Gallia Academy 7th grade football

[JChipwood]

The third post on this thread was written in hopes of eliminating some of the posts on here concerning pt and kids quitting. If kids opt to not come out next season due to lack of pt this year then they most certainly quit on their team. Like GAHS said, hard work will pay off, especially looking at a 7th grade group and the quicker kids learn that the better off they will be in life and sport. Also, a team is only as strong as the weakest link and parents need to explain to kids that teams get better in practice and having good competition and numbers in practice builds success in a program. Wait for a time to step in, it will come, and take advantage of opportunities but always be optimistic - this needs to start at home and with people that know these players off the field. I wonder alot of times how kids and parents in our area would handle living in a DI school district where most kids never see the field but continue to play to be part of something great or sometimes not so great.

I do agree that the ptp causes lots of problems when it comes to fairness.

[4everabluedevil]

Chipwood there are kids on this team who go out there everyday and give it 100 percent and never intend to quit. They plan to play through senior year. If that means cheering from the sidelines--so be it. It is hard to take when your son gives all the effort and works hard and you see "little Johnny" that everyone is referring to play both sides of the ball b/c he has other "ties" to this team. Certainly there are some who should be playing both sides of the ball (we are not living in a bubble). We did see #10 Carpenter get in on defense and he did a great job but up until that point was keeping the bench hot with the others. We are only saying there are more than 11 on this team and if you only needed 11 you shouldn't have taken our $90.00. We hear they hope some will quit. You should've done cuts before everyone paid their money. I know the manual says you don't have to play anyone at all if that is your choice but come on......we will have a hard time if we can't get our passing game up and running. I agree with Timmy O'toole--no passing game, too many fumbles. We should be stronger in that department by now. Oh well----maybe next year they will have 14 or 15 like the 8th grade. It's a shame.

[JChipwood]

I'm not doubting anyones efforts at all, I have heard nothing but great things about this group, my point was that the biggest problem with our programs at GAHS is that we fail to keep numbers and good programs, like Logan and Ironton, don't have issues with kids quitting because of pt. Believe me, I have been through the ptp situation while watching my child get little to no pt in another sport but encouraged him to stick with it and work harder to get better. I think the school board needs to be petitioned about the ptp situation more than the coaches. It stinks and times are hard right now. Bad part is, if your kid plays certain sports, they have to still pay for uniforms and provide their own equipment, the ptp simply pays for the very few away matches they attend. I have seen my nephew quit playing certain sports because of pt and hearing his parents speak ill of the coaches and put into his head that little johnny is going to play because of who he is. If these kids stick it out, our hs coaches NO LONGER play that game and the name means nothing to them, that I know for certain. I will say to anyone, encourage those kids to always give 100% and it will pay off, like GAHS said attrition hits our programs hard and hurts our teams and the kids in the long run. My original post was written in terms of what happens every year at most programs but the better programs see less of it, I like to refer to our programs as some of the better ones in our area and want to see them grow.

I sympathize with you about watching kids sit the bench knowing they give it their all, it is hard as a parent! Some kids have matured faster than others and some will simply take the easy road relying on their ability to get them by and the workers will mature and catch them and pass them by. Some won't have the grades, some will find girls and even partying to be more attractive and won't be playing in hs. Unfortunatley some will get discouraged for the wrong reason or poor enfluences and not play and that does include parents saying they are being treated unfairly. My dad alsways told me to work harder and if I didn't like watching from the sidelines to do something about it in practice or in the offseason but he never second guessed a coach in front of me, I'm sure he did behind the scenes but to my face he never did.

[GATORFAN]

It's not about kids being team players, being a part of a great team or school. It's a sport, and the kids who sign up and ptp want to play........Period
There is no one on that team that is head and shoulders above anyone else in talent. They should all be given the chance to prove they can do just as good a job as the other kid.
As far as if you don't want to stand the sidelines then put the work in at practice "THEY ARE" and they still are not being played?????

[91blue14]

hopefully we get it together for chillicothe next week

[Timmy O'Toole]

I think we can all agree with that,,,,well maybe?? :122245

[madrebel]

