Playoff Excitement..Let's pick em

Bill O'Rielly":10g6yxpb said:
...Don't judge our community or team because of one idiot like me. Lol.
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Don't worry Bill, we don't. There are many Richland Springs fans out there with opinions worth valuing, yours is not one of them.
 
Hey, kids...and parents want to be where the atmosphere is powerful and focused on being the best they can be. There is NOTHING WRONG with desiring that. Not a damn thing. We need to stop ostracizing businesses and schools who figure out how to win, how to be successful.
The key for everyone who cares is to find a way to attract people who value being the best possible, within the rules and is ethical. Listen, it is not against the UIL or a moral value to try and convince kids who live in your district to attend your school instead of that neighboring school. Nothing. And as an administrator and coach, even a teacher, they have the freedom and right to attract them. That situation is actually fairly common.

Why do we accuse people of cheating if a parent or a student of school A tries to convince a friend who lives in a different district to come to their school.? If it happened to me as a coach at school B, I would be upset and hurt and angry. But as long as the catalyst isn't a coach, what can I do. Not a darn thing. The rule is a student cannot change schools for athletic purposes. Any other reason is usually unchallenged. You can change schools if that school accepts you, if you are doing it for academic reasons. And once upon a time you could do it for UIL( non-sport) reasons because they fell under academics. Not sure now. I would have to call Austin and ask.

Growing up I wanted to play for Coach Gordon Wood at Brownwood. My dad had spoken with him several times about moving there from Lake Worth. But there were no administrative jobs available at that time. So, after my sophomore year dad came up with the idea of opening a small sporting goods store in Bwd. so we could do it. That fell through. I was shattered. All I could dream of was being a Brownwood Lion. Did Coach Woods actively prepare a way for us? No. Did he speak to us about moving to Bwd. when we ran into him during summer vacations , yes. But I had already made up my mind to play for them before I ever met him. I wanted to be a Lion because my school sucked athletically, and the Lion mystique was a strong magnet I could not resist.

So what can schools do to offset the pull of a Brownwood , Stephenville, a Goldthwaite and a Richland? Only one thing...build a strong goal-driven football (athletic) program that pursues excellence in every way possible. Being jealous isn't all bad, actually. We can use that passion to go to work to construct the same kind of program. Its not hard. The difficulty is finding people who will have the vision to allow it to be built. It starts with finding a Clawson-like coach. Schools who hire a Dewaine Lee (Strawn) or a Brett Tyler (Sterling City), or a John York (Water Valley) will be on the road to success because they know how to put the puzzle together.

Here's how it started in RS. The school board wanted a top coach who could turn their program around. The math teacher knew Clawson was living on the Colorado River just a dozen miles away. The board pursued him and made the hire. Clawson came in and started the construction . People in the community provided labor and materials to build a Field House from an old Ag shop. Eventually the kids learned a new style of six-man football and within a year parents and their kids were moving and transferring to Richland. Within five years of hiring Clawson that school board had built a powerful football program. The rest more or less were attracted because of that goal. It attracted lots of talent.
I wanted to be there because of their football. Nothing else. Well, the location was close to mom and dad.

Had my daughters been interested and passionate about basketball like me and Tyler were about football, I would have sent them to Rochelle. They had the best girl's basketball situation similar to Richland's football. After one year they would have been eligible for varsity play.
If you want to be like Mike, tearing him down wont do it. You have to do the same things that made him so good. That's a bad analogy, but you get the connection.
 
I'm not naïve. Everyone knows all the truth involved. It's common knowledge. But you can't build a program and be as successful as RS just by expressing hard feelings after your team gets beaten up by them. The only way Stephenville could compete against the Brownwood machine was by starting a program comparable to theirs. It started with hiring a coach from Panther Creek (Alan Luker) and the coach from Hamlin, who is now at Baylor. Sorry, forgot his name...my tribe walked in from school. So much for peaceful tranquility. (:

If your kid is pursued by a school's representative or someone else in that community, don't get mad, be flattered. Someone thinks your kid can play. Then go visit your board members and supt. and tell them what your vision for your kids and their school is. Then get after it.

