Why doesn't the LRSD produce Hog football recruits anymore?

[factchecker]

Commitment matters folks.

Pulaski Robinson is an example of the coaches and community doing great things.

https://twitter.com/Jtackettdnt/status/826966671462105088

https://twitter.com/BMop25/status/828646337801490433

https://www.robinsonchampioncenter.org/

Step up and donate.

[biglewhog77]

I think LRSD put all there eggs in basketball like most big cities around the US. That's why there so many basketball recruits from Little Rock area

[Rzback]

I've lived in AR, TX, GA, and now FL. I can tell you high school football is on a totally different level in TX, GA, and FL than in AR. Communities support their teams and the stadiums are overflowing. People are not scared to go to the games due to gangs, violence, etc. Being on the team means something. Practice is virtually year round. I think years ago the Arkansas Athletic Association tied the coaches hands when they started limiting practices. Then gangs and violence became an issue. Technology may even be an issue. Finding a way to make the kids want to participate is a key along with community support.

[longpig]

What's bad for LRSD is good for the suburbs. $$$

The real estate interest runs LR city council. 

[Beaverfever]

I bet we'll see more kids from Bryant in the years to come.  I hope at least.

[ricepig]

And Florida has much more money than Arkansas. Check that for me even though I know it's not remotely close.

I doubt Florida spent $1B on the school districts in one county, but I could be wrong........are the school districts any better off now, than in 1989?

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2013/10/15/little-rock-school-district-prooposes-to-settle-desegregation-case

[nwahogfan1]

They are chasing the ladies and selling dope.  No time for football.  LOL

But seriously school administrators must get together and discuss this issue for keeping boys out for sports and correct some things.  Sports in school are big in our keeping boys out of trouble.

[jdevers]

Get the LRSD to perform at or above all state averages for a decade, then the athletics will fall into place.  There is zero reason for that school district to underperform when it has more resources than pretty much anywhere south or east of LR and more than most of the rest.  It won't be fixed quick because of the inertia, but it is fixable.

[DeltaBoy]

https://twitter.com/EllenTeam20/status/808527356814094336

BOOM

[longpig]

They are chasing the ladies and selling dope.  No time for football.  LOL

But seriously school administrators must get together and discuss this issue for keeping boys out for sports and correct some things.  Sports in school are big in our keeping boys out of trouble.

They got on it immediately after the state nearly commandeered the school district a few years ago, and some progress was made.  The coming vouchers for private and charter school will add a challenge. 

[Knot2brite]

What started the death knell for football in LRSD was that many moons ago the district decided to put athletics after school. It was decided that school time was only for school and extracurricular activities should be after school. Kid just stopped playing football. Then the majority to minority program came about allowing African Americans to be bused from majority African American intercity schools to schools that had few minority students in the "suburbs". The schools themselves are in bad shape and their administration was usually in disarray. Add to it that football has a huge cost to it.....these are the things that killed football in Little Rock

[tbhogfan]

The athletes are there, and when the schools and community are behind the program, they thrive and some move on to become D1 players.  Joe T and NLR both have similar demographics to LRSD schools and both have produced outstanding talent in the past few years. 

LRSD has many serious problems right now, and I just don't think that football is a priority to them. 

[Inhogswetrust]

Why isn't there rain in the desert?

[DeltaBoy]

The Blame falls on Federal Judge Henry Woods.

[Inhogswetrust]

The Blame falls on Federal Judge Henry Woods.

I'm more believing it falls on the people in Little Rock. If they want good schools and athletics then demand it and do something about it.

[HogFansReunited]

Good schools do equal good football for the MOST PART. There are exceptions to that, see pine bluff. However, posting on a message board is just as good as ignoring the problem. It means nothing. People just want to be "right." It's the exact same thing on Facebook. No boots on the ground. No real world solutions. You can start 1 million threads and it won't matter. Show up, make a difference....that'll matter.

Not sure if I follow you here.  I live in the bluff and the school system here is almost as bad as LR.

