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Post by northeasterner on Apr 19, 2018 19:52:53 GMT -6
My head coach proposed an interesting idea in an effort to let our large contingent of sophomores get all the reps on JV: Schedule individual meetings with 5-8 juniors who aren’t likely to get varsity game reps to gauge their interest in focusing primarily on one side of the ball (and not play JV). These are kids who won’t have a shot at varsity football unless they develop their game significantly, so the hope is they will bite at the chance to perfect their craft on one side of ball and thus contribute to the team. We also hope this plan might give our varsity scout teams more consistency in that these marginal juniors would take a greater interest in simulating the opposition because they would be improving their game all the time. In addition, he anticipates over 35 freshman and is excited at the prospect of potentially having a combined 50-plus 9th and 10th graders getting reps on freshman/JV. The “marginal one-way junior” plan I outlined would better enable us to do that. We’ve tried to shoot holes in the plan before moving to planning/rollout phase, but I wanted to use Huey members as a sounding board. Fire away!
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Post by 44dlcoach on Apr 19, 2018 20:22:27 GMT -6
Assuming decent numbers and enough coaches I'm a believer in having as many players as possible focus one one side of the ball, sounds like a good idea. I think if you can pull it off only the best few kids should learn play both ways.
Caveat, we teach all linemen to play both O and D.
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Post by northeasterner on Apr 20, 2018 3:21:32 GMT -6
Assuming decent numbers and enough coaches I'm a believer in having as many players as possible focus one one side of the ball, sounds like a good idea. I think if you can pull it off only the best few kids should learn play both ways. Caveat, we teach all linemen to play both O and D. Any suggestions for how to frame our discussions with juniors in this situation? Also, are you guys doing anything of note when it comes to accounting for both one- and two-way players in practice planning, etc.? Your point on teaching OL both sides is well-taken. |
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Post by utchuckd on Apr 20, 2018 5:48:12 GMT -6
How about "I'm the coach, this is what we're doing"?
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Post by fantom on Apr 20, 2018 6:44:52 GMT -6
One potential problem that I can see is that kids aren't stupid. They might fall for the initial idea that you're working to help get them ready for varsity but eventually they'l figure out that all you really want from them is to play scout team. They may not like the idea of getting waxed in practice but never get into games, even though they're eligible to play JV.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2018 6:54:36 GMT -6
Can these juniors contribute on Special Teams? I might make them the Special Teams Specialists. I'm also curious that if you have 50+ in 9th and 10th grades, what do your varsity numbers look like? Why not 2 platoon everyone? Like fantom said... these kids are going to figure out pretty quickly that what you really want is for them to be living tackling dummies. You might as well be straight up with them and say "Johnny, you're going to be a junior and you will have an opportunity to earn playing time, but if you want to make it on the field you're going to have to improve significantly at X, Y, and Z so you can hang with our opponents and the other guys on this team. Right now it's hard to put you in varsity games because of __________." Keep it respectful and fair and tell the kid how he can improve to get on the field and challenge him to do it. You maybe want to look at moving them to positions of need where they can contribute (even if it's just long snapper, FG holder, etc.). |
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Post by bignose on Apr 20, 2018 6:56:54 GMT -6
In my league the juniors are required to be on the Varsity only, and the underclassmen form the JV.
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Post by pvogel on Apr 20, 2018 7:10:53 GMT -6
I'm all for it. Let the ballers go 2 ways and then have the less athletic kids focus on 1 side and spec teams.
Although I buy into Paul Golla's (Bakersfield HS) philosophy of having OL be completely 1 way players and then filling the defense with RBs/TEs and whatnot and subbing and rotating them on offense. His scheme and D philosophy allows and embraces that, but it has always been so dang hard to find OL and it is such a difficult position that giving them twice the time is huge.
My only state year was with a DL that went (backup RB)-(full time space eater DL)-(well conditioned smaller kid that split every series at guard)-(kid that got occasional TE reps). Best DL i've ever coached. And the OL was good because none of those kids HAD to play D.
TLDR; yes its a good idea.
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Post by Defcord on Apr 20, 2018 7:28:04 GMT -6
One potential problem that I can see is that kids aren't stupid. They might fall for the initial idea that you're working to help get them ready for varsity but eventually they'l figure out that all you really want from them is to play scout team. They may not like the idea of getting waxed in practice but never get into games, even though they're eligible to play JV. Kids definitely aren't stupid. In this situation, I would be honest with them and let them know that they aren't quite ready to play varsity football yet, but by being on scout team they get the opportunity every day to show their position coach that they can compete against your varsity starters and prove that they can handle it on Friday nights against the other teams varsity. |
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Post by northeasterner on Apr 20, 2018 7:38:16 GMT -6
You all raise excellent points. I’ll be sure to pass them along to my head guy. Thanks so much.
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Post by northeasterner on Apr 20, 2018 7:43:20 GMT -6
Can these juniors contribute on Special Teams? I might make them the Special Teams Specialists. I'm also curious that if you have 50+ in 9th and 10th grades, what do your varsity numbers look like? Why not 2 platoon everyone? Like fantom said... these kids are going to figure out pretty quickly that what you really want is for them to be living tackling dummies. You might as well be straight up with them and say "Johnny, you're going to be a junior and you will have an opportunity to earn playing time, but if you want to make it on the field you're going to have to improve significantly at X, Y, and Z so you can hang with our opponents and the other guys on this team. Right now it's hard to put you in varsity games because of __________." Keep it respectful and fair and tell the kid how he can improve to get on the field and challenge him to do it. You maybe want to look at moving them to positions of need where they can contribute (even if it's just long snapper, FG holder, etc.). It’s my understanding attrition has hurt our junior numbers, so platooning isn’t an option for varsity. I guess we’re kind of in a weird spot, but I’m not complaining with great sub-varsity numbers. |
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JoshC
Freshmen Member
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Post by JoshC on Apr 20, 2018 7:44:40 GMT -6
I would just say to make sure you don't do something that will make the JRs not want to play. I have coached many JRs who didn't have the chance to see the field, but kept developing and helped in some way as a SR.
