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Post by lochness on Jun 26, 2020 7:29:58 GMT -6
Are you really trying to compare fishing, laser tag and baseball with football in terms of the degree of risk associated with an activity? I opened my post by saying that this is about degrees of severity. S#it, any activity is risky. I suppose I could be incurring risk going to get the mail. But that's not my point, I'm quite sure you know it, and I think I've made my point pretty clear: football is about the riskiest activity you can engage in right now. Anyone who doesn't see that is purposefully blinding themselves for their own purposes. You ask: "When do you want to go back to living?" I'm trying not to laugh at that. We are living. Leaving football out of our lives for one year in the name of doing what's prudent doesn't equate to a fate worse than death, at least not for me. In fact, it's a laughable concept. I can see it isnt so for some, though. I am not comparing anything to anything....your logic and reason, football or not, is faulty. I watch current events and can see football is off the table. And I am not sure we are getting football back. Doesn’t take a lot. How is it faulty? How is the risk associated with fishing and baseball anywhere NEAR the same risk associated with football? I admit that we don't know everything about this virus, but I fail to see how going out with me and or a friend and dropping a line in the pond puts my son at greater risk of catching the virus than say, a blocking drill. Give me a frigging break. Little League Baseball (which is the most risky thing I listed as an activity) 9 - 11 kids social distance rules in dugout strictly enforced practices in small pods, kids 7 feet apart if lines are required for drill etc. fielding positions completely spread out. No locker room no shared equipment no away games (town has 8 teams, play each other) 20-30 fans maybe only risks are: batter near catcher, close plays against a runner (hardly ever happen in little league) HS Football: 40-70 kids on a team huddles (for those who huddle, of which there are many) 4-6 varieties of tackling technique drills 2-3 varieties of block destruction drills endless varieties of blocking drills OL vs DL breathing in each other's faces as you slam into each other and strive to maintain close contact for as long as a play lasts for 2 hours straight. Handoff/mesh drills with a RB Game speed hitting and tackling Cramped, {censored} locker rooms typically busses to away games 100's and 1000's of fans I admittedly didn't major in philosophy in college, but I'm still missing where the "flawed logic" is.
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Post by lochness on Jun 26, 2020 7:05:46 GMT -6
If I get your meaning....... This isn't an "all or nothing" argument. There are a massive amount of activities that are far safer and less risky than what football demands when it comes to Covid. People acting like the "no football" decision means the end of all socialization and physical activities can't possibly be that obtuse. C'mon. It's a matter of degrees. And football is an extreme. Our love for it doesn't change facts or risks suddenly. Just this summer- we've done fishing, hiking, canoeing, laser tag, nerf guns, swimming, and little league baseball. Any of those are completely reasonable and active social activities, and infinitely better alternatives to what is necessary for football. I can't see why we'd want to play football in these conditions, other than because of our own self-importance or other selfish reasons. I don't like it either...but it's just reality as I see it. My heart and my emotions don't really matter when it comes to logic and reality. "DEM BOYZ NEED US AND NEED TEH FOOTBALL AND THEY WORKED SO DANG HARD" just doesn't seem to cut it for me as a rational, logical excuse for throwing caution to the wind so carelessly. Again, maybe I'm just soft and uneducated. Know what? I can live with that. But can we live with knowing that we soldiered on in the glorious name of football, and some kid's whole family all got sick? Parents had to self-quarantine from a job that doesn't allow working from home and lost income? Grandparents got dangerously ill? 15 kids on my team all got sick, and...oh yeah....15 kids on each of our last two opponents teams did too? And now the school is completely shut down again and everyone is back home, doing remote learning and the parents have to figure all that out again? Because that's what will happen if 65 frigging kids that breathe on each other every day for 2 hours straight get exposed to this frigging thing. Why? Because we wanted to see how awesome our Cover Blue scheme works with all the studs we have coming back in the secondary this season? I don't know dudes.....I really don't. Like I said, I'm happy to be the unpopular a-hole of the board on this topic. I get it. But I hope it causes us to think a little about what we're really fighting for. Baseball violates 6 ft and safety, my guess is laser tag does as well. The virus came from water part areas so fishing and swimming isnt exactly risk free. And none of your activities are safe if we dont know the cause or how its transmitted. And we dont. if it was just about football, that is one thing. Shut it down. But this is way beyond football. You dont who used what facilities, what they are touching, who is touching what....so by logic and reason, you are endangering your family, friend and society. So when do you want to go back to living? What if there is no vaccine? By logic and reason we are duty bound to stop activities. Not that it will happen though. Has nothing to do with being soft or hard or educated or uneducated. It is as you said logic and reason. Are you really trying to compare fishing, laser tag and baseball with football in terms of the degree of risk associated with an activity? I opened my post by saying that this is about degrees of severity. S#it, any activity is risky. I suppose I could be incurring risk going to get the mail. But that's not my point, I'm quite sure you know it, and I think I've made my point pretty clear: football is about the riskiest activity you can engage in right now. Anyone who doesn't see that is purposefully blinding themselves for their own purposes. You ask: "When do you want to go back to living?" I'm trying not to laugh at that. We are living. Leaving football out of our lives for one year in the name of doing what's prudent doesn't equate to a fate worse than death, at least not for me. In fact, it's a laughable concept. I can see it isnt so for some, though. But heck, let's strap them up! I don't wanna be bored this fall, and we have the chance of having a special group this year
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Post by lochness on Jun 25, 2020 22:05:11 GMT -6
If I get your meaning.......
