Numbers?

[Ryan4VT 4,557]

1 hour ago, TTownTigers said:

No question, winning brings out players, but there is something more to it in my opinion. I think winning for a long time matters and Richlands has done that, but still, Gate City has been good for a long time and even longer than Richlands with more titles. This leads me to believe, your Head Coach's ability to sell the program to the town and kids at a young age is equally an important factor. It explains why Richlands has more kids out each year compared to Gate City. GC has had coaching turbulence compared to Mance being there a long time, and winning, but also selling the program and building interest. It sounds like the same thing is happening at Graham with their new coach. Their numbers will likely incease the next few years. With the above written, I am talking about programs of similar size. A school like Robinson in NOVA or Landstown in the Tidewater area are huge schools and will likely have out more kids than Div/Class 2 schools if they have a half way decent program. In these two examples, they certainly do. In the case of Richlands, credit winnig and winning for a long time, but also credit Mance's ability to build enthusiasm and interest in the town which is fueled by winning, but there is still that "it" factor for the coach.

Nailed it. 

[Jason 299]

5 hours ago, TTownTigers said:

No question, winning brings out players, but there is something more to it in my opinion. I think winning for a long time matters and Richlands has done that, but still, Gate City has been good for a long time and even longer than Richlands with more titles. This leads me to believe, your Head Coach's ability to sell the program to the town and kids at a young age is equally an important factor. It explains why Richlands has more kids out each year compared to Gate City. GC has had coaching turbulence compared to Mance being there a long time, and winning, but also selling the program and building interest. It sounds like the same thing is happening at Graham with their new coach. Their numbers will likely incease the next few years. With the above written, I am talking about programs of similar size. A school like Robinson in NOVA or Landstown in the Tidewater area are huge schools and will likely have out more kids than Div/Class 2 schools if they have a half way decent program. In these two examples, they certainly do. In the case of Richlands, credit winnig and winning for a long time, but also credit Mance's ability to build enthusiasm and interest in the town which is fueled by winning, but there is still that "it" factor for the coach.

This does seem true. Gate City numbers are low from little league through High School. The little league has four teams. Rams, Redskins, Colts, and Packers. Each team has a varsity and junior varsity. Only the Packers has a full JV and varsity team. Not 100% on what the Colts may be lacking. The Rams have around 8 on Varsity and 13 or so on JV. The Redskins have about 6 on varsity and 13 or 14 on JV. This causes some of the kids on JV to play two games in one night. I think the Packers had about 15 on JV and I counted 19 on varsity. Really need to figure something out to get the numbers up in little league. I really think that's where it needs to start. Get those numbers up and we may see improvement at the high school level. 

[vols4life 57]

On 8/4/2017 at 6:30 PM, BIGRED said:

Marion 51

That's better numbers than we have had in awhile