Like i said.. the language and base schemes are the same.. by the time those kids are seniors all the offense and defense will be second nature.. they will know it better than their own names.
It's also all about culture and building it up from an early age. While the youth football stuff has ZERO official affiliation with the school district, the kids wear the same uniforms, the same helmets and logos, and build the same pride in the program that the 8th graders and HS have.
My daughter is a UYFA cheerleader/pom squad kid. She wears the same uniform the HS pom girls do. The HS pom girls are her coaches and they learn the same dance routines, same music and popouts and cheers that all the HS girls perform.
About 20 years ago the argument about splitting schools came up from Edmond because they chose to split their high schools up and undoubtedly they did so because they felt it would benefit the students to be in smaller HS and limit class sizes and maximize their resources. Jenks, Broken Arrow, and Union have not done that because they feel they can provided the same resources in the single setting. Whether that's true or not I can't say for sure. I know I feel like my son has a ton of opportunities to excel at Union and they keep adding resources and more opportunities. As a parent I feel like splitting the school up would actually limit resources and opportunities. My kid doesn't play football so that doesn't factor into my opinion. And the Union, BA, Bixby, and Jenks communities always seem to rally around school bond issues...not sure how Moore, Norman, and Edmond handle those or if those communities generally support school district bonds.
