Jerry Comalander hasn’t coached since 1987, but that doesn’t mean the North East Independent School District athletic director is any less competitive than he was when he headed the Churchill football program.
That’s why Friday night was a long one for Comalander, who guided the Chargers to a state championship in 1976.
Reagan, Roosevelt and Madison all lost in the Class 5A bidistrict playoffs, marking the first time in six years that no NEISD school survived the first week of the postseason.
Instead of making playoff arrangements, Comalander found himself in the unfamiliar position of having too much time on his hands over the weekend.
“It had been so long since we didn’t have a team playing the weekend after bidistrict that it was a little tough,” Comalander said Sunday night. “Thank goodness that doesn’t happen very often.”
Comalander, 70, managed to chuckle while he described his mood this weekend.
“Mary asked me about every two hours, ‘Are you OK?’” Comalander said, referring to his wife. “I told her I would be fine by Monday. As bad as I felt, I guarantee you I didn’t feel any worse than those coaches and players who worked so hard to make the playoffs.”
Reagan, Roosevelt and Madison earned three of the four playoff berths in District 26-5A, which until two years ago included six-time state champion Judson. New Braunfels was the only 26-5A playoff team to win Friday night.
Perennial power Smithson Valley and NEISD schools Churchill, Johnson, Lee and MacArthur also compete in 26-5A. Even with Judson no longer in the district, 26-5A is traditionally one of the best in the state.
“There’s no doubt about that,” Reagan head coach David Wetzel said. “Every week in district is like a playoff game. There’s one good thing and one bad thing about that. Playing in such a tough district prepares you for the playoffs because you’re going against a quality opponent every week. But on the other hand, you’re beating each other up.
“The key is, can you stay healthy enough? That’s always a big concern.”
Wetzel made those comments two days before Pflugerville slipped by Reagan 10-3, Austin Westlake edged Madison 31-27, and Austin Bowie rallied to beat Roosevelt 35-28.
The NEISD hadn’t gone 0-3 in bidistrict since Madison, MacArthur and Roosevelt fell in the same round in 1999.
Reagan won the 26-5A crown this season with a 7-1 record, while Roosevelt, New Braunfels, Madison and Smithson Valley tied for second at 5-3. Smithson Valley missed the playoffs because it lost to Roosevelt, New Braunfels and Madison.
“I believe that good competition gets you ready for the playoffs,” Comalander said. “It would be great to win every playoff game, but you have to give a lot of credit to the teams that best us Friday night. They are all good, quality teams. Yet, we could have won all three of those games.”
While this season’s NEISD playoff representatives all had their strengths, none was outstanding.
The biggest disappointment had to be Madison, which started the season ranked No. 4 in Texas Football magazine’s preseason 5A poll. It’s easy to say now that the Mavericks were overrated. I’d rather say they underachieved, considering the blue-chip talent on their roster.
Regardless of rankings, Madison should have fared better than it did. In the end, turnovers and inconsistency doomed the Mavs.
Roosevelt also had an up-and-down season, starting out 4-0 before losing three consecutive district games. But just when everybody counted them out, the Rough Riders won their final three district contests to capture a playoff spot.
Roosevelt led Bowie 28-18 after three quarters, but the Bulldogs outscored the Rough Riders 17-0 in the final period to pull out the victory.
After watching Reagan capitalize on four turnovers to beat Madison 30-21 and win the 26-5A title on the last Friday of the regular season, I thought the Rattlers had a good shot at advancing to the regional final for the fourth consecutive year.
But Pflugerville stunned the Rattlers with an 85-yard touchdown pass on the game’s first play from scrimmage, and went on to outgain Reagan 258-155 in total offense.
As Comalander said, you have to credit the Austin-area teams. They were just a little bit better than their 26-5A counterparts this time.
That no NEISD team won a playoff game this season is worth noting, because, as mentioned earlier, it doesn’t happen very often. The last time the district failed record a postseason victory was in 2003, when Westlake, long an NEISD nemesis, beat Madison and Hays downed Roosevelt.
For decades, the NEISD had made up the core of a University Interscholastic League district that has been one of the most dominant in the state.
Since 1976, when Churchill, Lee, MacArthur and Roosevelt were put in the same district for the first time, the NEISD is 35-19 in the first round of the playoffs. The school district has produced three state champions, Lee (1971), Churchill (1976) and Roosevelt (1995), and has won 15 Region IV titles in the past 44 seasons.
Churchill was the reigning San Antonio power when Judson was moved into the same district with NEISD schools in 1980. The Chargers beat the Rockets in 1980 and 1981, but Judson defeated Churchill in their district meeting in 1982 and again in the state quarterfinals that year.
The playoff victory over the Chargers launched the Rockets on an unprecedented run of success in San Antonio-area high school football history.
“With teams like Judson and Smithson Valley in the district, it’s been a fight just to get teams in the playoffs,” Comalander said. “It’s been a tremendous run.”
The high-water mark for District 26-5A came in 1995, when Judson won the 5A Division I state championship and Roosevelt took the Division II title. Judson finished 14-1, with its only loss coming against the Rough Riders, who went 16-0.
No other district in the state has produced two state champions in the same year since the UIL split the 5A playoffs into two divisions in 1990.
Given that kind of success, it’s no wonder Comalander felt out of sorts over the weekend.
