Crosby High School cancels Friday classes for playoff game in Austin

CROSBY, TX (KTRK) -- Crosby Football always draws a crowd but especially with their success this year, they had to bring in additional seating to accommodate all the fans. School will be closed Friday and some businesses say they might close up shop to attend the semi-state playoff game in Austin.

The last time the Crosby football team went this far Dwight Eisenhower was President and Bob Stevens was #21. They were the Buffaloes at the time. Now fast forward 44 years.

"Everybody is really wrapped up in this football season and the kids are excited, the town, it's good for the community," Stevens said.

It's all the buzz at Ruby's Barber Shop.

"It just makes everybody closer. Everywhere you go you see go cougars in the grocery store. Everyone is woo hoo!" Annette Jolly said.

Cougar signs are everywhere, Cougar pride is strong.

"I've got butterflies in my stomach and everyone is all excited and we pulled together and cheering for them. It's awesome," says Lisa Duncan.

The district tried to have the game played at NRG Stadium but a coin clip results in the game being played in Austin. So Superintendent Keith Moore says they made the decision to cancel classes game day Friday. Dr. Moore says they received a few complaints and the district released the following statement:

After the Crosby Cougar victory in the state quarterfinal match-up vs the Hutto Hippos, the state semifinal match-up was set for 8:00 pm in Austin vs the Cedar Park Timberwolves. Crosby attempted to have the game played at NRG stadium in Houston, but when this could not be agreed upon by both schools, Crosby lost the coin flip to Cedar Park, resulting in the game being played in Austin. The tremendous community of Crosby has traveled by the thousands all fall to support their kids and with the Cougar faithful having to make the lengthy drive across Houston, through Friday afternoon traffic, the choice came down to going to school for either half of a day or none at all.

Crosby ISD superintendent, Dr. Keith Moore, considered several factors in reaching his decision to cancel school for the full day:

1) The burden it would place on families that have younger children - Although we do not want to place this burden upon our families, a half day of school would not have alleviated this problem.

2) The safety of the over 6,000 members of the Crosby Community that will be making the drive to Austin Friday.

3) Prioritizing instruction - CISD students will gain both quantity and quality of instructional time by going to school for a full day later on in the sprig versus a half of a day now.

4) Loss of Revenue - Anticipating that many families making the trip to Austin would have kept their children home from school anyway, the district will realize higher attendance rates in the spring versus this Friday.

Crosby ISD does understand that this places a burden on some of our families, especially those with young children and apologize for the inconvenience to those families.

Go Cougars!!!

Keith A Moore, Ed.D.

Superintendent

Crosby ISD - Tradition...With A Future!!!

Stevens says, "School is more than just reading, writing and arithmetic. There are some social aspects of that as well." He'll be one of thousands of fans in Austin. He says there are some things that haven't changed in all these years. "Something you'll never forget, the teams we played, the scores of the games, to this day," Stephens says. But the one thing he hopes is different this time, the outcome. "We just kind of run out of gas," says Stephens of their 1960 loss to Albany.

The team must win Friday against the Cedar Park Timberwolves to move on to the state championships.