[Inhogswetrust]

Not sure if I follow you here.  I live in the bluff and the school system here is almost as bad as LR.

I didn't follow him either. I live in a Memphis suburb and the schools inside the city of Memphis turn out quite a few good football players and the schools are bad.

[HogFansReunited]

I didn't follow him either. I live in a Memphis suburb and the schools inside the city of Memphis turn out quite a few good football players and the schools are bad.

Maybe he is referring to the fact that we still produce some good athletes.  I do agree with what many have posted, problem is that the kids in areas like this almost always have to find their own way.  Unfortunately that usually means making it on the streets.  Communities need to come together in order to keep kids in school.  We need more after school activities and better opportunities to help kids learn after they leave the class room.  Yeah I would love to see more kids from the inner cities make it in athletics but what I really want if for these kids to be successful in anything.

[Inhogswetrust]

Maybe he is referring to the fact that we still produce some good athletes.  I do agree with what many have posted, problem is that the kids in areas like this almost always have to find their own way.  Unfortunately that usually means making it on the streets.  Communities need to come together in order to keep kids in school.  We need more after school activities and better opportunities to help kids learn after they leave the class room.  Yeah I would love to see more kids from the inner cities make it in athletics but what I really want if for these kids to be successful in anything.

Damn good post there.

[pigture perfect]

My parents live in SWLR. They are close enough to hear the McClellan band practicing, yet the kids in their neighborhood are being bussed to all 5 schools in the district. Many get dropped off in front of my dads house after 7pm. These kids don't have the ability to be in the extra-curricular activities of the local school because they spend so much time on the bus's going back and forth. Just my observation.

[hawkhawg]

Central Arkansas has plenty of good schools that put out athletes. Cabot, Conway, Benton, Bryant, Sheridan and some the lr private schools are good schools. Most kids that are good at sports are going to be moved from lrsd and moved to a private school.

It is just the traditional schools that he hogs depend on in lrsd and pine bluff have fallen off.

[ricepig]

Central Arkansas has plenty of good schools that put out athletes. Cabot, Conway, Benton, Bryant, Sheridan and some the lr private schools are good schools. Most kids that are good at sports are going to be moved from lrsd and moved to a private school.

It is just the traditional schools that he hogs depend on in lrsd and pine bluff have fallen off.

Cabot has their first Hog signee in forever, maybe the first under Malham. As far as Sheridan, I think they are still waiting for one. The others have a few, but very few that play P5 conference football.

[HamSammich]

Their set up is anti football,  No solid Jr High Football and they destroyed the feeder schools that used to keep Central on top in Football and Parkview in Basketball .

[porkribz]

NLR has four players on the UA roster.

[Inhogswetrust]

NLR has four players on the UA roster.

NLR is a separate school district. There are now four in Pulaski County. Little Rock, Pulaski County Special, North Little Rock and Jacksonville North.

[porkribz]

NLR is a separate school district. There are now four in Pulaski County. Little Rock, Pulaski County Special, North Little Rock and Jacksonville North.

True.... I was really just responding to the post that mentioned all the other central Arkansas teams that put out players without mentioning NLR. I think NLR may be second only to Fayetteville. Not sure tho.

[Inhogswetrust]

                        True.... I was really just responding to the post that mentioned all the other central Arkansas teams that put out players without mentioning NLR. I think NLR may be second only to Fayetteville. Not sure tho.

OK. Note taken. The question then thus becomes is WHY can NLR turn out more football players than Little Rock number-wise proportionally speaking. I'd say there is more than one factor involved.

[ricepig]

OK. Note taken. The question then thus becomes is WHY can NLR turn out more football players than Little Rock number-wise proportionally speaking. I'd say there is more than one factor involved.

Like the factor that students are able to transfer in to any school district? There's a reason PV has 4-5 D-I basketball players, there's a reason NLR has D-I football players, there's a reason Pulaski Robinson has D-I football players......can you guess it?

