournaments but schools are not going to schedule on a regular basis.

Most people that know the kids there expect them to win a state title. But labeling anything but a championship as an underachievement is a bit drastic, don't you think? There are other good private school pitchers and all it takes is an upset in one game. They don't hand out the trophies and medals in February, do they?

I'd like to see East play Prestonwood, just because we know a lot of the kids on the team and because we attend church there. But, I understand why some public schools are relunctant. If the 5A schools wins, people say, "well, duh -- they have 5000 kids." If the small private schools wins, people say, "what's wrong at East?" Prestonwood has played 6-7 games -- the public schools have had 3-5 scrimmages -- there's a bit of a difference in the state of the teams' preparedness as well.

I think Prestonwood played in a few public school tournaments last year -- and showed well. In my opinion, they would have the same challenges this year....and in the future.

Go Lions -- Go Panthers!

-PD

I am sure that the players would rather play the best teams. The players on this team are used to playing the top competition on their summer teams. All the starting lineup play on the top select teams-Dallas Tigers,DBAT,Mustangs, and Dallas Giants.
All of the games that they have played in this year so far have had a minimum of 5 with as many as 20 Pro Scouts looking at Rupp primarily as well as Hill, Paterson and Swagerty. They can only show up to play who is there. The Coach of Prestonwood wants the best competition available. Remember on the other hand Prestonwood only has about 175 boys in the whole Senior High. Public Schools do not want to play SMALL PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

The East/West games will be fun this year -- good luck to the Wolves SS, other than......well, you know.

BAAAAACK -- I agree that there are several great HS players at PCA.....and some good ones.....and pages and pages of gawdy private schools stats.

The scheduling is done by the coach in the offseason, and it looks like in this particular instance, this coach might be more concerned with having a winning record than playing good competition.

I know for a fact, Prestonwood was in the Frisco Tournament of Champions last year, and this year they are not. If the coach really wanted to he could get games with upper tier area public schools.

Last season, I particularly enjoyed following Argyle Liberty Christian who I saw play a ton of the area's top programs including:
Newman Smith, Southlake Carroll, Highland Park, Flower Mound, Denton Ryan, Ft. Worth Arlington Heights, to name a few; and in fact, they beat up on a lot of those teams, as Prestonwood would be capable of doing this year.

Liberty was able to get games with the top programs, and I would assume they just made a few phone calls to do so. It is a shame to see a team with so much potential (Prestonwood) play a weak schedule in order to boost their record. They have all of this potential, however no one will know just how good they are if they don't play some of the top tier teams in the metroplex.

Prestonwood may have the best team in North Texas, no matter what clasification. Give them their props.

I'm really going to try to get out and see them play.

BAAAACK,
You are just plain wrong about public schools not wanting to play SMALL PRIVATE SCHOOLS. PCA pulled out of the tournament in Frisco in which they would have played top competition. If PCA wants to play 4A & 5A teams, play them in tournaments. That is what schools like Dallas Christian, TCA, and the Houston Private Schools do.

Playing weak competition only makes your stats and record look good; and does little to improve your team. The better the competition, the better you play.

Prestonwood has quality players and I'll give them their props. Players don't make the schedule, they play who's on the schedule.

Like others have said, if you want to play with the big boys; there's plenty of opportunity. Lots of good tourneys over the next 3 weeks.

LT - I missed meeting you on Saturday -- I was snoring through the scrimmage, trying to stay warm. I'm glad they finally called it after 10 innings.

quote:

Natural in my opinion they have the same challenge as all private schools not playing in UIL. No one will schedule them. I'm sure TCA has the same challenge. They get in a few tournaments but schools are not going to schedule on a regular basis.

SWAC - For the record: 15 out of the 20 non-district games TCA plays this year are against 5A and 4A UIL schools. We won't go undefeated, but we will be better for it.

KD - let's tap the brakes here. PCA has a good team, but it is too bad all those scouts are only getting to see them face batting practice pitching. When we scrimmaged for 11 innings the score was 0 - 0.

There is no love-loss (from a sports standpoint) between TCA and PCA -- a nice little rivalry developing, despite the current size difference. And don't even ask parents from each about the schools!

Oh - and 20 NON-DISTRICT GAMES! WOW -- why join the UIL???

PD - what is odd about 20 non-district games? We play in 3 tournaments that will yield 15 games (all vs. 4A & 5A schools)+ 5 other non-district games sprinkled in + 12 district games.

Just wondering - what exactly is the size difference between TCA and PCA?

