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Post by airraider on Oct 14, 2018 17:54:43 GMT -6
I am in year 4 at my current school. This school in particular has always had number issues, but one of my assistants who is in his 29 year at the school said it has never been this bad.
We started our season with 28 kids on varsity grades 7-12th (7th and 8th graders can play up if they want)
We had another 11 or so kids grades 6-8th that played jr high only.
Due to injuries, basketball quitters, kids I have kicked off/suspended... we played with 18 kids the other night. Only 15 of them were high school kids (9-12th)
We should get some kids back this week from injuries and suspension and will have 22 or so as we go into battle with a perennial power in our class, who will dress about 40 kids with 17 seniors.
This past Friday we went into the game vs one of the top running backs in the country stats wise... was averaging 12.2 yards per carry before playing us. He ran the ball 8 times for 320 or so yards and 4tds. 40 ypc.. yes 40!
Our entire front 4 on defense that we started the season with was not at the game.
DE - quit when basketball practice started DE - quit when I suspended him a game the friday before because he missed practice without letting anyone know. DT - rolled his ankle on thursday at basketball practice DT - got into a fight as we were loading up the bus and I made him go home.
Our Oline we started the season with... only 2 of them started.. and 1 left the game with an injury. We only brought 5 guys in linemen numbers.. and had to put a jersey on a kid as an emergency lineman.
The 7th grader... he starts on all special teams for us. He is our deep snapper... the 8th graders all start on special teams and one starts on the oline.
Bad part... once the 6 seniors we have left are gone, there are only 28 kids in next years 7-12th that came out for football this year on either jr high or varsity.
Out of those 28, 6 either quit, or they become ineligible...
So, that gives us only 22 kids grades 7-12th next year that we can "rely" on being there.
I have pushed our state association to add 8 man football, but they need a certain amount of schools to be interested in order to get it off the ground... and right now, the interest is just not there statewide.
I am not really asking a question, just venting more or less... as we sit here at 2-5 with really only 1 more game on the schedule that we should win, I can just keep the ones there on the right path and try to finish the season with a positive attitude.. but it is wearing on me.
Has anyone else ever had numbers this bad?
Our 7th grade class only has 8 boys in it total... 6th grade only has 9. So its not something we are just going to have to weather until it gets better.
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Post by carookie on Oct 14, 2018 18:16:23 GMT -6
Been there done that a couple times....I feel your pain.
This is one of those cases where you gotta realize your team aint gonna line up and beat Mater Dei any time soon, TBH you may not even have the horses to compete in your league. All you can do is be the best dang you can be for those young men that are out there and hope your parents/admin/community realize that for the foreseeable future you'll have to evaluate success on something other than what bulbs light up on the scoreboard.
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Post by 19delta on Oct 14, 2018 18:53:30 GMT -6
7th and 8th graders can play varsity football? That is crazy. How is that possibly safe? Sounds like a lawsuit just waiting to happen.
Heck...in the 20 or so years I have been around high school football, I have never even seen a FRESHMAN who was a legitimate varsity football player, never mind kids still in middle school!
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Post by M4 on Oct 14, 2018 19:00:02 GMT -6
How can you quit a sport to play another sport?
Our school has a rule that if you don't finish the season in good standing you can't play in the nexts seasons sport regardless of why.
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Post by CS on Oct 14, 2018 19:16:50 GMT -6
How can you quit a sport to play another sport? Our school has a rule that if you don't finish the season in good standing you can't play in the nexts seasons sport regardless of why. So does ours
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Post by airraider on Oct 14, 2018 19:17:21 GMT -6
7th and 8th graders can play varsity football? That is crazy. How is that possibly safe? Sounds like a lawsuit just waiting to happen. Heck...in the 20 or so years I have been around high school football, I have never even seen a FRESHMAN who was a legitimate varsity football player, never mind kids still in middle school! Oh I have seen my fair share of great freshmen ball players. Leonard Fournette was a monster as a 9th grader.
