Big Blue Faithful

As someone who played in the Akers era, I am truly glad he is gone.  I don't believe we should bash him, the time for that has passed.  But, as someone who has been fortunate enough to play under some wonderful coaches, I can say that the man did not know what he was doing. Week to week, our offense would completely change. There was no foundation. He wanted to run the veer that had worked at Retreat, but the offense simply does not work in 2a football. In 1a, where you're only looking at one or two really good players on each team, it works fine. However, in 2a there are too many talented players on the field.  Once he realized that it wouldn't work, he didn't change it. He was too prideful. He could not admit that others knew better than him and would not listen to their advice.  Another problem was his butchering of the little league program.  He did not care enough to take charge of the program himself, and he allowed coaches to stack their teams and ruin the 4 team structure. As a former Redskin, it pained me to see the kids losing hope and eventually have to cut their season short for coaches not doing what was right for the kids.  The travel ball was a product of this pride.  It told kids who weren't "good enough" to go to the house and give up.  Rather than a fun, month long season where you played against your friends and learned the game of football, it became a 3 month long slog where you were forced to run plays the varsity players didn't even know how to run properly.  If I would have grown up with this system, I probably wouldn't have made it to varsity. I would have been one of the "not good enough" to make the travel team. I would've been told to give up what I loved because my dad wasn't a former player and I was an undersized lineman.  Akers allowed this attitude, and i believe that's why numbers have been down. Many former players have expressed their disdain for him and say they would have continued playing if it weren't for him. And that leads to what I believe was Akers biggest problem: the lack of respect. The man was a jerk to his players, belittling new players who were just learning varsity and telling experienced players that they didn't want to win any and that they should just go home.  This is why I think the team started to lose faith through the season. We were told we did not deserve to be there and then he would try and say he cared about us. The team wanted to win, but the constant bashing slowly took its toll on the team and we no longer believed in him. We did not respect him, for he did not respect us, and that, more than anything, is why he failed at Gate City. I hope that in whatever he does in the future, he is successful and I hope him and his new family find happiness in their future plans.  But, I do not believe the man was right for the job and I believe he was responsible for destroying something I held so near to my heart. I pray Gate City finds the right person for the job in the future, for the community's, my former teammates', and for all the future blue devil's sakes.

As someone who played in the Akers era, I am truly glad he is gone.  I don't believe we should bash him, the time for that has passed.  But, as someone who has been fortunate enough to play under some wonderful coaches, I can say that the man did not know what he was doing. Week to week, our offense would completely change. There was no foundation. He wanted to run the veer that had worked at Retreat, but the offense simply does not work in 2a football. In 1a, where you're only looking at one or two really good players on each team, it works fine. However, in 2a there are too many talented players on the field.  Once he realized that it wouldn't work, he didn't change it. He was too prideful. He could not admit that others knew better than him and would not listen to their advice.  Another problem was his butchering of the little league program.  He did not care enough to take charge of the program himself, and he allowed coaches to stack their teams and ruin the 4 team structure. As a former Redskin, it pained me to see the kids losing hope and eventually have to cut their season short for coaches not doing what was right for the kids.  The travel ball was a product of this pride.  It told kids who weren't "good enough" to go to the house and give up.  Rather than a fun, month long season where you played against your friends and learned the game of football, it became a 3 month long slog where you were forced to run plays the varsity players didn't even know how to run properly.  If I would have grown up with this system, I probably wouldn't have made it to varsity. I would have been one of the "not good enough" to make the travel team. I would've been told to give up what I loved because my dad wasn't a former player and I was an undersized lineman.  Akers allowed this attitude, and i believe that's why numbers have been down. Many former players have expressed their disdain for him and say they would have continued playing if it weren't for him. And that leads to what I believe was Akers biggest problem: the lack of respect. The man was a jerk to his players, belittling new players who were just learning varsity and telling experienced players that they didn't want to win any and that they should just go home.  This is why I think the team started to lose faith through the season. We were told we did not deserve to be there and then he would try and say he cared about us. The team wanted to win, but the constant bashing slowly took its toll on the team and we no longer believed in him. We did not respect him, for he did not respect us, and that, more than anything, is why he failed at Gate City. I hope that in whatever he does in the future, he is successful and I hope him and his new family find happiness in their future plans.  But, I do not believe the man was right for the job and I believe he was responsible for destroying something I held so near to my heart. I pray Gate City finds the right person for the job in the future, for the community's, my former teammates', and for all the future blue devil's sakes.