This isn't an "all or nothing" argument. There are a massive amount of activities that are far safer and less risky than what football demands when it comes to Covid. People acting like the "no football" decision means the end of all socialization and physical activities can't possibly be that obtuse. C'mon. It's a matter of degrees. And football is an extreme. Our love for it doesn't change facts or risks suddenly.
Just this summer- we've done fishing, hiking, canoeing, laser tag, nerf guns, swimming, and little league baseball. Any of those are completely reasonable and active social activities, and infinitely better alternatives to what is necessary for football.
I can't see why we'd want to play football in these conditions, other than because of our own self-importance or other selfish reasons.
I don't like it either...but it's just reality as I see it. My heart and my emotions don't really matter when it comes to logic and reality. "DEM BOYZ NEED US AND NEED TEH FOOTBALL AND THEY WORKED SO DANG HARD" just doesn't seem to cut it for me as a rational, logical excuse for throwing caution to the wind so carelessly.
Again, maybe I'm just soft and uneducated.
Know what? I can live with that.
But can we live with knowing that we soldiered on in the glorious name of football, and some kid's whole family all got sick? Parents had to self-quarantine from a job that doesn't allow working from home and lost income? Grandparents got dangerously ill? 15 kids on my team all got sick, and...oh yeah....15 kids on each of our last two opponents teams did too? And now the school is completely shut down again and everyone is back home, doing remote learning and the parents have to figure all that out again? Because that's what will happen if 65 frigging kids that breathe on each other every day for 2 hours straight get exposed to this frigging thing.
Why? Because we wanted to see how awesome our Cover Blue scheme works with all the studs we have coming back in the secondary this season?
I don't know dudes.....I really don't.
Like I said, I'm happy to be the unpopular a-hole of the board on this topic. I get it. But I hope it causes us to think a little about what we're really fighting for.
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Really?
Jun 25, 2020 21:40:34 GMT -6
Post by lochness on Jun 25, 2020 21:40:34 GMT -6
I'm not electing my kid to miss out on "life." Just football. There are are plenty of other social, fun activities that he could engage in that are not nearly as unsafe in this environment as football. Fall baseball is still a sport, and far less risky than spending two hours a day breathing and snotting all over some other kid he's leaning on in drills or in a game. Football is pretty much the least socially-distancing activity that you can engage in. It's the exact opposite of everything we've been advised to do. We spent 3 months working from home and exercising caution for what? To get spit and blood in his face for two hours a day while the pandemic still rages on? Seems kinda dumb to me, and would feel like we wasted the last 3 months we sacrificed Being careful, just because "FOOTALL RULZ!!! Let's goooooo BABY! Stick someone out there!!!" I dont know. Maybe I'm just soft now. But I sure as hell care more about my family's safety than participating in some game. BTW- our state just announced today that our East-West All-Star Game that was scheduled for Aug is cancelled. First shots have already been fired it looks like. You are not going to be doing a whole lot with 6ft and a mask. Not sure what this is supposed to mean.