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Post by fantom on Apr 20, 2018 7:54:58 GMT -6
Something to add is that the answer changes depending on the makeup of the program, especially regarding state and district rules. If a player is allowed to practice with the varsity and maybe even get a little varsity game time that's a lot different than if the freshmen, JV and varsity are completely separate.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Apr 20, 2018 7:58:23 GMT -6
Assuming decent numbers and enough coaches I'm a believer in having as many players as possible focus one one side of the ball, sounds like a good idea. I think if you can pull it off only the best few kids should learn play both ways. Caveat, we teach all linemen to play both O and D. Any suggestions for how to frame our discussions with juniors in this situation? Also, are you guys doing anything of note when it comes to accounting for both one- and two-way players in practice planning, etc.? Your point on teaching OL both sides is well-taken. I've found that usually they know they aren't great players, and taking half of the learning responsibilities is a relief to most. We are just honest with them, "you're our fourth or fifth RB after these other guys, we think that you would have a better chance to help the team if you spent all your time working at LB, etc." I've always been the one to have the conversation with our defensive players, and generally they are down the offensive depth chart because they can't catch, or aren't particularly quick as RBs, etc. and as I said what I sense or am told most of the time is a sense of relief. |
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Post by dytmook on Apr 20, 2018 9:17:55 GMT -6
If they are focusing on one side of the ball wouldn't it be good to get them some live reps on JV to apply their craft. I'm not saying have them take all the reps but have the conversation, " Johnny, we want you to focus on LB and you will play a lot of scout team for us, but you'll get reps on JV if you choose to take them".
I've seen some kids be marginal kids as juniors be key contributors as seniors. We don't have great numbers though so we have to keep the kids around in a lot of cases.
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Post by blb on Apr 20, 2018 9:24:02 GMT -6
To my knowledge our state has never had a rule banning Juniors from playing JV Football. Nor have any of the leagues in which I've coached.
Decision you have to make is, do we put these Juniors down on JVs and take reps-plays away from the Sophomores? If the Juniors are not better than the Sophomores or don't project as being heavy contributors as Seniors, don't do it.
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Post by newhope on Apr 20, 2018 10:32:11 GMT -6
Assuming decent numbers and enough coaches I'm a believer in having as many players as possible focus one one side of the ball, sounds like a good idea. I think if you can pull it off only the best few kids should learn play both ways. Caveat, we teach all linemen to play both O and D. Any suggestions for how to frame our discussions with juniors in this situation? Also, are you guys doing anything of note when it comes to accounting for both one- and two-way players in practice planning, etc.? Your point on teaching OL both sides is well-taken. Be honest with them. We're doing this to give you a chance to get to play. This helps you, this helps us. |
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Post by planck on Apr 20, 2018 14:11:29 GMT -6
If you've got numbers, see if you can get varsity reserve games and play of Saturday mornings. Let those kids contribute on scoutteam during the week and hit somebody else on the weekend. That way they're contribtuing to the team and getting to play.
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CoachSP
Sophomore Member
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Post by CoachSP on Apr 24, 2018 11:08:25 GMT -6
My head coach proposed an interesting idea in an effort to let our large contingent of sophomores get all the reps on JV: Schedule individual meetings with 5-8 juniors who aren’t likely to get varsity game reps to gauge their interest in focusing primarily on one side of the ball (and not play JV). These are kids who won’t have a shot at varsity football unless they develop their game significantly, so the hope is they will bite at the chance to perfect their craft on one side of ball and thus contribute to the team. We also hope this plan might give our varsity scout teams more consistency in that these marginal juniors would take a greater interest in simulating the opposition because they would be improving their game all the time. In addition, he anticipates over 35 freshman and is excited at the prospect of potentially having a combined 50-plus 9th and 10th graders getting reps on freshman/JV. The “marginal one-way junior” plan I outlined would better enable us to do that. We’ve tried to shoot holes in the plan before moving to planning/rollout phase, but I wanted to use Huey members as a sounding board. Fire away! It doesn't pay to "sell" them on anything if it is BS. If they are marginal and your state allows them to play JV, then why not get them the game exposure? They can still be scout teamers. So if a kid isn't ready as a junior, does that mean he will never be ready? I don't buy that. |
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Post by coachcb on Apr 24, 2018 11:37:04 GMT -6
One potential problem that I can see is that kids aren't stupid. They might fall for the initial idea that you're working to help get them ready for varsity but eventually they'l figure out that all you really want from them is to play scout team. They may not like the idea of getting waxed in practice but never get into games, even though they're eligible to play JV. Yup... Best players play on Friday night and then follow a development approach with your JV. We might have a group of JV "starters" but we rotate all of the kids that have been practicing in and get them turns. We end up with a hodge podge of players in at times but pull them out and put our best unit back in during short yardage, long yardage, goal line and red-zone situations. |
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