I am retiree/transplant to Delaware with almost 30 years HS football experience (as a coach not a player*lol*). Fall weekends usually consist of me attending 2, 3 or 4 games a week. And I have seen some great football games in the few years I have been here. But there are numerous things about Football here that confuse the heck out of me. I tend not to post on here because so many of the discussions just seem to run off the rails.
Anyway it seems that there has been some recent power shifts -Smyrna comes to mind but for the most part the current dominant teams remain the same. Reading back through some of the posts it does seem that in the past some the bottom teams at one time were also contenders. But for the life of me some of these current bottom teams are destined to stay that way. I don't want to call out specific schools but you know which ones I am referring to.
I see a school which can barely field enough players for a varsity team, and no JV, or freshman team. How can a coach develop any talent /depth in players or even coaching staff? This same school does not field varsity teams in other sports. Yet in the same school district, other HS seem to have no problem fielding teams on 1 or 2 levels.
I am shocked that the DIAA and the local school boards allow this to continue. I am 110% in agreement that Education takes precedence over athletics. I also strongly believe that athletics plays an important role in education. A successful athletic program can have a great positive influence on the overall school attitude. Where I came from, it was not unusual for school board to field complaints from parents about 'bad teams' and sometimes call for the coache(s) to be fired. Since I have been here, it seems that fooball coaches are rarely if at all fired because of team performance.
The game of tackle football is under attack and if youth football continues to lose participation, it has to greatly reduce the talent available at the high school level in the future.
In your opinion do you see anyway for these perennial bottom teams to turn things around in the future or is their destiny already sealed?
Thanks
Anyway it seems that there has been some recent power shifts -Smyrna comes to mind but for the most part the current dominant teams remain the same. Reading back through some of the posts it does seem that in the past some the bottom teams at one time were also contenders. But for the life of me some of these current bottom teams are destined to stay that way. I don't want to call out specific schools but you know which ones I am referring to.
I see a school which can barely field enough players for a varsity team, and no JV, or freshman team. How can a coach develop any talent /depth in players or even coaching staff? This same school does not field varsity teams in other sports. Yet in the same school district, other HS seem to have no problem fielding teams on 1 or 2 levels.
I am shocked that the DIAA and the local school boards allow this to continue. I am 110% in agreement that Education takes precedence over athletics. I also strongly believe that athletics plays an important role in education. A successful athletic program can have a great positive influence on the overall school attitude. Where I came from, it was not unusual for school board to field complaints from parents about 'bad teams' and sometimes call for the coache(s) to be fired. Since I have been here, it seems that fooball coaches are rarely if at all fired because of team performance.
The game of tackle football is under attack and if youth football continues to lose participation, it has to greatly reduce the talent available at the high school level in the future.
In your opinion do you see anyway for these perennial bottom teams to turn things around in the future or is their destiny already sealed?
Thanks