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Post by lochness on Jun 25, 2020 21:30:51 GMT -6
Yes it should be an option to go to school... yes it should be an option to participate in sports... yes it should be an option to do neither... Consequences to both... entire generation of young people losing 10% or maybe more of their educations and people losing jobs/businesses will have consequences on our society in the long-term. Poverty, unstable surroundings, and lack of positive social interaction will cause all kinds of issues. Living life and understanding that we are not exempt from the laws of nature, so trying to go "ostrich" and bury our heads in the sand every time something is kinda scary isn't something I'm gonna do. If parents want their kids to miss out on a year of their childhood then let them do it. I don't want my 2 kids to miss out on life. If I have to go and that gets my kids 1 more year of their life... i'm all for it. I'm not electing my kid to miss out on "life." Just football. There are are plenty of other social, fun activities that he could engage in that are not nearly as unsafe in this environment as football. Fall baseball is still a sport, and far less risky than spending two hours a day breathing and snotting all over some other kid he's leaning on in drills or in a game. Football is pretty much the least socially-distancing activity that you can engage in. It's the exact opposite of everything we've been advised to do. We spent 3 months working from home and exercising caution for what? To get spit and blood in his face for two hours a day while the pandemic still rages on? Seems kinda dumb to me, and would feel like we wasted the last 3 months we sacrificed Being careful, just because "FOOTALL RULZ!!! Let's goooooo BABY! Stick someone out there!!!" I dont know. Maybe I'm just soft now. But I sure as hell care more about my family's safety than participating in some game. BTW- our state just announced today that our East-West All-Star Game that was scheduled for Aug is cancelled. First shots have already been fired it looks like.
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Post by lochness on Jun 23, 2020 13:26:05 GMT -6
I understand your last point coachd5085 but a significant difference is that concussions aren't contagious. Bingo. There's a difference between a risk I knowingly and willingly take on as a player and putting others at risk. That's the whole point, and a huge difference between the two. If I get a concussion, my whole school doesn't maybe need to shut down and my family / friends aren't at risk. My dad who provides for the family doesn't need to go into quarantine for 14 days. My grandmother doesn't need to die. Extreme examples, but you get my point.
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Post by lochness on Jun 23, 2020 13:21:07 GMT -6
How long do you want to shut everything down? Cause this may be like the cure for cancer....you want to spend the rest of your days inside with a mask on. I don't want to shut anything down. But we're talking about football here, not work or school. So if there's a greater transmission risk due to the close-quarters nature of football, which is admittedly despite the passion we all have, a GAME, I'd say that's an easy decision to make. At least for me. I'm interested in hearing the other opinions, though. How do we justify risking public health in pursuit of a game?
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Post by lochness on Jun 23, 2020 8:46:47 GMT -6
A lot of discussion is about kids being safe from the virus, or only mild symptoms, but they all have older relatives. How would you like to be the kid who gives the virus to his grandparents and they die? That's going to happen somewhere. Do you tell the kid "I'm sorry you lost Grammy and Papa but hey, you won the league." I'm not being flippant. My granddaughter is going to be a Senior in Volleyball and I'm very high risk. Besides sports, she's a teenager. She's going to be exposed to a lot of people. We're really close and I'm almost afraid to see her for that reason. I can't bear the idea of her thinking she might have killed her Papa because she wanted to play volleyball, etc. There's a lot of uncharted territory in this issue and no good answers yet. But that's going to happen regardless. It's not like social distancing can prevent it from happening, only delay it and prolong the period over which it could happen, because such measures don't isolate the entire population severely enough to actually end transmission without people's becoming infected. And there are far too many people infected now for it to be feasible to quarantine just them and trace their contacts. But if we could let this rapidly run thru the population in a few months, Grandma and Grandpa could be isolated (albeit not perfectly) for just that period of time. I'm not sure I get your point. So, you're saying football should be allowed so that more people can get infected faster, and that's a good thing? I don't think I buy into that as a great approach. Not with all the uncertainties involved, and not when the safety of my kids and family is concerned. It's a frigging game. There's NO justification for going forward if there is a public health risk associated with it. Our love for football doesn't qualify as a justification to put people at risk.
