This is the ninth of The Athlete’s Connection’s 30 football previews in 30 days leading up to the season-opening games beginning Thursday, Aug. 28. Because Tropical Storm Edouard is expected to interrupt area practice schedules this week, our schedule of stories may be interrupted.

Maybe the days of cringing on behalf of a first-year varsity team and salivating if they’re on your team’s schedule are over.

Or maybe it simply depends on location.

Three area schools – Cypress Woods, Fort Bend Travis and DeKaney – will partake in varsity football for the first time this fall. Woods and Travis, both coming off undefeated junior varsity seasons in 2007 – are being picked almost universally to contend for if not make the playoffs.

It’s not so far-fetched. For every area first-year school since 2000 that’s gone 0-10, there’s been one that’s made the playoffs, and at least two of this year’s additions have a solid chance to tip the scale even further.

“We’ve coached these kids like they were on varsity even though we played a sophomore schedule in ’06 and a JV schedule last season,” Travis coach Randy Cunningham said. “We’ve talked about the playoffs. We know it’s something we want to do and not many first-year schools get that chance. If we’re 5-5, 6-4 … we just want as many wins as we have to get to get in the playoffs.”

It’s much the same story at Woods, which played three varsity teams last year on the heels of losing only one JV game in 2006. The Panthers have 72 seniors to Travis’ 43, and have drawn more than 300 athletes into the program.

“The three varsity teams we played last year (Marshall, Wimberly and Cold Springs) were pretty good and gave us an idea what (this year) might be like,” Woods coach David Jones said. “The only thing we didn’t get an idea of was going that hard week in and week out instead of every other week or every three weeks. That’s the kind of thing you can’t get prepared for.”

Since 2000, two first-year varsity teams have finished with winning records – Cypress Ridge in 2004 and Fort Bend Hightower in 2000 both went 7-3. They made the playoffs, as did 5-5 College Park in 2006, but each lost in the first round.

All sustained their success.

Ridge followed that up with a 3-7 record in 2005 but made the playoffs each of the past two years, and College Park went 9-1 last year but lost in the first round.

None, though, have been as consistently good as Hightower, which has made the playoffs every year except 2005 – when it recorded an all-time low of five wins.

Not everyone, of course, has enjoyed such success.

Seven Lakes and Morton Ranch, the Katy ISD’s two newest high schools, both are 1-19 since starting varsity play in 2006. Morton Ranch, which won its season finale a year ago, started in 5A; Seven Lakes joins those ranks with the rest of Katy ISD this year.

Cinco Ranch experienced similar growing pains when it opened; it went 1-9 in 2000 and progressed annually until winning eight games and making the playoffs in 2004.

Klein Collins went 0-10 in 2002, won five and eight games the next two years and made the playoffs in 2004. But the Tigers regressed quickly and have gone 1-9 each of the past two years.

That might be the fate awaiting DeKaney, which lost a good chunk of its assigned student population when most of them successfully petitioned to stay at their original schools, Spring and Westfield.

Struggles aside, Jones relished the opportunity to help open Cypress Woods, the third time in his career he’s opened a school. He left the offensive coordinator job at Jersey Village to do so on the heels of starting programs in Louisiana and Oklahoma.

“I had an idea what it was about,” Jones said. “The appealing part to me is building from the ground floor up, starting your own philosophies and traditions. Everything’s brand new. It’s a challenge, but it’s a fun challenge.”

***

Starting traditions
How recent new schools in the Houston area have performed in their first year of varsity football:
College Park (2006), 5-5*
Morton Ranch (2006), 0-10
Seven Lakes (2006), 0-10
Cypress Ridge (2004), 7-4*
Fort Bend Marshall (2004), 3-7
Pasadena Memorial (2004), 3-8
Fort Bend Bush (2002), 3-7
Klein Collins (2002), 0-10
Cinco Ranch (2000), 1-9
Fort Bend Hightower (2000), 7-4*
Westside (2000), 4-6
* Qualified for the playoffs.

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