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AFM Magazine


Out-Of-State Games Face Many Obstacles – Matching up prominent national programs presents challenges to coaches and promoters.

by: Dallas Jackson
RivalsHigh.com
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It was a high school football game both coaches wanted to play. It was a high school football game fans would have flocked to see and networks fought to televise. So neither South Panola’s Lance Pogue nor St. Thomas Aquinas’ George Smith minded when the talks went into its second week, with both schools throwing out potential dates and sites, trying to make a match. They wanted to get this game set.

    The matchup would be the closest thing to a belated national championship high school game as South Panola edged Aquinas for the 2010 title. And while both schools lost key players to graduation, enough returned to make a marquee matchup.

    The game represented the future direction of high school football. National powers – often with the help of television money – are now able to test themselves against others more than ever before. There’s no need to debate the merits of Florida, Texas and California football – or the likelihood a program from outside of the big three could compete with them. It’s now settled on the field. Simply put, South Panola would not have won the national title in 2010, without proving itself in out-of-state games. The same can be said for Don Bosco Prep in 2009.

    But the potential matchup between South Panola and Aquinas also illustrates the behind-the-scenes issues in the high school game. Unlike college, it’s not a simple matter of clearing dates – even if it means a buyout of hundreds of thousands of dollars – because the money generated by a marquee college game will make it more than worthwhile for all.

    But this is high school. Open dates are few. Getting out of existing games is nearly impossible. And even if you overcome those hurdles, being able to make limited television dollars and uncertain gate receipts to cover the transportation, meal and lodging costs of the visiting team is often an undoing.

    As the discussions dissolved, both Pogue and Smith knew the harsh reality: The game both men desperately wanted wasn’t going to happen.

Ever since Bellevue High ended the historic 151-game winning streak of De La Salle in 2004, the growth in popularity of nationally relevant high school football games has been on the rise. And it’s unlikely it will slow down. Notable events such as the Herbstreit Football Series to open the season and one-off games between national powers dot the fall schedule.

    For high school football fans and players, it is bliss. Being involved in games played out on national television and written about on national websites is all part of the new experience. For coaches and administrators, it can all become mind-numbing. Securing a partner, a venue and the funds to make a major boost in perception without compromising the school integrity is a painstaking process.

    “High school football is the new horizon,” said Ken Halloy, owner of Halloy Boy Sports Marketing. “At the end of the day, I don’t know where it is going, but it certainly isn’t slowing down anytime soon.” 

    Halloy has been instrumental in the growth of this type of event since he and his friend Kirk Herbstreit formed the first Ohio versus The USA series in 2005. That event, which Halloy stepped away from in 2007, has continued to grow into the Herbstreit Football Series and has spread from Ohio to Texas. The interest to televise such games by ESPN and Fox Sports, as well as numerous regional networks, is spurring the growth. Halloy and his company have matched nearly 100 games. He currently is working on multiple double-header events for the 2011 season and is using those connections to get ahead of the curve working on games for 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

    He is neither alone in matching games nor in the belief it will keep expanding. Brian Hercules knows first hand what an out-of-state game – especially an out-of-state win – can do for a program. As the former athletic director at Bellevue, his tenure at the program was preceded by the win over De La Salle and Long Beach Poly and highlighted by major out-of-state games against Sacramento Grant (CA), San Ramon California High (CA), Portland Catholic Central (OR) and Katy (TX).

    He saw both sides of the coin. “The most money brought into our school was by the football program,” he said. “But we still didn’t have just an athletics budget; everything was pooled. We did not spend any money to make those trips. Our policy was to not spend any money on any team traveling out of state and our trip to Katy did not cost the school anything, but people would still voice concerns about the perceived special treatment of the football team.”

    He left Bellevue before the start of the 2010 school year. After three years on the job, he formed Hercules Sports Management and began pairing teams. This will be his second football season solely working as a promoter but he has had plenty of success. His pairing of South Panola and Moultrie Colquitt County (GA) helped give the Tigers the out-of-state bump needed to win a national title in 2010.

    This season he has signed games with Euless Trinity (TX) to play Abilene (TX) as well as a double header of games featuring Broken Arrow (OK) traveling to play Permian (TX) and Booker T. Washington (OK) set to play at Abilene.

    He draws upon his past to help prepare him for the future.

    “These games are going to keep happening and with fine tuning they should be easier to put together,” he said. “I can talk to coaches and athletic directors with a complete understanding of their situations. I have an AD mindset. I know the perceptions and the pitfalls but most administrators are very supportive of their football programs. They understand that it is beneficial to have the exposure and recognition. It is a matter of making the ends meet.” 
   

Making ends meet is code for money. As big as these matchups are for fans, that’s not the most important thing. “Money,” Billy Fleming, owner of Gridiron Promotions, said. “The biggest thing is always money.” Fleming has been pairing games since the 2009 season. His biggest production was a four-game set in Daytona Beach, that saw four Florida teams host teams from four other states. The headliner games were Skyline (TX) playing Glades Central (FL) and Cocoa (FL) squaring off with Olive Branch (MS). This season, Fleming’s big game is Jacksonville First Coast traveling to play Byrnes (SC).
  

  Fleming says that most teams share the same concerns with him. “The home team almost always wants to make its normal gate with some wiggle room depending on the game,” he said. “The teams who are traveling generally want to cover their expenses to travel, lodge and feed the players. They almost all want to have the games in September, the earlier the better.”
  

