Then I'd be all up in that school like I was with my older boy when he was in there. I knew every last one of those kids. I knew the teachers and the administrators. The middle school he went to was o.k. but the high school has had it's problems with drugs, teen pregnancy, violence. Seems to be getting better from what I hear, but when I was looking at high school options we started looking at our budget. Plus Brothers was an established coach coming in new and I was familiar with his track record and Hillwood had gone through like 4 or 5 coaches in 7 years. The coach wasn't making hudl videos for the kids or trying to get them into college. Every man for himself and they played like it. Coach Kurt Page is doing a great job over there now and is starting to win back some of those parents and kids that would've gone somewhere else. In his first year, he took a program that had no wins and got them back to being competitive. But did I know 4 years ago that a Kurt Page would come along or that the school would make a rebound? I didn't. I've got a lot of former players over there and a bunch at Pearl-Cohn that have really made a difference in their schools and programs. But it was a crap shoot at one time and the ones at Hillwood were miserable until Coach Page took over and some just stopped playing football altogether.
Looking back, NCS worked out for us. Great education, good influences and a good football program with college options. If I looked like my son looks now when I was in high school I would've been a father much sooner. I was not nearly the well-rounded godly young man he has become.