Kids need to play

[Box Dad]

In our small division, with the smallest schools, kids need to sign up and play. If not for themselves for their friends who really do want to play. That's part of being in a small school. The "I don't like playing football, basketball, etc." I don't think is a valid excuse. There is more import lessons then doing what I want to do. Shoot, I don't want to go to work today!
So can we stick a fork in Bellville, are they done?
And what is up with Alvin, any updates?

 

[cozmo cramer]

Bellville Faith is always done. Every year they start a season but only to forfeit midway throughout.
This really hurts those teams that has Bellville on the schedule and once they cancel, trying to fill a game last minute.

Future reference, I'd take SERIOUS PRECAUTION before I'd schedule that Bellville Faith School because I'd have no FAITH in them finishing the season.
And they've done it every year, I'm sure....
Maybe someone can GOOGLE it to see how many years they've canceled

 

[smokeyjoe53]

In our small division, with the smallest schools, kids need to sign up and play. If not for themselves for their friends who really do want to play.............

So you propose to force, by peer pressure or parental input, an unathletic, uninterested kid to participate in a sport in which the potential for injury is great even for well trained, athletic kids? Hope you have good attorneys..................

 

[Box Dad]

Max preps has previous years records, Looking back, they played out 2012 and 2013 for the most part. They cancelled a bit in 2011. And who cares about Bellville in 2010, there was only one team of importance that year!
They have a good JV squad, they need a coach who can build a program. The coach can make it or break it. Look at there volleyball program over the years, fantastic. Same school, same availability of athletes.

Look at Freddy, they might have a down year here and there but for the most part they are always a force, Coach Shipman is the MAN.
Greenville was like that up north for a long time with coach Uland (not sure of the name exactly).
Coach Reed at Throck
The point is, if administration treats there athletic programs as a secondary part of the school, thats what they get. The interesting thing is athletics are such an out front, visible marker for a school. You don't see parents paying to watch there kids take a test, and a school might be able to boast about how educated the student are, but hold up a state championship trophy and the crowd goes wild. All I am saying is that small private schools have a way of not treating there athletic programs with the care they deserve.

 

[Box Dad]

So you propose to force, by peer pressure or parental input, an unathletic, uninterested kid to participate in a sport in which the potential for injury is great even for well trained, athletic kids? Hope you have good attorneys..................

Yes I do. If my boy says "I don't want to play basketball, I don't like basketball" I tell him he has no choice. If there is a kid who is not a great football player, I would teach him how to kick a PAT. That would be his one job. If the kid is a pencil pusher he takes stats or shoots video.And we are not talking the NFL,NBA here, this is the smallest of the small of schools. As well The coach has to be able to schedule accordingly also. We should not schedule Blum or Throck.
Parenting is, or should be a diplomatic procedure to have your kids make choices that help them grow in the right direction. And when diplomacy doesn't work, your still the parent.

 

[smokeyjoe53]

Since we are discussing this hypothetically, suppose neither you or your kids have no interest in athletics or for economic reasons the child has to work after school. Would you still encourage kids to play or participate?
Sorry to disagree with you but this sounds a little like putting the greater good of the masses ahead of the individuals wishes.

 

[51eleven]

Sorry Dad, beat me if you want but I will never play Soccer.

 

[Godsmightywarrior]

I always tried to encourage my son to TRY everything. He wasn't interested in football, or sports in general, for that matter. He was the scholar. One of the great things about Wichita Christian was the students. My son started at WCS during his sophomore year because the Christian school he had attended since kindergarten had closed due to enrollment decline and increased cost. One of the WCS football players contacted my son and asked him if he wanted to go to off season workouts and meet some of the other student athletes. My son went that day. He went every day. He joined the football team and the basketball team that year. He also joined tennis and golf. That one outreach from a student gave him wonderful life experiences that he might not have experienced otherwise. I wouldn't tell my son that he has to do something, but he has learned that sometimes you need to take one for the team. I can only imagine the thoughts and feelings of the players on the Bellville Faith team. Putting in all those workouts and practices and only getting to play one game. At some point they may lose interest in trying. I hope they have someone to encourage them and that they can field a team for many full seasons.

