requirement for being on team?

If you have the resources to handle the extra kids who maybe made a last minute decision, who does it hurt by letting them on the team?

If my old highschool coach had that policy, I wouldn't have gotten into football. It was an impulse decision made a couple days before practice started my freshman year.

I want kids out. I let freshmen come out all year long and upperclassmen can come also, they have to get 10 practices in before they can play.

Requirements:

SHOW UP

All kids who come out can participate on our team. Doesn't mean they all get to play.

Team captains are the ones who show up the most during spring ball and over the summer...doesn't matter what their grade level is. We want our leaders as captains. I have found it actually makes some seniors show up more, because they don't want to be shown up by an underclassman.

Amen!

I would give my arm to have more of the kids that just "show up" and play.

Now while I am only on the JV level, the last four or five kids that I have had in the past nine years who have just "showed up" all have turned out to be great players, in JV, and in HS. In fact, one even went on to play at DII college.

It seems that a lot of the kids finally figured out that they were not going to make it in basketball or soccer, and they came out for football. I found that most, not all, but most of them were good listeners, very coach-able, and after a week or two, they really liked the physical/aggressive aspect of the game.

To answer the intended question - they have to have a physical, then sign a waiver, and pay the $150 fee.

In other words, two feet and a heartbeat and your eligible.

its a double-edged sword, isn't it?

The more commitment you can demand, the better quality you will have.
However, the more stipulations you demand, the less likely you will have large numbers

What can you live with as far as managing requirements (managing attendance, points, etc)?

Is this standard a rite of passage? An assessment? A weeding out process?

If you clearly outline off-season dates and requirements, would that, in itself, eliminate any guess work on WHAT is 'needed' to attend? Or are more measures needed to hold players accountable?

In Feb - July......the 'desire to play football' really isn't that strong. Long-term gratification is a foreign concept to many young adults.

Just because a kid can jump through all your hoops isn't any indication he can be a good football player, just that he can get a merit badge. It does, however, make a kid mindful of his status on a 'team'.

I think, the bottom line is, WHATS IN IT FOR THEM?

If the 'football team' is doing something cool (organized / meaningful) when it is not football season (7-on-7, competitions, activities), it is engaging, and they might want to fill their time with it. If it doesn't give them any type of immediate gratification, they probably won't show. I mean, I hate the way it sounds, but "off-season football" has a lot to compete with (girls, Xbox, track, baseball, cruising, etc) 99% of the kids that play for you do not 'love' football as much as the coaching staff.

Can you live with that? (to each his own)

If the 6'7", 4.3 receiver you have doesn't meet your numbers.....is he off the team?....has he dropped on the depth chart?...is there no redemption for him?

Can you justify not playing a kid (or risk being over-ridden) to the school board?

I mean, with rules, comes enforcement....and bending them clearly isn't an option.


Now, in YOUR situation, if you can't accomodate (equipment) 50 kids, then you probably have to make cuts.

However, if you have that many......you have the ability to platoon....if you can platoon (or even if you can't) you should have some serious competition for spots. Meaning, even if you do come out at the 'last minute', you would be buried on the depth chart for so long, would it really be worth sticking it out when you weren't playing?

utchuckd and calande, do your state associations allow telling a kid he can't play? In IL, I don't think you can legally tell a kid not to play. I'm just wondering how that would effect Calande's statement on summer camp and utchuckd's statement on spring practice.

Don't disagree with any of that. When you said "summer camp" did you mean two-a-days? I thought you meant the voluntary offseason stuff.

Wow! Somebody knocked the dust off this thread!

I really don't know if it's legal or not. My main point to start all this was that the basketball team has tryouts, the baseball team has tryouts, etc... I think it gives those sports a different meaning to "make the team". I'm certainly not saying we have tryouts and cut people, but maybe have something formal that says you "made the team". It would be something that anybody that wanted to could do, basically just a meeting or orientation or something that required an attendance at a function that says ok this is the football team who wants to be on it?