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Post by justryn2 on May 8, 2008 6:36:59 GMT -6
Youth coaches, how many players are generally on the teams you coach or play against? Our league has a maximum team roster size of 32 players. However, the organization I am coaching in keeps the number much smaller. For the past several years I have averaged about 17 players per game.
This causes two problems. First, there is no way to practice 11 on 11. I can do "half-line" practice but this doesn't help too much on any play with misdirection or on the passing game. It can be very difficult to perfect execution when the only time the team can really execute in an 11 on 11 environment is during games.
Another problem with the numbers is that it means that several players have to play on both sides of the ball. Yes, there are always one or two players that probably should be playing on both offense and defense. But, when too many of the players or going both ways, and there are not any fresh players to give them a break, fourth quarter performance can really suffer. FYI, my team is the select heavyweight group so, it is very difficult to get other teams in our organization to scrimmage with us.
I am just curious how you're organizations work regarding roster size and, if you situation is anything like mine, what do you do to get 11 on 11 practice time; or in lieu of it.
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Post by davecisar on May 8, 2008 6:42:17 GMT -6
I have coahed with roster sizes of 17-36. While there are benefits to having larger and smaller size squads, I prefer 23-24.
We have played teams with roster4 sizes from 16-51.
To get 11-11 when we didnt have 22, we did lots of fit and freeze reps with dads or tall bags filling in as bodies
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Post by los on May 8, 2008 19:22:08 GMT -6
We usually averaged 18-25 kids with the older 11-12 age group and had two teams(nearly every year) of the younger 8-10 group, about that same numbers as the older group.......2 of the other county's we played......had about the same numbers.....the 3rd one had a larger population, and usually fielded 2 older teams and 2-3 younger teams.....all about the same numbers.....this was an independent youth league.....no cutting, took all the kids that came out......no weight limits(only ball carrier weight limits)........and "no" A and B squads, all the teams were divided as equally as possible......any kids that turned 13 before sept 1st, had to play on the school jr. high teams
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Post by CatsCoach on May 30, 2008 5:49:33 GMT -6
The teams that i have coach on avg about 14 kids. The max a team can have in our league is 22. For each weight class there is an A, B & C teams. We do get a lot of kids that come out so normally we have One A team, 2 B teams and 2 C teams. Now i will say that the C teams will carry more than 14 kids
We do like it with about 14 kids, that way every kid gets to start on O or D. With practice we do half-line and/or scrimmage.
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Post by casec11 on May 30, 2008 6:19:15 GMT -6
Our league max is 30-35(no sure what the exact # is) we have usually been half that from 12-17. I would think the optimum size would be around 22-24. This way you can run a scout team and can manage to get all the kids playing... when you get above that I think you would have a hard time getting reps in a game for everyone. The teams we play that have the high numbers usually platoon.
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Post by cyflcoach on Jun 1, 2008 17:14:18 GMT -6
I agree with Dave C. that 23-25 kids is the ideal number but, as long as teams you compete against have similar sized rosters it shouldn't really be an issue if everyone's in the same boat. A couple of other things that should go into determining maximum roster sizes, in my opinion, are what format is utilized to keep time which will determine the number of snaps per game and the minimum play requirement, if applicable to your league. Our maximum roster is 31 per team at our oldest age levels. We play 15 minute quarters, running clock until final 2 minutes per half at our 10-12 year old age level. We have an 8 play minimum play rule as well.
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Post by youthfootballguru on Jun 11, 2008 12:33:16 GMT -6
The perfect number of players on your depends on where your talent drops off. If #22 - #28 are close in skill level 28 is great. If their is a big drop off in talent I will take 22.
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Post by davecisar on Jun 11, 2008 13:24:52 GMT -6
I dont really care about talent, 22-24 allows me enough to practice with and at the same time allows them all plenty of playing time.
We always try and do the best with the hand thats dealt to us, having big numbers has never been of any interest to me personally. Last season we had a very weird deal where we only had 18 kids on one of the teams I coached. Had to get creative, but in the end it was more fun for them and me both.
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Post by eickst on Jun 11, 2008 15:03:27 GMT -6
I don't care about a drop off in talent, any kid that's willing to suck it up through practice and put himself on the line deserves to play.
My problem with larger rosters is that there are more parents to deal with.
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