How important is Numbers

[the watcher 10]

Is this question the only characteristic of a great football team or do other factors play a major role such as location,coaching... etc?Lets look at some great programs in this state-virginia!

 

Phoebus Phantoms of Hampton enrollment 1276 about the same as Salem,but they play in division 5 aaa. there are 19 aa schools larger than Phoebus in this state!

 

Stonebridge Bulldogs Washington dc area large division 5 team 1827 students

They were also good at aa as a large aa team but never won a state title there!

 

Amherst county Lancers 3 state titles 1995,2006,2007 1460 students large division 4 team

 

Salem Spartans 1271 students 6 state titles 1996,98,99,00.04,05

 

Giles,Richlands,Powell Valley,also come to mind and lately J I burton.

 

I would suggest that numbers may not be everything and probably not the most important.in fact Giles,with less than half the students of blacksburg,has been very competitive with that team! William Campbell, with less than 400 students,has been very good.Patrick Henry,with 1700 has not been good lately! Will they improve with the Bradley influence?What does everybody think?Money can help because it can get you better coaching sometimes and better equipment!

[mrb 26]

Coaching, coaching, and coaching.

[nollama 10]

Coaching is a huge part of it but just the tip of the iceberg.

 

Facilities, community involvement, youth leagues, parents, etc. all play a role in it.

 

Richlands has 700+ students yet has been to the state finals 3 out of the last 5 years. And the state semi's the other 2 years. Playing against teams that had hundreds of more students than them.

 

Salem, Turner Ashby, Rockbridge, Monticello, and Brookville.

 

And every year people say richlands is going to be down. Yet they have such a great system in place now that they just keep churning out good and some great football players.

 

And by the early looks of it they may have one of the best classes (sophomore class) to ever come through richlands. And that is saying alot.

[hoard 18]

But it's a huge factor, especially in football where you have to play a lot of kids.

 

Look at it this way...if enrollment didn't matter, every state in the country wouldn't have classifications based on it.

 

Smaller schools that consistently succeed against larger ones in football are the exception, not the rule. For every one that does, you can come up with a list of several that don't.

 

Very few single A schools have a coach like Giles did with Ragsdale, or have the athletes that William Campbell does. In PH-Roanoke's case, part of the reason they've sucked for so long was lack of a middle school program.

 

When you get to the AAA level, the difference in numbers doesn't matter as much. In most cases, it'll be easier for a school with 1500 to beat a school with 1800 as opposed to 200 vs. 500.

 

I'll also add that in SWVa. the gap between A and AA isn't as large as in other areas because the AA schools are so small. You don't have schools the size of Amherst, Pulaski, and Salem in the SWD.

[trublue 939]

coaching, coaching, and coaching.

 

bingo!!! It all starts at the top. The top has to be in touch w/all aspects of the feeder systems.

Kids respond to proven leadership, respectful discipline and hard working coaches. Richlands has been very blessed in having some great coaches and many dedicated players that strive to keep the success of the program moving forward.

[trigger 10]

You can pull specific examples from nearly anywhere. Floyd beat Carroll on a regular basis and carroll has twice the enrollment as Floyd. Coaching is a big factor. However, numbers play a big roll in single A. Compare the numbers from region B with the numbers from region C and D. Region B D1 teams are bigger than some of C and D's d2 teams.

 

Let's say 2 teams are equal in the coaching area. When your talking about fielding a team while pulling from an enrollement of 400 kids it's hard to play with a team that pulls from 800 kids. You can talk about the VA Highs of the world but remember I said that the coaching is equal in this scenario.

 

Look at Eastern montgomery who is the lone D1 school in the Three Rivers. They seem to have a good coach but are pulling from 300 or less kids while the rest of the district pulls from 400-650. Thats sometimes double folks. Thats also tough!

 

THere is also a demographic to this as well. Gretna is full of athletes. Period. No one in C or D can dress that many nor do they have the caliber of athletes.

[thundercloud 179]

When the best of coaches get up against the best of coaches(state) it comes down to who has the most tools in the tool box, be it depth, be it athletes or be it both.