I promise, being upset and striving for excellence will pay off abundantly in every way. Being upset and pointing your finger at someone more successful, will pay you nothing. Your kids will always get their butts handed to them by an established program with well-coached kids who love doing what they are doing---winning.

Here's the problem. Most folks will get over the pain, live with it and do nothing. They will go home and turn on the tv or the X box and allow their concern to be medicated with fun and adult beverages. The next day they are okay and soon forget about it. I call that choosing to be a loser. Not in a broad sense. They simply choose to take the path of least resistance and let it go. They are just as successful, even more so than most, but with this problem they choose to be second best. Or lower. They choose to accept the fact that they cannot be as good. Or they rationalize with wishful optimism that lies to them by telling them just maybe they can beat them next year because their antagonist cheats, or they play dirty, or because they are lucky. And the problem is put away until the next time your team faces them. The cycle is continuous.

Art Briles!
 
BE":303ikw4f said:
Hey, kids...and parents want to be where the atmosphere is powerful and focused on being the best they can be. There is NOTHING WRONG with desiring that. Not a damn thing. We need to stop ostracizing businesses and schools who figure out how to win, how to be successful.
The key for everyone who cares is to find a way to attract people who value being the best possible, within the rules and is ethical. Listen, it is not against the UIL or a moral value to try and convince kids who live in your district to attend your school instead of that neighboring school. Nothing. And as an administrator and coach, even a teacher, they have the freedom and right to attract them. That situation is actually fairly common.

Why do we accuse people of cheating if a parent or a student of school A tries to convince a friend who lives in a different district to come to their school.? If it happened to me as a coach at school B, I would be upset and hurt and angry. But as long as the catalyst isn't a coach, what can I do. Not a darn thing. The rule is a student cannot change schools for athletic purposes. Any other reason is usually unchallenged. You can change schools if that school accepts you, if you are doing it for academic reasons. And once upon a time you could do it for UIL( non-sport) reasons because they fell under academics. Not sure now. I would have to call Austin and ask.

Growing up I wanted to play for Coach Gordon Wood at Brownwood. My dad had spoken with him several times about moving there from Lake Worth. But there were no administrative jobs available at that time. So, after my sophomore year dad came up with the idea of opening a small sporting goods store in Bwd. so we could do it. That fell through. I was shattered. All I could dream of was being a Brownwood Lion. Did Coach Woods actively prepare a way for us? No. Did he speak to us about moving to Bwd. when we ran into him during summer vacations , yes. But I had already made up my mind to play for them before I ever met him. I wanted to be a Lion because my school sucked athletically, and the Lion mystic was a strong magnet I could not resist.

So what can schools do to offset the pull of a Brownwood , Stephenville, a Goldthwaite and a Richland? Only one thing...build a strong goal-driven football (athletic) program that pursues excellence in every way possible. Being jealous isn't all bad, actually. We can use that passion to go to work to construct the same kind of program. Its not hard. The difficulty is finding people who will have the vision to allow it to be built. It starts with finding a Clawson-like coach. Schools who hire a Dewaine Lee (Strawn) or a Brett Tyler (Sterling City), or a John York (Water Valley) will be on the road to success because they know how to put the puzzle together.

Here's how it started in RS. The school board wanted a top coach who could turn their program around. The math teacher knew Clawson was living on the Colorado River just a dozen miles away. The board pursued him and made the hire. Clawson came in and started the construction . People in the community provided labor and materials to build a Field House from an old Ag shop. Eventually the kids learned a new style of six-man football and within a year parents and their kids were moving and transferring to Richland. Within five years of hiring Clawson that school board had built a powerful football program. The rest more or less was attracted because of that goal. It attracted lots of talent.
I wanted to be there because of their football. Nothing else. Well, the location was close to mom and dad.

Had my daughters been interested and passionate about basketball like me and Tyler were about football, I would have sent them to Rochelle. They had the best girl's basketball situation similar to Richland's football. After one year they would have been eligible for varsity play.
If you want to be like Mike, tearing him down wont do it. You have to do the same things that made him so good. That's a bad analogy, but you get the connection.
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Great post! But the success of certain schools isn't the only reason people get trashed on this site, try voicing support for ANY team that isn't in the West and watch the trash-talking start. As I said before, the East is full of kids that believe they have a shot at a championship, and the ADULTS over here support them no matter what the "experts" say.
 
