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Post by canesfan on Mar 4, 2008 14:17:10 GMT -6
Lately I've been wondering about how difficult it would be to bring football to a small school (250-400 9-12) thats never had it before. If the funding was there, what is better in your opinion, to build it slowly by doing pee-wee and Middle school first, or start at the high school level with JV and then varsity. My personal opinion would be to go the youth route, it is less expensive and if it fails then it isn't as bad as a school funding a varsity program that cannot sustain. Plus, if successful the high once they get to high school they will be more competetive off the bat because they have played the same amount as everyone else. That said, I don't have experience in this (or too many years experience coaching for that matter) so i was looking for a veteran opinion.
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Post by eagledp on Mar 4, 2008 15:00:17 GMT -6
personally, i am not a big fan of football before the sixth grade. seen too many kids get burnt out. another way to think about it, how do you explain to a 7 year old that something that hurts as much as football is fun? a certain level of maturity is needed to understand football, IMO. with that in mind, i would rather start at a junior high and work up from there. now the problem would be having a pushy admin wanting a new program and wanting it now. i guess it would really depend on what the admin wants.
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Post by onthemarkfootball on Mar 4, 2008 15:38:09 GMT -6
Was a part of it last year...bringing football to a 300 9-12 school. It takes alot to get one off the ground in terms of funding, but that is relatively easy to assess...it's having the kids and some talent that can be the tough part.
In this last situation there was not a great feeder system and no Jr High football. Less than 9 of the 38 had ever participated in contact football before. From that group of 8-9, only a handful had seen action in the past 2 years (mostly youth football as they were freshman - sophomores).
I could probably talk for a few hours on the process of it but to answer your questions... In our state a HS program can choose their entrance into the Varsity Football. First option is to start with a JV team for the first year and then move up, or you can play a Varsity schedule and schedule a mix of current lower classification teams and or upper classification teams JV up to 10 games.
In our situation we did the 9 game Varsity route and scheduled a handful of JV games as well to give our younger guys experience. I think the guys learned a ton by having to work hard against experienced teams. I honestly believe that we would have won the majority of the games had we played a JV schedule. As the season progressed, the kids got better because it took a higher level of effort to be competitive and they were able to put things together and we never were really blown out. Generally it was a quarter let down or a half of a game that was less intense that hurt our chances of being in it late.
I would go the Varsity route "IF" you can schedule a nice balance of opponents. Have to find a few teams that you can "hang" with and stay away from the teams that can blow you out big time. Just does not help the kids to lose by 4 + touchdowns a week and it sets the wrong tone for your program. In our case, the fact that the kids played with heart and class and that we hung with some solid teams (2 of them made the playoffs) set the foundation for solid school, community and parental support for the next few years.
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Post by leighty on Mar 4, 2008 17:31:21 GMT -6
Schedule the 10 worst teams you can find and beat the brakes off of them. By the time reclassification rolls around, you'll have 20 wins under your belt and kids will be knocking down the door to be a part of your team.
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Post by davecisar on Mar 4, 2008 20:33:32 GMT -6
From the perspective of someone that has started 2 youth programs from scratch and coached in the first-fifth year of another startup: Our youngest teams had the greatest amount of success early on, the older teams struggled. Some of them did not win a single game and had turnover. So when I started my own we went with an age 8-10 team and added an age group every year. The slower growth model allowed us to get our coaching staffs squared up and allowed our teams to be competitive, which in turn helped us with very high retention numbers ( most teams 90%+) and made recruiting much easier. Not sure that helps you at the HS level. Playing with a bunch of kids with zero experience would be quite a task, when facing kids with 5-10 years of experience under their belts.
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Post by fbdoc on Mar 4, 2008 20:47:53 GMT -6
Been involved with 2 private school startups. My 2 cents is that it is better to build from the frosh-JV level than to jump right in with varsity. Also agree with scheduling weak teams to begin with (builds confidence and enthusiasm) and then raise the bar as the kids get older. This is the same philosophy that most colleges use these days as they add football programs to their department.
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Post by canesfan on Mar 5, 2008 0:10:11 GMT -6
Thanks for the input guys. It is very appreciated.
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Post by greyhounds on Mar 7, 2008 9:17:16 GMT -6
I started a program a few years ago at a small school (about 150 boys 9-12). We began with the 7th and 8th grade level the first season and added a freshmen team (along with first year sophmores) year two. Starting at the JH level worked extremely well for us and I would recommend it to anyone starting a new program. I would be happy to share more information, just let me know.
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