Malaise/Apathy

[foxbat]

3 minutes ago, Bash Riprock said:

I'm not sure... interesting question.  Although our school does award letters for varsity participation.

I noticed DE laughed in response to your question.  I will tell anyone...the girls that are truly competitive cheer are indeed athletes.  Tumbling, stunts, dance, etc.  They work their butts off, and it takes real strength, stamina, athleticism and courage.  Vast majority of folks could not replicate what a competitive cheer team can do.  Unfortunately, way too many injuries as well.

I had my paradigms going in and they changed.  So did my wife's who was a division 1 athlete back during her college days.

https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2017/10/12/flipside-cheerleading-prevalence-catastrophic-injuries/

https://www.geisinger.org/health-and-wellness/wellness-articles/2018/02/19/15/58/jump-stunt-and-tumble-the-dangers-of-cheerleading

 

Can attest to this.  A couple of my daughters did competitive cheer for a while.  The injuries were scary.  Luckily, the most my girls ended up with were bruises and sprains/strains.  There's definitely a lot of work that goes into it as well.  The youngest eventually moved to dance team over at Jeff for a year.  The halftime routines are just a small part of it.  The competitions were the meat of things.  Long, grueling practices and lots of bumps and bruises ... almost like playing football without pads.

I'd be remiss if I didn't point out classical dance too.  My middle daughter is a classically-trained ballerina as well as picking up other styles over the past half decade.  Want to talk about stamina and strength!  The life of a ballerina is not for the faint of heart or for the out-of-shape.  The first aid kit that we had for her looked like a sideline first-aid kit for a football team with one exception ... lots more Nu-Skin in her kit.  My boys did ballet for a while and learned quickly that it was as tough as playing football for the stamina.  The best benefit though for them was it gave them quick feet.

[temptation]

11 minutes ago, Irishman said:

I am actually shocked to read this. In 29 years of coaching, my experience is that football coaches are the only ones to tell kids to do other sports as well. As far as the ones who do the opposite, I would say it's a dead heat with Basketball and Baseball. In one building I was in a coach that had resigned said the one thing he was proudest of is that he had kids playing basketball 12 months a year. While some baseball coaches help with football or are fans, the ones I have known want their kids to do as much baseball in the Summer as they can. I know kids who play or played about 80 games in a Summer; WAY too many. And while some encourage other sports, they discourage them from football. Some of those baseball coaches actually see the Summer as an extension of the Spring season. I don't. I say it is the start of the next season because the seniors that graduated are no longer on the Summer teams. 

In my experience, coaching at two 6A schools FWIW, coaches PUBLICLY encourage kids to compete and participate in other sports but in private conversations with the student athletes behind the scenes they are delivering a different message.

Once again, probably painting with a broad brush here.

[foxbat]

11 minutes ago, temptation said:

In my experience, coaching at two 6A schools FWIW, coaches PUBLICLY encourage kids to compete and participate in other sports but in private conversations with the student athletes behind the scenes they are delivering a different message.

Once again, probably painting with a broad brush here.

Sounds counterproductive given what the NFL has seen in their draftees.  In 2020, 85% of NFL draftees played two or more sports in high school and almost a third of them played three sports.

https://www.trackingfootball.com/blog/insights-on-2020-nfl-draft-selections-as-high-school-multiple-sport-athletes/

 

[MDAlum82]

On 9/15/2021 at 9:14 AM, Irishman said:

What last season taught many, including adults, is that there are other things to do on Friday nights. 

Other distractions. As Bash stated, some kids would prefer the competition the gaming world provides than actually doing the physical work. That also keeps some from just attending as fans. 

 

One alternate view to the declining participation numbers is the growth in the number of options available.  There is a club for virtually everything these days and only so many kids to go around.  More sports, more clubs, more kids need to have a job, etc.  Both COVID and convenience have contributed to kids gathering online without having to leave home. It is much safer, cheaper, easy to social distance but yet not be apart…  The traditional clubs were geared towards social interaction and thus focused on gathering people together physically, that is no longer a req’t in the digital age.

