Gustine

Blue Bird

Six-man pro
I have been watching this season unfold and have a few thoughts that I would like to share. Before the first game was played, we had a school decide to cancel their entire schedule and play a JV schedule. OK fair enough and fair warning. But then they decide to keep some of the teams on their schedule that they felt they could "compete" with, forfeit the game ahead of time but play the game. I have a problem with that. Either you play all of your schedule or you don't play any of it.
Rochelle had their homecoming cancelled at the last minute. Zephyr had their homecoming game cancelled but found a last minute replacement. Lometa had games cancelled in week 1 and week 5. If a school has 6 healthy, eligible players show up and play the game! They have all signed up to play football, let them play.
If a school is unreliable about playing the teams on their schedule, it should factor in on whether or not you schedule games with that school in the future.
Finally, Gustine has had 6 to 8 kids playing all year long. They are playing a schedule that makes "competing" in most of the games impossible. Yet, they show up every friday night and play the games on their schedule. I find their attitude honorable and commendable.
 
Could it be because of ineligible players? Is it because players will quit if they lose too many "real" games? Are we sugar coating things to keep a team together? The only reason I can see to forfeit and play the game anyway is if you don't have six eligible players. You might have 8 on the team but if two are ineligible and one of the good six goes down they you cant go.

Yes we seem to be seeing more flaky scheduling issues this year. I feel for the coaches that have to scramble last second to fill a schedule spot. Not quite as bad but still crappy is when you have teams that bail on you after one year (of the two year cycle). You drive 200 miles to play someone the first year and then that team bails when its their time to come to you. Maybe it is time to start having game contracts...
 
OK, say as a coach you have decided to play an ineligible player. You can still keep your schedule and just forfeit the games. That has happened several times in the past. Why scrap part of your schedule and make several teams scramble to have a full schedule? Doesn't make sense to me.
 
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