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Youth Football- HS and Younger (1 Viewer)

Chadstroma

Footballguy
I am kind of shocked there isn't a thread about youth football for all the other things discussed in FBG's. So... I am starting one. Talk your kid, someone else's kid, local school, coaching, or whatever else for High School on down. Tackle or Flag.
 
My two sons have started football this year.

My middle child, oldest son, is in 5th grade and on the school 5th/6th grade team or JV. He is an athletic kid who I generally describe like this for his grade... he isn't the tallest, but he is one of the tallest, not the fastest but one of the fastest, not the strongest but one of the strongest, etc. He is unique on the team in that he literally has the ability to play every position on the field for both defense and offense. Last year, as the upper classman for their undefeated season on the 3rd/4th grade team. he played LG (almost all snaps of the season with him sitting on series after getting a bruised leg) and about 50% of the defensive snaps where he was mostly DT but a little DE and even some OLB in a 4-4 defense. I was curious as to where he would end up playing this year. Early on the coaches asked me his weight (limit of 100 pounds at skill positions) which he is about 90 pounds and they got excited. As they started practices, he was working with all the linemen but then when they started lining up and going through plays etc he was lining up as a CB. That confused me. Not that he can't play CB but it doesn't strike me as the best use of him. But I am the parent that says "I am not the coach" and shrug my shoulders and watch. It sounded like he was going to be the starting CB and then a reserve WR. At today's practice, we moved indoors and I got a real good look at them running through. He was lining up as a WR but would also go as an inline TE on some formations and running with the 1st team on it all. Afterwards, I asked him and he said that he was a starting WR and a reserve CB. I still think he is best fitted to play DE on defense but again... I am not the coach. First scrimmage is Friday with the first game next Thursday.

My youngest child is doing flag football this year in 2nd grade. The school started this for the first time. I am silly enough to have volunteered to help coach. Wow... that is rough. 1st/2nd graders is just so draining as it is like herding cats the entire time. I was going to enroll my son in another football program, the local football program which there is major competition between the two and is actually one of the major reasons for us to do the flag football as some kids have started with the football club in flag and then stay there because they are already there. We have lost a couple of kids from the school to their club though they messed up and told the fastest kid in the grade (I would wager in the public schools too) that he would lose playing time because they were going to miss some of the first practices due to a family trip. They had been with the club team through flag football but then the Dad was like "No, this makes the decision easy. We will go to the school program." ANYWAYS.... other than development of the kids the other big reason is to try to keep from losing any of the kids from the school going to the club team. My other son is pretty athletic and enjoyed some football camps this summer. We broke the larger team down into 4 smaller teams and kind of running each as it's own seperate team. My son is the QB. The BIG challenge with him is that he has been having some emotional control issues where losing or having a bad play or being told he did something wrong can result into him having a meltdown. So we are working on that. The big challenge at this level is getting them to listen to you for 10 seconds and these emotional things like my son or crying because someone pulled my flag when they aren't supposed to or someone stepped on my foot etc. Practice is only two days a week (THANK GOD) and then right now we only have 4 games set up with the first this Sunday. We likely will fill in more games between the four teams we broke out with.

AND then my nephew is a Sophomore playing WR and CB for the local HS. I am hoping to get to at least one of his games.

I am looking forward to it. Should be a good year of youth football!
 
My son just started his 2nd season of flag tonight (first practice of the season). He's entering 5th grade and most of the kids on his team have been playing for several seasons; far more than him. He was somewhat disappointed last season that he didn't play much on offense. He isn't particularly fast/quick and has marginal hands at this point. But he hustles on the defensive side and made some positive strides towards the end of last season playing linebacker. He had a good first practice back tonight and because there are a few more kids on the team this time around, I doubt he plays much on offense again. But he'll start at linebacker and I'll once again offer him $1 per flag pull (tackle) during games. As long as he listens to the coaches, hustles, and has fun, I'm happy.

Would I love it if he gets better/faster and somehow makes the HS team after getting some experience playing tackle? HECK YES. But I seriously doubt it'll happen. This is only his third foray into organized sports and he's just not super athletic. I will work with him on "non practice / game" nights and during the "off-season" but he gets bored with drills and I don't want to push him unnecessarily.

I never played organized football until college (one season of flag) despite having a "football body", and absolutely love watching football. Fantasy football of course helps that. I'm happy that my boy is excited to play and will watch some games on TV with me this season. Hoping he sticks with playing.
 
My son just started his 2nd season of flag tonight (first practice of the season). He's entering 5th grade and most of the kids on his team have been playing for several seasons; far more than him. He was somewhat disappointed last season that he didn't play much on offense. He isn't particularly fast/quick and has marginal hands at this point. But he hustles on the defensive side and made some positive strides towards the end of last season playing linebacker. He had a good first practice back tonight and because there are a few more kids on the team this time around, I doubt he plays much on offense again. But he'll start at linebacker and I'll once again offer him $1 per flag pull (tackle) during games. As long as he listens to the coaches, hustles, and has fun, I'm happy.

Would I love it if he gets better/faster and somehow makes the HS team after getting some experience playing tackle? HECK YES. But I seriously doubt it'll happen. This is only his third foray into organized sports and he's just not super athletic. I will work with him on "non practice / game" nights and during the "off-season" but he gets bored with drills and I don't want to push him unnecessarily.

I never played organized football until college (one season of flag) despite having a "football body", and absolutely love watching football. Fantasy football of course helps that. I'm happy that my boy is excited to play and will watch some games on TV with me this season. Hoping he sticks with playing.
The thing I have tried to get my son to understand is that passion/hard work usually will beat out natural athletic talent if you have a lot of one and average of the other. So many athletically gifted kids through it away because they think they are already so good and they develop bad habits. Meanwhile, the hard workers are out there putting the work in and getting better.... and then.... sometimes their body changes to catch up with that hard work. Not always but is certainly does happen.

