Northbrook High School Football-Coach Cripps Era Over

[Raiders09]

Coach Cripps quit his job as head football coach at Northbrook on Friday. Reasons for him leaving still not sure but friday was his last day at Northrbook. To take over for him looks to be assistant head coach A'jani Sanders.

[grasshopper]

did not see that coming, was it a surprise at nb?keep us posted who takes over and where cripps is going if you find out

[Raiders09]

It was somewhat a surprise but not really. Some players saw it coming after noticing that coach Cripps seemed worn out and tired. When he first arrived at Northbrook he seemed youthful and energetic about the program, but after three seasons he looked stressed during the season and just worn out. But as soon as find out who is the new Head Coach at Northbrook I will be sure to inform you.

[caveman]

Whew!
Good luck Coach Cripps.

[Pearland1]

Terrible news. Sad for the kids at Northbrook. Nothing will change at Spring branch unless they stop open transfer in district. Memorial will be the team all kids want to play football at. just sad.

[Raiders09]

Open transfers isn't really a problem it's just that the students at Northbrook are primarily of Hispanic descent and football isn't a major sport in Latin American countries so a lot of the players don't play because they don't know much about the game. And those that do play either drop the game because of family issues or they get introuble and end up getting kicked out or no longer allowed on the team. Northbrook has a lot of players who had talent that could possibly have been D1 talent but they end up quiting the team, get kicked out for problems out or inside of school, or something else. What would really help athletic competition around the district is having coaches and players inform kids in elementary about football, basketball, baseball, track and other sports and show them how to get involved in those sports. The district could consider starting athletic competition in 6th grade instead of 7th grade and place them in athletics that year instead of P.E., this will allow kids to chose during their 6th grade year which sport they want to pursue or if they want to pursue a sport at all. With more kids informed about sports more will play, thus leading to better competition within SBISD and 18-5A.

[MemorialMustangs]

Terrible news. Sad for the kids at Northbrook. Nothing will change at Spring branch unless they stop open transfer in district. Memorial will be the team all kids want to play football at. just sad.

Believe it or not that isnt the issue at all... Stratford has more talent than we do consistantly... We havent had a D-I signee since Jordan Lake, I think, and that was 4 years ago... Stratford has had Andrew Luck and 2 Defensive linemen and probably more... The real difference in the district is the head coaches and the commitment... Northbrook lives in a soccer heavy area and a much lower class (economicly)... They are very hispanic and I guess that is why soccer is pretty big there... But anyways my point is they have less community support (and when I say this I want to make sure Im not condemning anybody) than Memorial and Stratford... And I think the difference between Memorial and Stratford is the style of football that Coach Koch uses kinda plays to Stratford's weaknesses...

[spartanwall54]

Open transfers isn't really a problem it's just that the students at Northbrook are primarily of Hispanic descent and football isn't a major sport in Latin American countries so a lot of the players don't play because they don't know much about the game. And those that do play either drop the game because of family issues or they get introuble and end up getting kicked out or no longer allowed on the team. Northbrook has a lot of players who had talent that could possibly have been D1 talent but they end up quiting the team, get kicked out for problems out or inside of school, or something else. What would really help athletic competition around the district is having coaches and players inform kids in elementary about football, basketball, baseball, track and other sports and show them how to get involved in those sports. The district could consider starting athletic competition in 6th grade instead of 7th grade and place them in athletics that year instead of P.E., this will allow kids to chose during their 6th grade year which sport they want to pursue or if they want to pursue a sport at all. With more kids informed about sports more will play, thus leading to better competition within SBISD and 18-5A.

regarding kids playing in 6th grade... i know for a fact the SBMSA which has 6th grade football has begun to get more participation from kids zoned to NB and SW... the effects won't be immediate but will be positive for the whole district

[spartanwall54]

) than Memorial and Stratford... And I think the difference between Memorial and Stratford is the style of football that Coach Koch uses kinda plays to Stratford's weaknesses...

Ha ya zone offense doesn't work well against an aggresive defense and a zone/bend but don't break doesn't really work that well against a straight up and down jam it down your throat offense... unless you have the players to back it up like the 2006 team that shut out memorial:D

[dada]

How far is Spring Woods from Northbrook? Has consolidating the two schools ever been discussed?

