Texas Versus Florida, Comparing High School Football is Really About the Finance$

Texas and Florida are probably the two best states for producing football talent in the last 20 to 30 years, but there are some big differences in the two states as it relates to facilities, training, and coaching.

Author:
Brian Smith
Publish date:
Feb 16, 2022 5:55 PM EST

DALLAS - Brand new weight rooms, top-notch turf fields, and weight rooms that look like an NFL franchise, welcome to Texas!

There’s no disputing that Texas has some of the richest land in the world. Oil. Lots of oil. That’s the start of it all. It leads to many other things that help the state, and its high school football programs, thrive financially as well as socially and athletically. Seeing it with one’s own eyes, that’s something to behold.

The goal of this article is to simply provide a glimpse of what Texas high school football is like. Giving full detail or anything close is very hard. It’s so lavish with riches that it’s almost unfathomable.

Living in Florida and covering its high school football prospects, it was interesting to see what Texas had to offer as compared to Texas. After researching it some last fall with a trip to Sherman, Texas, and now to multiple stops in the Dallas area and even Austin, it’s time to discuss Texas high school football in more detail.

Still, trying to place it into a picture for folks in the Sunshine State and other places, that’s much more difficult. Before going into sub-categories, a couple of basic notes.

**There’s no state like Texas when it comes to facilities. None. Zero. Zip. Even many of the smaller programs have turf fields and/or an indoor practice facility. Southlake Carroll has three outdoor turf fields and an indoor turf field that the Dallas Cowboys have used. Yes, a high school has that. Keep that in mind. Talking to coaches and people in Dallas alone took care of any question about whether or not Texas was the King of facilities (photos and videos below to prove it).

**The structure of how Texas cities and school districts pay for these facilities and the coaches that operate them is much different than Florida as well. Florida coaches are extremely underpaid. It’s pathetic, actually.

A head coach in the state of Texas might make $75,000, $100,000 or more, and they are often anointed as an athletic director as well. Rarely do they teach to help support their families. Their duty is to be involved with the football program. Thus, the culture of the two states is massively different.

**In Florida, high school head football coaches often make less than $5,000 a year. Florida needs to figure it out or the mass exodus of top coaches will continue to Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, etc. That exodus has been going on for well over 10 years. Who can blame them?

With those points out of the way, the following represents the bottom line about the Lone Star State and its football.

Football is a Part of Life

After asking numerous coaches and players about high school football in Texas, one thing is for sure. People watch it and follow it closely at all levels – high school, college and professional – because they simply enjoy it that much. High School football is where it begins. Friday night lights, you know the phrase. It’s real in Texas. When there’s a big game, the town basically shuts down in some of the smaller towns outside of big cities like San Antonio, Houston or Dallas.

Even in bigger cities, seeing 10,000 fans at a game, no big deal.

The best part of coaching football in Texas? That question was asked of Arlington (Texas) Bowie Head Coach Joseph Sam.

“That it’s important to the community, and to the school district. It’s a sense of pride.” Coach Sam said bluntly. “I would say that coaching football in Texas in general, is kind of a way where the community and the school district come together for one common cause.”

Perhaps that’s why Texas puts its money where it’s mouth is.

Throw Down That Cash

A 20,000 seat high school stadium is pretty nice, but not one that’s alone and certainly not one that is at the top of the food chain (do a search for Allen, Texas high school football stadium – do it…you will be blown away). There are soccer stadiums that are rented out for school districts to use on a Friday night. That’s not inexpensive. Professional soccer stadiums, mind you. At this juncture, it’s where it gets really crazy as compared to Florida and just about any place in the country. Check out the video reel of Del Valle High School just outside of Austin, Texas:

That’s not even one of the so-called tradition-rich programs that Texas is known for, but the people in that area absolutely want to be the best. That’s an attitude that’s prevalent across Texas. It leads to this next category dealing with facilities.

Facilities That Stand Alone

Texas practice fields are far superior to the vast majority of Florida fields that are actually inside the stadiums. Honestly, in many cases, it’s not very close. Check out Denton (Texas) Guyer and their facilities, mixed in with some workout photos and videos. The $250,000 weight room, inside a beautiful brick building, it’s brand new for the 6A Division II State Runner Ups.

Walking around the Guyer campus, there’s been quite a bit of construction in recent years just about every place one can see. All of it says cash! They spend it on their schools and the football programs are a major part of it. The entire Guyer High School is very nice. Easy to see why adults send their kids to school there. Here’s a picture of the Guyer outdoor practice field, which is field turf:

Denton (Texas) Guyer Practice Field
Brian Smith, Inside The Knights

Next, the weight rooms. Much like Guyer, there are plenty of other schools that spend money towards football facilities. Check out the facility at a “city school” that shares funding with other programs in Arlington, just west of Dallas.

Of course with all of this money being thrown around, there needs to be serious training. Top-notch 2023 safety recruit Peyton Bowen, a Notre Dame commitment, describes what it’s like training for football year-round in Texas by way of actual competition. He plays at Guyer High School.

“Honestly depends on who your strength coach is. I’d say the games are like training too, because you’re playing against the best talent,” Bowen said confidently. “I think we (Texas) produce the most D1 athletes, NFL players, etc. like that. Going against that competition, 16 weeks if you go to the State Championship, a whole NFL season (worth of games), playing against that competition every week…that makes you 100 times better.”

Continuing with training, Guyer has a full-time strength and conditioning coach. This is a high school, and the training is very specific; it’s based on explosive movements. Bowen talked a little bit about the most difficult aspect of training that comes from all the money spent on football to prepare players to play on Friday nights:

“I’d say, oooh, I’d say the stamina part,” Bowen finally committed to his answer after giving it some thought. “It’s not like football conditioning, it’s like track conditioning almost. So you’re running constantly, getting those workouts in. Then, in the off season, most people are getting other training in, plus seven-on-seven, stuff like that.”

Bowen had actually run on the track during the end of his workout before completing the interview that produced the above quotes. He already completed a plyometrics workout that involved a 10-yard sprint that’s timed electronically (more cash spent on football), different types of explosive movements, and it also involved team building.

In short, Texas goes all-in for high school football. Can Florida or another state compete with that? To a degree, yes. Oil money is part of the reason Texas does well, but it’s also a community commitment that’s just incredible. Coaches, facilities, trainers, and anything else that’s needed to help football players be at their best, the money is put forth to make it happen.

Florida simply falls far, far behind that standard. It’s not even remotely comparable. The state of Florida would do well to invest some time into looking at how Texas does some of its fundraising to promote elite training and facilities. It would be good for the players and everyone in the community if the powers that be can start moving in that direction.

For anyone reading this, a parting point. Texas had 33 players selected, and Florida 37 selected, in last year’s NFL Draft. Imagine what those numbers would be if Florida even remotely committed to its student-athletes the way Texas currently does with trainers and facilities and coaches. Would Florida have 45, perhaps 50 players drafted during an average year?

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