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Post by lochness on Jun 21, 2020 5:39:57 GMT -6
If we go back to school in person there will be a season. If we don’t go back there will be no season. Two weeks ago I would’ve said no way we play this fall. But schools are already making the decision to quarantine the kid/household and move on business as usual. Imo it’s trending towards we are playing and going back to school. Right or wrong I like the way you put this as "right or wrong," because maybe that raises the ultimate question: not "Will we go back?" but "SHOULD we go back?" Those are two very different questions to answer. I'm actually very interested to hear what coaches think about that question.
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Post by lochness on Jun 20, 2020 22:02:51 GMT -6
Football is far and away my favorite sport. I gave more than 20 years to coaching, and lots more before that to playing. The benefits are immeasurable and kids really need the experiences and learnings that come with the game. All that said, I'm also not (completely) stupid. I'm 100% opposed to having football this season. Makes no sense. I'm not going to be selfish and wish it were different just because I love football. Yes, it sucks...but it's really the only option. Locker rooms, huddles, team meetings, team meals, fund raisers, bus rides, line of scrimmage play, tackling, close-quarters drills, fans in the stands, equipment sanitization....there's just no frigging way any of that makes sense in this environment. And then what happens if one kid gets sick in-season? Your whole frigging team shuts down for 2 weeks...not to mention your last two opponents? I'm sure that won't be a popular opinion.....but that's how I feel. This would be my oldest son's first year of tackle. We aren't letting him play. He'll be heartbroken....but he will be safe. I don't see how we have it. In Michigan we are clear to resume practices. For us that means throwing based off MHSAA rules. I justk now we're going to put in all this time and might even make it a few weeks into the season before a kid tests positive and we shut this boy down. Week 2 or 3 at best. This coming from a guy who doesn't know what he's gonna do without being able to coach ball. It really is tough, but if anyone thinks logically about it, playing football makes absolutely no sense with the way this virus works. It's crazy. Just HUDDLING and LINING UP puts kids and their families at risk (can't socially distance offensive huddles, linemen, or DBs in press coverage), let alone the spit and snot and breath and sweat that is exchanged between kids on every single play or in every single drill for two straight hours. I mean, heck...we are doing youth baseball right now and you need 7feet of space in the dugouts just to be compliant. I'd like to see football with 7 foot OL splits and a 7foot neutral zone. Not to mention QB/RB mesh drills and how interesting that will be now. We'll need a pair of long grill tongs to hand the ball off.
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Post by lochness on Jun 20, 2020 21:51:12 GMT -6
Football is far and away my favorite sport. I gave more than 20 years to coaching, and lots more before that to playing. The benefits are immeasurable and kids really need the experiences and learnings that come with the game.
All that said, I'm also not (completely) stupid. I'm 100% opposed to having football this season. Makes no sense. I'm not going to be selfish and wish it were different just because I love football. Yes, it sucks...but it's really the only option. Locker rooms, huddles, team meetings, team meals, fund raisers, bus rides, line of scrimmage play, tackling, close-quarters drills, fans in the stands, equipment sanitization....there's just no frigging way any of that makes sense in this environment. And then what happens if one kid gets sick in-season? Your whole frigging team shuts down for 2 weeks...not to mention your last two opponents?
I'm sure that won't be a popular opinion.....but that's how I feel.
This would be my oldest son's first year of tackle. We aren't letting him play. He'll be heartbroken....but he will be safe.
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Post by lochness on Jun 20, 2020 21:32:43 GMT -6
I'm with Stu on this. In 1991 we went 11-2 and had just won the championship game 28-13 running the wishbone offense. A small group of dads came up to me after the game and congratulated us on the win but also remarked, "but you guys sure are boring to watch!" I responded by saying, "See those boys celebrating over there? I believe they'll take 11-2, and boring every year." This is all the proof you need, as if any further proof was required, that people are generally stupid richardheads.