[hogginbama]

NLR is a separate school district. There are now four in Pulaski County. Little Rock, Pulaski County Special, North Little Rock and Jacksonville North.

Having four schools districts in that are should be looked at. How much money could be saved by combing all districts into one? This would allow for a ton of saving on salaries for administration and other over-head costs. Additional saved money could be put back into the system for programs to benefit the students.

[Inhogswetrust]

Having four schools districts in that are should be looked at. How much money could be saved by combing all districts into one? This would allow for a ton of saving on salaries for administration and other over-head costs. Additional saved money could be put back into the system for programs to benefit the students.

Actually before there were three. Jacksonville only broke away from Pulaski County Special two years ago. The same thing has happened in Shelby County, TN where Memphis is located. All the suburbs a couple of years ago finally were allowed by state laws being changed to vote for their now separate school districts. So they went from two to six! It was a good thing also. Sometimes getting too spread out and too many voices talking just middles things up no matter how much money is involved. Savings is not always seen by combining things. Sometimes splitting things up is good and sometimes combining them is.

[Inhogswetrust]

Like the factor that students are able to transfer in to any school district? There's a reason PV has 4-5 D-I basketball players, there's a reason NLR has D-I football players, there's a reason Pulaski Robinson has D-I football players......can you guess it?

I'm not touching that. Tell us why there is so many school districts where you live. Haha!

P.S. I graduated in 1975 from Jacksonville High School which was a part of the Pulaski County Special School district. It was already going downhill way back then.

[ricepig]

I'm not touching that. Tell us why there is so many school districts where you live. Haha!

P.S. I graduated in 1975 from Jacksonville High School which was a part of the Pulaski County Special School district. It was already going downhill way back then.

Well, because that's the way the people want it, haha.

[woodhog14]

Actually before there were three. Jacksonville only broke away from Pulaski County Special two years ago. The same thing has happened in Shelby County, TN where Memphis is located. all the suburbs a couple of years ago finally were allowed by state laws being changed to vote for their now separate school districts. So they went from two to six! It was a good thing also. Sometimes getting too spread out and too many voices talking just middles things up no matter how much money is involved. Savings is not always seen by combining things. Sometimes splitting things up is good and sometimes combining them is.

The Germantown Schools go screwed on that. Somehow, they are part of the Memphis City Schools. It's BS.

[hawkhawg]

What percentage of razorback players should come from central Arkansas?

[Inhogswetrust]

Well, because that's the way the people want it, haha.

They wanted it that way partly for some of the same reasons there are four in Pulaski county.

[Inhogswetrust]

The Germantown Schools go screwed on that. Somehow, they are part of the Memphis City Schools. It's BS.

Germantown has it's own district but I'm thinking you knew that. However the old Germantown High has Memphis students in it. The high school in the Germantown Municipal School district is actually Houston High. My son attended there the first year it was opened.

[Boss Hog in the Arkansas]

Im from south Arkansas, so I cant really speak on how central Arkansas got to where they are, I just know that when I played (2008 and 2009) we looked at LRSD football teams as "gimmies." We expected to win them handily, and we did.

[ricepig]

They wanted it that way partly for some of the same reasons there are four in Pulaski county.

They were annexed into the city, as in Jonesboro? I don't think the fact there are multiple school districts in Pulaski county is the problem. The sports issue I was addressing was the school choice that allowed students to attend school where they wanted to. I don't believe that's going on in Jonesboro. Sure you can petition for "School Choice", but those aren't sports/athletics related.

[#1 STUNNA]

it all starts with coaching....

[hawganatic]

My parents live in SWLR. They are close enough to hear the McClellan band practicing, yet the kids in their neighborhood are being bussed to all 5 schools in the district. Many get dropped off in front of my dads house after 7pm. These kids don't have the ability to be in the extra-curricular activities of the local school because they spend so much time on the bus's going back and forth. Just my observation.