Our state association allows 7th grade and up to play varsity athletics.
Hell, in week 3 vs a 4A team with nearly 1000 students, we started the 7th grader and 2 8th graders on defense. They are currently 7-0 and have one of the best offenses in the state. We lost 43-0, but could have been 143-0 if they wanted.
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Post by airraider on Oct 14, 2018 19:17:51 GMT -6
How can you quit a sport to play another sport? Our school has a rule that if you don't finish the season in good standing you can't play in the nexts seasons sport regardless of why. And that is the way it should be, but that decision is above my head.
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Post by mattharris75 on Oct 14, 2018 20:38:10 GMT -6
7th and 8th graders can play varsity football? That is crazy. How is that possibly safe? Sounds like a lawsuit just waiting to happen. Heck...in the 20 or so years I have been around high school football, I have never even seen a FRESHMAN who was a legitimate varsity football player, never mind kids still in middle school! In 2010 we started 3 freshmen on offense and went 10-2. One of them, the QB, was a 4 year walk-on at Alabama. Three on a successful team is probably fairly uncommon, but there are plenty of freshmen out there who can make an impact. Certainly it depends on the size of the school/the level of football being played, but they are out there.
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Post by 19delta on Oct 14, 2018 22:17:13 GMT -6
7th and 8th graders can play varsity football? That is crazy. How is that possibly safe? Sounds like a lawsuit just waiting to happen. Heck...in the 20 or so years I have been around high school football, I have never even seen a FRESHMAN who was a legitimate varsity football player, never mind kids still in middle school! Oh I have seen my fair share of great freshmen ball players. Leonard Fournette was a monster as a 9th grader.
Our state association allows 7th grade and up to play varsity athletics.
Hell, in week 3 vs a 4A team with nearly 1000 students, we started the 7th grader and 2 8th graders on defense. They are currently 7-0 and have one of the best offenses in the state. We lost 43-0, but could have been 143-0 if they wanted.
In my 20 years of coaching, I have NEVER coached or coached against a player of the caliber of Leonard Fournette. Now, I have seen freshman play on the varsity but that wasn't because they were legitimate varsity players. They played simply because the varsity needed to fill a spot and that kid was the best option. My kid is an example. He's been a two-way varsity starter since his freshman year but that's because our enrollment is about 315 kids. At a bigger school, he wouldn't have played varsity ball that early. I can't fathom a 12 or 13 year old kid playing against 17 and 18 and maybe even 19 year old men.
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Post by 19delta on Oct 14, 2018 22:25:25 GMT -6
7th and 8th graders can play varsity football? That is crazy. How is that possibly safe? Sounds like a lawsuit just waiting to happen. Heck...in the 20 or so years I have been around high school football, I have never even seen a FRESHMAN who was a legitimate varsity football player, never mind kids still in middle school! In 2010 we started 3 freshmen on offense and went 10-2. One of them, the QB, was a 4 year walk-on at Alabama. Three on a successful team is probably fairly uncommon, but there are plenty of freshmen out there who can make an impact. Certainly it depends on the size of the school/the level of football being played, but they are out there.Few and far between. I would bet, without doing much research, that the vast, overwhelming majority of freshmen (and 7th and 8th graders, for that matter) who start on varsity do so far more out of need than they do out of talent. Guys like your QB who played at Alabama or Leonard Fournette? Most coaches will be lucky to have one or two of those guys in a career. If you get guys like that routinely, don't change jobs. And maybe start bottling and selling the local water...
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Post by CanyonCoach on Oct 15, 2018 6:47:17 GMT -6
Can I order a case of that water?