If he loves it... feed it. And help him develop those habits of working hard. Even if it doesn't pay off in football HS glory it usually will translate to life really well. Also, I would drill into him that if he wants to play offense, then have that as a goal and then "What are you going to do to get there?" and help him come up with a plan with agility/speed drills, playing catch, etc. Just because he is playing LB now doesn't mean he will always be a LB. And honestly, the more positions he plays at this age, the more of a football IQ he is naturally developing as he 'sees' the field from different perspectives.

Looking forward to hear how he does this year!
 
My son is entering his junior year. He goes to a 6A HS (largest class) in Missouri and the team has had championship aspirations for the last couple of years and has a few D1 kids on the team.

Football has been his passion since around 2nd grade. He played flag football until 6th grade and has played tackle since then. He always aspired to play WR and dominated his flag leagues, losing like 2 games total in 4 years.

In 7th grade he started at middle LB and was backup QB/RB. He scored a few TDs and they were like 7-1. 8th grade he only played middle LB. 9th grade he didnt grow at all from 8th grade and was a backup RB and backup OLB and played sparingly until he dislocated his hip getting tackled at the end of their 2nd to last game. Doctors said they normally only see that in car wrecks and it was a freak accident. He was on crutches for 8 weeks and missed the basketball season. (He didn't even make the basketball team as a soph but is trying out again this year)

His soph year was tough because he was a late bloomer. He finally hit full puberty late last year (at 16) and grew 3 inches this Spring and actually looks athletic now, but last year was hard to watch because nobody wanted to play worse than him but he was just too slow. He committed to playing WR and split time on JV and caught 0 passes all season. He cried after games on the ride home on multiple occasions which broke my heart.

This year with a little more speed and a lot more size (he is the biggest WR on the team), he will be starting JV and get some limited varsity time. Biggest issue there is the 2 starting varsity outside WR's and TE are all juniors as well. His only hope to actually start next year is to bulk up more and be the TE, because the 2 WR's are lightening fast and he just won't ever get there physically.

Some of it is tougher because I went to a smaller HS than he is and started both ways my Jr & Sr year on Varsity and had a lot of accolades and went on to play 2 years of NAIA FB at WR. I wonder if he wouldn't have faired better at a smaller school where he would be one of the top athletes instead of 2nd tier guy on his own team. The 10-12th grade has about 100 kids playing FB, some of whom will barely see the field in games.

I know it is a process and he's right on the cusp of actually being a contributor, but it's been a tough couple of years for him.
 
But he'll start at linebacker and I'll once again offer him $1 per flag pull (tackle) during games. As long as he listens to the coaches, hustles, and has fun, I'm happy.
This seems a rather odd thing to do. If he is enjoying the game and learning from the experience, why do you find the need to incentivize making plays with money?
 
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But he'll start at linebacker and I'll once again offer him $1 per flag pull (tackle) during games. As long as he listens to the coaches, hustles, and has fun, I'm happy.
This seems a rather odd thing to do. If he is enjoying the game and learning from the experience, why do you find the need to incentivize making plays with money?
He’s getting him used to taking money for football so he will be better prepared for NIL money. That’s solid parenting right there.
 
But he'll start at linebacker and I'll once again offer him $1 per flag pull (tackle) during games. As long as he listens to the coaches, hustles, and has fun, I'm happy.
This seems a rather odd thing to do. If he is enjoying the game and learning from the experience, why do you find the need to incentivize making plays with money?
Just a little fun extra incentive, and he likes to save his money in a fun little bank in his room, and then he pays me or his mom for "upgrades" on the games he plays on the computer/Switch. I don't see the harm in it.

He won't like it any more or less if I do it or not.
 
23rd year. Preseason is in full swing. Scrimmages last weekend, scrimmages today and tomorrow. Need to teach new officials how to work. Need to teach players where to position.
Youth games start Saturday, High School and NCAA next week. Over the 10 days I will officiate ages 6-22 in flag and tackle. The county starts High School Varsity Girls Flag next Wednesday with 5 games. I expect Ravens cheerleaders and big celebration to go with it.
 
My youngest (12 years old / 7th grade) is doing his first year of tackle. He's playing up an age group so he can be with the coaches I wanted him with and who he played 7 on 7 in the spring with. He is most likely the starting TE (for when we run sets with a TE), with some sets having him inline and some in the slot, and being used as an H-Back/Fullback for some power sets. He's also being worked at guard for sets when we are going more spread and to give the team more depth on the O-Line. Will also be a blocker for FG/PAT and is on the kick return team.

He is also getting work as MLB, but his lack of experience tackling, and basketball background shows. He is very good at getting into position, but rather than attack to make the hit, he was getting into position and more absorbing the contact to make the tackle, kind f like taking a charge in basketball. On the plus side, in our scrimmage last weekend, of the 20ish or so plays he got at MLB, he was in on the tackle or made the initial hit on 8 of the plays. Got positive reviews from the coaches there.

And, as he has background playing keeper in soccer, he is being looked at as the punter, though at this age the odds of a long snap being semi on-target are 50/50, so not sure how much we will punt.

For his first foray into tackle, and being a year or more younger than many of the players (we have 6-7 playing up, including the coaches kids, so they will stay together at the same age group next season) very happy he's getting looks at a bunch of spots, but his primary goal is TE as he wants to follow his cousins footsteps there - 1 is a junior in college playing D-1, the other is a junior in high school rated in the top 25ish at TE in his class and already has about 20 offers, including some top 25 programs.

