A SERIOUS QUESTION ABOUT THE MAC LEAGUE

[The Flush]

Southern Ohio tends to have higher poverty rates. Poverty leads to poor nutrition, which leads lesser conditioned athletes. Poverty hurts academics, which could be preventing athletes from being eligible to play. Poverty limits access to additional training resources. Long term poverty can affect attitudes negatively. Poverty makes everything more difficult.

[YOU'RE TIGER BAIT]

I guess I'd have to agree there.

[then what]

Talked to several Coldwater fans or fans from that area. They did say there is some recruitment from Indiana that goes on with coldwater, They dont have soccer and they do have wrestling. Leverage and balance plus right nutritional plan = a great football player. These kids all looked the same. Player development is how they are ahead. Regardless they are a complete team. Awesome tradition....

[YOU'RE TIGER BAIT]

wrestling is an amazing sport to have along with football.and good nutrition as well.

[formerfcfan]

I would speculate 95%-99.7% of kids out there grow up with married parents. That can make for a very strong support system.

[king kong]

There are a lot of factors for the MAC. 1st is strong economy, very little poverty and strong job potential leads to successful families growing up and staying in the area. 2nd is strong family units with both parents. High percentage of parents who played sports in the area that understand the sacrifices it takes to win at a high level and don't yank little Tommy out of Jr hi to move because coach X is a jerk. They push their kids to over achieve. 3rd small centered communities who support the program. 4th very good coaching and playing strong competition.

Football is a numbers sport. Mac schools 2nd and 3rd sting players are not a big drop off from the starters versus schools around here where it is a huge drop off.

My only problem is the schools in this area can only control 1 part of that formula and that is coaching. Economics, single parents, poverty are beyond the scope of a school to control. It's why you won't see another football championship from this area for a long time, if ever.

[LICKING COUNTY FAN]

Maybe scheduling some of these teams and scrimmage them, will allow some of the knowledge they have to be learn, from the coaches and most importantly the players, from this area.

One may twist it anyway wanted, but the bottom line, that league as a whole, is doing it in a way, that all small leagues need to duplicate, as much as possible.

[YOU'RE TIGER BAIT]

absolutely LCF.

[YOU'RE TIGER BAIT]

There are a lot of factors for the MAC. 1st is strong economy, very little poverty and strong job potential leads to successful families growing up and staying in the area. 2nd is strong family units with both parents. High percentage of parents who played sports in the area that understand the sacrifices it takes to win at a high level and don't yank little Tommy out of Jr hi to move because coach X is a jerk. They push their kids to over achieve. 3rd small centered communities who support the program. 4th very good coaching and playing strong competition.

Football is a numbers sport. Mac schools 2nd and 3rd sting players are not a big drop off from the starters versus schools around here where it is a huge drop off.

My only problem is the schools in this area can only control 1 part of that formula and that is coaching. Economics, single parents, poverty are beyond the scope of a school to control. It's why you won't see another football championship from this area for a long time, if ever.

GREAT POST KONG.

[Tigercannon71]

King Kong hit the nail on the head when talking economics. Just take a look at the numbers between Lawrence County and Mercer County. Lawrence county has roughly 61,000 people, but remember they are spread out over 8 school districts. While Mercer county has 40,000 spread over only 3 school districts. That is a huge advantage for the MAC schools. Then the other main factor is the Economics of both counties. Lawrence county has 16% below the poverty line while Mercer county has 8%. The unemployment rate is 6.3% for Lawrence county while Mercer county had half that with 3.3% Mercer county has twice the state average when it comes to manufacturing jobs while Lawrence county is way under that number. So basically what this is saying is Lawrence county is poorer which means kids have more important things to worry about like where am I going to sleep or will I eat tonight than playing sports. Also kids quit to take jobs to help support their family when their dads or moms get laid off work. Also with no jobs in the area kids go off to college get a degree and because of no jobs at home they never come back. So saying coaching or better nutrition or playing better schedules would solve many teams problems is definitely not the case. What would solve the problems for the Lawrence county teams are more jobs.

