Just watch hockey, which, quite honestly, is a better sport than most other options. Just as physical as football, hand-eye coordination of baseball and soccer. Much faster pace. Waaaaayyyy less arrogance and entitled attitudes.
My family has a lot of midwestern roots. I played on a street hockey league in Texas for a couple of years while I was in the Army stationed at Fort Hood......a whole new level of being in shape....and I was a plodding defensemen with average change of direction for that league. Those forwards are world class athletes.
I remember the other defensemen I played with was a tanker and had a glass eye. He would smack dudes in the boards and was always checking with me to make sure his eye didn't come out. Lol. Good times!
As for the lack of younger coaches, we should have anticipated a positive correlation between a decrease in youth football participation and a lack of younger coaches. We are seeing that manifest now. I'll also argue that there are a lot of 60-70 year old that won't let it go. I coached a youth sports team with a guy who was 65 and the game had moved on from his coaching style but he wouldn't let it go. I was in my late 40's at the time and our other coach was in his early 30's. I told him, "you gotta let the younger guys get a chance". Damn near broke his heart to give anything up.....which I thought was a bit selfish. The "young buck" coaches were in their late 30's. It is their time. Hell, you had a long run, be thankful.
As the political divides continues, and it will, the next battle ground is going to be homeschooling vs public schooling. Currently, 20 states allow home-schooled kids to play high school sports (TN is one of them), five states allow it with the approval of local districts, five allow it if the students are partially enrolled in a public school program (my preferred option) and 20 states bar home-schoolers from public high school sports (of course Virginia and WV are in this group).
Ask yourself, how many kids are only going to public schools so they can play sports? It is quite a bit. Now, the smart states will get in front of this early before a competing league is established. The answer is to allow them to play as long as they are partially enrolled (which will allow the states to receive increased funding). The backwards answer is the complete ban/bar which, of course, our state does.
Whatever the reason, I don't see very many 20-somethings hang around more than a few years before moving on to something else. Most of the ones I know have moved completely out of the school system as a whole. Graduate from college, teach/coach for three or four years, leave for something completely different.
Honest question; How much longer before athletics as a whole are dropped completely from public schools? We all know it's coming. It's just a matter of time.
March 31st, 2032........but you didn't hear it from me.
The pendulum swings too far both ways. I would not want to go back to the 70's type coaching. To be brutally honest, a lot of damn good kids were "run" off for a myriad of bad reasons. Looking back at that era, it was complete inflexibility and kids had no options. Now, the kids have too much influence and coaches are too beholden to the parents in a hope of retaining talent.
Be consistent, fair and coach up and develop your kids. Some will leave, it happens. Stay the course. If this guy was hired simply because a kid liked him, it will work itself out.
Does anyone, anywhere, have any insside information on the assistants?
I'm thinking they'll announce assistants next month after the next school board meeting. Several new staff with a few holdovers...well, counting HC as "new" since he is new to that role.
I'm not sure if enough retirements, from the School Board Office, have taken place to allow BI to come back to the county, given the real reason behind his resignation.
I was told by some college coaches back during the fall golf season, local kids have a reputation of not staying in school. If they pick one up by default, great but they aren’t going to waste too many resources going after many of them.
It is what it is.
This. I was told this by two local college coaches directly. The wash out rate is very high, significantly higher than non-locals. One coach said the sweet spot was 3-4 hours away.
Sage Blevins (DL), Abingdon, signed with Emory & Henry. He was the only local kid to sign with them after signing 4-5 last year.
UVA-Wise added Parker Bandy (WR) and Tyler Cole (DL), both from Honaker.
I have no indication if these are walk-ons or if they are scholarship kids. The D-2 world offers varying amounts of "football money" usually coupled with academic and other types of financial aid.
Doesn't appear ETSU added any local kids. About 60% of their incoming class are transfers.
I don't see anything on Concord's site for local kids, as of now.
I don't see any local kids on Bluefield State's signings, as of now.
Richlands is on the come up. It will take a year or two but I still stand by my prediction that are +4.5 in wins this year and an additional +2 the following year.
Haven't heard of any and probably won't until basketball is over since Davis is busy coaching the BB team. Hope to hear something next month for sure.
This. The guy has commitments currently and it definitely working on assembling a staff. I think you'll see something in the next couple of weeks and some of those decisions have already been made.
That is a lot of money being put down (no pun intended) in Tazewell county. Richlands is in dire need of new turf...that stuff is like outdoor carpet.....and it would be nice to see the field color actually match the school colors.
Right now Richlands isn’t good at basketball, football, baseball or soccer. Sorry man, not sure what’s going on there, but I can only imagine that every coach, player and fan that left Lebanon the other night, left humiliated. Even if they’ve never been good at basketball, no one should take a beating like that, kids deserve better. Who is going to apply for the basketball job. I bet Ronnie Davis is feeling like a big fool at this very minute for banking on the Lebanon kid to help pull Richlands out of their downward football spiral.
I highly doubt Ronnie made this decision based off a kid from another school. I doubt that was a factor at all. We learned something this year. If you build a culture and work on developing your kids you can win. The college football national championship showed us what player development and culture looks like. It is this simple. If Davis rolls up his sleeves and puts in the work, stays positive but holds his kids' accountable he will turn it around. If he asks the same of his assistants and stays away from daddy/buddy ball, he will turn it around.
Well, I think it is obvious that what is going on at Lebanon is centered around keeping that kid and his dad as a coach. Look, throwing a kid in an offense that passes a lot is one thing but developing that kid and teaching him how to correctly make reads and dissect a defense and understand the subtleties of playing that position is another thing. Exactly who in this region is the quarterback whisperer? It was Mance...he is gone. My apologies to anyone at Honaker or Lebanon, but who there makes you think they will turn the kid into a D-1 prospect? One dude has the prior experience of working with and developing QBs and look what RV did to him.
At this point the kid is already behind his fellow QBs. He hasn't worked with good speed WRs...so timing is already poor. He doesn't see man/press coverage so he has zero experience throwing against man or even reading if the defense is in man. He certainly hasn't seen disguised coverages nor has been given read/check down authority in a game. Every QB at the 4A and above level has already seen this. And most of them have a dedicated QB coach. If the goal is for pops to coach his kid......that's a bad strategy. If the goal is to have his kid developed.....there really is only one dude around the area that has that resume. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.
What are the moderators' thoughts on a sticky topic of "Locals at the College Level" where we can track area kids playing college football? It could be a spreadsheet or something similar:
Player Name High School Position College Class/grade/eligibility Notes:
John Doe RichRidge HS (2023) LB ETSU (R)Freshman Redshirted 2023/2024 season
Jim Doe Battleview HS (2022) WR Concord Sophomore Backup WR, 15 catches, 230 yards, 2 TD
I think that we have enough people on here to cover all the schools in the coverage area.
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Jason Mullins out at Central
in SWVA Football
Posted
You also need to look the other way when an athlete beats his girlfriend up and vandalizes her car.