Lemmy

So are there any female coaches?  Given that very few women(biological) ever played the sport and very few coaches end up coaching a sport they never played, there can't be many.  However, I was curious if there were any.  Sounds like a good way to get a nice newspaper article written about your team.  

On 11/17/2020 at 10:52 AM, temptation said:

I have never come out and stated that I support retaining him, but I am having trouble coming up with a realistic candidate who has an overall body of work/resume that compares to Jim's.

One thing is for sure, the UM athletic department WILL NOT cut corners that other programs are willing to cut.  That is not an excuse but eliminates anyone with baggage (Hugh Freeze comes to mind).

There is a pretty significant backstory as to why Harbaugh is not the same guy that he used to be and its actually pretty sad/depressing.

I think if he somehow gets to 3-5/4-4 this season, he gets a Covid pass but the D coordinator falls on the knife.

Did ND fire Brian Kelly after their 4-8 season?  How has that turned out?  There are many parallels to both the ND/UM program on and off the field.

Don Brown has got to go for sure.  Michigan is one of the most talented defenses in the conference and ranks near the bottom.  As much as I love what IU is doing this year, there really isn't any excuse for IU and NW to have a significantly better defense than Michigan.  Maybe Don Brown is a defensive genius, but there is no reason for them to give up so many big plays.  From afar it looks like his guys aren't dialed in to what he wants to do and therefore they make a bunch of mistakes. 

31 minutes ago, Gipper said:

Safety should always be paramount.  Case closed.

I'm not against safety, I just don't believe players that choose to play are at any greater risk playing football than they would be doing any of the other activities twenty-something's like to do.  I also believe most twenty-somethings know they are low risk which is why we see cases increasing among this demographic. 

14 hours ago, Bobref said:

Fast forward to the year 2023. A guy who was once slated to be a Top 10 NFL pick at left tackle from Alabama is sitting in a courtroom, the plaintiff in a multi million dollar lawsuit against the University and the SEC. Although every other conference decided to sit it out until Spring, the SEC went ahead and had a Fall season. The kid contracted COVID-19 and, unfortunately, was one of the ones who experienced serious and permanent cardiac damage. His NFL career derailed, he’s now looking for a different kind of payday.

He’s sitting there listening to the President of the University on the witness stand trying to convince a jury that he took the safety of the student athletes seriously, even though every other football conference canceled or postponed. How do you think he’ll do?

These are the kinds of scenarios that cause University presidents to wake up in a cold sweat.

The threat of a lawsuit is the only logical explanation for this.  I can't believe there are many sane people that think kids have a greater opportunity to contract covid or any other virus on the football field than they would out socializing.  Some of the players will be concerned about the virus, but most see the same data as the rest of us and know that the 20-29 yr old age bracket is at a minimal risk(not zero) of getting complications from this virus. 

On ‎8‎/‎5‎/‎2020 at 11:06 AM, DannEllenwood said:

TikTok?

Serious question.....

Why can’t the parents take care of this?  Why would parent not cooperate with guidelines set by the schools?  

For the varsity football team a large portion(majority) of the kids are driving themselves to practice hours after having any contact with their parents.  Should parents be leaving work to go check the temperature of their 16 yr olds?  It takes seconds per kid with a infrared thermometer so if teams really think it is worthwhile, doing it as kids arrive is the best method.

Glad to see the IHSAA is taking a realistic approach.  I would say it is inevitable that every team would have someone test positive if we actually tested everyone.  In over a decade of coaching I can't recall a season in which we did not have 1/2 dozen or so kids out sometime during at least one week due to influenza.  The only reason it wouldn't be this way for Covid would be if they remain asymptomatic and it never is detected. 

18 hours ago, Coach Nowlin said:

Same in 10-U up this way 

The girls lining up on the base lines post game to wave at each other and say good game does bring a smile to my face 

Same with 12u baseball about everywhere we have played with the addition of no sunflower seeds and I'm very pleased the kids are able to get out and do something.  I don't believe anyone really thinks banning sunflower seeds is actually going to help anything, as far as covid-19 pertains, but it's annoying sweeping them off the dugout floors so banning them is the silver lining of the pandemic.

11 minutes ago, Robert said:

I won't say stupid or cruel, but I've worked with some doozy admins and have seen some board members that I shake my head at.  

