2011 Marietta Tigers

[mhsfootballfan]

Schenk11
No not at all. I'm just tired of the negativity towards the football program and even hits on the new weightroom. But, I believe that there are a few boys coaches that work at the MHS that are threatened by Springer as well as when Farnsworth was there. I don't know why some coaches feel, given the size of MHS, that athletes should play one sport. There are many instances in the last year or so that other coaches have made moves to sabotage the football program, financially or athletically(threatening there athletes playing time) this is a sad fact. My son is a multisport average athlete and I want nothing but success for the teams he's playing for and for ALL MHS athletic teams boy or girl.
Looking forward to the Athens scrimmage.

[black_and_orange]

Schenk11
No not at all. I'm just tired of the negativity towards the football program and even hits on the new weightroom. But, I believe that there are a few boys coaches that work at the MHS that are threatened by Springer as well as when Farnsworth was there.

The coaches you are referring to, and trust me, I know who you are talking about, they were co workers of mine and friends that from my teaching/coaching career at Marietta. I have talked to them about this exact thing.

Threatened is not the right word.

Don't like how he got there is more like it.

Was on the hiring group two years ago. Was telling people at basketball games how Farnsworth was going to be the coach and Bob would be on the staff and they would turn things around. This was before Farnsworth applied. Then after interviews Bob helps pick Farnsworth as part of the hiring group and he ends up on coaching staff. Seems like an inside job.

Then Farnsworth quits, and Bob telling people who the coaching staff will be before the job is open. The job was never posted within the school as being available. This breaks contractual agreement between school and teachers association. The job is never posted outside the school as being available. Bob just railroads his way in there and takes control over every aspect of the football program bypassing the AD (his next door neighbor by the way).

Due process was not followed in the hiring of new Marietta Football coach and this has ticked some people in the school system off. Procedures that are supposed to be followed were not followed.

[tigerstrike2011]

You are right black and orange. The job was not posted anywhere. I haven't heard if there were any interviews...? Either way the season is close and the first frost can't be far behind.

[gotribe]

Marietta CAN and WILL have a good season this year. New league and new blood leading the way. The AD does not coach the team, and is not the reason Marietta's program has struggled. (Tigers are 362-494-38 in 106 years of play, not exactly a Dover(633-335) or Ironton, Shelby, Versailles, Elder or a 50th win Ohio rank Niles McKinley at 510-379. A new direction was desperately needed. Coach Springer and staff will be organized, fair, prepared, stern, confident and leaders for the young kids. In 1983 or 1984 Steubenville hired a controversial and person not everyone approved of by the name of Reno Saccoccia. All he has done since then is win about 300 of 350 games and a few state titles and send MANY, MANY,MANY players to college. Marietta has talented and awesome kids! They want to win as bad as we want them to win. Lets get behind them and allow them to perform. Fact is , the sport of football, just like at Ohio State , helps to support many of the other sports at high schools and colleges. Stay positive, good things are headed the Tigers way. The weight room, beautiful Don Drumm and supportive fans can go a looooooong way. Wins have been tough to come by, but this COULD be the year to start to change all that. Browns fans, please reread the last sentence again! Go TIGERS

[SEOHIOMOM]

Last year, in my son's class, a teacher used the "F" word in a joke. The quote afterwards was, "Go ahead and tell on me, I have tenure." I can't say I was thrilled. Football is a sport where emotions take over, language is going to happen by both the players and coaches. I have watched it through peewee, jr. high, and now high school. I just asked my son about the profanity. He said, "Yeah, but no worse than any other football coach I have ever had. I have had worse." I asked him about him being mean to players, his reply, "No, he's just trying to motivate them."
So, I guess it is who you ask...every kid is different. A good coach knows which players need a little fire under them to make them play better and which kid needs more confidence.
That said, I would love to hear about how camp went. I got to hear my son's version, but I would love to know who is out, who wants to play where, and so on...However, would love to hear only positive things about the players..don't knock them! Who has lifted all summer? It's going to be a younger team! What do you know about the players coming in???

[schenk11]

(Tigers are 362-494-38 in 106 years of play.

One correction, I am guessing it was a typo on your part, Marietta's all-time record is 462-494-38 in 106 years.

