Irishman

One question every recruiter asks when they visit a school is.....is there a kid in any other program we should know about? For the life of me, I cannot remember the kid’s name, but he played at Gary West. I was an assistant at Cathedral at the time. We had no film on them because they do not film their games. We spent the week as coaches trying to find anything.....TV highlights,, looking at teams they played, and who MIGHT have film. Finding film on this kid would have been a challenge. Anyway, as IU recruiters were traveling, the kid was mentioned. If I remember right, they had a limited number of opponents, and played the other Gary schools twice. The bottom line of this all is that the kid ended up with a full ride to IU, and even saw playing time. Trust that coaching is a HUGE network. I cannot imagine a coach purposely avoid mentioning a kid because he plays for a rival, or even a coach he does not like. If a kid is talented, he will be found.....class does not matter.

You know who you are....I’ll wait. 🤣🤣🤣

I have to wonder how much actual development takes place at the collegiate elite level in college. Certainly players refine their skill level. Rom years in coaching, I have only seen a handful of kids that are D1 level players. In seeing how things unfold, the top programs have measurements in mind, and if a kid does not fit, they move on. The thinking is, we can always find that kid next season. Case in point......a receiver was told by a coach in a top program that he needed to be under a 4.5 on his 40 time. He attended several invite only camps throughout the B1G. One school told him at the camp that if he got 4.5 or lower, they would offer on the spot. He ran a 4.55, and came home disappointed with no offer. Coaches at that level want kids to already be at a certain performance level, and will say we don’t have time to develop a kid to get that extra .05 off his time; in fact, we will likely have a kid next season already at that level. My other issue is the whole rating system. I have seen kids rated way too high, and kids who should be rated not rated at all. I know some who have parents that spend a LOT of money for the service, so they get rated higher. I would also add that in the Super Bowl between New England and Seattle, that there was not a player on either roster who was a 5 star or top recruit coming out of high school. I think it is purely a game of chance. I would add to that there are a couple of coaches now at Ohio State that Harbaugh had with him at Michigan. Is Harbaugh the problem? I am not in any position to tell. The record in his time there does not pass the eye test if you are a UM fan. There are plenty of teams around the country who would be happy with the record he has, and some would be ecstatic. He has had success at other stops, especially at Stanford, a place that is far more difficult to recruit players to than Michigan is. He even had success on the pro level. So what happened? No idea, but I do think it may be time for UM to start thinking of who is next.

I am not involved with that school enough to make a fair assessment of his performance. I do hear a lot of negative things and a lot of good things. I will leave the judgments up to those involved. That said, the use of the term when referring to the student was not a good choice of words. There are PLENTY of other ways to compliment the student’s achievements.

I think it is far more important to start with how he came to be President as much, if not more so than what he has done while he has been President.

I have avoided Dean’s for YEARS now. I am not sure what they do or don’t do to their milk, but there has always been an odor to it that is not right.....smells like cat piss, honestly. I had thought maybe just that gallon, but the few times I had bought it afterward produced the exact same result. I have bought organic for several years now, or have found some at a farmers market.

I understand that completely, and am fine with that. My only issue is when people try to minimize what the advantages of one building over another are, it is simply an unrealistic view, and I provide specific examples of exactly why it is unrealistic.

I did not bring up a hypothetical......these are actual students I have in class. The original post I made the comment in was in regard to the only real advantage a pp school has is tradition and that their kids work harder. The whole purpose of making my point was because those kids count in our enrollment. As far as it not making that big of a difference, for a school like ours, we are a borderline 3A/4A program with participation numbers more in line with a 3A program, so the differences, not just here, but I am sure there are other schools, can be significant. Again, this is in reference to about 10% of our population. When we have just under 1,000 students, it is a significant amount.

I agree as far as asking for money for a new wing...as far as the infrastructure, transportation, etc. though, there is no accountability in place for where the voucher dollars are used. So a school COULD use the money for those things.....or anything they choose to actually. And sadly, talking with a number of friends that still teach in those schools, a lot of the money is not reaching the classroom. Salaries are literally too close to the same as they were my last year.......back in the 06-07 school year.

Not completely accurate in this day and age. Most are funded anywhere from partially to significantly, by tax dollars now. While I agree they do not cap enrollment/admission based on athletics to control the class they are in; the fact is that capping enrollment is a thing. You are right they cannot build new buildings. But if a public school even tried to tell the State “we have no more room”, the State will come back and say “figure it out”. Some schools have trailers that serve as classrooms sitting in their parking lots that help with the increased enrollment.