There is no doubt about that, however my point would be if we can open up factories that employ 1000's of people, many of which aren't pictures of health, what is the justification to continue to keep schools closed?  Pre-existing conditions(immune deficiency, type-1 diabletes, etc...) would need to be excluded.  However if; factory workers, engineers, all trades, retail workers, waiter's and waitresses are all returning to work why can't teachers?   

I think anyone, that isn't just stupid or cruel, would want to force anyone with a preexisting condition's to go back to work anywhere right now including into school systems.  However since we now have a lot of data, from the CDC and other sources ,which show that this particular virus poses less risk to all age groups up to 24 years of age, I really question the reason to ever have closed the schools. 

The chart is from the CDC and clearly shows that Covid deaths for kids are significantly less than that for Influenza for the same timeframe.  This begins to change for people above 25 and get's significantly worse beginning around 45 years old and older.  Meanwhile people in the 25 to 70 year old group are all starting to go back to work(rightly so), but we are still  contemplating delaying schooling for the least vulnerable people in our population.  Doesn't make any sense to me.

I have to admit, this doesn't make sense to me.  Kids can pay and go to a gym on 5/24 and that is OK, but cannot step foot in the free weight room at their high school for another five weeks after that.  If you have a little league field at your school kids can't step foot on the field until 7/1, but if the field is located in a city park it should be safe by 6/14.  It seems like the complete lockdown of school campuses isn't consistent with other parts of the reopening plan.  

Entertaining for sure and I really liked what they did with kick-offs and liked the punt rule of not allowing the ball to go out bounds inside the 20.  Not sure that I am crazy about the 24 second play clock, pretty much forces teams to  go no huddle or not audible

if they call it in the huddle.  Overall an entertaining product and I suspect the play will get better as the players play more ball.  Some of them really haven't played in games in years.

Congratulations and good luck Gabe!! 

2 hours ago, Muda69 said:

One year of high school football can cause damage to the brain, according to new study: https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2019/01/study-one-year-of-high-school-football-can-cause-brain-damage-even-without-diagnosed-concussions

Study: Concussion rates in high school football games rising: https://www.aappublications.org/news/2019/10/15/concussion101519

New Findings on Concussion in Football’s Youngest Players: https://pulse.seattlechildrens.org/new-findings-on-concussion-in-footballs-youngest-players/

Youth football changes nerve fibers in brain: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181129084711.htm

Playing football young may mean earlier cognitive, emotional problems: https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/30/health/youth-football-cte-study/index.html

MED Researchers: Youth Football Linked to Earlier Brain Problems: http://www.bu.edu/articles/2018/youth-football-linked-to-earlier-brain-problems/

 

Who to believe, who to believe.....................

 

I don't believe the study showing no long term cognitive impairment and the studies shown above are necessarily in contrast.  Most of these have some findings with a lot of scary conjecture thrown in by the reporter but most the articles will also contain a couple paragraph's like is shown below that give a more complete picture.  Yes there may be some sort of microstructural changes when kids play football(or probably soccer, baseball, wrestling, etc..) but it heals rather quickly and there is no long term affect.  If you were a pro offensive lineman in the 70's, where you may hit five days a week,and probably had several concussions in which you simply played through year after year, long term permanent damage is likely to occur.

From Duke article

Most of the high school students the researchers studied experienced only subconcussive hits. However, one student did experience a concussion near the end of the season. Petrella noted that the brain imaging results of this student allow for some optimism regarding structural changes caused by high school football. 

“In the fornix, when the player was injured, there was evidence of loss of integrity,” he said. “When we re-scanned the player after a couple of months of rest, these changes had completely disappeared.”

3 hours ago, Irishman said:

I think the 10th game for half the teams playing will do exactly what you described as the reason to eliminate the bye; it can kill any momentum gained going into the playoffs. I think you might get more traction with something either you or someone else posted in the other topic; a bye week in the regular season. A number of schools now have a full week of Fall break now, so it might be good to have the bye weeks scheduled the same week. 

For selfish reasons I would love to see a bye week imposed on the exact week that most schools are on fall break.  Make it a week of no contact between coaches and players and that would even be better.  Finally, I could go on one of the fabulous fall vacations that I keep hearing about.  Everyone tells me that somehow the fall break vacations are superior to spring break vacations.  I'm guessing this is just a ploy to p*ss me off, but I would like to find out.

