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Post by fkaboneyard on Apr 19, 2021 12:02:09 GMT -6
Apparently some admins thought the football program was too big and successful. I don't see a problem with any of this. The leaders of the Christian school have decided that the football program no longer represents the core mission of the school. The coach doesn't agree so he's moving on. Good for them.
I have no problem with it either. What's curious is that it got to the point that it did, they are about to be a true force and now the church leadership is stepping in. There have been issues in some of the school's other sports programs that were questionable. I'm actually pleased to see it happen.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Apr 19, 2021 9:17:48 GMT -6
Am I reading it wrong? The reason the coach gave for leaving after being there forever was "it's a church school, I'm not a church guy blah blah" and then later on he's tied to potential job openings at nearby church schools lol. I don't blame him for leaving. Seems like he should just come up with a better excuse.
Well, I think he is saying that they want to run it like a small church and he wants to run it like a professional football program. The school pretty much gave him free reign, which is at least part of the reason why he was able to be so successful. He brought in a TON of kids - a lot of big islander kids that were very good football players. He had a feeder youth football program in his area that identified good prospects and then sucked them right into his program. There were rumors of the program playing loosey goosey with the rules. They had to forfeit their playoff spot a few years ago due to using an ineligible transfer. I find myself wondering if that is one of the reasons that the admin is pulling back on the reigns. I also know some folks whose kids go there. They are decent athletes but they can't even sniff the football team. Many families are bitter that home-grown kids are basically excluded because of hired guns.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Apr 19, 2021 8:32:16 GMT -6
Apparently some admins thought the football program was too big and successful.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Apr 10, 2021 13:43:06 GMT -6
As a migraine sufferer (my neurologist suggested it was from multiple concussions playing high school football and falling off of dirt bikes) I have to say I wouldn't want to be crashing my head into people. And I certainly wouldn't want my kid doing it. But to your point - you don't practice, you don't play.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Feb 1, 2021 12:40:07 GMT -6
At least in California, high school sports has become an arms race where the schools willing to spend the most money and/or bend/break the most rules will win. I coached at a public school and our best athletes were poached by private schools. I coached at private schools where some were willing to write fat checks for kids and some only offered sports as an extracurricular (read: scholarships were based on academics/financial need only). CIF has basically said, "Have at it, boys" and, in my opinion, has ruined what high school sports were.
It's tough because size and/or being a private school doesn't necessarily mean that a team will be good or bad. We've got two private schools within 7 miles of each other. Similar size and demographics. One plays for state titles year after year, the other is a division 11 school that plays for crappy league championships and then gets rocked in the first round of playoffs.
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Ethics
Jan 25, 2021 15:33:20 GMT -6
Post by fkaboneyard on Jan 25, 2021 15:33:20 GMT -6
All of your examples are unethical, IMO. The only one I'd hesitate on is the playing of ineligible players - if the coaches know they're doing it then obviously that's an issue, but I've heard of a couple examples where it was lost somewhere in the administration. When I was a kid we had a rival team have to forfeit like six wins because they had a transfer who played on the field goal team (could've been other special teams but thats how I remember it) without sitting out the requesite amount of time. Honestly I felt bad for them but if you don't make it a black and white rule then you're asking for people to purposely aim for the grey area.
I would suggest that if a coach is so unfocused that he doesn't know who is eligible then that is unethical. It's a terrible deal for the kids but every time a program gets zapped for having an ineligible player the coaches go, "we didn't know, the admin told us the kid was good to go." So a lot of them roll the dice. Most of the time they win (given how terrible CIF is at actually following up on this stuff), sometimes they get burned.
There is a program nearby that played an ineligible kid a few years back. They rolled through everybody and then their playoff opponent dropped a dime on them. The offending program then "self reported", had a bunch of wins vacated and lost their playoff spot. The coach blamed the admin and the admin blamed the kid. Meanwhile, the principal was a guy that was falsifying grades (including his own daughter's) so that the swim team would be eligible. I'm probably getting off in to the weeds here but my point stands - it is unethical for an ineligible kid to play, whether it's intentional or not.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Jan 19, 2021 9:50:17 GMT -6
Coaches knowingly send OL downfield on RPO's. Coaches intentionally take delay of game penalties, many other examples of intentionally breaking the rules. Stealing your opponents play-call signals is another one that can be considered a grey area.