Wow.......yeah, you just don’t get it. The point is that classifications are based on enrollment. Those kids count in our enrollment, soooooooo they factor into what class our programs are in. It really was not that complicated to figure out though. Yeah, most schools do deal with that population, whereas many pp schools do not have that population, or it is minimal. So the impact of using just enrollment to classify is significant to a LOT schools.

PLEASE go back and read my post. orrrrrrr, I have a better idea. Maybe you can tell me exactly how I can motivate a kid in a wheel chair that cannot communicate in any way shape or form, and has to have a diaper changed three or four times a day. Or how do I motivate the multiple other really low functioning students in my class?. Asking honestly, because your reply really does show that you did not read what I posted, and yeah, your response actually DOES show you brushed them aside. And even thinking my comment about brushing them aside proves you did not read my comment. I was not even referring to championships, or even football with that statement.

That is not a good example at all, and completely ignores the population issues that many public schools face, in particular the ones I mentioned above. Your example implies that ALL things are equal among the schools represented on the field. And actually, the REAL wrong turn we have taken as a society is continuing to just brush that population aside, like they don’t even exist, including the current path of supposed “reforms” that are in place in Indiana now.

The chips have fallen perfectly for Oklahoma....very similar to how they have for ND in previous years. While most of the conference championships are meaningless, my guess is that Oklahoma is in a must win spot. They still have that loss to KState on their record; not just a loss, but they gave up a LOT of points.

I REALLY thought he would pull the trigger and go for 2. Why not? Nothing to lose, and since he has focused soooooo much on the rivalry with his program, put them away, and spoil the end of their season....and against that porous defense.

Tough game tonight as far as playoff positioning goes. In my mind, it’s a toss up.....buuuuuuut, go Seahawks 🙂

I don’t disagree with anything you have said here, but my post isn’t about the kids that won’t participate because there are plenty of those, as much as it is about the kids who physically and/or mentally cannot. I agree that the success factor does nothing for many schools, even if a team in the sectional or regional they are in moves up. But you have to admit, it is difficult to complain about the success factor when a number of teams made deep runs in the tournament, including getting to the State title game, and a couple of them even winning a State title. That would indicate more that this is actually working to have those teams on a level that matches the population in their building as far as the number of kids who are actually participating and have the resources invested in the program to compete.

That is unfortunate...and feel bad about the experiences you had growing up. But for a number of us, it is an enjoyable thing, and for some of us, a lot of sentimental value as well.

You have to think logistics when talking about any tweaks. Scheduling an additional game is a problem. 3 games on Friday and 3 on Saturday are the limited. Having a championship game at 10 am would not work. I do think some things could be done differently though. With a cap of 32 teams, seed the tournament, or at least seed through the semi state round. It will be interesting to see what happens next year as Carmel moves to the Southern half.

I agree that the open enrollment thing is a joke. But what we see is that those who do transfer are not transferring for athletics so much as they are thinking they can avoid a level of discipline if they stay. We have students who have enrolled the last week or so, who were told if you transfer, we will not expel you...... Soooooo, what you are saying is that the 1,000 or so kids at Dwenger is basically the same as the 1,000 or so at New Haven? Both are 4A schools......with the ONLY difference than the “traditional commitment and drive to win”??????? Seriously? Take one day to walk our halls, and I guarantee that impression will change in a heartbeat. As others have said, committed parents make a HUGE difference, no doubt about it. What has been basically ignored, outside of a post or two, is the special needs population. Our building alone has about 10% of its population in that category. Very few of them are on diploma track. With certificate track kids in our building the absolute highest possible rate for graduation is at 92%. And there are a number of those kids that have minimal skills. The special education staff in our building makes up 25% of our staff. The new pathways to graduation our ingenious politicians came up with has forced even more lower functioning students into gen ed classes. In one class alone, I have close to half the class that are low functioning. Communication skills are the level of a 2 or 3 year old. I have others in that group that do not communicate at all, are confined to wheelchairs, wear a bib to catch the drool coming out of their mouths, or have other severe disabilities. It fits the schedules of the paras and nurses that have to accompany these students to have them in one period, but they make up 10% of my population for this semester. Now who wants to continue the conversation about the REAL differences? And who still actually thinks you are somehow being “punished” for success? When you want to have a REAL conversation about who gets punished for what when schools are classified, let me know.

Seems appropriate for today....cheers fellas