To improve Bastrop ISD football, new faces must arrive on school board
- Jim Irish
- Apr 30
- 4 min read
Updated: May 9
By Jim Irish
Photo by Jim Irish
The Cedar Creek football program lies in ruin.
It’s as if someone grabbed a jackhammer and tore it apart brick by brick, and it’s now shrouded in dust.
Former Cedar Creek coach Josh Thomas accumulated a 1-39 record in four seasons
Consider the harsh reality:
The Eagles lost 35 consecutive games under former coach Josh Thomas;
Thomas’ overall record was 1-39 in four seasons.
In retrospect, Thomas’ promotion from assistant to interim head coach in 2021 was highly questionable.
Why would anyone be promoted to head coach from a 2-7 team?
The job should have been advertised and outsourced.
The title of head football coach was not in Thomas’ wheelhouse. He directed a competitive Cedar Creek baseball program for five seasons and could have remained there.
Under Thomas, a Bastrop native, the football program quickly went south.
His high-water mark in four seasons was a victory over an equally inept Elgin team, the only win in a 1-9 season in 2021. That was followed by three — count them, three, — consecutive 0-10 seasons.
The Eagle varsity wasn't the only level that crumbled. Sub-varsity teams were decimated as well. Two seasons ago, varsity, a junior varsity team, and two freshman squads were a combined 0-38.
Former Copperas Cove assistant has daunting job of resurrecting program
The monumental task of resurrecting a football program at ground zero now falls on Jared Shaw, a former assistant at Copperas Cove.
After what has transpired during the past five years, Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi might not be up to the task.
Another factor is the ethnic makeup of Cedar Creek High School: 88% Hispanic. As children, they grow up kicking a ball, not throwing it. These children admire Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, not Dak Prescott. Still another issue in the past has been the lack of speed at the skill positions.
Cedar Creek needs a miracle.
Former head coach Jon Edwards is clearly the best in school's history
Despite the obstacles, former Cedar Creek coach Jon Edwards built a competitive program. Edwards narrowly lost to crosstown rival Bastrop 29-28 and 23-21 in 2018 and 2017, respectively. He broke down the door with a 17-7 victory in 2019, making him the only Cedar Creek coach to ever beat Bastrop. Edwards spoke often about “changing the culture” at Cedar Creek, but was summarily fired after a 5-5 season in 2019. He remains the best coach in Cedar Creek’s 14-year history.
NFL draftee Alfred Collins played under Edwards for three years
As a footnote, Alfred Collins, a player on that 2019 team and a 6-foot-6, 330-pound behemoth at the University of Texas, was selected 43rd by the San Francisco 49ers in last week’s NFL draft, making him the first-ever Bastrop athlete to be chosen.
The blame for disintegration of the program should be equally shared by the Bastrop ISD Board of Trustees and the administration, including athletic director Eliot Allen.
Will anyone step forward and accept responsibility for the debacle at Cedar Creek? That, however, would involve humility and courage.
When BISD hired Allen, someone on the school board or in the administration likely told him that he had free reign in the athletic department. Except for Josh Thomas. He was off limits.
After the initial 1-9 season, Allen promoted Thomas to permanent head coach. What was the basis for that promotion?
Thomas benefitted from benefactor on the school board
In fact, none. Except that Thomas had a benefactor on the school board.
This benefactor wanted Thomas to be promoted.
After three 0-10 seasons, everyone realized the obvious. The program was annihilated, crushed, decimated, flattened, pancaked. Choose your verb.
The school board and administration had decided Thomas was more important than the program. But the rhetoric from those in the ivory tower is that the district priority is “For the kids.” Yet, the kids at Cedar Creek suffered.
That wasn’t the only troubling issue.
Salaries are exorbitant for a small Texas town
Thomas’ base salary is $123,170, the fifth highest among coaches in the greater Austin area last season.
Shocking. How is it possible that a head coach with a 1-39 record receives such an exorbitant salary?
By contrast, Westlake’s Tony Salazar, whose Chaps were 14-2 last season and reached the Class 6A title game, earned only $126,360.
After his termination, Thomas parachuted in as middle school athletic coordinator, a newly created position.
In truth, the head football coaches at Bastrop and Cedar Creek direct the middle school programs.
The benefactor on the school board continues to block downfield for Thomas.
Will Thomas continue to earn $123,170 next school year for a job that someone else performs?
Edwards, Patmon unjustly terminated in 2019 and 2022
When Cedar Creek head coach Jon Edwards and Bastrop head coach Todd Patmon were terminated in 2019 and 2022, respectively, they received no soft landing but instead were kicked to the curb.
They were exiled to back offices at Memorial Stadium to count the Powerade bottles.
If school superintendents were scrutinized with equal intensity as head football coaches, they would be routinely dismissed.
Allen is another example of an overpaid administrator. His base salary is $147,816 as athletic director of two high schools. Jason Glenn, Austin ISD athletic director and a former former-five year NFL player, has a base salary of $146,000 and oversees 17 high schools.
Why are some BISD administrators and coaches paid lucrative salaries? Ask the school board.
To improve athletics, some school board members should be voted out
Speaking of the school board, three positions are up for election on Saturday. Only one, Place 5, is being contested between incumbent Chris Dillon and newcomer John Eason.
Matthew Mix, Place 6, and Ashley Mutschink, Place 7, are unopposed.
Both have served on the board for 12 years. Isn’t that sufficient time to implement ideas and a vision? The board is currently ruled by entrenched members.
No one dares to oppose them?
The Texas Education Agency recently released its latest school accountability ratings, and BISD fell from a C to a D. With that dismal rating in print, it is imperative that new faces emerge on the board with workable, uncompromising visions.
One day, the school board should promote justice rather than injustice, achievement rather than cronyism, righteousness rather than lust for power, and servant leadership rather than raw control.
Jim Irish is a freelance writer in Bastrop, Texas
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