|
Post by coachdoug on May 29, 2009 22:59:15 GMT -6
Well, I just got a call from our team's head coach earlier today. It looks like were going to lose about 17 kids total from our roster of 34 last season. Four we knew about last year - they decided that football just wasn't their game, another one is moving on to high school, two others moved out of the area, and another two are staying down a level (more on this below). But the other 8, including our entire starting backfield (all three running backs) are defecting to the Snoop Dogg league. I don't think it had anything to do with our coaching or their experience on the the team - the thing all the parents are citing is economics - they say they can play for a lot less in the Snoop league. I suspect that when it's all said and done, their going to find that the overall cost is closer than they think. Nonetheless, they're gone.
I also suspect that our program's decision to leave our old conference and start a new conference with only 2 other cities had a lot to do with it. The new conference has joined Pop Warner, so we can fill out our schedule with Pop Warner teams from Orange County, and be eligible for the national Pop Warner tournaments. The Pop Warner affiliation is full of problems. We got rid of the older-lighter rule years ago because it was being abused. Now that we're playing under Pop Warner rules, we have to allow older-lighters. And, they also have a minimum weight rule, so we're losing two more players because they won't make the min weight, so they'll get moved down a level and have to play as O/L on that team.
Anyway, instead of having probably 27 returning players and our biggest problem being figuring out how to get everyone enough touches, now we probably have about 17 returners and will have to replace our entire backfield. I guess we have our work cut out for us.
Oh, and we're also losing our def coord, who's going with his son over to the Snoop league, which means that now I'll be the def coord. That's fine with me - I've actually coached mostly defense over the years anyway, but I really enjoyed working with the offense with this group last year. I'll still be involved with the offense to an extent, but I'm sure I'll have my hands full with the defense. I'm sure I can do better than we did last year defensively, but I'm losing the entire secondary and about half the linebacking corp, so it's going to be a challenge.
Anyway, I just needed to vent a little. I'm a bit depressed at the moment and I'm just not happy about these developments. Thanks for hearing me out.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on May 29, 2009 23:18:48 GMT -6
It's really called the Snoop Dogg league?
|
|
|
Post by coachdoug on May 29, 2009 23:42:27 GMT -6
It's not just called the Snoop Dogg league, it actually is his league. He started it about 4-5 years ago ostensibly to provide more opportunities for inner-city youth to participate in organized football. There already were plenty of options (Pop Warner, AYF, Jr All-American, and several independent leagues) around greater Los Angeles, but he probably did provide some new opportunities in a few communities. In a lot of cases, though, he just poached players already playing in other leagues. For instance, the Long Beach program in our league basically went from being pretty strong to defunct within about 2 years because so many of their players went over to the Snoop Dogg league.
Anyway, it'll be interesting to see what happens with Snoop's son now that he's in HS. He has his son enrolled at Long Beach Poly, which is almost always ranked in the national top 10. The head coach is Raul Lara and his son, Emmanuel Lara, played QB in our league and is currently a freshman at LBP, as is Snoop's son, who also plays QB. I know Snoop has made some signficant financial contributions to LBP, but I can't see Coach Lara letting that influence his decision making, especially when it involves his own son. I haven't seen Snoop's son play, but I understand he's pretty good. I have seen Emmanuel play, and he's okay, but not incredible - good footwork and mechanics, but not much of an arm. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds over the next few years.
Anyway, if you're curious about Snoop's football league, I don't know the website off the top of my head, but just Google Snoop Dogg Youth Football and you'll find it. Also, I have made a couple fairly lengthy posts about Snoop's league here in response to some questions from Dave Cisar, so you can do a search here to see that conversation.
|
|
|
Post by justryn2 on May 30, 2009 7:39:48 GMT -6
coachdoug, I've read many of your posts on this site and I know you are a dedicated coach. So I really feel bad that you're loosing all those players. But, and I'm only saying this to maybe give you a way to look at it a little differently, 34 players on a youth team is just way too many, IMO. I cannot imagine how you manage to get all those players meaningful playing time.
Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm not trying to be critical. Just hoping to help you find a silver lining here.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on May 30, 2009 9:02:57 GMT -6
It's not just called the Snoop Dogg league, it actually is his league. He started it about 4-5 years ago ostensibly to provide more opportunities for inner-city youth to participate in organized football. There already were plenty of options (Pop Warner, AYF, Jr All-American, and several independent leagues) around greater Los Angeles, but he probably did provide some new opportunities in a few communities. In a lot of cases, though, he just poached players already playing in other leagues. For instance, the Long Beach program in our league basically went from being pretty strong to defunct within about 2 years because so many of their players went over to the Snoop Dogg league. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see what happens with Snoop's son now that he's in HS. He has his son enrolled at Long Beach Poly, which is almost always ranked in the national top 10. The head coach is Raul Lara and his son, Emmanuel Lara, played QB in our league and is currently a freshman at LBP, as is Snoop's son, who also plays QB. I know Snoop has made some signficant financial contributions to LBP, but I can't see Coach Lara letting that influence his decision making, especially when it involves his own son. I haven't seen Snoop's son play, but I understand he's pretty good. I have seen Emmanuel play, and he's okay, but not incredible - good footwork and mechanics, but not much of an arm. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds over the next few years. Anyway, if you're curious about Snoop's football league, I don't know the website off the top of my head, but just Google Snoop Dogg Youth Football and you'll find it. Also, I have made a couple fairly lengthy posts about Snoop's league here in response to some questions from Dave Cisar, so you can do a search here to see that conversation. He should be good, he was having his kid trained by Steve Clarkson , so was Montana's kid, and Wayne Gretzky's son. Sounds like there was already plenty of opportunity for the kids, he just created less opportunity for those already devoted to their respected organizations..but from what I understand he's actually a really nice guy (despite being a Crip and all) I understand Snoop coaches too, ...I'd love to have the opportunity to coach against him
|
|
|
Post by coachdoug on May 30, 2009 9:35:19 GMT -6
Yeah, Snoop coaches. I guess he's a pretty good coach. I think he won his own league's championship a few times. Although, I'm not sure if that's because he's a really good coach or because he got to pick the best players for his team because all the kids wanted to play for a celebrity coach. Probably a little bit of both.
|
|
|
Post by coachdoug on May 30, 2009 9:46:07 GMT -6
coachdoug, I've read many of your posts on this site and I know you are a dedicated coach. So I really feel bad that you're loosing all those players. But, and I'm only saying this to maybe give you a way to look at it a little differently, 34 players on a youth team is just way too many, IMO. I cannot imagine how you manage to get all those players meaningful playing time. Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm not trying to be critical. Just hoping to help you find a silver lining here. Justryn2 - I agree, it's really hard to get everyone into the game in a meaningful way with 34 players (although we had 6 season-ending injuries last year - none of which happened on the football field - so we only had to deal with 28 most of the season). I think we did a pretty good job with it last year. Unfortunately, we'll have to take whoever signs up (up to 35 players), so if we get a bunch of first year players sign up, we'll still have a bunch of guys to get into the game, but now they'll be rookies instead of vets. My attitude is I'm going to coach whoever shows up and we only want the kids that want to be with us anyway (although I know these decisions are being made by their parents - I think all the kids would rather be back with us). We still have plenty to work with and we're going to have a fun, successful season regardless. It just a little bit of a kick in the gut right now. I think I'm more upset with our board than anything else for making the decision to change conferences wthouth really thinking it through and making sure we had a solid option to go to. This new conference will probably be fine in 3-4 years, but it's really hurting us right now.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on May 30, 2009 11:33:17 GMT -6
Yeah, Snoop coaches. I guess he's a pretty good coach. I think he won his own league's championship a few times. Although, I'm not sure if that's because he's a really good coach or because he got to pick the best players for his team because all the kids wanted to play for a celebrity coach. Probably a little bit of both. OH I'd love to hear that play calling...."Ok, ok son we're gonna run Red 24 dizzle"....=
|
|
|
Post by casec11 on May 30, 2009 13:05:01 GMT -6
coach doug, last year Outlawjosewales, posted a similar story, I know its not youth, but it turned out pretty good for him going 10-0. Coach up the kids you got and have fun, you may get some new kids too..... good luck
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on May 30, 2009 18:13:02 GMT -6
For Shizzle
|
|
|
Post by jhanawa on May 30, 2009 18:18:24 GMT -6
34 or 17 returners, I've never even dreamed of that luxury LOL.....in our association our staff only coaches Midgets so we get the previous years junior midgets and any new kids coming in. I think the most we've ever had was 5 returners who were big 7th graders (too big for jr. midget) the previous year. There are a lot of teams in other associations who keep their kids together ( in more stable areas of the city) all the way from pee wee's up to midgets, they are usually very good. I'm sure with that base of returners you'll be very good. Too bad about switching over to PW though, we moved away from it a few years ago because of all of its politics and problems.
|
|
|
Post by bobgoodman on May 30, 2009 19:09:52 GMT -6
Yeah, Snoop coaches. I guess he's a pretty good coach. I think he won his own league's championship a few times. Although, I'm not sure if that's because he's a really good coach or because he got to pick the best players for his team because all the kids wanted to play for a celebrity coach. Probably a little bit of both. Could any of it be because people fear the consequences of beating him? Like letting the boss win at golf, poker, etc.?
|
|
|
Post by coachdoug on May 30, 2009 19:16:22 GMT -6
Yeah, we'll be fine, and hopefully we'll end up with a roster of about 25 or so, which is much more manageable than 34. We'll actually be better off in some ways as some of the kids that are leaving don't have great work ethics or attitudes, but we'll miss at least 2 of them a lot. If you remember from the videos I've posted, #5 is one of the fastest, most athletic kids I've ever coached, and #33 broke a ton of tackles between the tackles - he doesn't have great speed, but he's a tough inside runner.