While I agree that some of the scenarios in this thread are "bush league", I'm not sure who ultimately gets to decide when breaking the rules is considered "good coaching" versus when it's considered "bush league". What about finding a loophole in the rules? Is it unethical to exploit that loophole? Seems like whenever Belichick does it, he's praised as a genius, but sometimes others are called cheaters.
Maybe it's just me but I don't think there's anything wrong with that. We played a team and wrecked them every year because their signals were the same year after year. After the second year the OC said to our DC, "Man, it was like you were in the huddle with us" and he replied, "We were. You should change your signals." The next year they had a benchwarmer standing next to the OC doing his own signals that didn't even come close to resembling any of their signals (at one point he had his hands in his pits and was flapping his elbows like a chicken, scratching at the grass with his foot). They eventually gave up and just counted us as a loss. If a team doesn't take pains, that's their problem.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Jan 14, 2021 12:30:40 GMT -6
A nighttime capture the flag game was a big deal for our kids, they loved it.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Jan 4, 2021 15:48:56 GMT -6
The coach who I referred to that started this whole discussion swears he used to get messages from college coaches saying, "Man, I like that kid. I just wish we had some film of him playing (insert position here)." I was skeptical, as were many who replied to his tweet.
I've literally never had a college coach state anything along those lines. However, they all ask about the kids' attitudes and we'll have something to say about that if a kid is tossing out his "preferred position".
Every college football coach that looked at a kid we had was entirely focused on the things that couldn't be taught - size, athleticism, character. We never had one ask about position, but maybe that was because they had seen the kid play in a game (or at least the kid's film) and already knew where they played.
Baseball was entirely different - they didn't care that my pitcher was a 6'0, 290lb lug, they wanted to know his measurables. Other than pitcher, they didn't really care what position they played, only if they could hit.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Dec 22, 2020 10:27:07 GMT -6
This is just the perfect response to the OP, well done.
OP - there will always be hangers-on that want to act like they had a hand in it whether those are admin, players whatever. "Success has many fathers but failure is a bastard." Enjoy the ride!
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Post by fkaboneyard on Dec 7, 2020 9:59:46 GMT -6
I worked in a program where the HC was fired - he was a great football mind but a terrible administrator which led to his downfall. Getting canned really took it out of him and he ended up not having a banquet or giving out awards. When asked about it he would say, "Yeah, I'm working on it" and delay after delay until it was obvious there was never going to be a banquet at all. It really left a bad taste in the mouths of everybody - players, their families and even the AC's. When it became clear that the HC wasn't going to do anything a couple of the AC's got together and gave out awards. We brought food and awards to the school during lunch and did a little ceremony on the senior patio. It ended up being a lot of fun for the kids - a lot of the non-football players stood around and watched as we talked about each player and then handed out awards. The HC was still on staff when this happened and called out sick that day, it was a bad look for him. We did it for the kids that were seniors and we didn't think it would be that big of a deal but we underestimated it, it was a VERY big deal to nearly all of the kids. The purpose was to build up the kids and encourage them for the future which it did.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Nov 16, 2020 11:18:30 GMT -6
When I was a JV HC a million years ago we had some terrible officials, just terrible but they were nearly all very nice men that wanted to do a good job. The very few that were not nice guys just seemed to be incredibly insecure and made a point of making sure we knew it was "THEIR SIDELINE".
We did have one guy that was outstanding, he was a BIG dude - all of 6'6" and a ripped 240lbs. In a game that we were blowing out our opponent we received the kick at the start of the second half, I was half paying attention and wandered into the official's area. Our kid took the kick to the house, the official was hauling ass down the sideline (watching the field as he should have) and absolutely trucked me. He barely even slowed down and I thought I'd been hit by a bus. You could see it on our film and it was widely circulated. By all rights the guy should have flagged me for it but he figured I'd been punished enough. He rose through the ranks and went on to work college games. A couple years ago my son was watching a game on a Saturday afternoon, he hollered to me, "Hey Dad, the guy that knocked you on your ass is on TV."