IN addition to my kid's games, will be trying to make as many of my nephew's games as possible, and also the high school games for where my middle son goes (soccer player there), and then schedule permitting try to make some local college games and also try get to SDSU games (my oldest is a freshman there).

Going to be a lot of football in our house.

Weirdest part is this is the first flag season since 2013 that I am not coaching a team.
 
But he'll start at linebacker and I'll once again offer him $1 per flag pull (tackle) during games. As long as he listens to the coaches, hustles, and has fun, I'm happy.
This seems a rather odd thing to do. If he is enjoying the game and learning from the experience, why do you find the need to incentivize making plays with money?
Just a little fun extra incentive, and he likes to save his money in a fun little bank in his room, and then he pays me or his mom for "upgrades" on the games he plays on the computer/Switch. I don't see the harm in it.

He won't like it any more or less if I do it or not.

Nothing wrong with that IMO - when I coached my teams, I put some fun incentives out there for the kids - I'd give a dollar for any pick six and I'd give a dollar for anyone that ran a fake so good that the other team pulled their flag. I really liked that last one as it taught the kids that even if a play was not called for you, your role in it and selling it was just as important as the kid with the ball. It was my favorite incentive to pay off and the one I hyped the most. When I had kids that simply couldn't catch, etc., I'd also incentivize them with candy or some other treat for flag pulls. At the rec level, not every kid is motivated by simply being competitive, this was one way to get them to put in some extra effort.

@nirad3 - I know we have talked about it before, but I really don't like how your rec flag league does the lineups - one thing I really liked about the rec league I had my kids in was how they enforced play time. It was 6 on 6, and every team had 8 players. All players played 3 full quarters and had to sit 1 quarter. This way every kid played offense and defense and you couldn't just play your best kids all the time. If you showed up with less than 8 players, and the other team had 8 (or at least 7 if you only had 6), they had the option to use the player advantage rule on you which meant they could choose 1 player (or 2 if they had 2 more players) that could not throw a pass in the 2nd half. It's sad, but in the first year of the league before the rule was in place, and again, this is a true rec level league, they had coaches actually telling kids that games for a certain week were cancelled so that they could only play their top 6 kids for the whole game.
 
But he'll start at linebacker and I'll once again offer him $1 per flag pull (tackle) during games. As long as he listens to the coaches, hustles, and has fun, I'm happy.
This seems a rather odd thing to do. If he is enjoying the game and learning from the experience, why do you find the need to incentivize making plays with money?
Why odd? I mean, perhaps it is not needed if he is already driven but I don't see how it hurts anything. Building some good father/son interaction and getting him excited. What is the downside?
 
He is also getting work as MLB, but his lack of experience tackling, and basketball background shows. He is very good at getting into position, but rather than attack to make the hit, he was getting into position and more absorbing the contact to make the tackle, kind f like taking a charge in basketball. On the plus side, in our scrimmage last weekend, of the 20ish or so plays he got at MLB, he was in on the tackle or made the initial hit on 8 of the plays. Got positive reviews from the coaches there.
This was me when I played defense for the first time my Junior year of HS. I was a basketball player first and foremost and had only played TE/WR on the football team in 8-10th grades. Up until then, I'd never tackled anyone in a game and then found myself starting on varsity at cornerback. I did a lot of "grab and hold on until they fall down" tackles. I got much better at it by senior year and moved to free safety and ended up having a great season there. I never got to where I was blowing RB's up, but I definitely learned how to attack and come in a little bit lower. Just wanted to let you know there is hope for him to develop that skill a bit (although MLB is a different animal than DB).

It is funny how some guys just seem to have "it" when it comes to hitting, though. I remember specific kids growing up that felt like running into a parked car when they tackled you and there wasn't really any difference in size, just a combo of acceleration, body angle and technique that felt different.
 
Started officiating Middle School and High School football when my last kid went to college and I became an empty nester. Starting my 3rd season this year. I enjoy it, but this year is already stressful as I am in the office more which makes getting out of work to make games more of a challenge.
 
Both my sons played a lot of flag football in their younger years.

My oldest son started tackle as a sophomore in HS. I think he regrets not playing freshman year. He realized quickly the difference between kids who grew up playing tackle and those who played flag and that extra year missed as a freshman put him even further behind those kids. He chose CB, probably mostly because he didn't want to hit or be hit too much. As a sophomore, he played a decent amount on JV and then started a lot of his junior year. If they played a team who ran a lot, they'd sometimes take him out for someone with better tackling ability. Junior and senior year he hit a growth spurt and got up to about 6'2". He's never been fast, so CB was kind of an awkward position at that point, but he didn't really want to change. He was a good flag football QB and I wish he had stayed with that, but he decided he liked WR in his later flag days. During his junior year, the QB coaches had him come out early to run some QB drills so he had the idea of trying to be the backup QB his senior year. However, that QB coach left and my son is too shy and reserved to say to he new coaches, "Hey, I want to be a QB!" He often said his senior year, "I never should have given up QB." And I sometimes think, "I never should have let you give it up." So, he stayed at CB and got in some snaps because they destroyed a lot of their opponents. Overall, he had fun being on the team.