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Post by lochness on May 23, 2020 19:09:47 GMT -6
I'm about to commit "visor guy" blasphemy. Visor guys, prepare your crucifixes and holy water, here we go. I'm calling BS on the RPO. Yep, I said it. Let me explain. Have been a flex bone guy w/ a sprinkle of wing t my whole career. Two seasons ago, my returning QB was coming off a terrible ankle injury and was about 70% or so physically where his running ability was concerned. So, I implemented some gun / RPO style stuff to limit his need to run. Well, IMO outside of maybe the bubble, I think it is almost impossible to read any routes post snap during the mesh. Routes just don't break open soon enough. Now admittedly, my experience and expertise (if you can call it that) is meshing the run and my experience is minimal w/ RPO. But I just don't see how it is physically possible to read routes post snap in the limited amount of time you have to mesh the back. Especially when you need to look the snap in. Basically, what I'm saying is I believe the RPO, no matter what anybody says, is almost always the QB determining what he wants to do pre-snap based on alignment / coverage. Otherwise, in the time available to mesh and read routes, I feel the RPO is basically myth. The kid is either guessing or pulling and throwing b/c, well....he's a QB and just "happened" to read the route as "open". Again, minimal experience at this so maybe I'm wrong but after teaching it, and filming it, I see almost no way even short routes can break open in the short amount of time it takes to mesh w/ a back. I may very well be full of **** but that was my experience. Half way through the season he got back into playing shape, we refocused on our "tried and true" and won out to make the play offs and our scoring total increased from 19 / game to 30. Again, maybe I'm wrong or taught it poorly but that was my experience. I got a bucketload of film a couple years ago on one of our state's premier warp-speed RPO facemelter score 90 and tip my visor to you offenses. Took me about 6 quarters of film to be 100% certain that their RPO QB was just picking whatever option of the post-snap read he liked better and going with that....mind made up well before the snap. I could always tell because he'd half-ass or rush the mesh on a play that was supposed to be a fancy high-tech post-snap RPO. I've never been a fan. If I want to run the ball, I want to run the phuscking ball. I don't want some cocky 16 year old trying to pad his stats pulling and throwing a slant.p to his WR buddy. Most quick pass plays are already putting an under-coverage guy in conflict anyway, so I never understood the whole "OR WE CAN HAND IT OFF" mystique. Maybe I'm the dinosaur, but in HS, this just seemed sexy for sexy's sake. I mean, {censored}, how many defensive reactions are you expecting where you need to read that stuff on the fly? It also seems a little disingenuous because a HS QB throwing the ball to his HS WR Buddy on his own is rarely going to be as efficient as running the ball, particularly if one of this guys is having a bad night. And , if you're catching a dual responsibility defender sticking his nose in on run, that's what old school tried-and-true playaction pass calls are for. I trust my press box guy to make that decision. Not Johnny McDinkmuffin the QB.
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Post by lochness on Aug 11, 2019 6:27:10 GMT -6
I got tired of the exhaustion caused by the fact that nobody was ever going to care as much as I cared. Not the administration Not the parents Not my assistants Not the players I hate to be a jerk (and honestly not trying), but this is precisely why there should be no such thing as high school football You need to try harder.
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Post by lochness on Aug 8, 2019 21:19:52 GMT -6
I got tired of the exhaustion caused by the fact that nobody was ever going to care as much as I cared.
Not the administration Not the parents Not my assistants Not the players
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Post by lochness on Aug 4, 2019 9:50:21 GMT -6
Forcing them to do something the don't want to do never ends well
Instead of monitoring them, find a way to demonstrate the value...so they want to do it.
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Post by lochness on Aug 4, 2019 6:51:31 GMT -6
It's been over 3 years since I've posted on this board...and probably because I moved away from coaching I chose to disconnect. I come back to just check it out and VOILA, this thread!!! I moved into the AD Role at my school after the 2015 season. I had coached 25 years, in 2 states at 4 different schools...the last 15 years as the HC, with pretty decent success through all stops. Why stop??? 1. It was just tougher to maintain that energy level till the end and I felt I wasn't doing the kids any justice if I couldn't maintain that. If I would have stayed in teaching I likely would have been better moving down a level or becoming just the assistant. I still really enjoy "teaching" the sport and miss the planning part. I do get out there every once in a while to help our younger coaches at the MS/JV level...its fun. But I can walk away...like being a grandparent. 2. Financially it was a no-brainer to make the move at this point in my career. College is coming up soon and I will have 3 there at some point. I'm not leaving education and really don't understand how people put in so many years then leave. Not judging...simply don't relate. I enjoy education, I'm just on the other side of it now (the dark side according to some). 3. It's what was best for my family. I had a good run and family was supportive despite the ups/downs. I'm still around it as the AD every Friday night so I get my game-day fix but at my leisure. Of course I'm there for home games, but I don't have to travel to away contests. I have 3 kids (2 boys in HS, 1 girl in MS) who play football, lacrosse, soccer, ice hockey, badminton, basketball...1 does scouts, all 3 play instruments... the schedule is insane. I haven't missed a game in any sport season for 4 years unless there's been 2 scheduled at the same time. I got to watch my 2 oldest play MS football together & then they were separated this past year (JV/MS). I saw EVERY game...home & away. Being there is important & my wife no longer loses me to HUDL for 20+hrs a week. It's my turn to be their support system through the ups/downs of athletics. Amen.