[spartanwall54]

all in all this just sucks... the Cripps family has had a tremendous impact on the district as a whole and its a shame that the era has come to an end... i could imagine it being frustrating to coach at a school with little community support and inconsistent players... also sucks for NB as they were in an upward trend in terms of competetiveness and without a solid coach like Cripps i feel that will end.

[Raiders09]

Well I just found out Coach Cripps left his position of Head Coach at Northbrook to become an assistant coach at Alief Hastings High School. As of right now the unofficial Head Coach is A'jani Sanders, this will remain until Northbrook finds a someone to replace Coach Cripps or they might give the job to coach Sanders officially; who is a graduate of Northbrook High School and who later attended Notre Dame, where he played Defensive Back.

[Pearland1]

Well I just found out Coach Cripps left his position of Head Coach at Northbrook to become an assistant coach at Alief Hastings High School. As of right now the unofficial Head Coach is A'jani Sanders, this will remain until Northbrook finds a someone to replace Coach Cripps or they might give the job to coach Sanders officially; who is a graduate of Northbrook High School and who later attended Notre Dame, where he played Defensive Back.

What? he left to take an assistant job in another school district. I guest he could not take losing. I have to admire the coach from Spring Woods he has been there a long time and he does not have a good team. Sometimes is not about winning but about the kids you coach.

[CyFallsMom]

Good luck to Craig. I'm thinking Oscar probably left his assistant post as well. NB has not been a good football school for a LONG time - way back when I was at SB possibly (30 years). It can take a toll when you don't have decent participation or effort. Now soccer is another story over there I hear.

Good luck to young Cripps! He will always be young Cripps to me since we first met him when he was - well - a kid!! We wish him the best wherever he is coaching and same for Keith and Oscar.

[Moose Knuckles]

I hope the job goes to Coach Sanders. I know over the years he has had chances to go elsewell, but he stayed loyal to Spring Branch ISD. I hope they reward him with the head coaching position.

[BuckeyeDave]

What? he left to take an assistant job in another school district. I guest he could not take losing. I have to admire the coach from Spring Woods he has been there a long time and he does not have a good team. Sometimes is not about winning but about the kids you coach.

This *seems* like an unnecessary shot at Cripps. Yes, Northbrook and Spring Woods both are bad in football, but at least Spring Woods has shots to win in some sports. Northbrook can be counted on to finish in the lower half of the district in virtually everything (yeah that's mean, but it's the truth).
I think Cripps originally went there to have a positive impact on those kids, and from what I've heard he did. I wish him good luck at Hastings.

[shslb15]

Or maybe he doesn't want to be a head coach at a school where you have to work harder to get kids to come out and play. The demands of being a head coach are huge. I think that maybe the demands of being a head coach aren't something he wants to deal with and rather settle with being an assistant coach.

Best of luck to him and the rest of the Cripps family. I will always remember playing against a Cripps led D while he was at Memorial. He held us to 90 yds total O my sophomore year.

Very unfortunate for NB. Hopefully NB can find a coach that will keep them going up and can keep kids interested. Its only good if all the teams in a district are moving up and becoming competitive.

Sad that the only way I could talk about 18-5A or 19-5A was this sad news, i donno which one it is since it has switched from my freshman year (21-5A my freshman year, 18-5A my soph and Junior year, and 19-5A for my senior I think)

GATA

And to leave everyone with something special, "Men, tonight you gotta play angry like someone broke into your house and stole your cds" - Coach P

[Raiders09]

I do believe coach cripps did get tired of losing and having to work extremely hard to get players to come out and play, but I think he left because it is too much responsibility being a head coach. Not only was he the head coach but the campus athletic director so he had to worry about the other sports and he was a hands on kinda guy. Coach cripps didn't really have an offensive and defensive coordinator. He stressed out on trying to figure out how to run the flex-bone option offense he ran at Northbrook and the defense too, and once in a while an assitant coach would give him tips and ideas but a majority of the time it was all him. So doing all of that is just stress and it most likely kept him away from his family since he tried so hard focusing on the team. I believe would he have given someone else the OC position and the DC position he wouldn't have stressed out so much and would have stayed.


