GRANDFALLS, Texas — Superintendents. They have the word ‘super’ in their name for a reason. They’re more than just intendents: they’re SUPER-Intendents.
That’s why two brothers, both superintendents, decided to create ‘The SUPER-Intendent Bowl’.
"Well, to tell you the truth, it's just something that I came up with when I was talking with my brother," Albert Hernandez, superintendent of Big Springs Charter School, said. "He was named superintendent for Grandfalls back in July. And I told him that we were starting a six man football team. And he said they had one here. And I said, 'Man, it sure would be neat to play a game', but they had a full schedule. [...] but then he called me in early August, and said that they had an opening for September 23. And I said, Man, that sounds great."
"Both of us, me and my brother are superintendents," Bryan Hernandez, superintendent of Grandfalls Royalty, said. "This is my first year here at Grandfalls Royalty. I'm new to the position, we needed a team to play on our homecoming game. Somebody backed out last minute, and I knew he was developing his program there for six man football. So I said, 'Hey, man, I need somebody to play football with us. And if you're willing, we'd love to have you host and have you come out' and that's how it all began."
While Bryan has been the superintendent at Grandfalls since late July, Albert has been the superintendent for Big Springs Charter School at the Ed Brune campus for eight years. Both schools are 1A.
"Since my brother's the superintendent and I'm the superintendent of Big Spring Charter School, I decided that we had to have a theme," Albert said. "And so I came up with the 'superintendent bowl.'"
"It just had a good little catch to it," Bryan said.
The interesting points don’t end at the fact that they’re both superintendents. It's the inaugural season for six man football in Brune for Albert, where not only is he the superintendent - he’s also the coach.
His high schoolers made their debut against the experienced Cowboys of Grandfalls, a major test for the first timers.
"Well, you know, I've been teaching and while I've been in education for about 30 years now, this is my 30th year," Albert said. "And throughout that time, I've coached various sports: volleyball, basketball, track, some of the other things individual sports, tennis. And so my passion has been around the kids and helping them to develop them so that they can use those skills later on in life. [...] And so when I became a superintendent at Big Springs, one of the things I asked my board members was would they allow me to coach because, like I said, it's one of my passions."
And they've let him coach. This season is the inaugural season for six man football for Coach/Superintendent Albert.
This six man league is fast paced, unlike the regular football you might know.
"I'm new to six man," Bryan said. "You know, I had to learn a whole new different way of football. It's a faster pace. It can get a little confusing, you know, there's high scoring games and so there's lots of high scoring, fast paced. Every man is a receiver. You know, they're all eligible for the ball. And that was the biggest thing that I couldn't understand at first. Freaked me out a little bit."
"So when you look at eleven man football," Albert explained. "You got a lot more players on the team. And one of the biggest differences between eleven men and six man football is that with six man, before you can actually run the ball across the line of scrimmage, it's gotta be touched twice in the backfield. That usually goes to the Quarterback who will hand it off to a receiver who will pass it laterally over to a Wide Receiver."
"The first downs are a little different," Bryan continued. "You need 15 yards for a first down and the scary thing is you can get '45ed'. That means if you, the opponent, or whoever you're playing against has 45 points or more than you do, the game is over. So it can be tough."
Due to the small population of both schools, that’s really the only way to field a full team.
"Our population of students is 142 at Grandfalls Royalty," states Bryan. "I just got here in July. So I think I know we're less than 1,000, maybe even less than 500 [in Grandfalls]."
"Our charter schools is located about eight miles above Leakey," Albert said. "And so in the town of Leakey, you have a small community with about 5,000 or less people that live there. I think maybe it might be somewhere about 1,200 to 2,000."
Since it is in a small town, that means this event is a big deal for the town of Grandfalls.
"There's been a lot of energy," Bryan said. "We had a bonfire last night and the whole town came out. We had a parade today. The whole town came out, and we're expecting a big crowd for tonight's homecoming game and tonight's season opener. So definitely people you know, they've hyped it up and they're supporting us and so it's been good for the community."
This game isn’t only a war between the brothers, it’s also a way to give back to the community and try to limit violence off the field, especially with how things have been going in schools around Texas lately.
The brothers grew up in Uvalde, so they’ve seen their share of unnecessary violence in their own hometown.
"Well, you know, what I do want to say is Bryan and I are both from Uvalde," Albert said. "And we've lived there all our life, that's where we grew up, and graduated from school there."
For Bryan especially, it was hard. He used to be the vice principal at Robb Elementary.
"You know, and it's a hard thing," Bryan said. "For me just thinking about it. You know, I knew those teachers. I used to work at Robb Elementary. And so I walked those halls and, and, you know, we keep them in our hearts. And our prayers every single day."
"I really want to let people know that we're playing for Uvalde Strong today," Albert said while holding up a 'Uvalde Strong' sticker. "My boys are going to be, you know, wearing this sticker on their helmets. And I know Bryan feels the same way."
"The kids think about it every day," Bryan said. "But the good thing is that we're able to come out here and kind of put that off to the side and do what we can to get our minds off it, but it's been a difficult situation. You know, we do have some kids that actually are on our team, they live in Uvalde. And they have transferred over to our school. And so I know that tonight Uvalde’s heavy on their hearts."
With all the violence off the field within our state recently, it’s nice to see kids just play a football game.
Grandfalls won the game by a margin of 48 to 0. This didn't discourage Albert though, as this was their first game ever and his kids showed pride.
Bryan also said that this was the most attended game since 2008, and it really showed how much this town was excited for this event.
Even though it was a blow out, look out for Albert's team next year, he'll be back for vengeance.