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Post by lochness on Aug 2, 2019 21:55:09 GMT -6
All these things and more are why I stepped down a couple of years ago after 23 years in the saddle. I'd add: 1. It was exhausting me. I am not a teacher. So balancing a full time career at 45-50 hours per week, plus a HFC job that ran about 40 hours per week in-season, plus having a young family was draining me beyond the healthy physical and mental limit. I was literally ill by the end of every season. 2. I was no longer taking joy in anything. We'd win and I was miserable. We'd lose and I was miserable. Instead of getting energy from my involvement, it started taking my energy. Nope. That's not sustainable. 3. Like larrymoe, I kinda got tired of the whole "cult of personality" image of this "higher calling" and "critical platform" push in football coaching. That's all well and good, but I am not a pastor or a cult leader. I'm a football coach. Teach skills, demand their best, create a safe and healthy environment. Good things happen by themselves. I'm not some GDam savior. 4. I had my fill. I felt like I had seen 2 decades worth of challenges, and there wasn't much more left . I have those memories forever. It was time for the new, real challenge of being a better father and husband 100% of the time. In addition or to go along with your points- 1. I got sick every Thanksgiving the last 7 years I was a HC. It was really weird for me and my family for me not to be puking that week of my favorite holiday. 2. I think the last year I had pure joy was 2012. 2013 was our most successful year record wise, but man I hated it. It was miserable getting a lot of those conceited aholes to even suit up on Friday. 2015 started fun, but the wheels just completely fell off after week 7, for the next 3 years. Last year was so miserable, I literally hated every waking second of the season. I almost quit before we even started. 3. My son came home from JFL last week and said they break out on "family". Idk why, but I legitimately got pissed off about it. Like you said, this cult crap that people are doing just because someone successful said you should do it is freaking sickening. You're not their family, nor will you ever be. 4. Outside playing in a championship, there's not a lot left for me to prove to myself. I'm too freaking old to deal with the stupid {censored} that has nothing to do with football. I'll add booster clubs to the list. Having a weekly a 2-hour meeting about peanut butter sandwiches and who is bringing the bananas to the team dinner made me crazy. Trying to plan the banquet made me suicidal. Having a 20k reserve but needing to create a doctoral thesis that justified the need for an endzone cam (which I didn't get) made me genocidal. I also had the boster club president threaten to pull funding for hudl because we weren't using it to make weekly highlight videos for the kids. You know, stuff like that.....
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Post by lochness on Aug 2, 2019 20:23:51 GMT -6
ding ding ding, this is the one for me too man maybe it's the natural cynic in me, but the acronyms and re-heated platitudes still get under my skin next week we start the week and half of madness with our "convacation" whatever the hell that means and then we will have talk about our "strategic plan" if your not sure what a "strategic plan" is, it's the same idea some guy made money of a decade ago only then it was a "mission statement" so now...armed with our strategic plan...we now have to not only keep the strategic plan in mind, but actually write up bullet points about how what we are doing in the classroom lines up with our strategic plan i tell no lies we even have to write up purchase orders and such how buying an item aligns with the goals set forth in the strategic plan so instead of just ordering girdles, you have to order them and add "this lines up with strategic plan item A7 - commitment to safety of all students" amazing We have some BS like tha going on where I teach. Multi year strategic planning. This year the focus is data mining or some crap. Kids are off like every Monday in Feb so we can have data summits. Can't wait.... of course we are an urban inner city district with 100% free lunch, several schools under 25% proficiency in math and reading, probably well over 70% poverty rate, elementary counselors saying kids are showing signs of PTSD from home/neighborhoods but we are gonna mine data to fix everything Unbelievable. Please excuse me, though. I'm now going to jump out a window after eating a clump of Ebola-infested rat feces.
