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Post by jg78 on Jul 19, 2013 8:07:24 GMT -6
You've never had, say, a QB with the "it" factor who was a super talented all-around athlete and would have been better than his backup whether he worked at it or not? That's hard to believe. Kids who don't work out with their teammates start at the bottom of the depth chart, period. Those with bad attitudes (such as the earlier example) or discipline problems are not nominated for all-star teams. That wasn't really my point. We all have minimum standards that we require of our athletes. I'm no exception. However, we have all had exceptional starters who could have done far less than what was required and still would have been better than their backups no matter how hard they worked during the summer. Sometimes one player's floor is higher than another player's ceiling. So your team isn't going to be as good if one of those players isn't on the roster. Now I'm not saying you give a talented player a pass to do whatever. I am not saying that at all. In fact, I had a RB last year who did not make his minimum number of workouts until the last possible day. And if he hadn't come on that final day, he would have sat out the first half of the first game - a game in which he rushed for 200+ yards. We wouldn't have been as good in the first half if he had missed that workout and I had sat him, but it would have been necessary for the sake of fairness, program stability, and maintaining the respect of my players. You have to have lines. But the older I have gotten the less likely I am to totally write off a kid for a season without a really good reason, and this is coming from someone who at one time wouldn't let players play in the fall if they didn't come out in the spring. But I think (now) that if you have a situation where a kid is not going to be able to do what is required of him that you evaluate the situation thoroughly and try to come up with a fair way to keep him on the team. In the case of the baseball player, maybe you suspend him for another game, or whatever. Be thorough with it. But I don't think you totally write him off, especially if he is otherwise doing what he is supposed to do. Just my opinion.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2013 19:33:53 GMT -6
The thread about the kids playing Legion baseball reminded me of a question that I posed earlier. Because of when this question came up the situation has been resolved and we now know how it ended. I'm curious what others think. Two years ago I attended a game in my old hometown in PA. While I was there I heard that the team's star player would be missing a football game to attend a baseball showcase. The player was a baseball-first kid who only agreed to play football if the coach agreed to let him miss the game for the showcase. I was wondering what people thought about this? It depends on the talent. if the kid is a legit talent i.e he has offers to play baseball either pro or college, fine go ahead. Same with basketball. What I don't want is the kid who would rather sit the bench in baseball than workout with the football team. I used to be a hard line football first or nothing but as I get older, I am sort of realizing that is a stupid line if the kids have talent.
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Post by fantom on Jul 21, 2013 21:08:25 GMT -6
The thread about the kids playing Legion baseball reminded me of a question that I posed earlier. Because of when this question came up the situation has been resolved and we now know how it ended. I'm curious what others think. Two years ago I attended a game in my old hometown in PA. While I was there I heard that the team's star player would be missing a football game to attend a baseball showcase. The player was a baseball-first kid who only agreed to play football if the coach agreed to let him miss the game for the showcase. I was wondering what people thought about this? It depends on the talent. if the kid is a legit talent i.e he has offers to play baseball either pro or college, fine go ahead. Same with basketball. What I don't want is the kid who would rather sit the bench in baseball than workout with the football team. I used to be a hard line football first or nothing but as I get older, I am sort of realizing that is a stupid line if the kids have talent. I agree. This is an unusual case, not something that's likely to spread an "attitude" among other players.
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Post by fantom on Jul 22, 2013 8:54:28 GMT -6
I said at the beginning that this was a real scenario. When I first heard the story I had the same knee-jerk reaction as a lot of you-that it was unacceptable for a player to miss a game for an out of season sport. Th more I heard about the situation and the more I thought about it my opinion changed. Here's why:
1. The player wasn't a wanna-be but a true baseball prospect who knew that his future is in baseball. Knowing that he had made the commitment to attending the showcase months ahead of time. Going to the showcase after the game wasn't an option because the player was from Pennsylvania and the showcase was in Florida.
2. He was a great, versatile football player (a 230 TB/DB with speed) and the team was unquestionably better with him that without him.
3. The deal was made well before the season. This wasn't something that came up all of a sudden. Evidently they decided that having him miss one game was better than not having him at all.
Here's how the story ended:
After starting out 1-3 the team went on a seven game winning streak (which included the game that he missed) and made the playoffs. Their first playoff game was a rematch against a team that had beaten them pretty decisively in the opener. They won the game, more than flipping the score, in a game in which he had 264 rushing yards including a 94 yd, TD. The player went on to play baseball at Virginia. He was recently named ACC Rookie of the Year. UVA has a great baeball program that has put players into MLB. If that doesn't happen he has a chance to get a degree from one of the country's great universities.
It seems like everybody got what they wanted from this deal and this is one reason that I don't believe in hard and fast inflexible rules.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2013 9:38:46 GMT -6
It depends on the talent. if the kid is a legit talent i.e he has offers to play baseball either pro or college, fine go ahead. Same with basketball. What I don't want is the kid who would rather sit the bench in baseball than workout with the football team. I used to be a hard line football first or nothing but as I get older, I am sort of realizing that is a stupid line if the kids have talent. I agree. This is an unusual case, not something that's likely to spread an "attitude" among other players. And it goes beyond the players, because the next a great baseball players wants to play, the baseball coach isn't going to fight it, same with basketball or any other sport. Where as if you draw a line the sand, you have made a bed that you may end up wishing you hadn't made. Cause you wont get any of those kids.
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Post by drewdawg265 on Jul 22, 2013 10:24:37 GMT -6
I am willing to work with kids when situations like this come up. I prefer to attract the best athletes in the school for football. If I can get a pro baseball prospect to play football if he can miss one game because a prior engagment I would do that. I would rather have a great athlete there for the other games then not have him at all. In my opinion football players enjoy the games most and it is unlikely they would choose to miss one in most circumstances. I have had good players miss a game due to not being academically eligible. I would treat this situation the same way and plan for it.
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