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Post by coachjd on Sept 7, 2009 5:33:07 GMT -6
We have a 9th grade man child. 6'-1" 215 plays OG and DE. He benches 240 and squats 315. Does ok on run game but pass pro is pretty iffy at best. Does ok at DE, can get off blocks but tends to get too deep up field and not squeeze anything down.
We have already made the move to play him on JV. Waiting to see how well he does on Tuesday. Our league is pretty good and not many sophs are very successful in our league. We are going to play him on some special teams this Friday night.
How many of you have played a 9th grader on varsity and have they helped you? I'm not worried about the physical part of the game at all.
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Post by touchdownmaker on Sept 7, 2009 6:07:27 GMT -6
well, we are small school ball so our situation is different...
we have two freshmen and three sophs on our oline. this week will also show a soph at qb, a soph at both wings in our dw set.
we are basically playing varsity football with a jv team.
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Post by airraider on Sept 7, 2009 7:18:54 GMT -6
We have a 9th grade man child. 6'-1" 215 plays OG and DE. He benches 240 and squats 315. Does ok on run game but pass pro is pretty iffy at best. Does ok at DE, can get off blocks but tends to get too deep up field and not squeeze anything down. We have already made the move to play him on JV. Waiting to see how well he does on Tuesday. Our league is pretty good and not many sophs are very successful in our league. We are going to play him on some special teams this Friday night. How many of you have played a 9th grader on varsity and have they helped you? I'm not worried about the physical part of the game at all. We went 0-10 in 2003 with two fresh starting in the secondary. 3 years later with a new coach on his 3rd year.. we started another fresh at corner for 6 games.. 4 of those were playoffs games in route to a 13-1 season.. This year.. we are a very small 2A school who should be playing 1A.. we will end up starting 4 freshmen on varsity.. and none are man childs.. just better athletes than the alternatives.. |
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Post by struceri on Sept 7, 2009 7:25:28 GMT -6
we started a freshman a few years ago at corner and he did a pretty good job. We had no depth and a shaky senior class and he was the best athlete available for us to fill the position. He struggled at times but overall he had a good season his freshman year. He is finishing his 4th year as a starter at corner and his 3rd at wr. He is a bonafide stud now and is headed to North Dakota State to play WR.
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Post by coachsky on Sept 7, 2009 11:33:57 GMT -6
We have a Senior who has started every game since he was a Freshman. As a Freshman he played ILBer and backed up our FB. He has started both ways since Soph and received league honors as a Soph.
Friday night as our Single back he had 8 reception for 166 years and 3 TD's and had 63 yds rushing on 9 carries, 1 TD. Defensively he had 7 Solo Tackles and 8 Assist, 1 forced fumble.
As a Freshman he benched 310 and squatted 375. This year he benched 385 and squatted 520. 6'0" 228.
The kid helped us as a Freshman and the truth is he wouldn't have gotten much better playing Freshman ball.
We had 2 sophs start for us on Friday night, and two others get playing time. We feel it's important to get these guys time if they earn it. Makes us better down the road and gets Sophs excited to play.
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Post by WolvesHC on Sept 7, 2009 11:47:27 GMT -6
We are in the same boat as touchdownmaker. We are a small school and this is our first year coming from a successful program. The program has not had a winning season in over 10 years and was 0-9 last year. Friday we started 5 sophs and 1 freshman on defense and lost 63-0. Not all on defense we had a the lone kickoff returned for a score as well as an interception, fumble and a punt return. Besides the fresman starting at ILB on D we have 5 others that play ST. Total of 28 kids on team and 9 are Freshman, only 5 seniors, 2 juniors. It is going to be a long season.
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Post by dhooper on Sept 7, 2009 12:08:08 GMT -6
Started two fresh linebackers played huge. If there the best you got and there mentally ready its game time.
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Post by coachbdud on Sept 7, 2009 14:42:34 GMT -6
here in my area of CA you have to be 15 to play varsity... no matter what grade, so usually our freshman come in at 14 and cant play var til sophomore year anyway. Heck last year our sophomore QB was the best we had but he had to play JV half the season because he was too young to be pulled up.
This is the first year we have a freshman playing varsity. He is our OC's son. Really good kid, plays hard, pretty instinctive. Plays Rb and LB/SS for us. Our backfield is constantly rotating so he plays a ton there, and he plays a lot on D too. He is old for his grade (15) so he is able to play Varsity. He actually scored our first TD in our win friday night.
Size wise he isnt very big, or strong, or fast... his dad hasnt allowed him to lift yet, but he will put the time in after this season. He just has enough football knowledge and technique to get by, plus he is a tough kid... Usually i think Freshman shouldnt play varsity, but every 5 years or so you get THAT KID, who is capable of doing it. and if you have that kid i say play him up, as long as he gets his playing time. That way he is getting coached up by the best coaches in your program
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Post by dubber on Sept 8, 2009 9:03:11 GMT -6
We have a 6'2'' 180 lbs. Frosh that will be a two-way starter for us going forward.
He was our defensive player of the game last Friday.
A rare, rare kind of kid that is very MENTALLY mature for his age.
As a rule, however, freshmen do little more than special teams and spot relief.
We are a small school, and I can recall only a handful of freshmen starters over the past decade.
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Post by kboyd on Sept 8, 2009 9:11:38 GMT -6
Last year we ended up starting a 9th grader on the OL - 6'1 245 lbs and solid. He made it to the last cuts on the Under 17 Provincial Team as a 14 year old. This year he's in at 6'2 270 lbs and looking like a stud. In 17 years as a coach, he's the 3rd 9th grader who has started for us.
