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Post by norcaldiaz on May 23, 2010 12:45:22 GMT -6
We are lucky enough this coming year to have more participation than ever, especially with our younger classes. Varsity level we will only have about 35-40 players (which is about average), but at the JV level we currently already have almost 70 players (sophomores and some juniors). More always come out in spring ball which starts next week.
I love that the program has been built up to this point where we have this many kids out. However, the problem is that we literally will not have enough room on the bus to take this many kids to games, and with budget cuts, paying for a second JV bus is not possible.
So it looks like we will have to make cuts, something I've never had to do before and am hating having to do. Almost all of the 70 JV kids have either been with us in athletic PE or have been checking in with us regularly all offseason, so their grades are in order and they have been working out.
When is the best time to make cuts? After spring ball? Summer camp? Two-a-days? Also, who should be cut? Sophmores who don't appear to have much future varsity potential? Or Juniors who probably won't contribute much as seniors next year? So many of these kids have worked their butts off this offseason it will be very tough to cut. Would love to hear thoughts from coaches who have had to cut before.
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Post by mariner42 on May 23, 2010 14:43:53 GMT -6
You can't use some of them to build varsity depth? I don't think you necessarily have to be talented in order to provide some value for the varsity scout team. Get 5-6 of them who'll run through a brick wall if you told them to, tell them they're going to be playing a whole bunch of scout D and they'd better start loving it, and voila! Depth and good kids displaying good effort who should raise the effort of those around them. I'm sure there's a handful of kids who would love to play varsity, even if it means they're only playing scout team D.
Find yourself some Rudys!
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Post by kylem56 on May 23, 2010 14:45:33 GMT -6
theres no possible way to fundraise $ for another bus? I mean with 70 kids you would htink you could sell something to fundraise. I just think it would be a damn shame to tell anyone no if they are willing to put in the work.
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Post by 44dlcoach on May 23, 2010 15:15:09 GMT -6
Like mariner wrote, is there a reason some of those juniors can't just become varsity backups?
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Post by norcaldiaz on May 23, 2010 15:34:55 GMT -6
Definitely looking for alternatives, coaches. Each kid is already responsible for either coming up with or fundraising close to $500 for the season (Some of that payment is mandatory for busses, equipment, footballs, etc; other parts of that are "recommended" for things like camps, buying your game jersey) - so the HC feels like their is no way we could raise the expected $ contributions any higher than they are.
We are looking hard - especially at juniors - who could be Rudys as you say mariner. We're constantly debating the possible value each of these guys will bring if they come up, but ultimately though these guys will be missing out on game experience that they would be getting on JV. Especially since these guys either played freshman ball or did not play much on JV last year.
Kyle I agree 100% with you it just doesn't seem right to have to cut guys who are working their tails off and doing the right thing. The new idea we're exploring is having a "traveling squad" like in college, so the best 50 JV guys will travel to away games and the other 20+ will only dress for home games.
Glad we have the guys, but this is not a fun part of the job!
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Post by norcaldiaz on May 23, 2010 15:36:16 GMT -6
The district currently does not fund the buses for athletics. We have to fundraise for transportation ourselves. It is ridiculous.
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Post by blb on May 23, 2010 15:38:42 GMT -6
$500?! Wow. And I felt bad about our kids having to pay $75 to play this fall!
The "travelling team" idea sounds like the way to go. Really hate to cut kids from football, especially those that have paid the price (physically, not financially) in the off-season.
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Post by blb on May 23, 2010 15:42:10 GMT -6
The district currently does not fund the buses for athletics. We have to fundraise for transportation ourselves. It is ridiculous. It IS ridiculous, borderline criminal to me. Hope for your BOE-administration's sake there are no "incidents" when travelling. Sounds like you guys are really working to make the best of an impossibly bad situation. |
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Post by tim914790 on May 23, 2010 15:54:13 GMT -6
What my area does is shuttle the JV teams. So we play on thursdays at 4 "necessary personell" goes over on the first bus with coaches and one coach stays back with the second group. The bus drops off the first group and then comes back and gets the 2nd group. You could alawyas have coaches with trucks to drive all the equipment over to make more room.
Also we have though about having a travel squad, so maybe you dress 70 for home games but only 45 for away? I think you would have to be a pretty strong program for people to buy into that especially parents.
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Post by coachd5085 on May 23, 2010 15:58:32 GMT -6
Norcal--
I like the travel squad Idea. Ultimately though, it sounds like you guys are just a "victim" of doing the right thing, running a good program, and generating interest. Having a 45 man varsity squad, a 70 man JV squad, and presumably a freshman squad is pretty impressive.
You mentioned that transportation was the main issue, so I assume then that equipment/coaching is not an issue (IE 70 players, 2 JV coaches). If that is the case, you might also look into an auxillary JV schedule. Certainly you guys aren't the only one in the area affected by cuts...there might be other schools like you looking for additional JV games.