  Halloy agrees and says that the biggest obstacle in making the dollars make sense is often over-estimation in attendance. “I will have coaches tell me, ‘Ken it is always a packed house, we get 10,000 people there.’ But I go and look and the stadium only holds eight (thousand fans), and I know the people aren’t packing in like sardines,” he said. “So you almost always have to estimate the attendance numbers at about 60 percent of what you are told. Otherwise, you put everyone in a bind.”
  

  Gate receipts are only part of the financial puzzle. Television money is the other. Paragon Marketing Group, a firm that has paired 77 high school football games which have aired on the ESPN family of networks since 2002, has different packages for the teams depending on the games. Most all involve completely covering the travel expenses of the visiting team with financial packages being dependant on the participants.
 

   “Our trip to Cincinnati to play St. X was totally paid for,” Bob Malloy, the head coach at Good Counsel (MD), said. “We do not do fundraisers here and if it were not for the financing we received, we wouldn’t have been able to travel.”

    Of course, taking money means that schools used to calling the shots now have to take orders, an unusual situation that was made public last year when Grant and Folsom (CA) both publically complained about how the teams were treated by Paragon, ESPN and the entire process.
  

  Then there’s one more piece: The promoters. Schools can work together on home-and-home series – as Good Counsel has done to secure its schedule. But it’s often easier with a middle man. And it’s essential at a multi-game, neutral-site event. Promoters quoted in this story said the level of pay was either a contracted rate agreed on to secure a team a home-game or a sliding scale based on gate sales. “I am the last in line to make money,” Fleming said. “The more people I can get in the door the better and, if we get sponsorship money, it is all gravy.” 
   

Ultimately, the success or failure of an out-of-state game comes down to the teams. “You don’t want a lopsided game,” Halloy said. “That is not good for anyone. And you don’t want to make bad decisions. Scheduling a Saturday game at Lakeland (FL) High when the (Florida) Gators are home is not smart.”
   

This is where Hercules feels his former job as an athletic director really helps. “It is important to do your research beforehand,” he said. “You have to make sure that both coaches know what they are bringing back and what the other team is bringing back. If one bites off more than it can chew, it is bad for both teams and can hurt your relationship going forward. No one wants to be embarrassed.”
   

That was the case last season in the Texas version of the Herbstreit when Trinity overwhelmed Shiloh Christian (AR), 80-26 in a nationally televised game. “When one game gets ugly, it hurts the rest of the event,” Fleming said.
  

  All three promoters say they have to rely on relationships with the coaches themselves, rival coaches and national experts. “I will call national high school writers and local newspapers to find out more,” Hercules said. “There are some coaches that you can trust but others will lowball you or tell you they are expecting the best team ever. A lot of work has to go into a potential game before you even approach both teams.”
  

  The frequency of these matchups has created an unexpected problem. It’s great to show you can compete with some of the top programs in the country, but when it comes down to filling out your schedule, it’s not unusual to find programs have scared off their potential opponents. Malloy said that the perception of his team has changed. “We lost two games on our schedule this year” he said. “When all was said and done, I called probably 75 teams to fill two spots.

    “Teams saw us beat St. X last year and won’t play us now, but they will play DeMatha,” he said. “We are no DeMatha, but those teams won’t know that until they play those guys.” Malloy ended up with a schedule that includes Bradenton Manatee (FL), Gilman (MD), Red Lion Christian (DE) and Valley Forge Military Academy (PA) to go along with his regular WCAC schedule. He thinks that while tedious, the experience is a positive one for both he and the athletes. “I think it is great,” he said. “We may be scheduling teams out of our league. Who knows, it will be fun to find out. Plus, I have made great connections all over.”

Here’s the deal with out-of-state games. You need to have one. Signed. Bradenton Manatee and Don Bosco had an awkward public feud two summers ago after Bradenton felt Don Bosco had pulled out of a done deal. The two did reach a deal series. Bishop Gorman (NV) felt the same way when De La Salle announced last fall it would not go to Nevada the following year to complete what Gorman felt was a handshake agreement for a home-and-home series. 
   

In both cases, the message boards lit up with accusations and conspiracy theories about teams avoiding others to avoid a loss. “Fans will say that a team is ducking another,” Hercules said. “That is common, but games do not get done for so many reasons.” Many states work on a two-year cycle for realigning a district and often it is beneficial for teams to sign two-year contracts, usually a home-and-home agreement, to help with scheduling stability.
 

   Sometimes that works out: “It is nice to have that schedule set,” Hercules said. “You do not want too many oddities and one-offs. It is harder to fill games that way.” Sometimes it does not: “It is very common after the first game gets played to get a phone call that one team doesn’t want to play the other,” Halloy said. “That is why it is important to get the two teams matched up well or it causes problems.”
  

  According to Halloy, many of the problems are caused by misperceptions by a potentially up-and-coming and ambitious program. “The usual suspects are established,” he said. “I am not an Internet or message board junkie, but the polls have a lot of the same names each year for a reason. Those programs are not your typical high school football programs and people think they have a good class or two coming through and want to compete at that level. Expectations get too high.”
  

  Hercules agrees. “A lot of teams will pick and choose when they want to travel,” he said. “But they don’t understand what those top programs are like. There are good programs all over the country, and there are great programs, too. Teams like De La Salle and Don Bosco have become the measuring sticks.”
  

  Of course, that can be a good thing, too. After the potential game with South Panola fell through, Smith started working the phones. Weeks later, a matchup with De La Salle was announced for September 23. It’s a game between arguably the strongest programs in California and Florida. It’s a game fans will flock to and Paragon Marketing and ESPN won the battle to televise. And it only came about because Aquinas’ first option didn’t work.






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