Now that Coach Cripps is gone hopefully Northbrook can get an Offensive coordinator who can install an offense that the Raiders can use that will be successful. Wish Coach Cripps the best of luck.

[GreaterHoustonCoach]

I've always been interested in the stories of SW and NB since the socioeconomic changes made the schools and athletic programs what they are today.

Why can't NB and SW win in football? Is it a program infrastructure thing? Do good coaches shy away from those two programs? And if so, why?

[Pearland1]

SBISD has created this problem. Its call segregation in 2009. The boundary lines drawn by the district keeps Northbrook segregated. The rich white neighborhoods that once were to attended Northbrook were moved to the Memorial high school area. Inside district transfers also does not help Northbrook.

Memorial is 89 % White

Northbrook is 89 % Hispanic

The boundary lines need to be redrawn to stop this segregation in 2009 but this will not happen because the Elite will never let it happen.

[Raiders09]

The actual problem is that there are many old people that live in the neighborhoods surrounding Northbrook and they don't have children. With those people taking up potential homes for new students for Northbrook, the school doesn't get much diversity. Another issue is that a lot of students that are zoned to Northbrook choose to attend other schools such as, Memorial, Spring Woods, Stratford, Westchester, and School Of Choice; that takes a large amount of athletes from Northrbook that could lead the school to success in sports. The main reason students choose to transfer away from Northbrook is the other schools, they go to the middle schools and fill the students with lies about Northbrook not being safe, not being academically at same level as the other schools, recurring violence, and the little chance of athletic success at Northbrook and this leads students away. Northbrook is actually the safest schools in the district, its basically impossible to get in and out of Northbrook. Violence, that hasn't occurred at Northbrook in a good while with such great security in the school has that prevents any incidents. Northbrook is said to have low academic standards but that isn't true. Now I heard that the districts superintendent, Duncan Klussman's son visited all of the High Schools and chose Northrbook over Memorial, Stratford and Spring Woods. So really how bad is Northbrook if the superintendent's son chose to attend the school? But I doubt any of these problems will be fixed, so a way to improve Northbrook's and Spring Woods' athletic programs is to consolidate the schools and make them one.

[MemorialMustangs]

SBISD has created this problem. Its call segregation in 2009. The boundary lines drawn by the district keeps Northbrook segregated. The rich white neighborhoods that once were to attended Northbrook were moved to the Memorial high school area. Inside district transfers also does not help Northbrook.

Memorial is 89 % White

Northbrook is 89 % Hispanic

The boundary lines need to be redrawn to stop this segregation in 2009 but this will not happen because the Elite will never let it happen.

Have u looked at the geography??? All those "rich white neighborhoods" are right next to Memorial... Why would u send them to a school across the district... Like I mean think of SBISD as 4 even quadrants (in area)... Memorial is in the Bottum Right quadrant and Northbrook the Top Right... But why would u send people from the bottum right all the way to the top right other than to make a point... Sure ur right it is kinda segregated, but that is because the boundary is basicly I-10... North of I-10 is the Hispanic part and South is the "white" part... South of I-10 is where Memorial is, North is Northbrook... The only way to unsegregate it would be to essentially create a free for all with no boundary lines... Ur welcome to suggest a solution, but its not like my next door neighbors go to Northbrook and Im too elite for that so they built a boundary around my house... I live real close to Memorial and not near as close to Northbrook... Its more about how the Housing Market has developed and where all the oil people are located than it is about their "boundary lines"... And once again ur overstating the impact of these in district transfers... I only know 1 person that actually got one... And Im not like anti-social or anything...

U really need to look at a map though before saying something like that...

