Coaching and Youth Sports

It’s a little different to introduce it when they’ve grown up and seen the main sports. In 6th grade I asked my son to give it a month of practices. He truly had no idea anything about it. We got 2 sticks at Play it again sports then next thing he wants to throw pretty often and for the parent, much easier on the arm and shoulder than baseball or football. Think it took him getting by a couple people for a shot and a couple of hits for him to get into it.
All sports are good in their own ways. He likes to run and try to turn defenders One series may see a player cause a turnover on one end or pick a pass, run 40 yards full speed while cradling the ball, juke a couple defenders, pass to wing, cut, catch a pass and shoot while taking a hit all in about 10 seconds. Really is back and forth. Tv doesn’t really show it

 

I am a proponent that youth staying active and participating is a good thing, no matter the team sport.

 

Son got an invite to an Academic Aces lacrosse showcase at Haverford College newr Philly in July. Bunch of D2, D3, Ivy League and others schools represented there. Should be pretty cool for him. 2 days training with college coaches, 4 games, film and good for networking. He’s still probably going to UT but needs to see what else is out there.

 

It's January 25th, 5 and a half months before summer practice begins, and my football team has a full 35 man roster.

 

nil?

 

Coach gets his deal reworked first.

 

I always told my kids and kids I coached, play defense and you will buy yourself PT. Brentwood usually doesn’t play sophs on varsity, outside of elite kids who may play as freshmen, and my son J is not elite by any means. 55 players and a team expected to play for state title so it’s a pretty talented squad, offensively at least. If we played tomorrow, jake would be 2nd team D middie. He doesn’t say much but pretty proud as it was expected he would not make the V roster at all and play JV behind several juniors who will play JV. Started driving 2 weeks ago and made V this week. Good little run.

 

They found the dad of one of my favorite players to date dead. Kid is only 10. Heartbreaking.

 

damn that’s rough.

heart attack or stroke?

 

Don't know. I don't know the dad well at all, but I would guess anything is on the table from what I've gathered.

 

That really sucks

 

Bout that time. And #31 which he picked after watching Jamal Lewis highlights.

 

Is this a common thing at bigger schools? Are these juniors expected to be starters their next year? It seems counterintuitive to me, particularly if they aren't.

 

there’s a big difference for many 17/18 yr olds vs just turn 16, and numbers at his position. When you beat that first man, there is often a 6’2 220 lb dpole ready to clean up and at 130lbs it can be tough. Usually 7-9 middies will play and there are now 18 jr/sr middies. Most HS teams won’t have those numbers

 

I'm guessing this is a yes. What I'm seeing with this is they do not thin the herd much with cuts. Is that even allowed these days?

 

yea but they will keep kids who give effort and have a good attitude, and tell them and parents they may not play. Most are aware of their status and just want to be a part. This Jr class is just a fluke in its size and skill level. There are usually about 70 kids who come out. First week the staff thins it. Kids think it’s going to be easy then just start walking off, at times puking from running, in the middle of tryouts or if they can’t throw, catch and run with it they will tell them.
PT earned in practice but if you are younger and it’s pretty even, he will play the older kids. We do have a freshman on V this year but he’s also an Under Armor All American participant and will play for a top 20 D1 school. He’s nasty and has skills my son doesn’t have offensively. 15 and lefty or righty shot over 80 mph and from 3 different angles so really at minimum 6 ways he can get off a shot.

 

I Love the Number selection

 

poor kid didn’t know who he was until last year. Hand me down Jamal Lewis jersey and he asked “who’s this?” I felt like the worst dad ever. Showed him highlights and he said “holy shit”

 

It's just a different world from what I and my son experienced going to a much smaller school with a poor reputation in football (especially when I played). I think we had a little north of 30 players total when I joined spring of my freshman year. That got culled down to a little south of 30 something including freshmen by opening of the season fall of my sophomore year. By my senior year, we had 108 total at the beginning of fall camp and started the season with around 60 or 70 with the attrition mostly due to two a days. This included varsity and JV. My son's teams were smaller, but they had 50 or so players, JV and varsity included. We went to the same school.

As far as JV, juniors and seniors only rarely played JV. Usually these were players who were athletic but didn't have a football background coming to the team late as a junior or senior or more rarely when a junior was the next up for the next season but wasn't getting many reps in varsity games. I actually started the same position on JV and varsity my sophomore year for a few weeks after an injury. That ended when I got the varsity spot full time, but I still played defense on JV most of the rest of the season much to my chagrin.

To put it all in perspective though, that 108 number represented over half of the male population of the school at the time.

 

I don’t think the coach wants to play jrs but the class is so big and soph class is small so we need some bodies.
Football team played jrs as well. They aren’t terrible players but there’s just so many kids and they need to get some PT for them. If juniors are a step above average, they won’t play JV