My youngest son is now a junior. Unlike his older brother, he started tackle as a freshman. He chose safety (he's a big Sean Taylor fan despite never seeing him play other than YouTube highlights). Like his brother, he lacks speed (they got that from me), although I think he has a tiny bit more and is a little more aggressive. Freshman year, his team blew out so many opponents that he got some good playing time. At the end of the last game of the season, he dropped an INT and was pretty down on himself. As a sophomore, he was backup safety on JV. He didn't get as much playing time as freshman year, but he volunteered for kickoff coverage so he'd get to do something every game. He got blown up by blockers quite a few times :lol: . Best of all, he had a moment of redemption intercepting a pass. It was great seeing his DB coach go crazy for him on the sidelines. Coaches recognize him as a smart player who knows what to do even if his physical abilities lag behind other players. The varsity team was really good last year and they were loaded with seniors. Since those guys are gone, some of the better juniors transferred because they know the upcoming season is going to be rough. I think my son sees this as an opportunity for playing time. He's been lifting a ton this year and I can tell he's trying hard to get better. As of right now, my expectation is for him to start JV and be second string on varsity. Although, if one of the starting safeties gets injured, I wouldn't be surprised if they opt for someone from another position with a lot more football experience and aggressive play instead of promoting my son. We'll see where he is in the rotation soon enough. JV scrimmage tonight against the former TC Williams (Remember the Titans HS) and then varsity game tomorrow night. Looking forward to watching him play and see where he's improved.
 
But he'll start at linebacker and I'll once again offer him $1 per flag pull (tackle) during games. As long as he listens to the coaches, hustles, and has fun, I'm happy.
This seems a rather odd thing to do. If he is enjoying the game and learning from the experience, why do you find the need to incentivize making plays with money?
Why odd? I mean, perhaps it is not needed if he is already driven but I don't see how it hurts anything. Building some good father/son interaction and getting him excited. What is the downside?
Maybe unnecessary is a better word than odd? I did not mean to imply it is wrong or harmful in any way. Actually, nirad3's description of how the money can potentially be spent adds a few lessons of its own. It just isn't something I ever thought to do as my kid came through the ranks, nor have I ever noticed it being done by others in my long history of coaching, so it seemed a little odd to me.
 
My son skipped flag football and started playing tackle football in 1st grade. The popularity of flag football started to boom after his early years. It seems crazy that he actually played 12 years of tackle football by the time he finished high school. At the time he came of age, I was coaching high school varsity football. My wife and I had some minor concerns at first about starting so young. I did not play tackle football until I was in high school. I would have, but I was always too big for the CYO weight limits, so it just didn't happen. When my son started playing, I actually left the high school coaching ranks to specifically coach his youth teams and hopefully "do it the right way" by teaching proper techniques and emphasizing safety as much as possible. Those 1st and 2nd grade teams were hilariously fun. There wasn't a whole lot of vicious hitting going on yet at that level, more like bumping into each other more often than not. I continued to coach his youth teams up through middle school. He had a great youth football experience as did I going though it with him. When he got to high school, I took a break from coaching him and just became a spectator for a couple years. I thought it was a good move to step away from the coaching role at that time and give him a little space and experience with other coaches. I just got to be dad/fan. It was good for both of us. Although my son was never the best athlete around and he was somewhat undersized for his position (senior year 6'3" 190 lbs OT/DE), he was smart. He learned the game well. He had 9 freaking years of experience before he stepped on the varsity field for a Friday night game. The high school coaches (guys I knew well) thought of him as a coach on the field, and my son loved that. Many of his favorite memories are of discussing strategies, schemes and in game adjustments with his coaches on the sidelines during a game. So from that perspective, the early experiences paid off well. He was a great student of the game. However, we were very fortunate that he never experienced any serious injury along the way. We definitely knew some other kids that were not as lucky. If we were to do it all again today, we probably would elect the flag route at these early ages. It is a wise choice.
 
Started officiating Middle School and High School football when my last kid went to college and I became an empty nester. Starting my 3rd season this year. I enjoy it, but this year is already stressful as I am in the office more which makes getting out of work to make games more of a challenge.
Welcome to the club, Al!

I am just officiating college on Saturdays at this point with two kids playing Fall sports of High school FB & Middle school VB. @brettdj and I are both NCAA Div-II officials and he still works a full slate of middle and high school games.

Getting out of work is always a factor for officials. Some people have jobs that it just isn't feasible at all and some have jobs that make it difficult at times. I'm an accountant at a very small company, so I get to adjust my schedule as needed. Not sure if bumping up a 1/2 hour earlier on your start and end time or taking a 1/2 hour lunch instead of a full hour is an option for you or not.

Our HS associations use arbitersports.com for assigning which has a section for travel restrictions that you can set to make sure they don't ask you to work a game an hour away on a weekday, but not sure if your group is using that or not.
 
Looking forward to watching him play and see where he's improved.
Rocky start to last night's scrimmage with horrible angles and missed tackles. But, in the second half, he had some of his best tackles of his career. A couple nice, solid tackles where the ball carrier goes down right away rather than my son being dragged for several yards. He closed the game out with tackles on four straight plays (ok, one of them was the RB going out of bounds as he stiff-armed my son, but I'm counting it!). It was, by far, the most contact he's had in a game. I think he ended with 8-9 tackles. He came home with a few hurt body parts, but I think he's starting to see that he can survive some contact.

Oh, and I forgot that he had been practicing long snapping! His one XP snap was a bit high, but worked out ok, and his three punt snaps were really good.

Dressing for varsity tonight, but I don't expect him to play, which is probably good after all that contact last night.
 