 

[pup]

Good topic of discussion Box and Warrior. I wholeheartedly agree. I think the idea of sacrificing for your brother is a foreign concept these days. In our little schools there just aren't enough kids to specialize in one sport. Hey, here's a novel idea, how about you bust your butt in basketball and track in support of your teammates who are better at those sports than you are. In return, they bust their butts to support you in football. Hmmmmm....... I realize not every kid is an athlete, or a basketball or football player. But you gotta like the kid that puts others ahead of himself to support and build up his team. He learns skills in other sports that WILL transfer to football and he learns life lessons about hard work, team, and selflessness. I think I was in the stands at a Lifegate game that I heard the concept of "One team, different season." Makes sense in our small schools, AND good for our children.

I do believe the coach has a lot to do with it, as well as the parents. There is a whole "culture" that surrounds truly successful programs. Parents trusting and supporting the coach, the coach doing what's right for the TEAM, school administration making sure the coach is a true role model and doing what is right for the kids, the community for supporting and being positive at games.

 

[Box Dad]

your kids have no interest in athletics or for economic reasons the child has to work after school. Would you still encourage kids to play or participate?

Thats a great question, I would love to say yes, but I don't know. I think of drama that I don't make my kids participate in now, but they have. And if it were made known that unless we get 2 morw kids we will fold the program,I would tell my kids to man up for the good of there fellow student. But then again, drama has not ceased, like our football or girls basketball has in the past because of lack of participation. Also what we see are kids who play jr high football, have some skill and decide they don't want to play. Seniors who would rather not. And work, well in my opinion, they will have a lifetime to work, but they will never get to strap on pads and play contact football again.
In front of some of the players I asked one of our stud players from the 2010 state champion team if he has ever put pads on after that season, of course he said "no". I don't know if kids realize, this is it. After there senior year they get to watch, maybe coach and type about football, living vicariously through their kids. And its that way with most organized sports.
Same team, different season, I like that.

 

[freeagent]

My thought process in a small school like many of our schools is that we only had one team, it was just the sport that changed. Your football team should be your basketball team should be your track/baseball team. Same with the young ladies and volleyball, basketball, track/softball (although here's a hint: don't schedule prom on the same day as the district track meet).

Yeah, sure there's gonna be one of those sports you probably don't like as much as the other. But you play because you have friends/classmates who enjoy those sports and help you out in the sport you like but they do like. We don't have the luxury of larger schools with big numbers and such, and it's not like most small private school six-man football teams are chocked full of D1 and D2 college scholarship prospects. Let's face it, if a college scout is in your stands, chances are, he's lost.

A couple years into our football at Lifegate, we had 8 young men out at the start of the season. Two young men (a senior and a freshman) decided to "save themselves" for basketball. I pointed out to those gentlemen that if the 8 guys playing football had the same attitude they had about basketball, we only had four boys left in the high school -- the two of them, a young man who for health reasons couldn't get clearance for football (but could for basketball) and a fourth, who I will affectionately refer to as "the music nerd."

I told these gentlemen that I could play six-man football with eight players, but it would be difficult to play five-man basketball with four players. We had 10 on the football team by the end of the week.

And while I love my brothers at Bellville Faith, I'm guessing they will have no problem getting more than nine boys out for baseball season come this spring.

 

[smokeyjoe53]

I guess it's a matter of perspective. If athletics are at the forefront of your mind, you naturally will want to do do everything in your power to insure that the program thrives.
Same goes for music, drama, debate, number sense, etc.
I suppose I take a Darwinian approach to these matters......................

 

[Dixon_Pattillo10]

I think a large factor in student participation is the success and reputation a program has. I think if you take a look at some of the programs that have had a lot of success, you would find a good portion of the student body participates in sports in general. I know at Freddy, it's part of the student culture to want to play sports, mostly football and basketball. Both coaches are phenomenal at what they do and have brought success to the school, which in turn gets students interested in playing and is more fun. Few people want to play for a losing team, so when most seasons can promise at least a good playoff run, students want to be a part of that.
In 2009, Freddy had a rough year, and only 10 kids came back to play. After a Semi-finals run in 2010, we brought back 22 players to claim the title. It's a self-fulfilling trend. Programs that are successful bring in more players which makes them more successful. And I think it only takes a season or two to get that started.