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Post by carookie on Oct 15, 2018 8:14:43 GMT -6
7th and 8th graders can play varsity football? That is crazy. How is that possibly safe? Sounds like a lawsuit just waiting to happen. Heck...in the 20 or so years I have been around high school football, I have never even seen a FRESHMAN who was a legitimate varsity football player, never mind kids still in middle school! Those MS players are out there, and remember: "in the village of the blind the one eyed man is king". Coached against a MS team recently who had two 6'1"+ receivers and a 240lb fullback (who could move). Now that may not always translate over to HS, but for smaller schools those guys are athletically capable
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Post by coachcb on Oct 15, 2018 8:57:53 GMT -6
Look at the bright side; I don't know many teams that would have won 2 games in a season in your situation..
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2018 14:19:25 GMT -6
I've been there. All the stuff about basketball quitters and other BS just gave me flashbacks. I definitely feel your pain. At least you haven't had a principal name himself to your job yet.
Look on the bright side: you've won 2 games already and you think you'll get a 3rd. A roster like that should be lucky to win 1 game.
At that school I was at, we started the season with 27 on the roster grades 9-12 (9 of those were freshmen) and went through 5 (yes, 5) centers due to season ending injuries. We started all 9 freshmen (including 3 of the 5 centers) at different points in the season and finished with 15 healthy bodies.
We were literally changing jersey numbers on kids each week just to have bodies to plug in on the OL--we converted a 130lb backup WR to G just because he was the only kid who was willing to play there. We had days where we could barely practice because over half our team just didn't even show up. The day after the new Madden came out, we only had 12 kids at practice. A few kids refused to practice at all on Wednesdays due to church services that evening.
The next year we recruited the hallways hard and started with 42, but then some good ol' boy backstabbing ruined everything we'd been building. We went 0-10 and finished with 18 when 1/2 of our team quit rather than play our final opponent because they were literally afraid of that team. Their 8th grade class scored 28 on our varsity in the 3rd quarter...
Also, no one in town cared about the team and we didn't get to keep any concessions money, so at 2 out of our 5 home games, we actually lost money after paying the officials.
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Post by CanyonCoach on Oct 16, 2018 7:49:06 GMT -6
When our current staff started we finished the season with 39 players 10-12. We are in the largest classification in our state and our cross town rivals traditionally finish with well over 100. Year 2 we were at 48 Year 3 54 This year #7- 84 kids.
It takes time and it isn't a one man show...booster club, grade school program, MS program, actively engaged park district, getting local businesses involved and most importantly parents.
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Post by Coach Vint on Oct 16, 2018 8:57:22 GMT -6
We have a simple rule. If you quit one sport you have to run 25 miles before you can play another. And you can't join their season until your current season ends. Basically you can quit, run, and wait. Every coach is on board with this as it helps everyone.
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Post by Chris Clement on Oct 16, 2018 9:09:55 GMT -6
25 miles? That seems arbitrary.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2018 9:14:06 GMT -6
25 miles? That seems arbitrary. It seems that it is arbitrarily large enough to deter athletes from quitting to join another sport. I coach wrestling as well, and it usually hard to get kids to come out and try it, so if a kid wants to quit wrestling after trying it for 2 weeks I usually dont raise a fuss.
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Post by Chris Clement on Oct 16, 2018 9:16:31 GMT -6
So it’s also arbitrary in its application? And shouldn’t that reasoning apply to other sports? Coach begs me to play football, I give it a try for two weeks, don’t like it, now I’m screwed?
Beside that, it means that if you’re 6-1 and lanky you can quit a sport and it’s an inconvenience. If you’re 5-8 and hefty you can never play another sport if you quit.
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pistola
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Post by pistola on Oct 16, 2018 9:51:23 GMT -6
So it’s also arbitrary in its application? And shouldn’t that reasoning apply to other sports? Coach begs me to play football, I give it a try for two weeks, don’t like it, now I’m screwed? Beside that, it means that if you’re 6-1 and lanky you can quit a sport and it’s an inconvenience. If you’re 5-8 and hefty you can never play another sport if you quit. easy way to fix that would be to have cut off dates for quitting in each sport.. so a kid can try it and if its not for him its not for him and 25 miles spread out over a month would probably be good for the 5-8 hefty kid
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dbeck84
Sophomore Member
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Post by dbeck84 on Oct 16, 2018 10:23:02 GMT -6
It's just foreign to me that one sport begins practicing before the previous sport is over.