[MemorialMustangs]

The actual problem is that there are many old people that live in the neighborhoods surrounding Northbrook and they don't have children. With those people taking up potential homes for new students for Northbrook, the school doesn't get much diversity. Another issue is that a lot of students that are zoned to Northbrook choose to attend other schools such as, Memorial, Spring Woods, Stratford, Westchester, and School Of Choice; that takes a large amount of athletes from Northrbook that could lead the school to success in sports. The main reason students choose to transfer away from Northbrook is the other schools, they go to the middle schools and fill the students with lies about Northbrook not being safe, not being academically at same level as the other schools, recurring violence, and the little chance of athletic success at Northbrook and this leads students away. Northbrook is actually the safest schools in the district, its basically impossible to get in and out of Northbrook. Violence, that hasn't occurred at Northbrook in a good while with such great security in the school has that prevents any incidents. Northbrook is said to have low academic standards but that isn't true. Now I heard that the districts superintendent, Duncan Klussman's son visited all of the High Schools and chose Northrbook over Memorial, Stratford and Spring Woods. So really how bad is Northbrook if the superintendent's son chose to attend the school? But I doubt any of these problems will be fixed, so a way to improve Northbrook's and Spring Woods' athletic programs is to consolidate the schools and make them one.

I think it has to do with overall devotion of the students... For example I went to a UT meeting for the district and they had statistics about applied admitted etc. from each of our schools... Memorial had 200 applicants - 76 got in... Northbrook had something like 10 applicants and 0 got in - not kidding... Obviously those 10 applicants came from outside of the top 10% because they would be auto-accepted if that were the case... So thats what I mean by devotion... Its not anything against those that go to Northbrook, I just feel like their parents are less involved and its not as competitive... At Memorial we have 35ish Valedictorians... With 61 in the Top 10% unless ur a valedictorian its hard to be in top 10%

[Pearland1]

Have u looked at the geography??? All those "rich white neighborhoods" are right next to Memorial... Why would u send them to a school across the district... Like I mean think of SBISD as 4 even quadrants (in area)... Memorial is in the Bottum Right quadrant and Northbrook the Top Right... But why would u send people from the bottum right all the way to the top right other than to make a point... Sure ur right it is kinda segregated, but that is because the boundary is basicly I-10... North of I-10 is the Hispanic part and South is the "white" part... South of I-10 is where Memorial is, North is Northbrook... The only way to unsegregate it would be to essentially create a free for all with no boundary lines... Ur welcome to suggest a solution, but its not like my next door neighbors go to Northbrook and Im too elite for that so they built a boundary around my house... I live real close to Memorial and not near as close to Northbrook... Its more about how the Housing Market has developed and where all the oil people are located than it is about their "boundary lines"... And once again ur overstating the impact of these in district transfers... I only know 1 person that actually got one... And Im not like anti-social or anything...

U really need to look at a map though before saying something like that...

You see this were you are wrong. The boundary line is not I10 anymore. It goes up North up I10 and picks up the wealth neighborhoods. I should now I lived in the part that once was part of Spring Branch High school and now its part of Memorial High. The boundary's were redrawn to help out Memorial. If they would have keeped the lines like they were in 1983 all the kids that attended Spring Branch would be going to Northbrook. We would not have 89 percent minority in one school. Who is to blame? The school district.

I remember all of Landrum Junior high would go to Spring Branch High school. Now half the kids go to Northbrook the other half to Memorial? Why?

Then the open transfer takes away the kids that are good in sports at Northbrook or who are supposed to attend Northbrook.

This is the reason Northbrook has become segregated.

We are not talking about a large district. Northbrook is only 10 to 12 minutes away from Memorial down Campbell road to I10 or take Blaylock. Please keep in mind that I'm not blaming Memorial High but the School Board.

[Moose Knuckles]

Any news on who is going to be the next HC?

[Raiders09]

Ajani Sanders did NOT get the job. The guy who got the job is a coach from Stratford, I believe an offensive line coach. A majority of the players were upset to find out that Ajani Sanders did not get the job and some are thinking of not playing next season or going somewhere else. A lot of the current if not all players respect and admire Coach Sanders. I even talked to some of the seniors from this past season and they too are upset that Coach Sanders and I quote, "did not get the job that he rightfully deserved".

[shslb15]

It isn't Coach Rodgers?, Is it an older coach or a younger coach?