Your concern is understood by most of us. The question can only be answered in two ways. One will occur in two weeks in Abilene. The other is for schools like Abbott, Milford, Rochelle and Gorman to play teams from the West before district begins. A few do. More should. But distance is a real concern. It would need to be done in towns located near middle ground. The drive from Follett to Hico takes nine or ten hours. It is a handicap if your playing a team from the East, regardless of when you make the drive.
Not making a prediction whatsoever, If your school gets 45ed will that answer be satisfactory?
 
BE":31gj87ix said:
Your concern is understood by most of us. The question can only be answered in two ways. One will occur in two weeks in Abilene. The other is for schools like Abbott, Milford, Rochelle and Gorman to play teams from the West before district begins.
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Hey BE, do you think then that it would be good to schedule one of the up and coming schools in the west, like maybe, RS vs Eden? But only if Eden promises to try their passing game!
 
I would think it will be a couple years before RS would schedule something like that. Eden still has some work to do. If you havent been able to get out of district, and dont have a track record of playoff wins, it wouldnt be that really attractive of a game.
 
I would like to see a time that teams like RS, Calvert,Balmorhea start the season against a Borden County, Garden City, Crowell, Sterling city, zephyr, gordon, blum,abbott, some big time D-1 schools.....JUST MY idea of a great start to the season
 
How about RS against Rochelle in week one? That would be a great DII vs DI matchup!

But I still like the RS vs Eden matchup, if I could get BE to approve!
 
Right now I wouldn't put Eden in the same category as RS, BC, GC, SC or Crowell, or this year's Rochelle.
Would you?
They may be soon. It is possible. But the obvious teams we are referring to are actually coaches, not just football teams. Do you believe that , Johnny?

Why do you think, Johnny, the same teams make long runs in the playoffs seven or eight times out of every decade? Most do it ten out of ten years. Look at a few. It's the coaching. How often do you see a Trey Richie or a Brett Tyler stay home and miss the playoffs?

Let me tell you this...in 2013 Valley was not the typical strong team they have enjoyed being since they joined the six-man world. The talent that caused many a coach sleepless nights was either not present or just very young. They had some injuries which set them back more than I had ever seen. When we caught them in our homecoming at Follett, they were not as weak as the previous game against Dallas Covenant, but still struggling to recover. Yet, by the start of the playoffs Tyler had them recovered and blazing thru the competition, again. It was the best job of coaching I had seen in a long time. Had Valley possessed an average coach, or a good one, they would never have recovered like they did.

Coaches like that find a way to cause their kids to develop to levels no one else can reach. I don't know why all coaches cant seem to do it, or might be able to do it for a brief time and then disappear. That's what Danny Medina was talking about when he said he could take any team whose coach was present, and in five or six weeks watch his version dismantle the previous version of the same team.

So, is Eden in that same category? I have no clue. You may know.
 
Johnny South":9ihh3n8t said:
How about RS against Rochelle in week one? That would be a great DII vs DI matchup!

But I still like the RS vs Eden matchup, if I could get BE to approve!
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RS did not agree to play Rochelle 2 years ago because they were a top D-1 school....they did it because they figured it to be a easy win real close to home....I'm talking about the top 4 or 5 teams in each division mixing it up with other top teams in the other division early in the season......Crowell lost some games before district but man it was nice to see them play great teams....that's just my wish list to each there own though
 
Johnny South":208ufl61 said:
I thought you would catch that one BE. I still wish Richie would have made those two extra point kicks!
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He made 109 of 122. Amazing! When he first began kicking for us the best way to describe his ability was "hopeless optimism". By the end of the 2007 season he had a scoring record.
 
Bill O'Rielly":1a7rwjdf said:
Why do some of you folks think that teams need to play "tough or stronger" teams earlier in the season?
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Bill, some folks think that a team gets stronger faster by getting the crap beat out of them early in the season, which is not the case. And, I don't believe that most coaches can tell two years in advance who is going to be super tough and who will be the pushover. Take Strawn for example, a perennial powerhouse. If a coach wanted his team to take an early season shellacking and scheduled Strawn this year, he would probably have been disappointed with possibly a W instead.
 
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