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Post by Coach Vint on Oct 16, 2018 12:01:17 GMT -6
It's just foreign to me that one sport begins practicing before the previous sport is over. Basketball practice starts during football. We will be playing football into December with several varsity basketball kids on our roster. They love both sports. Once they finish football they will go to basketball. In the meantime, some young guys get varsity experience. Both our football and basketball teams are top 10 in the state.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2018 12:24:08 GMT -6
It's just foreign to me that one sport begins practicing before the previous sport is over. Really? Where are you at? Here basketball starts practicing about halfway through the football season. The basketball season is going during the football playoffs. Then baseball, wrestling, and even track may start practice before basketball is done. I forget whose seasons Fishing and Bowling overlap with. Then we have sports like cross country that are going on at the same time as football season. I've had kids do both before at the same time because the AD was cross country coach and needed people.
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dbeck84
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Post by dbeck84 on Oct 16, 2018 13:17:22 GMT -6
It's just foreign to me that one sport begins practicing before the previous sport is over. Really? Where are you at? Here basketball starts practicing about halfway through the football season. The basketball season is going during the football playoffs. Then baseball, wrestling, and even track may start practice before basketball is done. I forget whose seasons Fishing and Bowling overlap with. Then we have sports like cross country that are going on at the same time as football season. I've had kids do both before at the same time because the AD was cross country coach and needed people. Illinois. If the football team makes a deep playoff run, they might overlap the beginning of the basketball season, but most teams in the state are done with football before basketball is allowed to begin
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Post by fantom on Oct 16, 2018 13:33:44 GMT -6
Really? Where are you at? Here basketball starts practicing about halfway through the football season. The basketball season is going during the football playoffs. Then baseball, wrestling, and even track may start practice before basketball is done. I forget whose seasons Fishing and Bowling overlap with. Then we have sports like cross country that are going on at the same time as football season. I've had kids do both before at the same time because the AD was cross country coach and needed people. Illinois. If the football team makes a deep playoff run, they might overlap the beginning of the basketball season, but most teams in the state are done with football before basketball is allowed to begin In Virginia the first football playoff game is November 10. Basketball practice starts November 5.
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Post by carookie on Oct 16, 2018 15:10:15 GMT -6
Shoot I got our girls soccer team working out in one endzone this week.
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Post by coachd5085 on Oct 16, 2018 19:00:41 GMT -6
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Post by agap on Oct 16, 2018 19:24:48 GMT -6
If a team here makes the state championship game, they'd still have two weeks until the first basketball game. If they lose their first playoff game, there's almost a month before basketball practice even starts. We don't really have to deal with players quitting because of another sport; typically they just won't come out at all.
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Post by morris on Oct 16, 2018 19:26:00 GMT -6
I had a to use a 13 year old during a game this year at QB. Thankfully he turned 14 before his first start against maybe the 5th best team in our classification (we play 5A so second largest classification in our state 1200 enrollment/600 boys roughly). He is a freshman and his parents started him early. We’ve had to play a number of freshman due to low numbers and rebuilding. We play against a lot of smaller schools so we can compete and rebuild.
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Post by airraider on Oct 17, 2018 18:46:04 GMT -6
I had a to use a 13 year old during a game this year at QB. Thankfully he turned 14 before his first start against maybe the 5th best team in our classification (we play 5A so second largest classification in our state 1200 enrollment/600 boys roughly). He is a freshman and his parents started him early. We’ve had to play a number of freshman due to low numbers and rebuilding. We play against a lot of smaller schools so we can compete and rebuild. The 7th grader we are using wont turn 14 until Feb.
He actually kicks off for us too.. the kid can actually drop kick an onside kick fairly well.
He is also our snapper on our swinging gate and snapped 2 side snaps for 2 point conversions last week.
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