wmcoachp
Freshmen Member
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Posts: 36 
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Post by wmcoachp on Feb 2, 2009 19:38:01 GMT -6
Well our county school board is in the process of going thru their budget cuts for next year and the talk on the street is getting rid of 9th and JV sports. Not a good thing for many kids. I had 63 kids on freshman football this past year and we had another 35 on JV.
We have a meeting with the superintendent and local state officials to try and stop the blood shed of budget cuts for the schools. Sports are not the only thing they are talking about cutting(any extra curricular activities).
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Post by kylem56 on Feb 2, 2009 19:39:55 GMT -6
Im not a fianance expert by any means but is there a way of adding a play to pay fee to help?
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Post by airman on Feb 2, 2009 19:53:59 GMT -6
you go back 50,60 and 70 years ago it was not uncommon for teams to field only a varsity program. the freshman waited their turn to play on varsity much like college.
teams.
my late father graduated in 1946 and his school had just two football teams A and B. A was what we would now call varsity. B was 7th grade up to 11th grade.
B played their game before A played their game on friday night.
with the coming depression(next stock market, real estate boom slated to start some where between 2020 to 2023) it will be time to trim the fat from our programs.
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wmcoachp
Freshmen Member
Respect: You have to give it to earn it
Posts: 36
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Post by wmcoachp on Feb 2, 2009 19:55:21 GMT -6
That is one suggestion that has been brought up. Another is joining the 2 teams and making one. The biggest thing I see is that I think this will hurt the varsity programs. I know the players are students first and that the money for education should go for that but if you take sports or other activities from the younger kids I think they will be getting in trouble and even some kids not even going to school.
I am not a teacher but I know a lot of the players from this county as I coached 14 yrs in the youth program before I made it to the high school level and some of these kids need sports to keep them out of trouble.
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Post by cmow5 on Feb 2, 2009 23:53:31 GMT -6
you go back 50,60 and 70 years ago it was not uncommon for teams to field only a varsity program. the freshman waited their turn to play on varsity much like college. teams. my late father graduated in 1946 and his school had just two football teams A and B. A was what we would now call varsity. B was 7th grade up to 11th grade. B played their game before A played their game on friday night. with the coming depression(next stock market, real estate boom slated to start some where between 2020 to 2023) it will be time to trim the fat from our programs. I am a frosh coach and we played two teams this year that One did not have JV or Frosh and the other did not have JV. |
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Post by jgordon1 on Feb 3, 2009 6:48:31 GMT -6
Our county is talking about eliminating all Frosh sports as we speak. Don't think it will pass however, I think the Superintendent is trying to Pi$$ off as many parents as possible to get the Board of Supervisors to pass the budget. Their big bright idea to save maoney: No pay raise for teachers and we now have to pay more for our health insurance. ps. It apparently does save something like 44 million
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Post by rideanddecide on Feb 3, 2009 7:25:16 GMT -6
The number one responsibility of schools: DO WHAT IS BEST FOR KIDS.
I can understand the fear behind the talk of cutting JV/Frosh sports, but it's not best for kids. I'd be surprised if the district was really thinking this way instead of just putting it out their in order to gain enough support to not have to do it.
With that said, I know different regions treat education differently, so maybe it is the real deal. I just can't imagine that happening here.
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Post by bobgoodman on Feb 3, 2009 22:15:11 GMT -6
More opp'ty for club football. I'm not a devotee of connecting sports to school to begin with.
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turk
Freshmen Member
Posts: 22
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Post by turk on Feb 4, 2009 11:58:01 GMT -6
Club football? That would be just great, give more power to the parents. The day that football is outside the schools and becomes a club sport like most soccer programs is the day I get out of coaching!
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Post by mitch on Feb 4, 2009 13:39:58 GMT -6
Is your football program (everything from 7th to Varsity) self-sufficient? Every program I have been at completely paid for itself and had extra left over to supplement programs that generally don't make much money. In other words, football and basketball were the cash cows that fed the other sports.
I guess the admin. could justify cutting JH and JV to save other varsity sports that don't generate much revenue, but it almost seems like they would be cutting their nose off to spite their face.
At our school, most of our sports that don't produce much from gates have fund-raisers to offset the cost of the program. Could that work at your place?
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Post by coachinghopeful on Feb 4, 2009 15:49:54 GMT -6
With numbers like yours I'm surprised this would even be on the table. How big is your varsity team? How well do you do at retaining freshman to their soph year? What's your fundraising situation look like?
Eliminating JV or combining it with the Frosh squad might not be *too* bad, if admin forces you to do it. Still, with 35 kids on JV and over 60 on your frosh, that's such a high level of participation that it would probably make more sense to cut out Golf, Swiming, Tennis, etc if it comes down to it.
Is it possible for you to do fund raisers, or trim some fat from your varsity and overall football budget to pay for the JV and Frosh squads yourself? Maybe go with cheaper uniforms, drive school busses to games instead of chartering nice ones, etc?
Good luck, coach.
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wmcoachp
Freshmen Member
Respect: You have to give it to earn it
Posts: 36
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Post by wmcoachp on Feb 4, 2009 19:56:20 GMT -6
Mitch, we do have fundraisers for all 3 teams, we usually have 3 big fundraisers, poker run, golf tourney, and we do a big lunch thing were we sell lunches around town before our big rivalry game and also have dinners before the game. We just installed pro grass so some of our budget goes to that. The frosh. team is wearing 12 year old jersey and the JV is wearing 6 year old jerseys.
I think that there will be a big uproar if they do try and get rid of them. In our county we have a total of 18 high schools from class 1A to 5A.
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wmcoachp
Freshmen Member
Respect: You have to give it to earn it
Posts: 36
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Post by wmcoachp on Feb 4, 2009 20:06:03 GMT -6
Coachinghopeful,
We have another 45 players on Varsity. The area that we are in had a big housing boom when all was well in the economy. We have 6 youth leagues that feed 9 high schools in a 10 mile radius and most of the 2 upper level teams have anywhere between 30- 40 players. We had more than most other frosh teams in the county. We are expecting another 55 -70 kids this coming year.
The retention of the last years freshman was about 85% in fact we had 4 soph start on varsity. The big thing we are doing is keeping the public informed and letting the masses voice their opinion to the school board and state legislature.
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Post by otowncoach on Feb 4, 2009 22:18:43 GMT -6
They are talking about having players drive themselves to games here, rather than spend money on buses. I can just see the lawsuits the first time a player gets in wreck!
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Post by coachinghopeful on Feb 5, 2009 0:57:20 GMT -6
wmcoachp... WOW. Those numbers are impressive, and I would think with that sort of participation the threats to eliminate one level from your program would have a hard time gaining traction. If it does get close to passing, make sure someone makes a counter proposal at the end to let each school optionally fund their own jv squads through fundraisers and donations. You guys've got to fight to the death on this one. You've got too good a thing going for it to die, and it's obvious that your students DEMAND and benefit from a 3 level program. Your numbers make that clear!
And otowncoach, having players drive themselves to game is ridiculous. Some systems have tried that in TN, but it's actually illegal. The legal ramifications of the first wreck, which WILL happen if that's done long enough, should be enough to nix that idea. But then I'm always amazed by the stupidity of people who win local elections when nobody's looking...
Good luck guys.
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