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Post by fkaboneyard on Nov 12, 2020 10:49:48 GMT -6
Whatever you tolerate you will receive in abundance. Don't tolerate kids checking out mentally. Make it less enticing to check out by having practices that are focused on the skill you're trying to develop and have some element of fun.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Nov 5, 2020 11:01:19 GMT -6
Another kicker story -
I was coaching middle school many years ago and we were in the championship game. One of the rules of the league was that every kid had to get 8 plays (there were people standing on the sidelines with clipboards, logging each kid running in and out). It was a dogfight game and we went up by a point with a minute left.
Our kicker was not the brightest bulb on the tree. The other team, having stuck with their best players all game, was now forced to put in their benchwarmers. The opposing team put two absolute nubs back to receive the kick. We were all feeling good and that the game was in the bag. We told the kicker, "You have got to kick it as deep as you can. Understand? As deep as you can." The kid looks at us and goes, "Yes, Coach." The kid lines up to kick and nearly whiffs the kick but hits it just on the side so that it spins upright like a top. The ball goes forward about 3 yards and then returns back toward our kids on a giant loop. Our kids think they're not supposed to touch it because it hasn't gone 10 yards so they all ran away from it like it's a punt. The other team picked up the ball and ran it in for the score and the win. After the game when asked what happened, the boy said, "I was trying to kick it out of bounds, I didn't think they'd expect that."
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Post by fkaboneyard on Oct 29, 2020 9:30:55 GMT -6
We are also the Colts! Brown & Gold! I hade WAY too much free time during COVID. Made this with Nero Video. I do realize it's over the top ridiculous, but our Players love the effects and jokes and it helps attract people to our Program. Hilarious. The kids on teams I've coached would lose their minds over this.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Oct 29, 2020 9:15:28 GMT -6
I coached at a school where we started the season with 18 eligible kids (many of them not very good) and about a dozen good kids that were not eligible because they had transferred in. So we got walloped the first half of the season until the good kids became eligible, got walloped in the first league game because kids were learning how to play together and then won the last 3 league games. Our record was such that we were not an automatic playoff team but could have easily been given an at-large berth if we were to apply for it. The HC told the kids that we had applied but he had actually instructed the AD not to apply for it. The kids eventually found out about it and all of them - even the kids that didn't really want to keep playing - were outraged by it. The kids all felt that the HC didn't believe in him and it created a lot of drama. One of the big reasons kids were so angry was that they had worked so hard and had so few games (compared to basketball and baseball). Many of them wanted to play one more game.
The HC was fired the following January (there were many other things contributing to his termination but this was certainly one of them).
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Post by fkaboneyard on Oct 15, 2020 11:46:06 GMT -6
I was coaching at a school that routinely was a contender. They also had a JV team that hadn’t lost a game in several years. One Thursday the HC & the OC couldn’t ride the bus and were driving down together. They got in a bad car wreck and never showed up to the game. A young guy that was the “assistant OC” (a 21 year-old kid that was a former player for the varsity HC) was thrust into the HC/OC role. He was absolutely terrible at it but he saw it as his chance to shine. The defense was lights out but the offense literally could not move the ball – I think they had less than 40 yards for the whole game. The O-line coach kept trying to make play calls but the kid wouldn’t let him. They eventually lost 2-0 when a punt pinned them on the 2 yard line and they got stuffed. There were a TON of people that were furious over it and the guy earned the nickname “Safety”. That was about 12 years ago and people still call him Safety. The kid is now a very good OC but I don’t think he’ll ever shake it.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Oct 13, 2020 8:15:36 GMT -6
I'm pretty sure all of our game-day crew (scoreboard operator, announcer, and chain gang) all get paid. I don't know how much. Maybe $50 each per game? They even pay teachers to take tickets and manage parking. The teachers then donate the money into a scholarship that's given to a senior in the spring.