In the upper school, TCA only has 455 students, which means they have about 200 boys (since there are always more girls in private schools). Most of the schools in our district are 2-3 times our enrollment. What is PCA's enrollment these days?

Natural -- I was just assuming (you know what that means) that the TAPPS classifications are based on enrollment numbers. I could be totally loco. Correct me if I'm wrong. I have a feeling you know the numbers much better than I do -- we have friends at each, but I have set foot in neither school. You're right, the non-district game-counts are not that much different -- (3 in UIL). We don't usually get 15 tournament games, that's all.

I'm really not trying to strike any nerves here.

PDiddy - what's the deal with the "post-o-meter"? I was stuck on 199, now on 200!

quote:

There is no love-loss (from a sports standpoint) between TCA and PCA -- a nice little rivalry developing

I have heard of that rivalry called the Battle of the Best Teams Money can Buy.

Size Prestonwood had about 85 students per grade last year.

PD - No nerves struck here! You are right that TAPPS classifications are based on enrollment EXCEPT that you can petition to play UP which TCA has always done (John Paul did so this year as well) so the rest of the 6A schools are larger than TCA.

Makes it even more satisfying when we win STATE like 2006!

BAAAACK -- speak for yourselves.... no scholarship players on our roster.

Gotta go boys... need to get over to the sign shop and order banners in time to get them up for the Newman Smith tournament games to be played at our place in a couple of weeks. Come on out and see TCA vs. McKinney North, Richland and Namaan Forest.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Natural:
PD - No nerves struck here! You are right that TAPPS classifications are based on enrollment EXCEPT that you can petition to play UP which TCA has always done (John Paul did so this year as well) so the rest of the 6A schools are larger than TCA.


TAPPS
General Alignments:
6A Enrollment average 425 and up (23 schools)
5A Enrollment average 200- 424 (32 schools)
4A Enrollment average 120- 199 (32 schools)
3A Enrollment average 81- 119 (38 schools)
2A Enrollment average 50- 80 (49 schools)
1A Enrollment average – 49 (60 schools)

Natural- Maybe TCA should play 7A if they still are playing up. If they have 450 like you say they do.

Better yet, they should just put their best 9 on the field.

According to TAPPS membership directory....

TCA enrollment 481
PCA enrollment 425
Bishop Lynch enrollment 1,040
John Paul enrollment 494

Classifications are currently set through 2007-2008 seasons

So....size is........never mind....Plano East is the largest HS in Texas and -- as the football sites like to repeat on an all too frequent basis -- has never won a state championship (26 years). I don't think bowling is a UIL sport, yet.

The point is....it's silly to argue classification versus classification. If the year-end tournaments don't decide the best single team in any sport, then being state champs in each classification should be special enough. Concerning bragging rights, that's a parents' thing. The coaches and players don't seem to care much. If the players at PCA or TCA or IOU don't like their level of competition, they can always transfer.

Play for your school, your teammates, your coaches, and yourself -- and because you love the game....or at least some part of it.

Wait a minute...who brought up size/classifications anyway?

East is the largest school in the state? I didn't know that....I guess you learn something new every day...

quote:

Originally posted by Panther Dad:
So....size is........never mind...

PD, I timidly approach the moderator.

I take heart in possibly size not mattering... based on that BL score I saw Saturday.

Let the eraser fly!

It was an ugly linescore to review too, Cris!

CS -- I know you'd never brag....I meant it as a generic term.

Go....ummm....go....baseball!

BAAACK --- "6A - 425 AND UP" --- as I said, most of the 6A schools are 2-3 times larger (FW Nolan, BDunne, BLynch etc.)

And our coach has no problem playing our best nine.

quote:

Originally posted by Natural:
BAAACK --- "6A - 425 AND UP" --- as I said, most of the 6A schools are 2-3 times larger (FW Nolan, BDunne, BLynch etc.)

And our coach has no problem playing our best nine.

Yes, but you have one of the greatest coaches around! Lucky!

Now, PD, size is EVERYTHING.

BAAACK,

The entire enrollment discussion was in reply to a question from Panther Dad, and I agree has nothing to do with the topic. As for playing tough competition, the entire point of this discussion is strength of schedule. No one can control how good the teams are in their own district (or classification for that matter), but a coach can control who his team plays outside of district. And that is where the two coaches differ drastically in their approach.

Enjoy your season.


"The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, And before honour is humility."

--Proverbs 15:33

TCA, Dallas Christian and Nolan usually play a about 50% of their schedules against UIL 4A and 5A schools (last season Nolan played 15 games against UIL 4A and 5A teams, going 8-6-1). It is a good question why Prestonwood, who may have the best private school team in DFW is not playing a better schedule.