[Raiders09]

You see this were you are wrong. The boundary line is not I10 anymore. It goes up North up I10 and picks up the wealth neighborhoods. I should now I lived in the part that once was part of Spring Branch High school and now its part of Memorial High. The boundary's were redrawn to help out Memorial. If they would have keeped the lines like they were in 1983 all the kids that attended Spring Branch would be going to Northbrook. We would not have 89 percent minority in one school. Who is to blame? The school district.

I remember all of Landrum Junior high would go to Spring Branch High school. Now half the kids go to Northbrook the other half to Memorial? Why?

Then the open transfer takes away the kids that are good in sports at Northbrook or who are supposed to attend Northbrook.

This is the reason Northbrook has become segregated.

We are not talking about a large district. Northbrook is only 10 to 12 minutes away from Memorial down Campbell road to I10 or take Blaylock. Please keep in mind that I'm not blaming Memorial High but the School Board.

I looked at the boundary line and I see what you're saying and Memorial does take a lot of land North of I-10 that would benefit Northbrook but the district won't change the boundary line since Memorial has too much leverage on the district. This can be said for Stratford too, the district can try to re-align the boundaries so the schools can have an increase in student population and for Northbrook and increase in athletes to improve the program but like I said Memorial has too much leverage on the district and they won't want to do anything.

[Jacob McCandles]

I suspect that the school board looks at a few more things when setting boundry lines than just athletics. For example, student population growth patterns, available housing, elementary to middle to high school feeder plans, physical size of the schools (e.g. number of classrooms), student teacher ratios, traffic flow, bus routes, etc. etc.

My recollection from the last UIL realignment was that MHS is about 2200 kids, NBHS and SWHS about 2000, and SHS 1900 - not a big spread. The question then becomes, can you move the boundries in such a way to make the spread smaller?

I suspect that if, as Pearland1 advocates, the line is moved to I-10, MHS would drop below SHS - also, you'd want to then send all of those kids to Landrum or SWMS instead of SBMS (to help the educators with the feeder pattern issues) and you'd end up with two middle schools being overcrowded and SBMS having 15:1 ratios. Also would take the elementary school kids from HCE and move them to VOES or TGES and that creates more issues with student/teacher ratios, etc. So, hard to see that working. If you move the line only part of the way from Westview to I-10, you've got issues with elementary school boundries and busing, etc. which are important to the educators and the feeder pattern issues. (and fwiw, the same issues arise if, as Spartan 79 has suggested, the SHS/MHS line moves east from the Beltway).

Another relevant point is this - and maybe Pearland1 and Raider09 can help with this - what is the size of the NBHS senior class and what is the size of the freshman class? I suspect that for a number of reasons, too numerous to mention and too complicated to be solved by us, the drop-out rate is significantly higher at NMHS than at MHS and SHS (and that is unfortunate). Nevertheless, despite the fact that the administration can probably predict how many kids they will lose, they still have to plan as if every freshman will finish, don't they? Do we think that if NBHS had the same drop out rate as MHS that NBHS would have the same attendance? Perhaps shslb15 and his Texas education can help me with the numbers, but if NBHS's drop out rate is 10 points higher than MHS's, then it is likely that NBHS loses at least 100-125 kids (total) spread out over the soph-jun-sen classes. Add those back in and suddenly the MHS/NBHS numbers are much closer.

Interesting discussion. Good luck to all in 2009 season.

[spartanwall54]

stratford has too much leverage on the district? that would explain how the district boundaries allow our sub-2000 enrollment... the memorial stratford boundary should be gessner thatd even the numbers but as you said... the money is in those areas and memorial parents wouldnt like it that their children have to slum it at stratford or northbrook... thatd be toooooo awful.:D

[shslb15]

stratford has too much leverage on the district? that would explain how the district boundaries allow our sub-2000 enrollment... the memorial stratford boundary should be gessner thatd even the numbers but as you said... the money is in those areas and memorial parents wouldnt like it that their children have to slum it at stratford or northbrook... thatd be toooooo awful.:D

