campbell was an inspirer, he could sell a can of dip to martha stuart. finley's an intimedater, he could make you poop your pants with a stair. neither of them could get the players to commit, i should know i was one of the "lucky" few that got to play for both the horrible losing seasons. players come in to boot camp as they have to train harder that the year before them.. what they dont realize is they arent playing the class before them they are playing carroll. they have to beat carroll just to get into the playoff and then they have to face a o'connor, jay, clark out of SA. whole nother ball game there. train against who you play on friday night, not the outgoing srs.

p.s. sorry i have one gripe to get off my chest... why do you take a potential all state running back and him at quarterback????? still caught up on it

That's just crazy. To much negative attitude from this Scrooge. They will be fine in that region. Is this guy a coach, if so you need reallignment.

For all who think Victoria will be competitive in 4A, I have some news for you - El Campo, Bay City, Calhoun, Lamar. Shall I go on? If they end up in a district with these teams, they probably won't even make the playoffs.

Point taken f-fan. Would love to see vic teams in same region, pass that on to the U. I. L. But the teams you pointed out as semi-good I believe are good. I agree to disagree. The south and valley teams are much bigger versatile as f-bluff and e-campo.both teams are respectable. Don't underestimate any team in the playoffs I guess is my point. I would like to see our region in the same class as those central Tx. teams.

Waddie,

Birdfan (from El Campo) has a point. The last time the Vipers went deep in the playoffs (3 rounds) was the last time they played valley schools in the first 2 rounds and that was in 2002. Now, they play San Antonio teams right off the bat....no one south of SA gets passed SA teams, especially in 5A. You can't compare the 2 because one is 4A and one is 5A. The Vipers won't ever play Mercedes and Uvalde, who the hell are those teams? Instead, the Vipers get SA Clark in round 1...who made the 5A semi's last year and quarterfinals this season. Calhoun is a pretty decent team in Region 4, but I doubt they would have gone that far had they been in 4A Division 1 with Lake Travis,Alamo Heights,Steele, and Flour Bluff.

I'm hoping they at least put the 2 Victoria schools & Calhoun in Region 3 with better competition. I think it makes your teams better overall by playing against better competition.

Nice try bird but south tx. and valley teams are better than you and YT are giving them credit for. What is memorials record against these easy teams?

I am impressed with some of you, actually talking a little common sense. Besides Ocker there are some interesting statements. I like it!

VISD has a long history of not supporting quality football. The fans are here. The talent is here. The Administration and school board regard HS football as just another elective that might as well be basket weaving. There has NEVER been a attempt to hire talent other than the one occasion when Gordon Wood was hired. To my knowledge, Alan Wedell has been the only successful football coach at any school in Victoria. He left for better pay elsewhere. VISD was unwilling to pay him anything for his success for fear of upsetting the apple cart and appearing to play favorites by snubbing the Stroman coach.

Victoria will forever continue to the butt of HS football jokes and remain in the backwaters. Coach Finley has demonstrated his total and utter lack of any winning ability. His selection to be head football coach is a sad day in the future history of that school.

If VISD were to find a good coach and pay him what he was worth the Victoria Advocate would publish his pay package on the front page of the newspaper under a banner headline.

The legend Gordon Wood, the greatest of all Texas High School coaches , saw something when he coached at Victoria and left town as soon as he could. What did he see ???????

While I agree that Calhoun got better with good coaching, a change of scenery made Calhoun better.
Realingment played a huge part. Turning right out of the school parking lot and playing valley and south texas schools is good for everyone's schedule. Turning left and coming towards el campo, bay city, lamar etc would be bad news.
But, this poll was about Coach Finley. I don't think he had enough to work with. It's funny how soon people forget. Before Finley, it was Campbell, then numerous others before that were attacked for not being a good coach. No matter how good the coach was, they didn't win in Victoria over the long haul. Doesn't sound like coaching is the issue to me.

it was too close to friday @ 3:30pm

I think the 2 Victoria schools will do better in 4A. It may take a couple years to get things situated but I think they will be ok.

"The right coach is everything, Calhoun had very little talented players. But the coach made them a winning program. Good luck Vic on your search."--Waddie

Not at the 5A level. Especially when you was one of the biggest 5A programs to boot. Better have them 6'4" 250 lb lineman to go with some talented skilled positions to compete. Donald Duck as coach couldn't have done any better with what they had to work with. Not sure where all the corn fed kids are around Victoria anymore. Getting more and more like a Valley school programs around here. Great in soccer, baseball--but, nothing in football.

Pretty classes poll to be put up!

The right coach is everything, Calhoun had very little talented players. But the coach made them a winning program. Good luck Vic on your search.

Need athletes to go with coaching. Going down to 4A will help Victoria be successful.

We have the same issue here in Yoakum when comparing to Cuero. Don't have the athletes, don't matter who the coach is, you'll lose.

Many are called, but few are chosen. Mr. Finley had his chance and blew it. For good or bad, high school football is very important to our community. It is time for VISD to step up and quit playing politics as usual. It's time for new coaches. It's time to promote excellence in our high school football teams.

Victoria has alot of talented kids, but that talent needs to have direction. I don't know coach Finley, nor do I know his coaching background. I can only call it how I see it. He may be an excellebt coach but his ideas didn't work here for Memorial. I think the football program will get alot better once the new Schools are in full swing.

Yes, but he did nothing with the Victoria program and he refused to play El Campo last year when the hurricane was coming even though they had approval to play the game earlier in the week.

Not really a fair assessment. His record was very good PRIOR to coming to victoria.