Being an innocent bystander, and reading these posts, I can't help to think some of these posts are done by sore parents whose kids are standing on the sideline. It has been said by a few of you that the talent on the sideline is equal to the talent on the playing field, and that everybody should get equal playing time. I have one question, would your opinion be the same if your kids were the ones on the field playing. I'm not on here to bust anybody's chops but you hear this year end and year out, and the majority of the time it's done by the parents of the kids who aren't playing. Your opinion that your child may have equal talent may be true, however if it is not true, your opinion may be skewed by the fact that it is your child. There is nothing wrong with supporting your child, but at some point in time you must be honest with yourself, and more importantly to your child. I will say this, football talent is different than talent for other sports. What I mean by this, it is more heart than it is talent. When you put that football helmet on, you must be willing to sacrifice your body, stick your nose into stuff, and hit somebody, and if you do that the coach's will notice you. They will not give you playing time simply by your ability to catch a football, or run fast. Football, or athletics in general is much more than whether you start or don't start. It teaches you camaraderie, responsibility, and a sense of belonging to something. When I played sports, the ones that were on the sidelines knew their place on the team and they were happy with it, they just wanted to be apart of something. We as parents, instead of belly aching when our kids don't play, we must teach them the importance of work ethics and how to overcome adversity. Sometimes when we are involved in sports, we must work hard to get better, and we still may not get a chance. Is that a waste of time. No, it just taught them work ethics, AND that we don't always get what we want in life. We must SPend more time giving them advice on how to work hard for something, instead of griping about getting screwed, life goes on. We must remember life is not easy. Things will not be given to us, and in order to get anywhere in life, the majority of us have to work for it. When these kids get older and are in college, do you think for the life of you that the professor will give them passing grades simply because they went to class and participated. No, in order to attain a degree we must work for it. In order to be a productive member of society we must instill into our children the importance of good work ethics. Personally for me, if my child wasn't good enough to play, I don't want them playing him just because. It teaches them to be lazy. It teaches them that even if they don't work hard, they still get a reward and that is good enough for alot of kids in this generation, they just want to play, the heck with getting better. I would start from the get go with my son. Before practice started, i would tell him not to give the coach's a chance to deny you. Run each spring like its your last, sprint from station to station and be the first one at every station. Run to get a drink and run back, and be the first one back, and lead by example, don't be a follower. If he did all of this and still didn't get a chance, I would tell him you must do more, when pads are on everyday you must be noticed, create havick and smack those pads, you need to be heard. If all of this is done, I don't see how you can be denied. We need to keep the negativity away from our children because they learn from it. Speaking of negativity, 91GAHS14 I noticed that your pointed out all of the wrong things that the 7th GAMS did in their win. I have a question, did they do anything right???

[JChipwood]

^^^^ Great post and a very true assessment of the situation in general!

Biggest reason kids quit.........lack of parenting and a support group that teaches the kids to continue on to be part of something bigger and better, not just to get on the field during the few minutes of game time in comparison to the many hours of practice time. Most times the kids get it better than the adults. They know their place, but some need to be reminded that a deep team gets better because of reps in practice against quality competition. When the numbers die, the quality of competition dies and the team isn't able to reach their full potential.

Besides all that, the next all-district player may be riding the bench in 7th or 8th grade, if he is told "you are getting the shaft" then he may never blossom, if he is told "suck it up and work harder" that may be the statement that turns him into the all-district player and when that happens parents have just strengthened a relationship for years to come with their kids.

[91blue14]

this is a good group of kids. they just havent played a complete game yet

[Timmy O'Toole]

Lots of good points on both sides of these issues

Kids need to work hard, parents need to be realistic, kids who love the game need to be encouraged to continue regardless of what happens in 7th grade etc. etc.

I think a lot of parents\kids were a little shocked when their son only got in on one or two snaps at the end of the first game...

I think some of this drama could have been avoided if the coaches had taken a little time prior to the first game to discuss with each kid where and when they could expect to play

coaches are human and make mistakes like everyone, in my job I get very little credit for everything I do well but if I make a mistake then I am held accountable, thats life -I have no problem with people discussing the likes\dislikes of coaches choices

IMO a kid who "knows his role" and is happy not getting playing time in a game should probably get cut, he is wasting everyones time ---A kid who is unhappy with his playing time and working hard to improve is the first kid I would put in when one of the regular starters is getting lazy, showing an attitude or whatever

Obviously these are just my opinions, and as they say everybody has one...

[Timmy O'Toole]

Bad loss tonight against Chillicothe. We seemed to struggle on the defensive side of the ball, could'nt get off blocks and did not tackle well. I was impressed with the Cav's RB #34 it looked like he was full speed within 2-3 steps and hit the hole hard. We need to become more physical on defense to compete with this type of team. I actually thought this was the best performance thus far by the the offense. Moved the ball fairly well all night against a pretty good looking defense, also executed a couple of pass plays just couldn't get enough stops on defense to make a game of it.

[jottings]

TT...What was the final score?

[4everabluedevil]

32-12 We seemed to really struggle on defense this week but we had two of our linemen injured--one out of the game completely and the other playing with an injured shoulder. On the upside our offense did complete a couple of short passes which was nice. (I think alot of times it doesn't take long for teams to figure us out as we are fairly predictable. Sorry but JMO...) Hopefully we are able to regroup and get ready for Logan next week. This is a really hard working and competitive group of boys and they give it their all. Would love to see them able to pull it all together and get a win. They definitely have what it takes to do it---just not sure what isn't working yet.... JMO

[91blue14]

with an off week will the little devils rise to the top

[Nagol1]

Any score on the Jackson game?