We were in PW back in the 90s and left because of the problems you cited (plus they seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of money from their member programs). I'm not happy about going back to PW at all. Unfortunately, it's out of my hands. I'll just do the best I can with the hand we're dealt.
|
|
|
Post by coachdoug on May 30, 2009 19:18:11 GMT -6
Yeah, Snoop coaches. I guess he's a pretty good coach. I think he won his own league's championship a few times. Although, I'm not sure if that's because he's a really good coach or because he got to pick the best players for his team because all the kids wanted to play for a celebrity coach. Probably a little bit of both. Could any of it be because people fear the consequences of beating him? Like letting the boss win at golf, poker, etc.? Well, I suppose that's possible, but I sure hope that's not the case. I really doubt that it is. Coaches everywhere are just too competitive to do that, IMHO.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on May 30, 2009 20:41:34 GMT -6
Could any of it be because people fear the consequences of beating him? Like letting the boss win at golf, poker, etc.? Well, I suppose that's possible, but I sure hope that's not the case. I really doubt that it is. Coaches everywhere are just too competitive to do that, IMHO. Ehhibit A...right here i'd love to play that team
|
|
|
Post by davecisar on May 31, 2009 5:19:35 GMT -6
Doug,
My bet is your team does much better than you think
Always disappointing when any kid leaves. Especially when your team and system has had so much success etc In youth football coaching trumps all but the most overwhelming talent disparities, which means you guys will be competitive. Who knows what Santa will drop in your stocking for new players.
|
|
|
Post by raiderpirates on Jun 1, 2009 21:37:58 GMT -6
We had the most returning players heading into the season, then half the O line moved. Our projected starting Qb was gone. They changed the age level so our best skill player was ineligible(always matches the age of the oldest player on another team, the eventual championship QB was over that age also and got to play anyways for another team, etc).
I got the line down to playing right and the HC switched who played positions so his son and nephew could get skill reps, and he shuffled other OL around in the process. We lost several games we could have won. A couple of losses were so bad itr wasn't even worth using a scoreboard.
We won all but one of our games for the last half the season, but we had a default forfeit when some got suspended late to end the post season. We were beating the two time defending champs at halftime in the regular season and tied to end the third quarter(nobody ever did that) and they were so disheartened the next week the eventual champs(mentioned earlier) won. That team's core players outside of their top star were mine from two years prior, so I still was able to enjoy seeing them win it all.
Those two teams faced off in the championship game, rosters with older lighters,etc.
It is what it is. You end up finding so many fun new ways to instruct and develop teamwork when the challenge increases. I'd suggest you double dedication to special teams with so many new faces. You end up finding your share of gamers and the extra points and yards they create in that phase can make up for a lot of the lost talent so you are in position to take those games.
|
|
|
Post by bobgoodman on Jun 2, 2009 10:41:44 GMT -6
Last night on TV I saw a brief segment on Snoopy as football coach. Unfortunately I had the sound off, it came while I was expecting another show and talking on the phone.
|
|
|
Post by eickst on Jun 4, 2009 13:55:53 GMT -6
I've seen some videos of games where he has coached and it doesn't exactly fit the bill of what I would call a male role model.
|
|
|
Post by coachguy83 on Jun 4, 2009 14:45:33 GMT -6
I wish I had the luxury of 17 kids returning. I will probably be coaching 3rd and 4th graders again, unless I get the high school job I interviewed for last week. We had sign ups for returning players last Saturday and I have only 7 kids elgible to return and of those only 4 signed up.
Coach Doug, I think you are going to be just fine and I know you will have he D coached up right.
|
|
CoachDP
Sophomore Member
Posts: 240
|
Post by CoachDP on Jun 4, 2009 14:57:48 GMT -6
I've seen some videos of games where he has coached and it doesn't exactly fit the bill of what I would call a male role model. I don't need to see his games to know that he's no role model. --Dave
|
|
|
Post by coachdoug on Jun 4, 2009 16:46:15 GMT -6
Thanks everyone for all the words of encouragement. I'm sure we'll be fine. We'll just coach up whomever we get and we'll have a lot of fun. I'm really starting to look forward to the start of practice - less than two months to go!!
|
|
|
Post by mahonz on Jun 4, 2009 20:30:45 GMT -6
Thanks everyone for all the words of encouragement. I'm sure we'll be fine. We'll just coach up whomever we get and we'll have a lot of fun. I'm really starting to look forward to the start of practice - less than two months to go!! Doug Here are some more words of encouragement.... 2007 ….successful team of 29 7th graders go 11-0 and win all the marbles. 2008…12 of the kids retire because they now have their big shiny hardware. Remaining 17 plus 2 draft picks go 0-8 and have a flippin blast doing it. Amazing how fun a season can be when there are no expectations !!! Drove me nuts but at the end of the day the kids let me know it was all good. You will be fine. Coach Mike
|
|