Ya, oh no how awful stratford is haha

[Jacob McCandles]

stratford has too much leverage on the district? that would explain how the district boundaries allow our sub-2000 enrollment... the memorial stratford boundary should be gessner thatd even the numbers but as you said... the money is in those areas and memorial parents wouldnt like it that their children have to slum it at stratford or northbrook... thatd be toooooo awful.:D

who said the spartans have too much leverage? everyone i've read said it is the big bad adults in red who have all the leverage;)

[Jacob McCandles]

... and I'll ask this - what impact do you think WAIS has on SHS's enrollment? my assumption has always been that SHS loses kids to WAIS and NBHS and SWHS lose kids to Cornerstone

[shslb15]

WAIS can have those kids.... Really the number of kids that go to WAIS and not Stratford is a pretty small number. Anyone have word on who the new coach is?

[Jacob McCandles]

not saying they'd help SHS athletically, but per the last stats on SBISD website, 555 kids at WAIS. if one third are zoned to SHS, that'd put SHS around 2100 kids

[MemorialMustangs]

You see this were you are wrong. The boundary line is not I10 anymore. It goes up North up I10 and picks up the wealth neighborhoods. I should now I lived in the part that once was part of Spring Branch High school and now its part of Memorial High. The boundary's were redrawn to help out Memorial. If they would have keeped the lines like they were in 1983 all the kids that attended Spring Branch would be going to Northbrook. We would not have 89 percent minority in one school. Who is to blame? The school district.

I remember all of Landrum Junior high would go to Spring Branch High school. Now half the kids go to Northbrook the other half to Memorial? Why?

Then the open transfer takes away the kids that are good in sports at Northbrook or who are supposed to attend Northbrook.

This is the reason Northbrook has become segregated.

We are not talking about a large district. Northbrook is only 10 to 12 minutes away from Memorial down Campbell road to I10 or take Blaylock. Please keep in mind that I'm not blaming Memorial High but the School Board.

I know there is a section North of I-10 but the people from that area are much more racially diverse than from my area... That is where we get the bulk of our Hispanic population... That isnt the "rich white" area... The "rich white" area - the people u are accusing of having all this influence on the boundary live south of Memorial High School... Its not as much of a race issue as u think it is... And the 1 person that I know that got a transfer is not in any athletic activities at all... None of our top athletes are transfers or anything... I just think ur far too quick to accuse - as ive said before - Id even go so far to say that Stratford has had more talent than Memorial... Northbrook has talent too but due to heritage its no surprise that they pick soccer over football - That has nothing to do with transfers... And as I said changing the boundaries wont do much as far as make-up of race unless u took people from South of Memorial (or even with Memorial) and sent them to Northbrook which would make no sense at all...

Also as Jacob mentioned drop-out rates... In my high school class ('10) our enrollment has dropped 9 people... Now obviously some of those moved and some moved in, and so i cant tell u how many people have dropped out, but we really dont have anybody drop out

[Raiders09]

The New Head Coach for Northbrook is a coach from Startford, It's Coach Ron Rodgers. Today was his first day at Northbrook and the players met him today.

[shslb15]

The New Head Coach for Northbrook is a coach from Startford, It's Coach Ron Rodgers. Today was his first day at Northbrook and the players met him today.

Coach Rodgers is one of the most amazing coaches I have ever gotten the chance to meet and be coached by. He was truely beloved by all of his players at Stratford. I am only disappointed because my brother had him as a position coach. Congrats to Coach Rodgers. Northbrook you are really lucky to have such an awesome coach. Yall could have seen a drop off from Coach Cripps to some other coach but to get Coach Rodgers will certainly keep from any drop off happening.

[Jacob McCandles]

And the 1 person that I know that got a transfer is not in any athletic activities at all... None of our top athletes are transfers or anything...


MM, we both root for MHS but this is an incorrect statement. I can think of several top athletes who are transfers from w/i the district. SHS had a high profile one too a few years back. it does happen.

shslb15 - how bad does Coach Rodgers' leaving hurt Sparty?

[MemorialMustangs]

MM, we both root for MHS but this is an incorrect statement. I can think of several top athletes who are transfers from w/i the district. SHS had a high profile one too a few years back. it does happen.

shslb15 - how bad does Coach Rodgers' leaving hurt Sparty?