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Post by lochness on Aug 2, 2019 18:56:16 GMT -6
... (other than retiring or getting fired), what likely would be the reason? Tired of parents? Higher paying job? Need more time with the family? I've been waiting to post in this thread to try and organize my thoughts as I've recently done just this after 21 years in coaching and education. I don't know if I've really been able to quantify it to just a couple reasons. I think a list would be sufficient. 1. I don't like the direction football has been going for a while. The emphasis on me, me getting a scholarship, me getting my stats, me getting my name in the paper, how does my jersey and helmet look, what are you doing for ME coach? 2. Parents are absolutely abysmal {censored}. 3. I really detest the social media dick sucking that goes on and is expected of you. 4. Kids are {censored}. Those of you that say kids haven't changed are delusional. (And no, I'm not trying to reignite that argument- it's definitely a reason I'm saying adios though) 5. I can not stand this #Grind {censored} everyone is expected to do by kids and their parents. This idea that taking a day off, or more, is weakness is insane and ruining the sport IMO. 6. I detest this notion that we are supposed to be fill in fathers. I did not sign up to teach kids morals and other stuff. If their parents don't do that, I don't agree with the notion that it's on me to do so- same for teaching. I'm just here to coach football. I'm sure some of you holy rollers or makers of men will scoff at this, but I would also be willing to wager you don't effect 90% of the kids you think you do with all your leadership classes and that stuff. 7. The lack of anonymity. I've greatly enjoyed being just larrymoe for the past 9 months instead of Coach larrymoe. 8. The idea that you're noble for sacrificing your kids and wife to "save" other kids. Want to save kids? Start with your own. 9. The emphasis on winning is horrific. Over the past two years I've seen such terrible behavior just overlooked so you could "compete" on Friday night I couldn't stomach it anymore. 10. I stopped caring if we won or lost. I just wanted it to be over. I'll stop at 10, but there's a lot more. I won't go into teaching. I never got off on teaching and when I decided I was good with walking away from coaching, it made no sense to stay in a job I despised to make less money than I can at a 40hr a week job that has incredible benefits for my whole family. I haven't been associated with coaching HS football since last October and I haven't missed it a second. All these things and more are why I stepped down a couple of years ago after 23 years in the saddle. I'd add: 1. It was exhausting me. I am not a teacher. So balancing a full time career at 45-50 hours per week, plus a HFC job that ran about 40 hours per week in-season, plus having a young family was draining me beyond the healthy physical and mental limit. I was literally ill by the end of every season. 2. I was no longer taking joy in anything. We'd win and I was miserable. We'd lose and I was miserable. Instead of getting energy from my involvement, it started taking my energy. Nope. That's not sustainable. 3. Like larrymoe, I kinda got tired of the whole "cult of personality" image of this "higher calling" and "critical platform" push in football coaching. That's all well and good, but I am not a pastor or a cult leader. I'm a football coach. Teach skills, demand their best, create a safe and healthy environment. Good things happen by themselves. I'm not some GDam savior. 4. I had my fill. I felt like I had seen 2 decades worth of challenges, and there wasn't much more left . I have those memories forever. It was time for the new, real challenge of being a better father and husband 100% of the time.
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Post by lochness on Jun 28, 2019 17:10:22 GMT -6
I don't like it. Teams block plays differently sometimes, and all your defensive keys and reactions are dependent upon some poor scout team OL slappy doing his job right. Half the time, they can barely block the varsity defense effectively, even when they know what they're doing.
Cards give those kids confidence and gives your defense a more accurate simulation of their keys.
I suppose if your a spread team and you're playing other spread teams it's no big deal, but we would play (in one season) spread, wing-t, pro-I, double wing, and sometimes flexbone. No frigging way we're not putting cards together.
Makes run group and pass group smoother and more effective as well. We'd put notes on the cards about the depth of the routes we were facing, etc. Again, just made it way more realistic and efficient.
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Post by lochness on Jun 21, 2019 10:43:10 GMT -6
Some of the best football players I have ever coached have started playing the game as a Freshman.
This is why.
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Post by lochness on May 31, 2019 6:43:12 GMT -6
1. 5 2. 3 3. 4 4. 1
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Post by lochness on May 6, 2019 15:04:18 GMT -6
Damn, we used to run this all the time, quick little reverse pivot, inside hand-off to the FB who aims for the play side buttcheek of the C. We sent the TB downhill toward the FB's original offset alignment, like Power or Iso would look. That had the effect of making this a quick-hitting FB mis-direction play.
