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Post by CoachMikeJudy on Jun 1, 2016 8:26:38 GMT -6
I'd go with Freshman and Varsity.
Freshman year is a foundational year for many kids. I for one didn't REALLY love football and embrace the process of practicing to get better until my freshman year.
Most decent kids, in a standard program, become contributors their sophomore year anyway. They are at least either a back up or a special teamer. This would only alienate possibly a few of those kids who, let's be real, probably aren't going to help you at varsity when they are juniors/seniors anyway.
In our current situation, we lose MORE kids as they go from JV to Varsity anyway. It tends to be the kids who are one foot out the door already- the kids who are not willing to work in the offseason.
We started the 9th grade team in 2010. Before that, all 9th graders played JV. By the end of the season most of those kids had quit because they were tired of getting that a$$ lit up by older/stronger kids from other school's JV teams (those schools had 9th grade teams). So our overall number suffered greatly. No amount of coaching (I was the JV HC prior to that) could curb the fact that it was boys vs men.
So if I had to deal with your situation, most definitely 9th grade and Varsity.
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Post by coachwoodall on Jul 28, 2016 19:31:34 GMT -6
why could you not survive with just freshmen and varsity teams, then arrange practice/scrimmage/exhibitions with 3-4 other local programs to have your sub Varsity players play against? It doesn't have to be an official team, just sophs and juniors repping with varsity, then by week 3 you have a Wednesday / Thursday night scrimmage with refs for these guys? Practice one day prior with the group to set the lineups and run your core systems. All games are sanctioned by our HSL
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Post by coachwoodall on Jul 28, 2016 20:03:44 GMT -6
As a follow up, we are going to keep all 3 levels, mostly because the decision was made for us by the higher ups. I was against the idea all together, personally. I felt that in order to keep up the Jones we see, we'd really need to find a way to make it work even if we took some lumps along the way. I didn't mean to sound like I needed a pity party; we've got a decent amount of talent and depth. I was just trying to gauge how other programs looked at the issue in terms what was best for their program.
To answer some general questions ( and not to sound brash, just being honest ): We have to play Jrs on JV. Several reasons.
Our league games are seldom ones that have garbage time for back ups. Those 24-25 that are your top players will be in the game well into the 4th quarter, regardless of the size of your roster.
My 4 candidates for the 2 safety positions are Jrs and all played JV last year for most of the season (3 all year, 1 for about half); because I had experience on the varsity and they all needed seasoning to be ready to compete for the 2 starting jobs this year. We really didn't have a back up per se, we just held our breath and knew we had a dude or 2 that could be thrown in there to finish the game if needed.
I know JV is 'JV' but there are several teams in our league that are VERY deep in talent and their JV's could probably earn at least a playoff spot in some of the neighboring leagues. It's tough to keep the swagger in the program when there is the possibility of big time beat down every Thursday night.
Our Freshman team is very important in that, it is the integrating factor for 3 middle schools that feed us. Again in the league we are in this level is very competitive (and the middle schools too for that matter) Most of the really good players coming off of the Frosh team will go straight to varsity, but again those that don't usually need that chance to shine on JV to develop.
I appreciate all the responses and questioning that the board had to offer.
As I said, I'm glad we're not dumping 1 group and I think we can make it work, and in the long run it will only make our program stronger.
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Post by dytmook on Jul 29, 2016 17:50:03 GMT -6
Not having read everything we haven't had a freshmen team in 4 years. Our freshmen played jv, and we had a few juniors on jv too. I will say our freshmen played quite a bit. It hurt our ability be competitive on jv in a few games.
Biggest hurdle is that kids think because they play jv one year they here the next, including freshmen who didn't play much. That's crazy parents though.
This year we have a freshmen team that will play at least a league schedule and then play a few games mixed with the jv against other teams who have limited roster.
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