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Post by tvt50 on Jul 5, 2006 10:29:40 GMT -6
I wonder why these people that are always saying they want to help kids want to make a good buck? Yall know what Im talkin' about (ie- Velocity, Speed Camps, Combine people, Recruiting helpers) If they really wanted to help kids, why dont they do what we do? Oh yeah theres no glamore in that and little money (ie- washing jerseys, running the weight room, watching fim for hours, summer practices, taking kids home from practices, being a father figure). No wonder they dont want to do what we do and still want to help kids. Then when a 5-8 220 lb OL doesnt get a full ride who do people blame- the football coach for not getting them recruited.
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Post by tog on Jul 5, 2006 10:45:09 GMT -6
capitalism has it's place
it's just a good thing that there are people like us out here that do this FOR the kids
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Post by tvt50 on Jul 5, 2006 10:46:19 GMT -6
More of our kids will fight in Iraq than will play DI or go pro. Get them ready for life. To the real lifers out there I salute you and thanks for what you do.
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Post by coachd5085 on Jul 5, 2006 12:49:50 GMT -6
"More of our kids will fight in Iraq than will play DI"
Great line TVT. I am going to use it soon
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Post by tvt50 on Jul 5, 2006 13:10:59 GMT -6
I hope I didnt sound negative, but think about. How many kids do you have playing DI and how many do you have in Iraq? A lot of us get caught up (including myself) in how many big time players we have or what colleges are recruitng our kids. It just puts things in perspective. Yeah some kids will get full rides some will not. What matters is you gave a kid an oppurtunity to improve his life- for some of them that might mean they go to college and play football, others it might mean they go to Uncle Sam.
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Post by spreadattack on Jul 5, 2006 13:48:14 GMT -6
There are sleazebags and there are profiteers and then there are people providing a service. Everybody has to make a living. It's true that Coaches put in lots of hours, for no money, and even less respect at times but all the blame. But if there's an athletic training service and a kid (or his parents) have the money, go for it. No one is saying that the guy selling personalized plyometric speed training for $50/hr is more noble than the football coach. It's a different story for sleazebag agents who hang around college campuses, or even if that speed training coach was convincing poor families to take on debt and build up false hopes for the poor families, but the kid who's parents pay for the speed training isn't any worse. He may not be any faster, but he certainly isn't hurt by it. The sleaziest tend to harp the most on "helping the kids" but anyone receiving a fee knows they aren't hiding behind that line very long.
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Post by spreadattack on Jul 5, 2006 13:51:54 GMT -6
I hope I didnt sound negative, but think about. How many kids do you have playing DI and how many do you have in Iraq? A lot of us get caught up (including myself) in how many big time players we have or what colleges are recruitng our kids. It just puts things in perspective. Yeah some kids will get full rides some will not. What matters is you gave a kid an oppurtunity to improve his life- for some of them that might mean they go to college and play football, others it might mean they go to Uncle Sam. I agree. I've been saying this for awhile. You're about as likely to coach a future Senator or Fortune 500 CEO or Admiral/General in the Armed Forces as you are an NFL All-Pro or Hall of Famer, and way more likely to coach future managers, employees, lawyers, farmers, or privates, so you might as well recognize that you're preparing kids for their future, in whatever it is. Football is the greatest sport of all for teaching life lessons--hard work, competitiveness, technical skills, teamwork, fair play, discipline, etc--but we coaches spend all day thinking about football and forget about the world out there. I just had a random thought: John Roberts, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court played high school football for a very small school in Indiana. His coach probably coached more Supreme Court Justices (one) than NFL players. Not saying you should be breaking out the legal texts on the football field, but when you talk about "teaching them how to be men," if your imagination is limited to the confines of a football field, so will theirs. |
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Post by tog on Jul 5, 2006 16:19:21 GMT -6
I am just as proud of the valedictorian OL kid that I have now in the top of his class at Texas A+M as I am of a football star that plays there. In fact, I know that the valedictorian kid will someday do something truly great for this world. I know I helped him along his way in that, and I still get calls from him today seeking advice or to shoot the bull. If I had a daughter, I would want her to marry a kid like that. That is why I am in this biz. Making strong young men that can help lead this country further. Number one goal.
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Post by tothehouse on Jul 5, 2006 19:09:05 GMT -6
Totally agree. I love when former players come back and have continued to be great people and not just remembered for what they did on the football field. I just had breakfast with a former player who has done two tours in Iraq (his first scared me to death with what he was able to tell me that he did) and another who served in Afghanistan and is now a double amputy (both legs below his knees) when his Humvee that he was a gunner in went over a mine and landed on top of him. He just told me the story in depth (said he never lost conscienceness) and became my hero telling me that story. Oh man.
We have D1 guys and a guy in the NFL, but they are looked upon as the same. They are all former players, brothers......who all battled on the same field.
Let people make their buck, but being a great athlete won't define our players. What kind of brother they are, son they are, friend they are, and eventually, father they are will be their defining moments.
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Post by phantom on Jul 5, 2006 21:20:19 GMT -6
Great post.
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Post by Split50 on Jul 7, 2006 14:04:29 GMT -6
Thank you for that post, tothehouse.
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Post by gamedog on Jul 7, 2006 14:26:53 GMT -6
tothehouse-I had one that was one of the first killed in Iraq. Still tear up thinking about the funeral. Have somewhere around 30-35 kids that have been in Iraq or Afghanistan or in other parts of the world.
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Post by tothehouse on Jul 7, 2006 22:39:34 GMT -6
Game - I didn't mention on of our players who parished last summer in Iraq. We retired his number and the guy wasn't even a starter. Didn't matter. It isn't the kind of player...it's the kind of person.
Also, one of our young frosh coaches (former player as well) committed suicide late this past winter. 3,000 people at his funeral. Had to hold the wake at the fairgrounds. Talk about a supportive community and remembering one of their own. That still ( and will always bug me).
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Post by coachjd on Jul 8, 2006 0:57:15 GMT -6
I think of all our young men over protecting our freedom on a daily basis, thank God for their strength and courage to give us or freedom and the right that we have to do what we all do.
We have 6 former players from our 03' team in Northern Irag right now in a National Guard unit and I think of them all often. I pray daily they all will come home safely and with out harm.
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Post by tvt50 on Jul 8, 2006 7:22:02 GMT -6
Good thread. I have enjoyed all your posts, puts things in perspective.
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Post by brophy on Jul 11, 2006 7:11:20 GMT -6
have them read " View from the Bench" by former NU DT George Mills  short read, but offers a pretty sober perspective of life as a college athlete EVEN ON championship teams..... *** I think the BEST analogy, to me at least, is in the movie " Any Given Sunday", at the end of the movie they play Bill Wither's classic song "Use Me Up" scoring their playoff game.....at how apropos that song really is for us involved in this game, because of how intensely and unapologetically this game will devour us (and leave us with nothing if we lose site of what is important) all the while accepting those 'risks' to enjoy the thrill we get from it. Which kind of floors me when people become sooo deluded to think that a DI football scholarship is the be-all-end-all (shoot, it's just STARTING for them....) |
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