My son skipped flag football and started playing tackle football in 1st grade. The popularity of flag football started to boom after his early years. It seems crazy that he actually played 12 years of tackle football by the time he finished high school. At the time he came of age, I was coaching high school varsity football. My wife and I had some minor concerns at first about starting so young. I did not play tackle football until I was in high school. I would have, but I was always too big for the CYO weight limits, so it just didn't happen. When my son started playing, I actually left the high school coaching ranks to specifically coach his youth teams and hopefully "do it the right way" by teaching proper techniques and emphasizing safety as much as possible. Those 1st and 2nd grade teams were hilariously fun. There wasn't a whole lot of vicious hitting going on yet at that level, more like bumping into each other more often than not. I continued to coach his youth teams up through middle school. He had a great youth football experience as did I going though it with him. When he got to high school, I took a break from coaching him and just became a spectator for a couple years. I thought it was a good move to step away from the coaching role at that time and give him a little space and experience with other coaches. I just got to be dad/fan. It was good for both of us. Although my son was never the best athlete around and he was somewhat undersized for his position (senior year 6'3" 190 lbs OT/DE), he was smart. He learned the game well. He had 9 freaking years of experience before he stepped on the varsity field for a Friday night game. The high school coaches (guys I knew well) thought of him as a coach on the field, and my son loved that. Many of his favorite memories are of discussing strategies, schemes and in game adjustments with his coaches on the sidelines during a game. So from that perspective, the early experiences paid off well. He was a great student of the game. However, we were very fortunate that he never experienced any serious injury along the way. We definitely knew some other kids that were not as lucky. If we were to do it all again today, we probably would elect the flag route at these early ages. It is a wise choice.
1st grade tackle? I don't think that is anywhere near an option around here. I think times have changed.

Coaching 1st/2nd graders is a challenge. Even more so when it is mixed... because usually the boys want to be there. The girls may want to be there but just as happy to sit in a circle and play patty cake than play. The percentage of them interested in paging attention is noticeably less. And at that age, it is a lot of cat herding more so than actual coaching.
 
He is also getting work as MLB, but his lack of experience tackling, and basketball background shows. He is very good at getting into position, but rather than attack to make the hit, he was getting into position and more absorbing the contact to make the tackle, kind f like taking a charge in basketball. On the plus side, in our scrimmage last weekend, of the 20ish or so plays he got at MLB, he was in on the tackle or made the initial hit on 8 of the plays. Got positive reviews from the coaches there.
This was me when I played defense for the first time my Junior year of HS. I was a basketball player first and foremost and had only played TE/WR on the football team in 8-10th grades. Up until then, I'd never tackled anyone in a game and then found myself starting on varsity at cornerback. I did a lot of "grab and hold on until they fall down" tackles. I got much better at it by senior year and moved to free safety and ended up having a great season there. I never got to where I was blowing RB's up, but I definitely learned how to attack and come in a little bit lower. Just wanted to let you know there is hope for him to develop that skill a bit (although MLB is a different animal than DB).

It is funny how some guys just seem to have "it" when it comes to hitting, though. I remember specific kids growing up that felt like running into a parked car when they tackled you and there wasn't really any difference in size, just a combo of acceleration, body angle and technique that felt different.
Last year there was a kid in 2nd grade and he was taking our 4th graders down... including my son who would give most 5th graders a hard time. He was playing flag football and his Dad said he kept hitting people instead of getting flags. He is now in 3rd on the tackle team. I don't see much of that team but I am sure he is a terror tackle machine.
 
My son skipped flag football and started playing tackle football in 1st grade. The popularity of flag football started to boom after his early years. It seems crazy that he actually played 12 years of tackle football by the time he finished high school. At the time he came of age, I was coaching high school varsity football. My wife and I had some minor concerns at first about starting so young. I did not play tackle football until I was in high school. I would have, but I was always too big for the CYO weight limits, so it just didn't happen. When my son started playing, I actually left the high school coaching ranks to specifically coach his youth teams and hopefully "do it the right way" by teaching proper techniques and emphasizing safety as much as possible. Those 1st and 2nd grade teams were hilariously fun. There wasn't a whole lot of vicious hitting going on yet at that level, more like bumping into each other more often than not. I continued to coach his youth teams up through middle school. He had a great youth football experience as did I going though it with him. When he got to high school, I took a break from coaching him and just became a spectator for a couple years. I thought it was a good move to step away from the coaching role at that time and give him a little space and experience with other coaches. I just got to be dad/fan. It was good for both of us. Although my son was never the best athlete around and he was somewhat undersized for his position (senior year 6'3" 190 lbs OT/DE), he was smart. He learned the game well. He had 9 freaking years of experience before he stepped on the varsity field for a Friday night game. The high school coaches (guys I knew well) thought of him as a coach on the field, and my son loved that. Many of his favorite memories are of discussing strategies, schemes and in game adjustments with his coaches on the sidelines during a game. So from that perspective, the early experiences paid off well. He was a great student of the game. However, we were very fortunate that he never experienced any serious injury along the way. We definitely knew some other kids that were not as lucky. If we were to do it all again today, we probably would elect the flag route at these early ages. It is a wise choice.
1st grade tackle? I don't think that is anywhere near an option around here. I think times have changed.

Coaching 1st/2nd graders is a challenge. Even more so when it is mixed... because usually the boys want to be there. The girls may want to be there but just as happy to sit in a circle and play patty cake than play. The percentage of them interested in paging attention is noticeably less. And at that age, it is a lot of cat herding more so than actual coaching.
Yes. The program was called Mighty Mights. There were 4 teams, all within our community. We did not play other cities until 3rd/4th grade level. It was a 7 vs 7 game with 4 linemen, 2 RBs and a QB.
 
First scrimmage for my middle son last night. Confirmed he is starting WR. Also he was lined up as an OLB and not a CB which makes WAY more sense to me. Sure, he can play CB but we have a lot of kids on the team with speed who can play corner and not many with the strength and speed to be an effective pass rusher like my son. His ability to cover works well too as the OLB.