Another thing to consider regarding team placement is making sure you communicate the expected role of the player in the program. If you bring up some JV guys to Varsity this year who you expect will be beaten out by JV players on Varsity NEXT YEAR, I believe you owe the kids that up front. You need to tell them "Hey, we see your role on this team to be a scout squad member. If you do ___,____, and ______ then we could see you as a Varsity contributer, but if those things don't happen, that will probably be your role next year as well."
It might hedge against kids thinking they were brought up to the "varsity" for other reasons.
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Post by norcaldiaz on May 23, 2010 16:00:08 GMT -6
The "shuttle" is not a bad idea, tim. Of our 5 away games next year, 3 are within a 10-15 minute ride, so that could work. Do you guys also shuttle for games requiring significant (45+ min) travel?
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Post by tim914790 on May 23, 2010 16:02:54 GMT -6
Every JV game shuttles no matter how far, the furthest game is probably 30 minutes. They do it because a lot of buses are still dropping off elementary school kids so they are short on busses. If it was too far away I would def do a travel squad for a few select games.
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Post by coachguy83 on May 23, 2010 16:05:26 GMT -6
I would suggest moving as many of those kids to Varsity as you can even if they are just going to be scout team guys. The other thing you might think about is having two JV squads with your best players playing on both and then divide the rest of the kids up. Half of the games would be the A team and half of the games would be the B team. You are still giving every kid a chance to play in games and build skills in practice. You might even be able to pick up another JV game or two if you can find another school around with the same problem.
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Post by kylem56 on May 23, 2010 16:27:23 GMT -6
coach
Theres alot of good ideas on this thread. Most of them saying the same thing, trying to find alternatives. Your in a tough spot but it is a good problem to have. I do like your idea of having a "travel squad". I think it would be a good motivator for everyone in the program to understand hey have to put in the work, make all practices and lifting, if they want to be on the squad.
Along the lines of shuttling, I don't know if your school has a policy against this but maybe you could find a few parents with SUVs or vans that would be willing to drive a few kids each? I just hate the idea of just completely cutting kids besides the fact anyone whos willing to pay the price (physically and mentally) should be allowed to play but also because what if you suffer a bunch of injuries or kids quit or become inelligible?
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Post by coachmoore42 on May 23, 2010 17:23:48 GMT -6
coach Theres alot of good ideas on this thread. Most of them saying the same thing, trying to find alternatives. Your in a tough spot but it is a good problem to have. I do like your idea of having a "travel squad". I think it would be a good motivator for everyone in the program to understand hey have to put in the work, make all practices and lifting, if they want to be on the squad. Along the lines of shuttling, I don't know if your school has a policy against this but maybe you could find a few parents with SUVs or vans that would be willing to drive a few kids each? I just hate the idea of just completely cutting kids besides the fact anyone whos willing to pay the price (physically and mentally) should be allowed to play but also because what if you suffer a bunch of injuries or kids quit or become inelligible? I think that these are the two ideas I would be using for our team. I love the travel squad idea that a few have mentioned. I like the addition of the parents getting the other "non-travel squad" guys to the game. |
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Post by ajreaper on May 23, 2010 21:11:34 GMT -6
Would parents be willing to pay a transportation fee? Rather then lose 20+ kids I think parents would pick up the slack in some way- pay for an additional bus or car pool kids. Seems a shame to cut kids who've been doing right in the off season.
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Post by cqmiller on May 24, 2010 9:04:16 GMT -6
PLEASE SEND THE EXTRA KIDS TO US!!!! WE NEED THEM!
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Post by pantherfb10 on May 25, 2010 18:45:02 GMT -6
Move 15 or 20 of the best JV players up, and teach them to play scout D and give them PT in blowouts. Decreases the numbers for JV to about 55 and usually 2 kids will quit on their own so there is no need to cut
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Post by norcaldiaz on May 27, 2010 13:27:26 GMT -6
Counted up our first week of spring ball numbers...
40 Varsity guys
104 JV guys (does not include potential call-ups from the freshman squad) JV had 55 players last year.
Maybe 5 guys on JV who could move up to varsity... Funny thing is that of all those guys JV can't find one quarterback.
Freshman class is HUGE. We already have 7 freshmen (will be sophs) included on the 40 for varsity. We'll see what the numbers are once school ends and grades come out.
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Post by bigdog2003 on May 27, 2010 19:08:55 GMT -6
Our JV had a travel roster last year. They could only take one bus, and had a lot of players, so some didn't get to go on the road. They all dressed at home.
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Post by coachd5085 on May 27, 2010 19:19:54 GMT -6
do you have equipment for 104 JV guys. Why would you call up freshman to play on a JV with 104 players?
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