8 hours ago, JustRules said:

The worst area for these abuse issues are youth leagues. The coaches are often less trained and have nothing to lose. A high school coach has to answer to an athletic director and crossing the line too many times could cost him his job. Parents and fans at youth games are also much closer and can more easily engage the officials. In HS we are largely separated from the fans. We usually don't hear individual comments during games and rarely does anyone confront us on our way off the field. Many locations we don't cross through fans to get to our locker room. I think we are losing more officials who are working the youth games than those working primarily high school games due to abuse reasons. It seems most who leave the high school field are advancing in college (we have a disproportionate number of college officials working D2 through NFL compared to nearby states), work/family demands, relocation, or age/health reasons.

Totally agree that youth sports are by far the worst for coaches being abusive to referee's and in general making a**es of themselves.  We just had this conversation within our high school staff, collectively with approximately 50 years of coaching experience we have witnessed a coach being tossed from a game(our's or opposing coach) a couple times total.  This season started coaching my son's sixth grade team and it's happened to opposing coaches twice in a month. 

Every single play complaining to the referee or side judge and never let up  despite numerous warnings until they finally get tossed.  Ten times worse than anything I see on Friday's and frankly us coaches wouldn't make it thru the 1st qtr on a Friday if we were acting like this to the side judge or white hat.  However, because coaches aren't paid or employed by the school for these youth positions there really isn't any repercussions.  Some people seem to just really enjoy making an *ss of themselves.

1 POINT GAMES

Northwestern @ Tipton

West Lafayette @ Benton Central

3 Point Games

North Vermillion @ Attica

Central Catholic @ Rensselaer

Twin Lakes @ Hamilton Heights

Western @ Cass

4 POINT GAMES

Caston @ North White

Knox @ LaVille

Delphi @ Clinton Prairie

Gibson Southern @ Heritage Hills

1 POINT GAMES

Western @ Benton Central

West Lafayette @ Central Catholic

2 POINT GAMES

Twin Lakes @ Rensselaer

Kokomo @ McCutcheon

North Judson @ Knox

Delphi @ Sheridan

Northwestern @ Hamilton Heights

Tipton @ Cass

3 POINT GAMES

North Newton @ Kankakee Valley

Tri-County @ North White

Elwood @ OH

Frankton @ Blackford

MG @ Alex

Ole Miss @ Eastbrook  *Game of the Week*

1 Point Games

Benton Central @ Cass

Central Catholic @ Northwestern

Twin Lakes @ Tipton

Hamilton Heights @ West Lafayette

3 Point Games

Rensselaer 2 Western

North Judson @ North Newton

Frankton

Oak Hill

Mississinewa

Eastbrook

2 Point Games

Central Catholic @ Guerin Catholic

Cass @ Maconoquah

McCutcheon @ West Lafayette

North Montgomery @ Hamilton Heights

Northwestern @ Twin Lakes

Tipton @ Elwood

Western Boone @ Western

3 Point Games

Benton Central @ Seeger

North White @ Frontier

Lafayette Jeff @ Lawrence Central

Delphi @ Carroll

4 Point Game

Rensselaer @ North Newton

Alex @ Wabash

Eastbrook @ Delta *Game of the week worth 2 points

Eastern @ MG

Frankton @ Lapel 

New Haven @ Ole Miss

Southern Wells @ Blackford

Southwood @ OH *Game of the week worth 2 points

Tipton @ Elwood

Changing scrimmage to a game would by far be the best way to add a game.  The current schedule still has the high school teams starting before the NCAA and NFL regular seasons, I would not be a fan of moving it up more. Summer break has been shortened too much already in my opinion, taking another two weeks off and having kids practice daily in July heat isn't something that I would be interested.  Moving back start time for early season games is a good idea, but schools have the leeway to do that now if they want. 

17 hours ago, FarmerFran said:

Not to belittle the topic, but is JV forfeiture really a punishment for playing to many quarters? At the end of the day not to many people are going to care if they have to forfeit a JV or freshman game if they feel they can give their kids some extra playing opportunities.

How are teams even kept accountable for this?

Don't forget the last bit of the punishment above "send a written report to the Commissioner"  I have to believe punishment becomes a lot more punitive if it happens more than once.