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Post by spartancoach on Sept 8, 2009 9:28:37 GMT -6
We started a freshman center last year. Had an injury to the senior in the last scrimmage and the freshman was our next best choice. He was a bit undersized (6'0", 195 lbs) and a little immature, and we had to give him help with tough NGs, but was part of an o-line that helped our RB set the all-time county single season rushing record (2,290 yds). So, it can work.
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Post by senatorblutarsky on Sept 8, 2009 9:30:03 GMT -6
We are very small... so take with a grain (or rock) of salt...
We have started few freshmen over the years (current NFL player and current D1 player did not start as freshmen... though they played a lot)- the last few years we have started a few... currently we start two freshmen (one two way starter) and play 3 others during the game on O and D. The two way starter is a stud and an exception... but generally, we keep their roles pretty limited and keep things pretty basic for them (it does help a lot that in JH they do exactly what we do on varsity... just scaled down).
Our freshman QB was the difference in our win last week (6-7passing for 125 and 2 TDs, rushed for 77 yds. and made 11 tackles and 4 assists... pretty good game right out of the gate).
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Post by blb on Sept 8, 2009 9:49:39 GMT -6
The smallest school I've coached at was 530 enrollment (current = 1720) so my experience may be different than some and therefore not helpful to this thread.
We have never had a freshman on Varsity, and actually only a few sophomores (26 years). We only bring a younger player up if he is going to start, not be a backup.
A couple observations: First, the consistently successful programs have "Vertical Continuity," that is kids play four years (Frosh to JV to Varsity) in same system, adding some things and polishing techniques as they progress "up the ladder."
Secondly (and this seems especially true in basketball), teams that bring up underclassmen always seem to be rebuilding - and you wonder, what happened to last year's, or two year's ago, phenom(s)?
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Post by phantom on Sept 8, 2009 10:00:11 GMT -6
We go by the same rule as always- best players play. If that's a 9th grader so be it. We've had 9th graders start. It doesn't happen that often but it has happened.
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Post by Coach JR on Sept 8, 2009 14:38:19 GMT -6
We have a 9th grade man child. 6'-1" 215 plays OG and DE. He benches 240 and squats 315. Does ok on run game but pass pro is pretty iffy at best. Does ok at DE, can get off blocks but tends to get too deep up field and not squeeze anything down. We have already made the move to play him on JV. Waiting to see how well he does on Tuesday. Our league is pretty good and not many sophs are very successful in our league. We are going to play him on some special teams this Friday night. How many of you have played a 9th grader on varsity and have they helped you? I'm not worried about the physical part of the game at all. Every school/program is different. The HS we feed is starting a 9th Grader at QB, and at FB, and there are others getting to play. Both the starters are superb athletes. OTOH, my Alma Mater has 51 Seniors on the roster! I'd have to check, but I doubt that they even dress any 9th graders, and probably very few 10th. Even way back when when I was in school, my Soph year only one of my Soph buds made the varsity team permanently as the #2 RB, while others of us were "honored" to be asked to dress with them on Fri night after our Wed. night B-team game if we had a big game. I can't recall ever seeing a Fr. start at my Alma Mater...but I haven't kept up every year either. The guy I mentioned that made the team as a soph is now a coach there...been there about 5 years...has had 4 D-1 RBs that he's coached in that time. |
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Post by coachjmcs on Sept 8, 2009 14:59:30 GMT -6
I think the main thing is if you are going to bring him up, bring him up because you need him, We have had some kids come up and just ride the pine and they don't get any better and some of them have even gotten the big head after getting called up which is an added pain.
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Post by k on Sept 8, 2009 19:42:59 GMT -6
We're ~225 male enrollment 9-12. Last year we had a kid who will start two ways as a soph play as our nickle back as a freshman. So not a starter but close. We had one other freshman who was "on varsity" as in they practiced for us and started JV. Last year he was there cause he was a big body. This year he is a beast as a sophmore and will be the best JV lineman this year easily that we'll see. Our #1 WR is in his 4th year starting this year as is our left tackle so both obviously started as a freshman.
So the program is 4 years old and you would be ok saying we had 3 freshmen starters in that time.
Where I played the HC was there for like 40 years... With 400-500 male enrollment 9-12 we always had 90+ kids in program. He never started a freshman until my senior year when he started seniors at 10 positions on offense and 11 on defense and a frosh who ran a 4.3 and ended up starting for a perennial D1 powerhouse as a frosh. After my class graduated he went from the Wing-T 3 back attack to a Spread/I based single back attack to feature this kid.
Anyone who wouldn't have started the kid would have been insane. I mean we had 4-5 "good" running backs but that kid was an absolute beast. That wasn't a program in building either. Our HC started our program four years ago. Started two Freshmen who were both all conference as juniors and who will probably be all state this year. The next year we started 12/22 sophomores... last year 18/22 juniors. This year we are starting 18/22 seniors. The reason I post this part is because of the person above who commented on those who are "rebuilding" seem to always be "rebuilding."
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Post by jhanawa on Sept 8, 2009 20:04:56 GMT -6
We're a 5A-1 school, around 2900 students, we had a freshman start at one or our slot receivers and at safety last year, he's a sophmore this year and is a stud. Barring injury, he will be a 5 star D1 recruit by his senior year, very special talent and work ethic, effort is off the charts.
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