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Post by bigmoot on Oct 4, 2018 6:27:11 GMT -6
Has anybody lost an entire class. We are struggling. We are a small school, started with 34 kids on the roster. Playing schools 2x our size. We are out matched most weeks. Seniors have been great, working hard. Freshmen and sophomores are good. But we have lost about our entire junior class. they have been quiting left and right. We are down to 2. Its been an issue thats been brewing for a while. Its the group that getting them to lift hard is like pulling teeth. Forget about practicing at a level to actually get better....nope. We are actually better off with out them even though we will lose our last 4 games.
Just curious if anyone else has experienced something like this...
FWIW...they have sorry attitudes in ALL sports...not just football
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Post by Defcord on Oct 4, 2018 6:47:31 GMT -6
I am coaching at a small school for the first time. We also have a small sophomore class. One of the coaches who is a lifer here said that he noticed whenever there is a strong class or two in a row that there tends to be a really small class. He said he thought it usually started their sophomore year because we don't have a JV so they can't play B team because they are too old and they aren't good enough to get regular reps on the varsity.
When I was in middle school our team never lost a game. Only had one close game in 2 years. Had like 40 kids on the 7th grade team and went 7-0 and then a little less but like 35 on the 8th grade team and went 7-0. When we got to high school we had 10 on the freshmen team and in order to play we had to move down bad sophomores. I don't really know what caused our class to lose all of those kids. I am getting old and that was like 20 years ago. By the time we were seniors we only had 6 seniors and 1 was a first year player.
I am thinking at small schools a lot of it is probably just random. It's kind of a paradox because if you talk kids into coming out that don't really want to be there, you face lack of motivation and dedication, but if you have a really small class you struggle with depth and numbers.
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Post by blb on Oct 4, 2018 6:58:50 GMT -6
Something similar.
Had a class that went 7-2 as freshmen but it was a mirage. There were 20 or so kids in that group that played either as 9th or 10th graders (or both).
By the time they were seniors there were 12 left.
When they were sophomores second week of Two-A-Days their JV coach told me "I hate my team!"
When they got to varsity I found out why. Most of them wouldn't show up in the summer and they wouldn't practice hard so they never got any better, which wasn't good because talent-wise they were mediocre at best.
Unlike bigmoot though most of them were good kids, good students. No discipline problems. They simply didn't care enough about football or winning. It was just what they did in the fall.
Ironic thing is before them we had had the best seasons at that school in over 30 years. |
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Post by fantom on Oct 4, 2018 10:05:19 GMT -6
Has anybody lost an entire class. We are struggling. We are a small school, started with 34 kids on the roster. Playing schools 2x our size. We are out matched most weeks. Seniors have been great, working hard. Freshmen and sophomores are good. But we have lost about our entire junior class. they have been quiting left and right. We are down to 2. Its been an issue thats been brewing for a while. Its the group that getting them to lift hard is like pulling teeth. Forget about practicing at a level to actually get better....nope. We are actually better off with out them even though we will lose our last 4 games. Just curious if anyone else has experienced something like this... FWIW...they have sorry attitudes in ALL sports...not just football We had that a couple of years ago. We had a decent senior group and a talented sophomore class but not much in between. By the end of the year we were starting 8 sophomores. Maybe the juniors saw the handwriting on the wall: They weren't good enough to beat out the seniors but they had those sophs playing so where did they fit in? |
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Post by CanyonCoach on Oct 4, 2018 10:41:51 GMT -6
Unfortunately, been there twice. My current senior class and a class that graduated a few years ago.
This year we lost kids to work/hunting/family isues/injuries/and auto racing.
Started with 34 kids in this senior class and will have 9 that finish. The 9 are great kids, only 4 of them play any significant time. The ones that are no longer with us: 5 would be contributing and I think we would be even more of a contender for a state title (that is pretty confident for a guy who hasn't finished over .500 in the last 5 years).
The group from a few years ago: 6 kids quit mid-season, all starters- and we went from being 0 for the season to winning 2 of our last 3, one of those against a play-off team. And the one we lost was to the state runner up and we kept it within 3 scores. We had significantly better practices, our kids attitudes were better, the coaches weren't walking on eggshells with certain kids and zero parent issues the rest of the season.
So sometimes losing kids hurts the program and sometimes it is addition by subtraction.
At the end of the day: coach the crap out of the kids that show up for practice and do all that you can to make them better from the end of the season to the start of the next.
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Post by nicku on Oct 4, 2018 11:13:42 GMT -6
Worried about my current freshman class turning out that way. I had them as 8th graders and thought, "I'm moving up with them next year, they respect me, I can get them going in the right direction..." That rang true for the first 3 weeks...and while we keep winning, you can see the ego and lack of work ethic coming to light.
