Sports

Dripping Springs cross country season begins

Carl Waits

Lady Tigers Volleyball rolling through the season

Carl Waits

Carl Waits

Carl Waits

Carl Waits

Summer league softball concludes in Drip

The growth of Dripping Springs ISD has steadily pushed the district to the 6A in competition. It is, of course, the largest classification in the state. There are many good 6A teams in the area and Dripping Springs will be battling in one of the best as it includes consistently two of the best, Lake Travis and Westlake. Once again Dripping Springs will begin as one of the smallest schools in 6A. The numbers game is always in play because the more numbers the more people to chose from and more good depth and better chances to find top talent. Except for the move from 6-man to 11-man in 1951, I have been witness to the change in classifications. When I first came to DSHS, the UIL had a little different way of doing classifications. In those days they would take the enrollments in the first year of the 2-year assignments. In 1968, the first time 11-man championship, DS learned they would be moving to Class A in 1970. That meant we were a Class A enrollment in 1968 and we had time to move into the middle of enrollment by 1970.

After turning 80 in January, a thought arose. With the major changes that have taken place in the sports world in the past 30 years, I mused as to whether I would trade the life I had lived in the sports world for a new start in today's atmosphere. The answer took less than a nanosecond: no way.

In today's sports world when one talks about a Field of Dreams, they are referring to baseball fields as made famous by the movie of the same name. Dripping Springs has long had a field of dreams in their history beginning back in the 1880's. Every small town or community seemed to have a baseball team and they were also very strong rivalries, not to mention any big celebration was climaxed with a baseball game. I read about how the community treated a non-popular politician at a political rally. They assigned each politician to a spot on the stage to make their speech. He was last. As it was nearing his time, various people mingled through the crowd letting them know the game was about to start. By the time his speech was to be made there were very few people left in the crowd. He complained this was not the first time it had happened. Also, Syd Hall, a life-long Driftwood native and DS graduate, could remember starting out early in the morning and walking to Dripping Springs to watch or play in a baseball game.

In today's world of high school sports and especially in the larger school districts, tax payers money in the form of big bond issues are used to build Taj Mahal edifices for the few players that are fortunate to make the squads. In the smaller classifications, not so much. In the early years little preparation for a field. Find a field large enough to carve out a football field. Mow the grass, dig up the non-useful plants like sunflowers and grass burs, etc. Maybe blade it off, put up the goal posts, line the field off and “viola” you were set to go. Might add bleachers later but mostly people either brought their own chairs, parked their cars around the field or stood outside the fences to watch the games.