[bigcatmarietta]

Ok I can’t say I have the years of service as a man as distinguished as Schenk11. But I can assure you I have more years of service as a tiger than you do mom. I do not want to be disrespectful and I am very happy to know that your son is feeling ok about the staff. But, having a son and dealing with what comes with that, id feel like it’s fair to say you could understand that the way kids today speak to each other today makes it hard to think they would feel much is inappropriate, especially if it’s not directed at him. Would your feelings change if it were? I think if your teacher story is true, what a mess. I don’t even think that it’s ok for Bill Parcels to cuss an adult he is coaching. If that’s your only vocabulary, are you intelligent enough to lead a group of students into game situations? Moreover since society as a whole has labeled this certain language as inappropriate, if cable television has guidelines on what is ok and what is not ok to say, why would this wealthy, “super smart”, great and best choice for the kids, say “hey, this team has had enough crap. Let’s work hard and not give anyone a reason to talk about me or us?”. Why not just chose better words and save the trouble. This little problem keeps coming back up to me, I have told anyone that has called me about it to call Bob himself. I made my point to him and that’s that.
If your son is happy then great, think for a second about the kids that may not be happy. The kids that don’t deal well with ridicule and name calling. I’ll say this, if you think for one, that in the short time bob has been in control he knows what motivates every kid he has on the team your sadly mistaken. Also I am not a student, not a parent of a kid that sits the bench; I am an adult that carries certifications that the state mandates a coach have to coach. I am a member of this town and someone that played football at this school. I have been posting about being positive and letting the coaches coach and players play since I have had this user name. I was a coach at Marietta when we beat Gallia at Gallia in the mud and the Gallia crowd cursed at our kids for taking too long to leave there field. I posted to them at that time how that was not an appropriate way to communicate to the kids of today. It does not matter who does it or if you think it’s ok. It’s not ok. Some people commit murder and get away with it, which does not make it ok. That is a very for out analogy but makes the point. One last thing, it’s disturbing that anyone would defend such a thing as using foul langue against the kids. I never said you should never hear a bad word at practice once and a while, my problem was always using this language as a direct reflection on a kid, using this language as a way to describe the child.
I also wonder, since Bob was a coach last season, why would he be in a position to have to complete all of his certifications this year? One of those is a onetime course, one is good for 3 years and lots of CPR cards are good for 2 years. Guess his were all expired. B4 someone lets me know bob “did not take any money for coaching” every person having anything to do with the kids must have all these certifications. B4 someonr claims I am being negative I made more post wanting people to support the teams than I can count without looking.
It’s hard to demand the kids be positive when dealing with this sort of thing going on. People are talking about this. It is a problem. I did not create this problem, and I am not the first person to bring it to light. Why argue amongst ourselves on whether or not this is a problem or not. it should not be a discussion. This community and school system should step up and say stop it. You’re here to coach. I don’t feel your job description had name calling in it, no matter how dirty or clean. BUILD THEM UP, DON’T TEAR THEM DOWN!!!

[SEOHIOMOM]

Big Cat, I know who you are and I think you are a wonderful person. You have been great to my son and many, many others. You have a right to stand up for what you believe in and I respect that! I am just proud that my son is a Tiger. In order for him to respect his authorities, I have to respect them. You have my total respect both on and off the field. I am sorry if I offended you in any way.

[bigcatmarietta]

I'm not offended or anything. I care about all those kids and there parents! Well most parents, haha. I never set out to make this a "deal". I said nothing for weeks. I keep getting calls pushing me to do something. I did something and hurt myself by leaving. I did not mean to be rude. It's inportant to me to separate myself at this point. I do not condone that style. I've been advised to get far away professionally. Marietta is my home and it's ware its ware I wanna be. It's just not going to happen now. Good thing for me is there are oppertunitys out here were I can coach and teach a style I'm ok with. Good luck and go tigers. Ps i know everyone knows me on here. I'm to big to hide and never felt the need for it. One of the pluses of being to big to hide. Hahaha

[gotribe]

Thanks Schenk for the win total correction, my mistake. How about we add about 7 or 8 to the left side column this year. The language issue is a problem I did not know was going on. These kids DO need to be motivated without being torn down. All kids need to be made accountable and I feel this staff top to bottom can do that. Hopefully, before late August the players and coaches can be hitting on all cylinders without the apparent vulgarity and language. Kids lay it on the line and will run thru the proverbial brick wall when they respect authority and have pride in what they are doing. C'mon tigers, work hard, prepare, focus, play hard for the town, your coaches, and your family. Play hard for each person you share the locker room with. You will never forget these times, make the most of them. Bond together, do not let outside distractions tear apart YOUR season. 4 weeks til kickoff.

[Tim Hardaway Jr.]