QB is one of the best athletes I have ever seen. Ran a legit 4.5 as an 8th grader last year. Just a miserable a$$hole. Can't get him to do anything we ask. Just selfish. He can't play for 3 weeks cause of grades, and he's mailed it in. Doesn't have his helmet strapped up when we require them all to do unless its a water break. Gets irritated when we up-down him for being late. Have to constantly remind him to cover his knees with his knee pads. Just annoying crap that is wearing thin on me.
We have a running back that is good, but is a headcase. I'm talking on a BIP, in special education headcase. Zero impulse control. Wearing thin on all of us. Then another really good athlete that is just lazy. Even got a shot on varsity, but got sent back down cause he wouldn't bring any effort.
We've got one kid who is probably the best athlete of the bunch, would be starting on varsity as a freshman if it weren't for an eligibility issue (residence verification...family issue that made it cloudy). He is insanely coachable, a phenomenal kid, and has a shot to go D1 in either football or basketball. Just hoping the other kinda follow his suit, because that group could win state if they put it all together.
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Post by throwahitch on Oct 17, 2018 11:52:24 GMT -6
Has anybody lost an entire class. We are struggling. We are a small school, started with 34 kids on the roster. Playing schools 2x our size. We are out matched most weeks. Seniors have been great, working hard. Freshmen and sophomores are good. But we have lost about our entire junior class. they have been quiting left and right. We are down to 2. Its been an issue thats been brewing for a while. Its the group that getting them to lift hard is like pulling teeth. Forget about practicing at a level to actually get better....nope. We are actually better off with out them even though we will lose our last 4 games. Just curious if anyone else has experienced something like this... FWIW...they have sorry attitudes in ALL sports...not just football We have what we call "open enrollment". A student as an 8th grader gets to pick what high school he goes to within our county. Previous to this staff being hired, there was a HC. Just a HC, no DC no OC no nothing. Principal was one of those people who tink football should be gone. HC was just content to have a job. They never won any games. Incoming players with talent left. We have 2 freshmen and 2 Sophomores. |
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Post by silkyice on Oct 19, 2018 12:14:59 GMT -6
Had only 2 seniors in 2016. Both of them came to our school as juniors, so we essentially lost an entire class. Struggled that year. Lost in overtime in the semi's in 2017.
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Post by macdiiddy on Oct 21, 2018 22:53:46 GMT -6
It has been a thing now, where we lose kids Freshman/Sophomore year and they come back out Junior/Senior year. With all that being said, attrition is fairly normal. Not to the extent you guys are talking about, but 2-3 kids a year normally quit any given class.
For a long time we started with about 25 freshman, and senior classes were about 12-15. Now our numbers are just down from school enrollment and the concussion scares. But the same attrition is still there.
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Post by joelee on Oct 22, 2018 7:45:11 GMT -6
Had only 2 seniors in 2016. Both of them came to our school as juniors, so we essentially lost an entire class. Struggled that year. Lost in overtime in the semi's in 2017. How does that happen? How is there an entire class that decides not to play at a winning program? |
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Post by coachcb on Oct 22, 2018 8:56:55 GMT -6
Had only 2 seniors in 2016. Both of them came to our school as juniors, so we essentially lost an entire class. Struggled that year. Lost in overtime in the semi's in 2017. How does that happen? How is there an entire class that decides not to play at a winning program? We had a similar situation at a successful school and it was a mix of outside pressure from parents and the community and internal pressure from some "mutineers". We had a freshman class that went 10-1 in freshmen and froshmore games. Some of them played on a JV team that went 7-2 and the varsity went into the quarter finals that year. Our sophomore class had low numbers and were soft so we needed about half of those freshmen to stick around after the last freshman/froshmore/JV games. Several were looking at varsity reps as we'd had injuries and we needed the rest to help as a scout team. They were giving us our best look as a scout team as they were far more athletic than the class above them. This seriously p-ssed off those freshmen and their parents and some of them flat-out handed in their gear. The rest stuck it out but many didn't come out the next year. We had 35 kids in that freshmen class and 11 of them came out for ball the next season. Those 11 stuck with it and lost in the state semis their senior year to the eventual state champions. |
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Post by silkyice on Oct 22, 2018 12:02:01 GMT -6
Had only 2 seniors in 2016. Both of them came to our school as juniors, so we essentially lost an entire class. Struggled that year. Lost in overtime in the semi's in 2017. How does that happen? How is there an entire class that decides not to play at a winning program? Small school. My first year here, we graduated 22 boys and girls. We graduate about 38-42 now. |
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