Tough against a 1 tech though, we'd run it a hole wider if we got a standard "31" look with an even front.
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Post by lochness on May 6, 2019 14:54:11 GMT -6
When would a "better" time have been?
Not sure there's ever a good time. But, people can resign whenever they want for whatever reason they want. Losing assistants always sucks, but it's not like the guy had any special obligation. It's coaching, after all, not an enlistment in the US military.
And, family comes first. I totally respect if someone declares that they had a thoughtful discussion with a spouse or children about their choice, and that weighed on their decision.
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Post by lochness on Feb 15, 2017 22:51:44 GMT -6
Do you ever blame a team or players for a loss? Not publicly, no.
Do I believe the {censored} that everything bad that happens with a football team is the coach's fault? No. That's absolute crap. Sometimes kids are uncoachable assbags, and they're all that coach has that particular year. All this bravado and self-importance around how much the coaches control and influence every aspect of the game is totally bogus. I've known GREAT high school coaches who have had bad teams and down years. I'll tell you this much: it ain't because they were "letting it happen."
I know now it's supposed to come of as manly martyrdom to say "if it happened it's our fault" but I don't view it that way. I view it as a very ego-centric and flawed smokescreen.
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Post by lochness on Feb 9, 2017 15:32:35 GMT -6
Why would you want to draft a player who is an individual talent vs. someone who has proven through a career that they are the most adept person in sports at making your entire roster better? Remember, the debate here isn't "who is a better QB at their position based on individual capability"...it's "who would you want QB'ing your team?" Big difference....BIG difference. I think the 'making the team better' aspect (particularly in the NFL) is mostly nonsense. What did Tom Brady do to make his defenses better than the Colt's defenses? He was lucky enough to play with 12 top 10 defenses in his career, he didn't make them into top 10 defenses. Its an argument that people like to use to justify the premise that the QB who wins the superbowl is the best QB, but it holds no validity. Don't get me wrong, he is clearly an all time great QB, but the idea that he somehow made the defense any better just seems ridiculous to me. If it seems ridiculous to you, you don't know enough about how the Patriots have built their unprecedented success and sustained it over the last 15 years. Brady's leadership and work ethic has been a massive factor in setting the tone for accountability and behavior in that entire locker room year after year. Not to take anything away from Belichick, but every coach needs that one point man in the locker room who can sell the players on things and has the street cred to back it up. The guys in New England worship at the alter of Brady. He commands TREMENDOUS respect. and he's a force multiplier because he teaches and mentors the other leaders (like Hightower and McCourty) in the "Patriot Way." Sure, the defenses are great, but there's a direct and undeniable connection to Brady there. Brady does that better than anyone in the history of the sport. That's why you take Brady. Not because he calls a better Omaha audible at the line or because he can scramble like Mike Vick. He embodies effective leadership at the professional level.
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Post by lochness on Feb 9, 2017 15:25:46 GMT -6
Yeah, that's great for skinny kids whose specialty is running around and catching. What about the kids who don't do that well? To me, that's the entire beauty of tackle football...those guys are special and have a place to contribute in a major way unlike any other sport available. From my experience helping with youth camps and being around kids that age occasionally, the bigger slower kids although not great at it, they love being wr's. There aren't many 9 year olds that want to block every play and never touch the ball. But if they're going to play football...they're going to have to play that role at some point right? Better to learn it early than later after unrealistic expectations have been set. I mean, I love being the front man for a rock band and scoring a bunch of tail...but...that isn't really aligned with my skill set in the real world.
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Post by lochness on Feb 9, 2017 11:03:46 GMT -6
How do the flag leagues handle line men? Is there still blocking and running the ball? I think that's the beauty of flag football. Everyone plays a skilled position. Yeah, that's great for skinny kids whose specialty is running around and catching. What about the kids who don't do that well? To me, that's the entire beauty of tackle football...those guys are special and have a place to contribute in a major way unlike any other sport available.
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Post by lochness on Feb 9, 2017 11:01:12 GMT -6
If the worry is that "there are bad coaches out there," how about instead there is a requirement for a comprehensive program to train and educate (on a continuous basis) coaches who coach youth ball? I think this is far more productive than having a frigging LAW in place that says kids can't play a sport.
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