Hopefully in the near future, Texas will go away form separate public and private school classifications and combine both into one. It works for most other states, it should work in Texas.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by glhamda:
I also know that a few of the parents were furious that PW did not play in the tournament of champions. They decided to play in th FW Christian tournamant.

After reading this response, I decided to find out what the truth is.

All the hype about us "backing out" of the RoughRider tournament so that we could play in the FW Southwest tournament and pad our record. It wasn't even the same weekend, so what are you talking about. It would be good if you knew the facts first before popping off. I would like to set the record straight and tell you why we "had" to pull out of the tournament, because it was the same weekend this year as our tournament, March 8-10. The Coach even suggested to our school to cancel our tournament for one year so that we could still play in the RoughRider tournament, but they would not let our Coach do that. Being a private school and not receiving State funds PCA needs a fund raiser to help fund the baseball program. We were also scheduled to play in the Lake Highland tournament this year, but it was also the same week as ours and the RoughRider. Unfortunately, this was the only weekend we could play our tournament due to school conflicts, mission trips and the earlier start of district play. The Coaches, team,parents, students and fans would have loved to play in a UIL tournament but the only invitations we got were form Lake Highlands and the RoughRiders.
And by the way PCA plays in the fall league with the UIL schools. PCA had the best record but was unable to play in the playoffs due to a school conflict. PCA also played in the Flower Mound Marcus Tournament in the Fall.

PCA SUCCESS
It's not worth even getting into a discussion any more about scheduling but just remember the success PCA is having now and in the past. It's usually jealous parents and kids who just want to run their mouths because of our success. Any time a program is successful, somebody wants to find a fault in it. The fact is, the only game we lost to a 5A UIL school last year was to Flower Mound and we started our #5 pitcher against them. The other 4 games we won defeating (SPRING KLEIN) this years State favorite. This year got messed up due to our expanding district. Adding 8 district games took away a lot of opportunties to play other schools. The fact is, we didn't back out of the RoughRider tournament to play in the FW Southwest tournament. They aren't even on the same weekend so how valid was that comment. Our Coach was told he could not cancel the PCA Brett Cowart and had to back out so that we could host our tournament that weekend.

The fact is, our Coach's job is to get his players opportunities to play in college and we're doing a great job at that! Whether or not we win State has no bearing on anything. With our one-and-done playoff system, anyone can have a bad game and go home. Look at Midland Christian last year! To my knowledge, 4 of our players have signed already to play college ball next year; 3 going to NCAA D1 Universities! What are the other coaches doing to promote their guys and get them substantial scholarships. Our Coach spends a lot of time on the phone promoting his players to colleges; I'm sure way more than most schools, public and private! Remember, this is only the 6th year of our program and we've had 6 kids sign to play college baseball and a 7th who is playing now after giving up football. Not bad for a young program! By the way our PCA team has had over 100 wins in a very short time.

Maybe parents of athletes looking for a Christian education and not getting the exposure they deserve will and should consider PCA.

Looking forward to that potential Prestonwood vs. Midland Christian matchup for the State title!

I hope PCA's schedule will prepare them for the likes of Midland Christian, 2nd Baptist, Houston Christian, and those folks who do play tough schedules!

LIONS... I tried to put an end to this thread a few posts ago with a gentle reminder from Proverbs...

"The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, And before honour is humility." (Prov. 15:33)

We should all take this advice, go play ball, and remain humble in victory or defeat.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by glhamda:
The real baseball junkies like me are not jealous and do not just run our mouths as I very rarly comment on these boards. In fact, I am very happy for all of the boys that have signed. Except one, I know them & thier families personnaly. I hope they win state.
Go Wolves, PCA (&TCA)


I think it would be an understatement to say that I wasn't a little thin skinned about this. Every player ,coach and parent wants to play the best. When the end of the regular season comes and teams play practice games to get ready for the playoffs I hope that PCA can play the best team in the area.

I want TCA to win 6A and PCA to win 5A and West to be successful. I think most of the players on TCA,PCA and West know each other.

I look forward to the Roughrider Tournament every year but it just did not work out this year. It is a great tournament with very good competition.

quote:

The fact is, our Coach's job is to get his players opportunities to play in college...

I'm not sure I agree with that comment, but it's for another topic at another time.

DH, you forgot "Go Panthers!"

Beating NF is a nice win --- losing game 2 must have been tough considering how well Mark pitched. See you guys soon.