New Caney-Porter exemplifies population growth creating instant rivalries

October 27, 2016

Source: The Houston Chronicle
By: Adam Coleman

It was a fair question 10 years ago. What's in New Caney?

A couple of grocery stores. A high school. Not Kingwood or Humble. Just quiet and quaint.

"Even six years ago, there just wasn't (anything)," New Caney football coach Brady Pennington said. "New Caney was basically what I would call a suburb of Kingwood and Humble. Just kind of on the outside looking in."

Today, New Caney is on the inside looking out. The district joined the Texas high school football stadium arms race in 2014 with Texan Drive Stadium - naming rights slapped on it, too.

Photo Source: The Signorelli Company, developer of Valley Ranch Town Center and Valley Ranch. Texan Drive Stadium is located in the heart of the Town Center.

In the works around the stadium is an amphitheater accompanied by big box shops, restaurants and other entertainment options. To the north a theme park - Grand Texas - supposedly is being planned. Five miles away is 6-year-old Porter High School. And surrounding that are houses just as young. The Grand Parkway's extension out that way has spurred the growth.

New Caney vs. Porter

And Friday, Porter (7-0, 6-0 in District 21-5A play) and New Caney (7-1, 6-0) essentially play for a district title.

How did we blink, look up in Week 10 and realize the city's best game is not in Pearland, Cypress or Katy, but in New Caney? New Caney and Porter were a combined 4-16 in 2013.

This year's New Caney-Porter game doesn't happen without two of the biggest turnarounds in the city. New Caney made the playoffs for the first time in 12 years last year.

Porter's all-time record prior to this year was 9-41 and 0-6 against New Caney. Now former Kingwood Park coach Jim Holley is leading the Spartans' renaissance. He was in administration but had the itch to coach again.

"You can just say it's another game, just one more, it's just the next opponent on our list," Pennington said. "But it's really not. It's the New Caney-Porter game."

Pennington talks about this game as if it's Pear-land-Dawson, Magnolia-Magnolia West or Clear Springs-Clear Creek.

And coaches from those rivalries, about as young as the New Caney-Porter game, speak about their game as if it's Yates-Wheatley, St. Thomas-Strake Jesuit or Deer Park-La Porte - rivalries that stretch back for decades.

It's a sign of the times.

Houston's accelerated growth means new high schools are popping up like McDonald's franchises out of necessity.

Cy-Fair ISD will grow to 12 high schools that play football in 2017. Katy ISD just built Tompkins and No. 8 is on the way. New Caney's neighbor to the south, Humble, isn't a one-horse town anymore and Humble High School isn't the power it once was as a result.

The argument exists that maybe the growth handicaps Houston high schools at the state championship level - at least in Class 6A. The constant splitting, building and siphoning off attendance for new high schools doesn't seem to happen as much in the Metroplex as it does in Houston. Some of Houston's best athletics programs are new schools that are products of the old dog in what was a one-school district (see Atascocita).

"One of the things that you do when you're building all these schools is sometimes you don't have a feeder pattern that's just the Allen Eagles," Pennington said. "You've got so many that you kind of lose that intimacy of that developing your program."

But Pennington said there is a positive to it. It usually doesn't take long for new schools and new athletics programs to find success. Pennington, who was at Porter when it opened, credits the Spartans in that regard.

Maybe an even bigger plus to the growth is all the new rivalries that get created out of thin air seemingly, but end up being relevant like New Caney-Porter is this weekend.

The city of Pearland didn't need the Pearland-Dawson rivalry. But now those residents have a spectacle few can match - fireworks, J.J. Watt sightings, standing room only. Those two schools have only played for three years but make it seem like three decades.

The same could be said for the Magnolia Bowl, which has found some relevance with Magnolia and Magnolia West jousting for playoff spots and district titles.

Battle Line on 59

In New Caney's case, New Caney ISD superintendent Kenn Franklin said the district and community wanted to create a new tradition.

"We decided early on that this rivalry, we needed to come up with a name," Franklin said. "We had a contest before the first game that said 'What's the best name?' One of our staff members came up with the name Battle Line on 59.

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