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Football is back


Ryan4VT
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I would say its going to be a big drop. Especially with Graham, Richlands, Tazewell, and Marion all making the region tournament in basketball. Wrestling is in their region tournament that ends Saturday. Indoor track wont start regions until next week. I would say that is going to hurt a lot of the numbers for the first day of practice.  

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I can't speak to football just yet, but participation is a mixed bag locally thus far for athletics in general.  I'm interested to see where Galax falls tomorrow after the basketball season comes to an end tonight in Wytheville.

Galax had nearly double the number of kids come out for wrestling and basketball this year than in recent years.  Boys swim has 3 kids while the girls team is very strong with 13.

Grayson is hard to digest.  Coming off a 4th place finish in the 2020 VHSL wrestling tournament, they had 8 total kids come out for wrestling this year.  Grayson basketball appears to be down a few kids from last season.  They don't have a full squad of 12 players at any level (varsity, JV and middle school), and that's pulling most of the 8th graders to JV while having a MS team of almost all 7th graders.  

Carroll barely has a wrestling team.  Boys basketball appears to be somewhat down while girls basketball is as strong as ever. 

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5 hours ago, Ryan4VT said:

Welcome to the first day of the season. 
 

What are everyone’s numbers? Interested to see if we see a big drop off or not. 

Don't have any numbers, but sure feels good to talk football again.  Hope everyone is staying safe, and looking forward to seeing some games, should be a very interesting season.  Go BLES!!!!

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Reporting from outside the coverage area....  Liberty (Bedford) looks to have about 30 players out for the first day of practice.  (Waiting in the parking lot to pick up my son so I don't have a clear view of the upper practice field.)  Another one of our local rules is that there is no JV team this year, so our numbers might be somewhat skewed by the presence of freshmen (like my boy).

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1 hour ago, bristol8434 said:

I've heard that Battle had about 20 - 25 players come out and that a couple have already quit due to the attitudes of coaches

That is rough! what is up with the coaches?

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17 minutes ago, Bluefield researcher said:

Maybe it is not really the coaches??

True.. I have noticed that more and more kids have lost the concept of hard work all together unless they are getting paid for it. I know there are some kids out there who have got a taste of that food city bagger money and dont want to give it up. I hate that for battle and their staff because I know they are busting their ass just like every staff to make this work. 

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4 hours ago, Bluefield researcher said:

Maybe it is not really the coaches??

The truth is in the middle.

 

High school football is not what every 15-18 year old boy aspires to and is inspired by anymore.  There are infinite pursuits that are competing for the time of our youth in this millennium, when there were much more limited avenues in yesteryear. 


With the “rise-and-grind” mindset that’s pumped into the current generation, I don’t think it’s the work ethic that’s lacking.  There are some extraordinary things being done by youth that aren’t seen in an athletic context.  But it is passion that inspires those pursuits. Getting barked at by a coach doesn’t excite the passion that it did in a previous generation.  A kid can just as easily apply himself to something else.  
 

A good coach, though one that may be gruff, doesn’t have the entire student body population clamoring to play anymore.  It’s not nearly as simple as kids not having a backbone or work ethic. 

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17 hours ago, UVAObserver said:

The truth is in the middle.

 

High school football is not what every 15-18 year old boy aspires to and is inspired by anymore.  There are infinite pursuits that are competing for the time of our youth in this millennium, when there were much more limited avenues in yesteryear. 


With the “rise-and-grind” mindset that’s pumped into the current generation, I don’t think it’s the work ethic that’s lacking.  There are some extraordinary things being done by youth that aren’t seen in an athletic context.  But it is passion that inspires those pursuits. Getting barked at by a coach doesn’t excite the passion that it did in a previous generation.  A kid can just as easily apply himself to something else.  
 

A good coach, though one that may be gruff, doesn’t have the entire student body population clamoring to play anymore.  It’s not nearly as simple as kids not having a backbone or work ethic. 