Holy cow, I always coached at the wrong schools.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Oct 6, 2020 13:01:25 GMT -6
At a smallish private school we had a kid transfer in and when you saw him, you thought, “Wow! Game changer for sure!” The kid’s dad showed up along with him and was an absolute specimen. We all had high hopes. Then we started practice and it was tough. The kid, other than his vertical speed, was terribly unathletic. Could not cut, could not catch, could not tackle and had no innate football knowledge. We really tried but he didn’t have it. Dad was, of course, convinced that he was going to Alabama on a ride. By the time we were a couple games into the season the kid was playing special teams only. The dad was at every practice bending the HC’s ear afterward and sending emails to the entire coaching staff all week long. He brought his posse to the games and loudly criticized the staff. Just before league games started the program did a “senior night” event. It was a dinner where all players and their parents were invited, parents of seniors would stand up in front of everybody and talk about/to their son. It was a fun time to hear parents talk about their kid and how much they’ve grown in the program and what their hopes for their son are. Except this kid’s dad got up and said, “You all know my son, DeAndre, and you know he’s the kind of athlete that school’s wish they could have. He hasn’t gotten a fair shake from these coaches and that reminds of me of my past, I’ve never gotten a fair shake from nobody for nothing…” and then he spent 10 minutes telling us how life had screwed him. The poor kid just covered his face with his hands the whole time.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Sept 24, 2020 14:13:46 GMT -6
We had a kid, started in the program as a freshman and by the time he was a senior was an all-league fullback. Third game of the season the fullback had the stomach flu and didn't practice all week. He showed up to the game dehydrated and the coach played him. Kid got hit and immediately diagnosed himself with a concussion - "I feel sick to my stomach". His parents took him out of the game and directly to a hospital where they told him, "You don't have a concussion, you have a stomach bug. Go home and rest" - have you ever heard of a doctor saying you DON'T have a concussion? The kid didn't come back to practice for a couple weeks and then it was to hand in his gear, "I can't risk another concussion, I'm going to be a stuntman." We were good that year and made it to the quarterfinals. The kid showed up to the game and walked out onto the sidelines. The HC told him to beat it - "you quit, you gave up your right to be here". The kid's dad came out of the stands and challenged the HC to a fight. When an AC - the getback coach - intervened to calm things the dad swung on him and knocked him silly. Security hooked the dad and the getback coach went to the hospital - they told him he had a concussion.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Sept 3, 2020 15:23:24 GMT -6
Our governor is absolutely terrible. Especially now that the CDC has admitted that actual death rate is closer to 6%.
That's not what they said at all. That's how it was interpreted by people who want to see it that way. They have essentially said that if you have don't have 2+ comorbidities that your chance of dying is 6%. And they really don't have any idea what the chances are that you'll catch it in the first place. The incidence of children without underlying health conditions dying from it is virtually zero. But our clown of a governor has placed significant restrictions such that most schools must be remote. The restrictions are going to be vastly more destructive to children than catching the actual virus.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Aug 31, 2020 12:07:19 GMT -6
California has not overturned the original decision, but rather our governor continually moves the goal posts in an effort to keep schools closed. Just as some larger counties were on the precipice to begin to re-open schools he changes the requirements- allowing more small businesses to open, but keeping schools closed. Our counties out here are physically larger than in most states, but all counties are judged as a whole. So a city can be kept closed based on how things are 80 miles away. As is, a county must have a daily new case rate of less than 7 per 100,000 for three straight weeks and a test positivity rate of under 8%. Those numbers are extremely low, but are required to open up schools (actually elementary schools can open with waivers, but not HS). I can't feasibly see many places meeting those benchmarks by December, when athletics were supposed to start back up.