[Offintheyard]

11 hours ago, Irishman said:

I am actually shocked to read this. In 29 years of coaching, my experience is that football coaches are the only ones to tell kids to do other sports as well. As far as the ones who do the opposite, I would say it's a dead heat with Basketball and Baseball. In one building I was in a coach that had resigned said the one thing he was proudest of is that he had kids playing basketball 12 months a year. While some baseball coaches help with football or are fans, the ones I have known want their kids to do as much baseball in the Summer as they can. I know kids who play or played about 80 games in a Summer; WAY too many. And while some encourage other sports, they discourage them from football. Some of those baseball coaches actually see the Summer as an extension of the Spring season. I don't. I say it is the start of the next season because the seniors that graduated are no longer on the Summer teams. 

Everybody's experience is going to be different. It comes down to the individual coach and not the sport. I was the baseball coach and tried working with the FB coach in regards to summer workouts but he would have nothing to do with it. He wouldn't even work with the basketball coach. Basketball coach and I worked on a schedule and tried to include the FB coach but again he wouldn't consider it. It helped that the basketball coach was my assistant. FB coach even talked the star basketball player and our number 2 pitcher into specializing because he could be a D1 QB and possibly go pro. The kid was barely 6' and weighed 160 tops. Good athlete for a small school but nowhere near D1 caliber. Kid missed his Jr and Sr year of basketball and ended up playing NAIA but quit after 1 year. I don't lump all FB coaches in this category as I have worked with some great FB coaches and terrible basketball coaches when it comes to working together.  

FWIW, I wouldn't schedule anything after moratorium week. You can play too much baseball and I am a firm believer in kids playing multiple sports and having a summer to be kids. We would only play about 10 or 12 summer games. It wasn't a popular decision when I took over but it is amazing how quickly the parents and lifers get over it when you start winning hardware.

 

Edited September 17, 2021 by Offintheyard

[MarshallCounty]

35 minutes ago, Offintheyard said:

Everybody's experience is going to be different. It comes down to the individual coach and not the sport. I was the baseball coach and tried working with the FB coach in regards to summer workouts but he would have nothing to do with it. He wouldn't even work with the basketball coach. Basketball coach and I worked on a schedule and tried to include the FB coach but again he wouldn't consider it. It helped that the basketball coach was my assistant. FB coach even talked the star basketball player and our number 2 pitcher into specializing because he could be a D1 QB and possibly go pro. The kid was barely 6' and weighed 160 tops. Good athlete for a small school but nowhere near D1 caliber. Kid missed his Jr and Sr year of basketball and ended up playing NAIA but quit after 1 year. I don't lump all FB coaches in this category as I have worked with some great FB coaches and terrible basketball coaches when it comes to working together.  

FWIW, I wouldn't schedule anything after moratorium week. You can play too much baseball and I am a firm believer in kids playing multiple sports and having a summer to be kids. We would only play about 10 or 12 summer games. It wasn't a popular decision when I took over but it is amazing how quickly the parents and lifers get over it when you start winning hardware.

 

Well said. 

[Bobref]

8 hours ago, Offintheyard said:

I was the baseball coach and tried working with the FB coach in regards to summer workouts but he would have nothing to do with it. He wouldn't even work with the basketball coach. Basketball coach and I worked on a schedule and tried to include the FB coach but again he wouldn't consider it.

Where was your AD during all of this?

[Grover]

Regardless of the sport I think coaches should be respectful of the season.  I've seen basketball coaches that have morning workouts during football season.  What if a two-sport player sprains an ankle?  

[Offintheyard]

6 hours ago, Bobref said:

Where was your AD during all of this?

That's a story for a different time. The one we had at the time didn't want to be bothered with such petty things. He just wanted us to work it out and get along. Needless to say, neither the AD nor the FB coach lasted very long.

[southend]

5 hours ago, Grover said:

Regardless of the sport I think coaches should be respectful of the season.  I've seen basketball coaches that have morning workouts during football season.  What if a two-sport player sprains an ankle?  

Those are the coaches that do that to keep them  from playing football. Then if they miss basketball practice they get they get demerited.