[NY BUCKS]

Numbers play a big part
Technical be prepared know the system top to bottom
Where all kids play several positions. .
Coaching fundamental football
Get the kids on same page ..
Get them being focused make them hungry. .

[moonshine]

I would speculate 95%-99.7% of kids out there grow up with married parents. That can make for a very strong support system.

Very much a conservative values in the area! and strong religion values!

[YOU'RE TIGER BAIT]

GREAT POSTS YA'LL.

[Blackjack]

One reason Ironton was great for all of those years !!

BOB LUTZ

C. O. A. C. H. I. N. G.

[YOU'RE TIGER BAIT]

NO DOUBT THERE JACK. BUT A COACH NOW COULD NOT COACH LIKE BOB AND HIS STAFF DID NOW. THE PARENTS WOULD HAVE A FIT NOWADAYS. WE WERE AFFRAID TO MESS UP. AND RESPECTED OUR COACHING STAFF. HECK COACH VASS NOW WOULD TELL YOU THE SAME THING.

[big medicine]

King Kong hit the nail on the head when talking economics. Just take a look at the numbers between Lawrence County and Mercer County. Lawrence county has roughly 61,000 people, but remember they are spread out over 8 school districts. While Mercer county has 40,000 spread over only 3 school districts. That is a huge advantage for the MAC schools. Then the other main factor is the Economics of both counties. Lawrence county has 16% below the poverty line while Mercer county has 8%. The unemployment rate is 6.3% for Lawrence county while Mercer county had half that with 3.3% Mercer county has twice the state average when it comes to manufacturing jobs while Lawrence county is way under that number. So basically what this is saying is Lawrence county is poorer which means kids have more important things to worry about like where am I going to sleep or will I eat tonight than playing sports. Also kids quit to take jobs to help support their family when their dads or moms get laid off work. Also with no jobs in the area kids go off to college get a degree and because of no jobs at home they never come back. So saying coaching or better nutrition or playing better schedules would solve many teams problems is definitely not the case. What would solve the problems for the Lawrence county teams are more jobs.

Your numbers on school districts in Mercer county are a little off. There are six school districts which lay mostly in Mercer county, some of the edge districts may extend partially into neighboring counties as well.

They are
Celina (county seat) - D 3 Western Buckeye League
Coldwater D 5 MAC
Parkway D 6 MAC
St. Henry D 6 MAC
Marion Local D 6 MAC
Ft. Recovery D 7 MAC

[Tigercannon71]

Sorry when I looked it up it only had 3 in there.

[madpolecat]

A fellow coach and I looked at this idea a while back and found some interesting facts...

1. The schools may be small-to-mid sized, but they have fairly high population densities. The densities are actually even higher than the numbers suggest because huge tracts of land up there are farms, and that land doesn't have many people on it at all.

2. The median income numbers definitely favor the schools in the MAC. Compare Jackson County to Mercer County. That money equals STABILITY in the lives of more kids, which means that families can commit to things like sports or band or anything.

Financial stability trumps everything, more than conservative values, more than parents still being married or any of that tosh.

Now, lest anybody jump and accuse me of saying these things don't exist in SE Ohio, I will clarify: it's not that Mercer County has these things and we don't. But the difference between 35 kids on a team and 65 is 30 more kids whose lives have financial stability.

[madpolecat]

There are good coaches in both places. If we blame the difference on "coaching," it allows us to believe there are factors we can change so we can dream of being powerhouses some day, when in fact there's very little -- if anything -- a school can do to improve that stability.

The average value of property in Mercer is higher because you can farm that land over and over to generate wealth, but the hills and forests of SE Ohio can either be timbered one time, or the coal can be pulled out of the ground one time.

Advantage: Mercer, and therefore, the MAC.

[madpolecat]

Folks talk about bringing jobs to SE Ohio, but what jobs would those be?

Extraction industries have run their course.

Farming is limited by the geography.

Technology jobs follow go to places with multiple research universities close by.

Manufacturing goes where transportation gets the raw materials in hand easily.

SE Ohio will never have enough "good jobs" to go around and generate MAC-level stability. Pockets of it will exist, but they will be the exception, not the rule.