My point was our team is not made up of transfers... Like Pearland is suggesting... I didnt mean it doesnt happen, but none of our top players last year were transfers

[shslb15]

MM, we both root for MHS but this is an incorrect statement. I can think of several top athletes who are transfers from w/i the district. SHS had a high profile one too a few years back. it does happen.

shslb15 - how bad does Coach Rodgers' leaving hurt Sparty?

If the rumors are true about who is replacing him are true, maybe little. But ask any of the guys from the last three play off teams or from the kids that were at Stratford right when he got there and it hurts to see him leave. All the guys from those teams really loved Coach Rodgers. He was a great defensive line coach and a real teacher of the game. He recently moved to Oline and has been awesome. I feel my little brother has learned more about being a great Olineman since Rodgers has been coach the oline.

I really think it hurts the Spartans because of the awesome person he is. Always there for you and just absolutely hilarious. But still congrats to him for getting this job.

[grasshopper]

now i hear coach cripps is going to stratford, so basically trading jobs....

[shslb15]

Yep, they just had traded jobs... nice for Cripps to come to Stratford

[spartanwall54]

MM, we both root for MHS but this is an incorrect statement. I can think of several top athletes who are transfers from w/i the district. SHS had a high profile one too a few years back. it does happen.

shslb15 - how bad does Coach Rodgers' leaving hurt Sparty?

haha ill take that one... coach rodgers leaving is hard for us. He was a great guy and real fun to be around. He was an expert of the game and we were lucky. With that said, it won't hurt too bad. Coach Allen saw to it that we had a top notch replacement cause the Spartan Wall is important.. That's why he convince Coach Craig Cripps to come to SHS instead of Elsik or wherever he was going... so basically Coach Cripps and Coach Rodgers swapped jobs so ya.

Can't wait to play Crook next year though cause Coach Rodgers is one of my favorite coaches and a person who i look upon fondly. He called me personally to tell me I was getting moved up to Varsity and so playing against him next year will be an honor.
-Best of Luck

[Jacob McCandles]

so is Coach Cripps - defensive mastermind and one who is fond of the flexbone triple option on offense - going to coach the o-line at pass happy SHS? or will Coach Allen move folks around?

[Raiders09]

Actually coach cripps is a defensive mastermind who adopted the flex-bone triple option offense after the offensive coordinator from his first year as Head Coach at Northbrook left. He was influenced by that offensive coordinator into thinking that the flex-bone would help Northbrook, but it didn't do much for Northbrook. But if he's at Stratford he'll probably be either an O-line coach, or anything involving the defense, preferably line backers.

[78 Spartan]

Craig Cripps coming "home" to Stratford is a very important thing. The district so totally botched his father's departure from Stratford about nine years ago, and there have been a lot of hard feelings just barely under the surface as a result. But with this move I think Principal Chris Juntti and Coach Eliot Allen will have healed this division and bring the family back together.

I agree, however, that it will be interesting to see how a run-the-ball-and-play-aggressive-defense guy like Craig will fit into the Stratford scheme. I am sure there will be some adjustments and compromises to make it all fit together. Plus, he'll no doubt be able to help game plan against Gary Koch.

Mainly though, this is great news for Stratford for intangible reasons. On the flip side, I think it's a positive thing for Northbrook in terms of getting a guy (Ron Rogers) who is very positive and enthusiastic and well-liked by his players and can bring energy to a job which has got to be one of the toughest assignments in all of 5A football. I don't know anything about the Coach Sanders thing up there, my guess is Ron Rogers would reach out to him and together they would do what is best for the kids in the program, rather than let their personal agendas get in the way.

Good luck, Raiders, and welcome home, Craig Cripps.

[shslb15]

Actually coach cripps is a defensive mastermind who adopted the flex-bone triple option offense after the offensive coordinator from his first year as Head Coach at Northbrook left. He was influenced by that offensive coordinator into thinking that the flex-bone would help Northbrook, but it didn't do much for Northbrook. But if he's at Stratford he'll probably be either an O-line coach, or anything involving the defense, preferably line backers.

Oline coach

Couldn't be Linebacker since head coach Eliot Allen is the linebacker coach