The scrimmage was run with the 3/4 team on one side of the field and us on the other. We took turns doing kick off/return a few times then switch to be return/kick off. Then moved to offense vs defense for like 10 snaps and switch. We did 1st team against 1st team and then later 2nd team vs 2nd team (and their 3rd team as they have A LOT of kids).

Our 6th grade class is small but I was hoping the size, athleticism and numbers of our 5th graders would help keep us competitive. Our first 3/4 year we were a sub 500 team. Our second 3/4 year with my boys class as upperclassmen went undefeated. They are a big program and apparently some parents will end up living closer to another Catholic school but will enroll them in this school because of their football program. Their 1st team must have been all 6th graders while our 1st teams are prob half and half.

If the scrimmage was a good indication.... we are in for rough year. I thought our Oline would be good enough. We got three boys with real good size. Our center is undersized with little height but stout and same with RG. I figured they could hold up enough. Nope. Their Dline was getting right through on both run and pass plays. The one called play that was supposed to have my son as the number one target the QB had someone in his face pretty much right after getting the ball and quickly got sacked. He had no chance. My son did decently well in blocking assignments but we couldn't move the ball much.

When we went to first team defense, they held up well. One of our 6th graders got INT's in back to back plays which was a big pick me up for our boys.

2nd team offense did well against their 2nd team defense which would have been our 2nd string 5th graders against their 1st string 5th graders pretty much. Then the switch to 2nd team defense with my boy playing OLB. He did some rushing the QB and then some coverage. One play, a kid who was playing CB, came across..... apparently not seeing that the QB handed it off and as my boy came across picked him. lol Most of the plays went away from my son. On one play, they broke free going to the opposite side of the field that my son lined up on but he came across and took the RB out right at the goalline. It was close... I didn't have a good angle to see but it did look to me like the kid broke the plane with the football but my son swears he didn't and he got him out- REGARDLESS, it was a great play. I really talked it up because I have been trying to drill into him to never give up on any play. Keep at it. Other side of the field or down the field or whatever... you go, because if you do that all game long, you will make 1 or 2 extra plays a game. That was the perfect example of it.

If we can't block up front, I am not sure how much my son will get a chance to do at the WR spot. He will likely get some snaps at OLB on defense and I think he will make a difference there. We might be in for another 500ish season this year and then likely be the favorite next year again with our boys as the upperclassmen. I have told people that I thought this would happen as they went through the years.... hopefully competitive in 5th, dominate in 6th, hopefully competitive in 7th and dominate in 8th. Early indication is that will pan out.

- - -

Youngest.... we had practice today as we canceled Thursday with too high of a heat index. Besides the chaos of 'coaching' 1/2 graders, there is a lot of extra chaos as this is the first year of our school doing this. And to make it even more chaotic is that there is no formal league or rules... it is more of 'hey, we got some flag football and you do too... let's play against each other! How many do you want to play with? 11? 10? 7? Ok, let's do it." lol First game is tomorrow. My son had a meltdown today because he didn't get to be QB the whole time and was asked to be a WR. Argh. Crying, screaming. Temper tantrum. Took off the field to the side lines. He screamed louder so everyone could hear him (everyone already could of course) and threw his gloves. So then I picked him up and sat him in the car. Sigh. It has become a big issue since this summer. Never did any of this crap until this summer and now it is out of hand.
 
If we can't block up front,
Difficult at any level of football, but likely the most difficult thing to do effectively at the youth levels. And, inevitably, there will be some moron coach for an opponent that will send the house every play on defense just overwhelming the offense. Congrats guy, you win, but the kids didn't learn any football today...
 
If we can't block up front,
Difficult at any level of football, but likely the most difficult thing to do effectively at the youth levels. And, inevitably, there will be some moron coach for an opponent that will send the house every play on defense just overwhelming the offense. Congrats guy, you win, but the kids didn't learn any football today...
Last year they did very well blocking. Of course, it was 9 running plays (or more) to every 1 pass play but they did well in both. The other teams D line was all 6th graders against two 6th graders and three 5th graders... two of which are giving up like 6 inches of height if not more. Our 2nd team boys did much better which feeds into what I was saying before about how I think every other year will be dominating and the off fighting to be competitive in that I believe that was all their best 5th graders going against our second string 5th graders and they were doing well in both run and pass blocking.
 
A little bragging for my oldest friend that we were best friends since 6th grade who is down in TX now..... his son (Junior) named QB a few days before their first game going against the Arkansas 4A defending champions.


Braden, his son, has been getting some interest before from schools... I think that might pick up a lot now. Dang good performance against a proven good team.
 
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My little one had his first flag football game.

Each school had 4 teams. There are no refs and it is very "what do you want to do?" kind of thing. I had two late (the other coaches twins) so we had 8 and agreed to do 8 on 8. Then we agreed to 10 offensive plays then 10 defensive plays and vice versa. I am pretty sure the team we went against was all or close to all 2nd graders where I had half 1st and half 2nd with more than a couple of my kids clearly not wanting to be there (asking to sit out or when it was over etc). I am pretty sure they have been doing a flag football program for a while.

If we were keeping score... they destroyed us. I think they scored like 5 or 6 times where we did 1 or 2.

My co-coach is an interesting guy. I have ran into him a couple of times at bday parties and it is a chore to talk to him. One of those guys that is just very random, a lot of short thoughts but doesn't stop, doesn't pay attention to when you talk and cuts you off 99% of the time to complete your thought but is wrong. I am just trying to focus on teaching the kids who this was ALL of their first flag football game and likely for most of them their first organized sport game... he comes in and is like "I don't feel like we are trying to win. Do you guys even want to win?" so, I am like "uh, well, it's ok guys... we are all learning and trying to have fun." :lmao:

It was a ton of work.

