Nobody knows the struggles I've seen...

We are just past the halfway point in the 2009 regular season and it is time for some Class 5A midseason assessments…and that is what we’ll try to do each day this week.

Let’s start with some teams who have struggled mightily this season.

There are still nine winless 5A teams in the Greater Houston area. The biggest shocker—one that keeps getting bigger each week they don’t win—would have to be the Klein Oak Panthers. Now 0-5, last season’s Region II Division 2 finalists have struggled to find their way in 2009. Moreover, in District 13-5A, which has five teams (Klein Collins, Klein Forest, Westfield, Dekaney and Klein) that are a combined 21-4, it appears that the Panthers may now have an insurmountable hill to climb to even grab a fourth place finish in the district.

Among their remaining five games, Klein Oak has to face Klein Collins, Westfield and Dekaney. Assuming they’d have to win at least two of those three to have a shot, it doesn’t look good for them. But head coach David Smith, a veteran of several campaigns now, told the Klein Sun following last week’s loss to the Klein Bearkats:

“We are going to do like we do every week, win or lose. We’re going to get ready for next week’s ball game.”

Sometimes, that's all you can do. The Panthers travel to Tomball this Friday.

There are five 5A teams in the Houston area (Milby, Fort Bend Austin, South Houston, Cy-Fair and MacArthur) who are averaging fewer than 10 points per game. Not surprisingly, those five teams have two combined wins among them—and those two wins both belong to the Milby Buffaloes. The other four schools are a combined 0-19.

Milby actually started the season 2-0, after wins over Reagan (14-8) and Northbrook (21-20), before losing four in a row, including two shutouts in their last two games, against Bellaire and Madison. Those two shutouts have contributed to the Buffs’ 9.2 points-per-game average.

Fort Bend Austin (8.8 ppg), South Houston (7.6) and Cy-Fair (6.8) all average about a touchdown per game, but the MacArthur Generals have had the roughest go of it in the area of scoring this season. Through six games, Mac has scored just 13 total points. That’s two TDs—one against Conroe and another against Galveston Ball—or an average of 2.2 points per game.

Unfortunately for first-year head coach Bernie Mulvaney, they don’t appear to get any relief in the weeks ahead. Kingwood, Humble, Nimitz and Aldine are the Generals’ final four opponents this season.

It’s always hard to pinpoint one thing that contributes to a struggling program, but for Milby, Austin, South Houston and MacArthur, student body demographics seem to contribute to the problems, in that the football programs just don’t draw enough students who culturally have grown up around the game—which means it could be a systemic problem that could take years to fix—or might never be fixed at all.

Cy-Fair is a little different. That part of the city has been, and still is, a hotbed of youth football activity and, demographically, should supply a steady stream of football talent for the foreseeable future. But, with all that young football-playing talent comes the need for more schools to put them in. And that growth in the number of campuses in the Cy-Fair ISD seems to be the biggest single contributing factor to the Bobcats’ struggles since the 2007 class (Sam McGuffie included) graduated.

It’s not a coincidence that, following the 2007 season, Cypress Woods—whose opening siphoned off a large number of students (and student-athletes) from the Cy-Fair campus—began playing varsity football and were immediate contenders in both District 15-5A and Region II. That football talent would have otherwise been playing for Ed Pustejovsky.

One school’s loss is another’s gain, and growth in Cole’s Crossing and Fairfield demanded a need for a high school to support the families moving into those areas, so perhaps the Cy-Fair coaches can take some solace in the Wildcats’ successes. Or maybe not.

Tomorrow, we'll look at some teams with huge point differentials through the first six weeks.