Saturday, September 26, 1998

Glimpse of a dream

Local high school football fans probably wish they had a vote on the San Angelo school board.

Last week, the school board in the Concho City voted to establish a second 5A high school to go along with Central. Last May, San Angelo's 4A high school, Lake View, was destroyed by fire, and in considering what to do about rebuilding, school officials initially decided to change boundaries and make both schools 5A, giving each about 1,800 students.

This would have been great news for the Abilene, Midland and Odessa football teams in District 4-5A, which could have been restored to an eight-team lineup with cross-town games at the close of the regular season. Such a move would have gone a long way to restore the luster of what Texas sports writers used to call the "little Southwest Conference."

Unfortunately, school boundaries appears to be an even more contentious issue in San Angelo than in Abilene. This week, the San Angelo board reversed its previous vote and decided to keep Lake View in class 4A. So much for one good idea, at least for the rest of us.