On the bright side, my son did pretty well when he had the ball. Most of our best plays were with him. And most importantly he did not have a meltdown. He got upset a couple of times and I was like "oh crap, here we go" but then he controlled himself. His biggest complaints were the other team was grabbing his shirt or grabbed/hit (not sure what) his neck.... and then he got upset that I yelled at him to get the ball when the QB pitched it to him and was not close to him... instead of going to get the ball he turns and complains to the QB. Then got a little upset that I yelled at him to get the ball. Sigh.
 
My little one had his first flag football game.

Each school had 4 teams. There are no refs and it is very "what do you want to do?" kind of thing. I had two late (the other coaches twins) so we had 8 and agreed to do 8 on 8. Then we agreed to 10 offensive plays then 10 defensive plays and vice versa. I am pretty sure the team we went against was all or close to all 2nd graders where I had half 1st and half 2nd with more than a couple of my kids clearly not wanting to be there (asking to sit out or when it was over etc). I am pretty sure they have been doing a flag football program for a while.

If we were keeping score... they destroyed us. I think they scored like 5 or 6 times where we did 1 or 2.

My co-coach is an interesting guy. I have ran into him a couple of times at bday parties and it is a chore to talk to him. One of those guys that is just very random, a lot of short thoughts but doesn't stop, doesn't pay attention to when you talk and cuts you off 99% of the time to complete your thought but is wrong. I am just trying to focus on teaching the kids who this was ALL of their first flag football game and likely for most of them their first organized sport game... he comes in and is like "I don't feel like we are trying to win. Do you guys even want to win?" so, I am like "uh, well, it's ok guys... we are all learning and trying to have fun." :lmao:

It was a ton of work.

On the bright side, my son did pretty well when he had the ball. Most of our best plays were with him. And most importantly he did not have a meltdown. He got upset a couple of times and I was like "oh crap, here we go" but then he controlled himself. His biggest complaints were the other team was grabbing his shirt or grabbed/hit (not sure what) his neck.... and then he got upset that I yelled at him to get the ball when the QB pitched it to him and was not close to him... instead of going to get the ball he turns and complains to the QB. Then got a little upset that I yelled at him to get the ball. Sigh.
As a follow up to this...

I spoke with the guy that is heading up our program and he has spoken with the guy heading up the other schools program and we got more info on everything.

First, their program has K through 3rd grade. That makes so much sense now as some of the kids my team was going against, I was thinking 'wow, these are some big 2nd graders' though it didn't look like they had any K or even 1st on their team. This is their second year running their program and they have already had 2 full games that they played within their own squads (they have 4 like we have 4) so the differences that we saw in our kids understanding and play level etc made a lot more sense and made me feel more comfortable about how we are doing things.

Definitely going to work on doing shotgun. We were doing under center and the kids just don't get the concept of dropping back so they stand right behind the center and then get their flags snagged quickly. I was worried about the exchange on shotgun but I think it is worth having a bad snap or two for them to be able to actually run a play effectively.
 
My son is going into his freshman year of high school, prior to this season he played football for two years with a local 8th grade team. Prior to football he played hockey since he was 3 years old, playing football was always a conflict in schedules, we told him if he wanted to play he could and we would work through the cross-scheduling. My son also played lacrosse since he was 7 years old.

My son is playing offensive line (6'3" and 235), he is playing between the Freshman and JV team, but also suiting up for Varsity. Not sure if this is the case among all teams, but my son is considered the first back-up to the varsity offensive line. He would play if there is an injury or someone gets pulled on any of the 5 offensive line positions. He has his first action last week, Thursday he played 2 quarters with the Freshman team then played a quarter in the Varsity game Friday night.

My wife and I were pretty nervous but he held his own, with no sacks and was able have a decent running game. Its kind of a cool experience watching him out there doing what he enjoys and stepping up against bigger players and holding his own.
 
JV scrimmage #2 tonight so I keep thinking today is Thursday. Multiple times I've thought, "Oh cool, tomorrow is Friday." :sadbanana:

My son didn't get any varsity snaps last Friday, but the long snapper on punts short hopped both his snaps and my son's three JV snaps were really good so I'm wondering if he might be able to work his way into that job this season.

In the first JV scrimmage he lined up for punt return (they just drop their safeties back as PRs), but the punts were so bad there was no chance for a return. I asked him after the game if he was looking forward to returning punts and he said, "I had no idea I was going to be a punt returner. I guess I should ask if I should practice that." Well, as of yesterday he confirmed he's a punt returner! That should be interesting.
 
JV scrimmage #2 tonight so I keep thinking today is Thursday. Multiple times I've thought, "Oh cool, tomorrow is Friday." :sadbanana:

My son didn't get any varsity snaps last Friday, but the long snapper on punts short hopped both his snaps and my son's three JV snaps were really good so I'm wondering if he might be able to work his way into that job this season.

In the first JV scrimmage he lined up for punt return (they just drop their safeties back as PRs), but the punts were so bad there was no chance for a return. I asked him after the game if he was looking forward to returning punts and he said, "I had no idea I was going to be a punt returner. I guess I should ask if I should practice that." Well, as of yesterday he confirmed he's a punt returner! That should be interesting.
My son's JV season started last night. They play the same school every week that the varsity played on the Friday before. It was a school that used to be one of the best in the state, but have dropped back a bit and we beat them for the 3rd season in a row on Friday.