While this is probably true in some cases I also know that there are some kids who simply don't want to "commit" to the program the way a winning program requires.  Their are parents that let their kids quit things when they get tough, don't teach them that when you start something -you finish it. Sitting at at home in front of the video game is much easier than being held accountable for workouts and conditioning. See it every day in the schools systems. 

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So is there any truth to the rumors of the whole CENTRAL football team being in quarantine?if so how does that effect the first game for them?A players mother works here at the town and she is off because of this, so i have to believe the rumors, anyone inside the program have better knowledge of the programs status

 

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It is everything the older generations have been complaining/warning us about the last 10 years. Look at the technology and how far it has advanced the last 10-20 years. The older generations said the younger generation would have no social skills hiding behind a screen all day. Well, turned out they were right. People thought instant gratification, in forms of likes, would haunt them. Well, they were right. 

Now look at sports. Kids have to be social, which they aren't very good at. Is it instant gratification? No, not really. You have to work hard at it.

Because of this sports, in general, aren't popular, or at least as popular as much when we were younger. Back when I was a kid I spent majority of my day outside playing sports so obviously I stuck with sports for a lot of my life. Look at kids now. They spend majority of their time on their phones watching YouTube and TikTok videos or play video games. If I had to guess its because of the reasons above. First, being the fact that you don't have to be social. Secondly, there is instant gratification, which they don't need to work for. 

Being in the NBA and NFL used to be the dream job for kids. Now the dream job is to become a YouTube personality, TikTok star, or profession video gamer. All of these which promote the new "social" skills of working behind a screen/camera lens/microphone as well as receiving instant gratification. A lot of young kids don't have the social skills of generations past, so why should they go do something where they have to be social?

Parents used to have the argument, there's no future in video games. That argument is gone now. Have you seen how much these video gamers, TikTok stars, and YouTube personalities make? The most popular video game streamers are making well over $100,000 a MONTH. They paid a 16 year old $3 MILLION a couple years ago for winning a Fortnite tournament. Video games are the future. Video games will be a multi billion dollar industry within the next 10 years because EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE can play it. No matter if you're 6 years old or 56. All you need is an internet connection.

Anyways, just my 2 cents. I'm not saying this is the case for all kids but I do think we are heading in this direction unless something changes.

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12 hours ago, rsntu88 said:

Craig County is not doing football this Spring due to there not being enough players. Many of the players are academically ineligible. 

Which is probably a result of the fact they had very little incentive to keep their grades up with no sports in the fall.

Lots of kids they only reason they try to keep their grades up is to play sports.  Remove that "reward" and some will barely do anything to help themselves. 

 

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1 hour ago, falconfan1 said:

The things that were instilled in us by our parents, coaches, teachers, etc. are going away in the blink of an eye.  It is been coming and many didn't notice or they didn't want to admit it.  

You are exactly right!!!  I wouldn't say that it wasn't noticed, just ignored or even worse "justified away".

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3 hours ago, falconfan1 said:

The things that were instilled in us by our parents, coaches, teachers, etc. are going away in the blink of an eye.  It is been coming and many didn't notice or they didn't want to admit it.  

What “things” were instilled, may I ask?

 

In 1980, the juvenile felony arrest rate was somewhere in the neighborhood of 31.9 per 1000 juveniles nationwide.  If you had a 32-person classroom, odds are 1 of your classmates was going to be locked up with a felony.  Today, that figure is 4.5 per 1000 juveniles nationwide.  That’s an sevenfold drop.  It appears as if the generations before weren’t having very good qualities instilled in them.

 

In 1980, the high school graduation rate nationwide was 72%.  Today, the high school graduation rate nationwide is 84%.  It appears as if about 1 in 7 households before weren’t preaching the importance of education to their children.

 

In 1991, the first year data was available, 27.5% of minors smoked cigarettes.  In 2020, 9.2% of minors smoked (which includes the Juul pods that have been marketed toward them).  It appears as if 1 in every 7 households before were A-OK with their kids smoking cigarettes as compared to now.


Naturally, I’m being facetious, but the point remains.  I love Boomers and Xers, because so many of them remember things the way they never were.

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