There have been a lot of negative comments about the coaching staff, the way things are run in practice, and everything else that has been going on in the program. Truthfully, all I see are improvements from last year and the year before. My first reason for saying so is this, the Tigers(all sports but football in particular) has a brand new weightroom that I know the kids are going to use and use correctly because their coaches are going to see that they do so. The kids have been dedicated just as SEOHIOMOM has said, they have had numerous kids working out and getting stronger which obviously can only benefit the program. Now, with a new weightroom that training can only get better and more efficient. Secondly, Springer and all the other coaches have tried to instill a mindset in the kids that motivates them, from what a few players on the team have told me, they have said that he strictly finds what motivates you and builds on it. He must seek to find that fire in every kid in order for every kid to perform to their abilities, if that takes cussing at them so be it, not saying it's right but it works. This is in no way to offend you bigcatmarietta, however, do you not think these kids hear these words everyday at school in the hallways? Most of them probably do it themselves anwyays. Do I agree with it? No, but that's how society has conformed. It motivates the kids to bring the BEST out in them, from the kids, they have said that Springer does not cuss or typically yell at the kids that don't handle it well. He finds other ways to motivate them, whether it be meeting with them after practice or whatever, he gets it done. They also have said that for every negative thing Springer says he says 5 things that are positive in response. The last reason to why I see improvements are because the number of kids is increasing, this means that Springer is drawing interest from the kids that reluctant to play or keeping the same kids that have played in the past. In order for this team to be successful they have to get the numbers that they once had. It all starts with the youth program, which I know for a fact that Springer is heavily involved with. He also gets kids to come out for the program, he finds atheletes that play other sports or athletes that have played football in the past and gets them interested in football again. From the kids on the team that I talked to Springer has gotten 6-7 kids this year to come out that didn't play last year, I can only remember 5 of the names of the kids but I know that Big Jim Dye(who played from 5-9th grade--Junior this season) who is a good lineman who played up until his sophomore year is coming out. I also remember that the Spurr kid(played varsity baseball, wrestling and played in his youth and middle school---Junior) who looked really good in camp and a few sophomores such as the Bronski kid and the Gearhart boy (Mitchel's brother) and Huck to kick field goals(soccer)are all playing. I see this team having good chemistry because they're all good kids that work hard and are all friends. They feel as if they have nothing to lose because of all the negative images surrounding Marietta football, I'll be at every home game supporting the Tigers and hoping for nothing but the best! I'll always be a Tiger faithful, as I'm an alumni. Good luck Tigers, and if you were true fans you wouldn't be on here cutting on them, you'd be bringing out the positives in them!

[bigcatmarietta]

Ok, ok. I’ve said this and I want to make it clear. I want Marietta to be successful. I have always wanted that. I am not saying anyone is saying I don’t, and I value the opinions on here. This site gives anyone a chance to say what they want. Weather you are a coach or a player or someone that just wants to be herd. I have lived through coaching staff after staff on here. I have worked for them. I have read some of the most awful just plain mean things on here that were just not true. To this day this happens, not to just Marietta but in general. I seem to be getting the feeling that I am or was some sort of problem for Bob and now this issue. I will say this one more time I did not blow this whistle and wanted no part of it. I guess I don’t understand where in life or schools or anyplace we got so far off kilter. I can’t believe anyone would try and make some sort of reasoning out of this. It’s wrong in the workplace, its wrong in a restaurant, and it’s even worse in a school. Its not hard for me to say what I think, it is for some people. It’s not hard for people to get on here with what seems like credible information and spill what they have “herd”. I am trying to move away from this, ill say this my phone has stopped ringing so much on this topic. I don’t want t debate on this anymore. In the past I would have jumped to correct the mistakes in Mr.Baseballs statement. I won’t since I am sure I would know him and I am not on here to tear people down. I will say that with out saying names, 1 of your returnees was ineligible due to grades, and 2 of them did play. They came late. You have to support the staff. I have made that statement on here many times over the years. The question is as adults when do we say hey, coach our kids and “motivate” them in other ways. I’m not sure when someone puts in print that “cussing is the only way to motivate some kids” they are thinking with there head or there heart. If you’re a bob fan what I am saying is wrong and he is doing what needs to be done. If you’re not a bob fan well you having a field day with this. That’s what is even more confusing than doing things to keep trouble stirred up. Are you really changing your coaching style, to choose non offensive language? I am not on the band wagon of the who and how this man came to power and we had a meeting day one about how this message board is read by coaches and how it affects them. I have been called out on here myself. I am very happy I am respected in town and I am glad people think I am correct to stand up for what I believe in. having said that I am a little sick at how this is something that is being defended, only by some but that why its still going on. It should not matter how immature kids speak in the hallways of a high school. I know if caught they are punished for it. It does not matter what the kids here at home or in movies or the mall, we are to set a higher standard as a coach. I built a reputation of being a straight shooter and owning up to my mistakes. I think the current man in charge is showing how to do one good thing like renovate a weight room can keep you clear to do something that’s not considered that bad but does not happen everyplace. This is a public school, what does the board think, what does the principal think. Id say not much and that bother’s me more than anything.

