Post by football247365 on Jul 28, 2015 19:41:41 GMT -6
We have 30 kids on our 6th grade team. How should we go about our starting lineups and substitutions?
Keep in mind, only about half are good players, which pains me to say.
There's a fine line between trying to get equal playing time which doesn't seem realistic with 30 kids, but also doing a disservice to the kids who work hard and could start both ways.
I think we're going to try to have as many 1 way starters as possible and just rotate in guys.
We always pride ourselves on putting the best 11 out there. But now I'm torn between getting quality playing time for each player vs building the best team we can and utilizing our best players.
I don't know what the correct way to go about it is. Each kid has to earn their playing time but at the same time each kid HAS to play.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Unless your team is some kind of select traveling team that is in an ultracompetitive league, "playing the best 11" in 6th grade football is complete and total BS. We routinely have 25+ every year and we play EVERYONE...in fact, we are usually able to start everyone somewhere. When we can't start everyone somewhere, we create some kind of rotation between 2 or 3 kids at 1 spot (2 plays in, 2 plays out..something like that).
I see this every year. In our league, most of the other teams only play the best 11 kids. So you have a team with 20 kids and 11 or 12 kids are getting all the snaps on offense and defense and those other 8 or 9 kids, if they're lucky, get in the last couple minutes, usually when the game is decided. That is complete crap and it pi$$e$ me off to no end.
Do we win every game? No. Have we lost games over the years because we don't play our best 11? Absolutely. But we win more than we lose and seldom have parents complaining about a lack of playing time. Parents know when they come to the game on Saturday morning that they are going to get to watch their kid play a lot of football in real game situations. In fact, I can't even begin to try and guess the number of parents who have told us that our organization is the best youth sports experience they have ever had. In my 16 years of coaching at the high school, middle school, and youth levels, I am most proud of that. I have run our youth organization since 2009. Since then, I can count on one hand the number of parents who have complained about how playing time is allocated. And almost all of those parents were mostly upset about the position their child was playing, not the lack of playing time.
Again...I have a low opinion of youth football coaches who do the "play the best 11" thing (unless the exception I noted above). For those guys, the #1 priority is winning. Developing players, giving kids a fun experience, fostering a love and appreciation of the sport...those priorities are all secondary so some local hotshot can brag up his youth football record from the barstool. Those "play the best 11" youth coaches...the football is really for them and not for the kids.
RANT OVER
I'm sorry if "playing the best 11" came across wrong. I merely meant starting the best 11, but of course we have rotations and try to have as many 1-way starters as possible. Every kid plays on our team as well. Didn't mean for you to rant, no hard feelings.