Think this really nails the issue.  If a kid is spending 1-2 hours a day getting to and from school, it's going to kill any time he/she has for other activities. 

An adult that has an hour commute to work and then another hour back is going to have a lot less time for a personal life than somebody with a normal commute.  It's got to be that much tougher for a high school kid when you add in the school work they do (suppose to do) at home at night.

Need to get back to community based schools where the focus is on developing kids, opposed to making sure each school has a certain percentage of each race.

[Boss Hog in the Arkansas]

Think this really nails the issue.  If a kid is spending 1-2 hours a day getting to and from school, it's going to kill any time he/she has for other activities. 

An adult that has an hour commute to work and then another hour back is going to have a lot less time for a personal life than somebody with a normal commute.  It's got to be that much tougher for a high school kid when you add in the school work they do (suppose to do) at home at night.

Need to get back to community based schools where the focus is on developing kids, opposed to making sure each school has a certain percentage of each race.

+1

[DeltaBoy]

My late Friend Gene Cox was a AD at one of the old PISD schools Oak Grove and he said the coaching staff had to get some vans to transport the kids home after school.

[DEVIL DOG HOG]

The Germantown Schools go screwed on that. Somehow, they are part of the Memphis City Schools. It's BS.

The Houston, Collersville(sp) and the Bartlett. went on their own. My grandsons attend Houston schools.

[Razorback_Mack]

Not sure if I follow you here.  I live in the bluff and the school system here is almost as bad as LR.

I don't know what there is to follow. Ole boy said good schools=good football. I pointed out that pine bluff is an exception to that rule. Bad school=good football. I was giving the pine bluff football program credit for making the best out of a bad situation in their district.

[NaturalStateReb]

Cabot has their first Hog signee in forever, maybe the first under Malham. As far as Sheridan, I think they are still waiting for one. The others have a few, but very few that play P5 conference football.

This is a good point.  It's not all flight--if it was, we'd be seeing D-1 prospects coming from these other places, but we don't.  It's not like places like Bryant, Cabot, Conway, and Benton are producing consistently strong recruits at the high D-1 level.  They're not.  They're not even winning state championships.  Cabot's last title--it only has two--was 17 years ago.  Benton hasn't won a title since the 70s, Conway hasn't won one since LBJ, and Bryant's never won one.

Part of it is the school situation, which is admittedly not good.  But let's face it, Little Rock high school football hasn't been good for a long, long time.  It's not like Parkview, McClellan, Hall, Mills, or Fair have long histories of football excellence destroyed by the school situation.  Those schools combined have played in 90 playoff games--that's 18 less than Nashville, alone.  Fair won a state title back in 1998, but Hall hasn't won one since 1982, Parkview last won one during the disco days of 1978, and McClellan hasn't won one since the Nixon administration.  Mills has never won one. 

Football has only been very occasionally strong in all of these places.  There's some bright side, though--McClellan recently advanced to the title game.  But having good high school players isn't the same has having good D-1 players, especially in Arkansas.  For a state the size of Arkansas--just half the population of Dallas--high school talent that's high D-1 will always be cyclical.  If you have a year where you've got 6 or 7 legit high D-1 prospects, you've got a peak year.  We just haven't seen those in a while, statewide.

When people say, "Little Rock football is down," what they really mean is, "Little Rock Central is down."  It's sort of like when people say that SEC basketball is down; often what they mean is "Kentucky is down."  Central hasn't been the same since Bernie Cox retired, but even Cox had up and down years.  If nothing else, it demonstrates that coaching and coaching fit really matter.  It's not like Scooter Register moved to Central and forgot everything he knew about football.  He's a good coach, though one on the retirement end of his career.

I'd posit that the talent isn't always on the field, but it's not like the sidewalks of Little Rock are filled with potential D-1 stars just standing there.  They're not.  The biggest problem with Little Rock football has probably been that we haven't seen top flight coaching talent in most of these programs for a long time.