I am going to use my coaching abilities in other places this year. I am orange and black inside my heart, but I can’t be apart of bobs show. I am not considering my self a tiger any longer until this is over. A coach that is willing to say some of the awful things he does to young men, and people in a community that are willing to say its not what id do but im ok with it since we got something out of it is not the Marietta Tiger program I want to say im with. I don’t mean coaching I mean in general. I feel like this season one person with no ties and 2 years in has made a claim to this school like he is the best coach ever, and has 10 Ohio state titles. When you look at the resumes and compare other than one year Head coach at a small school I have as much coaching experience as bob. Other than some isolated incidents and moments of regret did I ever use cussing to motivate and those words were never to describe a player. I think it is so sad its becoming acceptable to do these things. I have knows every member of this years varsity program since they were 7th graders. I would think that would give me a great idea of what motivates the individual kids on that team. Thinking of each of them and sitting here typing I can not think of any one of them that needs to be called a “sh__head”, “fatf___er”, “Psyco” to make them play hard. Is that what it takes to make people tuff? If so why are some many abused mentally, physically, and emotionally men and women in this word today in so much need of mental help. By this way of thinking, that it motivates and makes them tuff, they all should be word boxing champs, MMA champs. Not some of the most insecure and week members of society. If you think that statement is far off and not at all what is happening in Marietta now, id finish this by saying all abuse in one form or another must start someplace.


i did not read back over and correct any miscues or grammer in this, so its prolly hard to read.

[Tim Hardaway Jr.]

That's what I'm saying, you're totally right bigcat. It's really unacceptable, but, if that's how he does then so be it. He just trys to motivate everyone. He's not going to win a state championship obviously or turn a 3-7 football team into a state-bound football team, but he is going to push every kid there to be the best they can possibly be, and that's what a good coach does. I've heard some good things and some bad about him as a person, but in my personal opinion that doesn't matter out on the football field. I heard another name that has caome out to play, Michael Stewart, a junior athlete, who is agile and could play a big part on defense and some offense as well? I didn't know that one of the athletes was ineligible due to grades, nor did I know that two of the kids came out late last season? I guess the Gearhart boy isn't player either which could essentially hurt the Tigers in the future. I know that the Spurr kid was playing fall baseball in a league in Columbus because the picture of them winning the championship was in the paper, and seeing his name in the honor roll every nine weeks pretty much assures me it wasn't him. I know who you are as well bigcat, and truthfully, I've heard nothing but good things about you as a coach and that the kids at Marietta absolutely loved you as a coach and as a person, therefore, you will be missed this season.

[bigcatmarietta]

i wish nothing but the best. thanks for the kind words. those kids mean the world to me. it makes me sad to not be there this season. this makes 2 away from them. if this is what it takes to motivate kids, i quit all together. ive coached on playoff teams in hilton head SC and well that was not something i ever herd. i will coach with people that feel the same as i do or i wont coach at all. ill find a new hobby, knitting.

[Orange and Brown]

4-6 is my prediction for 2011

[noreply66]

I do not see any better than 3/7--but best of luck to you all

[mhsfootballfan]

Just to put things straight about me (if anyone cares). I'm a supporter of all Marietta sports from the Pioneers to the girls basketball team to the Putnam Reddevils. And I'm a Bob Spinger supporter. He's the right man for the job at MHS. That being said I would like to update somethings that people may or maynot be aware of.

First Scrimmage: August 10 10am Don Drumm Stadium (Athen Bulldogs)

Meet the Team Ice cream social-August 6 noon to (not sure) Everyone is invited (free ice cream) bring your kids. Football players(of course) cheerleaders, and WMOA will be there. Its at Emeritus on Browns Road in Reno.

Some really exciting news I heard today (and its verified). Creamy Creations on Green Street in Marietta is now under the management of the recently formed Marietta Touchdown Club. I saw acouple of players working the trailer tonight.

Just some info if anyone didn't know or were interested.

[WitnessProtection]

If there's as much "unity" within the Marietta football program as there is on this thread, the Tigers don't stand a chance in the ECOL. It will be an uphill battle anyway.

[BigReds10]

Maybe u Bob supporters should talk to some of the Fed Hock people about how he quit on the kids half way through the season and about the lies he tried to live while there.

[SEOHIOMOM]

John Layman bought the Creamy Creations for the Tiger Football program. The Tiger Touchdown club is going to run it. Once Mr. Layman gets his money back, this will be pure profit for the Tigers. Right now the team is having a raffle for a new 4-wheeler (sold at football games!), selling tickets for an Applebees breakfast on 8/20, and is doing several other small fundraisers.

There are many people helping with this. There are also many people helping with building the weight room and getting things to help the players. (Ex: new fans this week!) Lots of money being donated, raised...whatever you want to call it.

Everyone remember, Coach Eichorn is taking over the program this next year. If you are bashing Springer, you have to remember that Eichorn is right there this year with him. The parents, players, and fans have faith in the entire coaching staff. They may not turn the program completely around this year, but are building for the future...The boys that are out there playing are giving 100%. I really wish that people would remember that. Whether you support Springer or not, you have to support the entire coaching staff...they are great people.