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Offline Jackhammer

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A domino falls
« on: June 11, 2015, 08:21:05 PM »
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Offline HLinNC

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Re: A domino falls
« Reply #1 on: June 11, 2015, 08:37:17 PM »
Before we hit the panic button, I'd like more data.  Size and age of the school?  Overall record the past decade or two? 

This is going to happen from time to time.  It has before, it will again.
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Offline AlUpstateNY

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Re: A domino falls
« Reply #2 on: June 11, 2015, 10:07:57 PM »
In recent years we've seen several situations among smaller schools where multiple schools combine to offer a single football team that competes at the Varsity level.  It is what it is.
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Jim D

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Re: A domino falls
« Reply #3 on: June 12, 2015, 07:50:04 AM »
Although their record has been OK in recent years (they were one of the top teams in their class a few years ago), Maplewood is a very small school district - always has been.  They have no middle school; no feeder system, and I'm not really suprised by this. 

Speaking of this, I had a game last year with one of the top suburban teams where the coach took over a nothing program and really built it into a major power.  He bet me a soda of my choice during the game on a disagreement we had on a ruling.  After the game I tried to find his email address on-line to send him the rule refernece (and my choice of drink).  I was amazed at his web presence - he had football program links for alumni, for parents, for current players, for prospective players and on and on.  This guy really has his act together.  No wonder the program has grown like it has.




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Offline prab

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Re: A domino falls
« Reply #4 on: June 12, 2015, 03:43:11 PM »
Co-op athletic teams are quite common in Wisconsin.  Hockey even more so than FB.
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Offline NorCalMike

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Re: A domino falls
« Reply #5 on: June 12, 2015, 11:27:21 PM »
The article states that enrollment is 284 with 146 being boys. Nothing in the story says it as anything to do with the dangers of football. Looks like it is just hard to get 20% of the boys to play football.
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Offline Jackhammer

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Re: A domino falls
« Reply #6 on: June 13, 2015, 08:56:41 PM »
Wasn't trying to hit panic button.  Just found it interesting that a school with 146 boys can't field a football program. 

Football is a sport under attack and it's going to be the attrition in high schools where it shows
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"The only whistle that kills a play is an inadvertent one"

"The only thing black and white in officiating is the uniform"

Jim D

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Re: A domino falls
« Reply #7 on: June 15, 2015, 08:32:21 AM »
A very interesting follow-up story in the weekend paper. Here is the link

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/high-school/football/maplewood-s-football-program-comes-full-circle/article_5d03f0f4-1090-11e5-af54-b7ba537abaf5.html


Here is a part of it that helps explain the problem:

"Never did Buckley imagine it would be the way it was. The weight room buried in the basement. One hose with running water on the other side of the complex. No booster club. No interest. Little support.

“It was a shock my first year there,” said Buckley, who recently retired as an assistant coach at Clayton.

But what kept Buckley coming back was the kids. They were hungry, literally and figuratively. Maplewood has its economically challenged corners. There was no shortage of players whose home lives weren't ideal. The football program found ways to get its poorest kids something to eat. Harris started a program booster club, in part, to help feed the team.

In return the kids ran through walls for Harris and the other coaches — Gene Ball, Mike Lindsey, Sterling Finney, Buckley and Gregory. The program gave them something they were missing.

“We tried to make that place a home away from home,” Buckley said.

They also sent kids away from home. Between football and track and field, which Gregory eventually took over as head coach, Buckely estimated between 2004-11 more than 40 student-athletes received an opportunity at higher education, from junior college to Division I.

“It was a bottom to the top deal,” Buckley said. “It was the most gratifying experience I've had as a coach.”

It's also the most heartbreaking. Buckley was there, lugging weights, hauling equipment and teaching kids as Maplewood rebuilt its program. He watched Harris juggle his job as a teacher, administrator and football coach. He also saw the toll it took on him physically.

Buckley, Harris, Gregory, Hebrank and the rest know how hard it is to turn around a program with nothing and make it something. It takes a commitment from last the kid on the roster to the top administrator in the district for something like this to work."




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