[razoredge178]

This is a good point.  It's not all flight--if it was, we'd be seeing D-1 prospects coming from these other places, but we don't.  It's not like places like Bryant, Cabot, Conway, and Benton are producing consistently strong recruits at the high D-1 level.  They're not.  They're not even winning state championships.  Cabot's last title--it only has two--was 17 years ago.  Benton hasn't won a title since the 70s, Conway hasn't won one since LBJ, and Bryant's never won one.

Part of it is the school situation, which is admittedly not good.  But let's face it, Little Rock high school football hasn't been good for a long, long time.  It's not like Parkview, McClellan, Hall, Mills, or Fair have long histories of football excellence destroyed by the school situation.  Those schools combined have played in 90 playoff games--that's 18 less than Nashville, alone.  Fair won a state title back in 1998, but Hall hasn't won one since 1982, Parkview last won one during the disco days of 1978, and McClellan hasn't won one since the Nixon administration.  Mills has never won one. 

Football has only been very occasionally strong in all of these places.  There's some bright side, though--McClellan recently advanced to the title game.  But having good high school players isn't the same has having good D-1 players, especially in Arkansas.  For a state the size of Arkansas--just half the population of Dallas--high school talent that's high D-1 will always be cyclical.  If you have a year where you've got 6 or 7 legit high D-1 prospects, you've got a peak year.  We just haven't seen those in a while, statewide.

When people say, "Little Rock football is down," what they really mean is, "Little Rock Central is down."  It's sort of like when people say that SEC basketball is down; often what they mean is "Kentucky is down."  Central hasn't been the same since Bernie Cox retired, but even Cox had up and down years.  If nothing else, it demonstrates that coaching and coaching fit really matter.  It's not like Scooter Register moved to Central and forgot everything he knew about football.  He's a good coach, though one on the retirement end of his career.

I'd posit that the talent isn't always on the field, but it's not like the sidewalks of Little Rock are filled with potential D-1 stars just standing there.  They're not.  The biggest problem with Little Rock football has probably been that we haven't seen top flight coaching talent in most of these programs for a long time.

Their hasn't been any $$$$ for athletics in LR in a long time. No money, no coaches.

This is really quite a topic. Folks talking about the LR schools, how folks need to volunteer, blaw and blaw and blaw some more.

Until you can figure out how to get "volunteers" into the homes of these kids, the schools don't have a rats ass chance in the hell that is Little Rock to develop athletes, academics, or any other noteworthy students.

It all starts and ends at home folks. Garbage in, garbage out.

[redleg]

How old are you? Where do you live? And, how long have you lived there?

I don't understand the question. What does that matter? I grew up in Conway.

[redleg]

It is certainly a germane question even though yes, it is beating a dead horse.  The lack of athletes not only from LR area but eastern part of the state has limited the number of quality in-state athletes who not only are D1 athletically but are also academically eligible ( a big factor in some areas) certainly handicaps the Razorbacks

[redleg]

What percentage of razorback players should come from central Arkansas?

There should be at least 2 or 3 players each season from the LRSD. That is to say, there may not be a player signing every year, but there should be a kid or two every two or three years that at least have an offer from the Hogs. But it is not happening. I do not know what the high schools are like. I only know what I have read and what I have been told by people that live in Little Rock. Mismanagement of the district by the school board, and unwillingness to spend money of football, busing kids across town to comply with desegregation laws, a free-wheeling transfer rule, and little to no community involvement. That would seem to be a recipe for poor education, as well as poor athletics (at least poor football since it costs the most).
:razorback:

[Inhogswetrust]

The Houston, Collersville(sp) and the Bartlett. went on their own. My grandsons attend Houston schools.

There are seven distinct separate districts in Sheby county, TN

Shelby County schools (which includes the city of Memphis)
Bartlett
Germantown
Arlington
Lakeland
Collierville
Millington

I have noticed every house sold in our area of Bartlett that has school age children in them was purchased by a family moving from the Shelby County/Memphis school district.