Our governor is absolutely terrible. Especially now that the CDC has admitted that actual death rate is closer to 6%.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Jul 13, 2020 8:51:21 GMT -6
The move to spring is going to be hard on a lot of small schools and may end up being the death knell of a lot of football programs. Programs that already struggle to get kids are now going to have to compete with track and baseball. On top of that, kids are looking at abbreviated seasons. I know a lot of kids that I coached in both football and baseball would choose baseball if for no other reason than the number of games they get to play vs the amount of practice they are required to do.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Jul 6, 2020 12:25:04 GMT -6
Here's a question - let's say the schools decide that playing football (or any other sport) is okay and things get underway. What happens when a couple kids test positive? And the reality is, with the numbers being what they are, some kids WILL test positive. Are they going to shut down the season for the team with positive results? For the whole league? I just don't think that it's realistic that schools will allow sports to happen at all this year. I hope I'm wrong. That is the problem. What if is undoable. If a kid dies, for any reason, its going to be COVID 19 whether it really is or not. That coach, that school, that administration, county, city, town, state will be tarred and feathered politically and prosecuted in ways we haven’t yet thought of. If they play, they have to do it come or hell or high water, or they will get. Their faces ripped off. This goes to schools, sports or whatever, not just HS football. I agree. My son's girlfriend is starting workouts for juco water polo this fall. At a school where it will be online classes only. I'm thinking, "There's no way in the world that girls water polo at the juco level happens this fall." I will actually be surprised if any college level sports happen this year. The holidays without bowl games are going to suck. Even with waivers up the gazoo, admins are not going to want to put their neck on the line when people look for deep pockets as soon as anything bad happens to them.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Jul 6, 2020 11:30:00 GMT -6
Here's a question - let's say the schools decide that playing football (or any other sport) is okay and things get underway. What happens when a couple kids test positive? And the reality is, with the numbers being what they are, some kids WILL test positive. Are they going to shut down the season for the team with positive results? For the whole league? I just don't think that it's realistic that schools will allow sports to happen at all this year. I hope I'm wrong.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Jun 25, 2020 10:56:40 GMT -6
I don't know what the answer is and I'm glad that I will be deer hunting this fall instead of coaching. But a couple thoughts -
1 - I think we've all had teams where one kid gets the stomach flu and it spreads like wildfire through the team. I coached on a team where it happened, kids were squirting mud like a goose on the bus ride to the game, we ended up forfeiting. So a mass infection among teammates can certainly happen, I think.
2 - As far as being an older coach and being around sick players - I always marveled that coaches don't seem to catch stuff from the kids. Even in the above example we didn't. And we're in close contact with the kids, demonstrating drills, holding bags, DRINKING FROM THE SAME WATER BOTTLES, etc. After practice there was always a procession of players walking by the coaches and shaking hands. Those hands were covered in sweat, snot, some blood... and I expect a fair amount of feces and ball cheese.
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Post by fkaboneyard on May 18, 2020 10:07:49 GMT -6
In all the years I coached I was able to convince one kid's parents who were afraid of concussions to allow their kid to play. And I went at them pretty hard because the kid was an absolute freak. He got "rocked" during pregame of a playoff game, parents came out of the stands and took him to the hospital. The doctors told them he was not concussed - and honestly, I've never heard of a doctor saying a kid is not concussed but it happened in this case. "Out of an abundance of caution" the parents held him out of the next game which we lost and the season was over. The following week the kid went to Disneyland, was in line for a ride, sitting on a railing and fell over backwards. He hit his head and had a legitimate concussion. Later in the year during track season he fell down the stairs leading to the track and hit his head getting another concussion. His dad called me at the beginning of spring ball and said he would not be playing football because it's too dangerous. He was a nice kid but I was glad to be rid of the headache.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Jan 14, 2020 15:42:12 GMT -6
I guess they’re saving a ton of money now! It's an interesting question, I don't know if they will still be bound by the purchase contract.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Jan 9, 2020 14:05:25 GMT -6
I was at a school that had two kids on the sidelines/courtsides of games making hype/highlight videos for football and basketball. These kids were VERY talented. They started doing it as sophomores and by the time they were seniors there was a huge demand for them. These kids did it for free for our school but they were widely requested by other schools and they made many thousands of dollars per month doing personal highlight reels.
We made sure that the kids did not tweet anything and anything that went onto the instagram was reviewed by a coach. We never had an issue. There was no downside for us. The players LOVED it and it created a lot of interest in non-players about the programs.
A good student assistant that will set up AV equipment, film games and ODK in hudl can be worth their weight in gold. A bad one can be a huge pain and is not worth it. Choose wisely.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Jan 7, 2020 15:03:51 GMT -6
That is crazy. I've a friend that coaches at a private school that bought 60 of them for a total price of $50 grand. The school was making payments of $10k per year for 5 years and was only two years into it. They got rid of all their Schutt and Riddell helmets - just gave them away, most were either new or only had 1 year on them! And this isn't a private school that has a ton of money.
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