My son started and played about 90% of the offensive plays at WR and got 3 targets. He caught the only one he could get a hand on and took an 8-yard curl and got about 4 more yards for a first down. I think he is a bit frustrated with playing JV as a Junior, but when your entire varsity team is at or near college level talent that's a tough lineup to crack.

Their run/pass ratio was about 80/20 though. They won 13-6.
 
My son is in 7th grade, starting his 3rd year of football. It has been an adjustment going from 2x week practices in youth football to everyday, plus the locker room, buses, etc. He’s also had to learn to grow mentally and “be on his own.” In youth league he was a know quantity after his first regular season. All the coaches knew him. Now it’s a blank slate. He’s on the small side (~85 lbs) but he’s fearless and tough. He loves playing OLB, which is a natural fit for him. But with his size they stuck him at CB day one. He was willing to learn the position, but wanted a shot at LB. So it’s time to grow up and talk to your coaches. Helping him learn to talk to the coaches and how to talk to them (no whining, asking for their advice on how to get where he wants) has been a small process. He also has had to learn to pace himself. He’s an active kid. He’s been working out daily over the summer, and telling him he has to cut that back to 1-2x week has been a battle. Between that and going out after school to play with his friends, he exhausted himself the first week of school. He missed a practice that caused him to be behind that resulted in little playing time the first game. It’s been hard as a parent to let him make these decisions and watch the fallout. But a couple of weeks in he’s learned a lot.

So he talked to his coaches, got some suggestions and has been working on things. At his size shedding blocks is a big hurdle as he’s giving up usually 30-40 lbs to most players (way more to OL). We had a B-team game Monday, and he played both ways almost whole game (he’s the back-up RB). He came home last night to tell me he was named starting ROLB for Thursday A-team game. Proud Dad moment.

Now I just wish he’d hit puberty. I started between my 7-8 grade years so hopefully he’s on that track. He’s a “normal” age for his grade, but a lot of people around here hold their kids back a year. So he’s playing with many kids who are a year or more older and would have been in 8th grade in my day. He told me yesterday a classmate had a mustache and that is was “pretty awesome.” :lmao: If he doesn’t grow I worry about 8th grade at ~90lbs (or playing on the 7th/8th grade rugby team come spring).
 
Now I just wish he’d hit puberty. I started between my 7-8 grade years so hopefully he’s on that track. He’s a “normal” age for his grade, but a lot of people around here hold their kids back a year. So he’s playing with many kids who are a year or more older and would have been in 8th grade in my day. He told me yesterday a classmate had a mustache and that is was “pretty awesome.” :lmao: If he doesn’t grow I worry about 8th grade at ~90lbs (or playing on the 7th/8th grade rugby team come spring).
We kind of held my son back (July 14th birthday) but, just like his father, he was late to the puberty game. Didn't really hit until 10th grade which made 9th and 10th tough as the underdeveloped kid. He was decent size all that time but he had little quickness, speed and strength compared to his already maturing teammates. Now he is starting to catch up (11th), but some of those kids are grown men now at the varsity level.
 
My son is in 7th grade, starting his 3rd year of football. It has been an adjustment going from 2x week practices in youth football to everyday, plus the locker room, buses, etc. He’s also had to learn to grow mentally and “be on his own.” In youth league he was a know quantity after his first regular season. All the coaches knew him. Now it’s a blank slate. He’s on the small side (~85 lbs) but he’s fearless and tough. He loves playing OLB, which is a natural fit for him. But with his size they stuck him at CB day one. He was willing to learn the position, but wanted a shot at LB. So it’s time to grow up and talk to your coaches. Helping him learn to talk to the coaches and how to talk to them (no whining, asking for their advice on how to get where he wants) has been a small process. He also has had to learn to pace himself. He’s an active kid. He’s been working out daily over the summer, and telling him he has to cut that back to 1-2x week has been a battle. Between that and going out after school to play with his friends, he exhausted himself the first week of school. He missed a practice that caused him to be behind that resulted in little playing time the first game. It’s been hard as a parent to let him make these decisions and watch the fallout. But a couple of weeks in he’s learned a lot.

So he talked to his coaches, got some suggestions and has been working on things. At his size shedding blocks is a big hurdle as he’s giving up usually 30-40 lbs to most players (way more to OL). We had a B-team game Monday, and he played both ways almost whole game (he’s the back-up RB). He came home last night to tell me he was named starting ROLB for Thursday A-team game. Proud Dad moment.

Now I just wish he’d hit puberty. I started between my 7-8 grade years so hopefully he’s on that track. He’s a “normal” age for his grade, but a lot of people around here hold their kids back a year. So he’s playing with many kids who are a year or more older and would have been in 8th grade in my day. He told me yesterday a classmate had a mustache and that is was “pretty awesome.” :lmao: If he doesn’t grow I worry about 8th grade at ~90lbs (or playing on the 7th/8th grade rugby team come spring).
Man... that is a rough ask at 85lbs and being at OLB. Good for him for working hard to get there.... he is going to have to work just as hard in some games. My 5th grader just did weigh in this weekend so he didn't end up a striper and could play WR. He came in at 93 pounds. He also plays OLB as well. They play 5th/6th and even though my son is bigger for a 5th grader, his birthdate is right on the line and we had the choice of keeping him back where he would be in 4th this year. He doesn't usually have issues with other 5th graders but some of the 6th grader linemen are significantly bigger than him.

Is he tall and lanky or just short? Technique is lacking a lot at that age so if he really focuses on it he can still defeat bigger kids.
 
Now I just wish he’d hit puberty. I started between my 7-8 grade years so hopefully he’s on that track. He’s a “normal” age for his grade, but a lot of people around here hold their kids back a year. So he’s playing with many kids who are a year or more older and would have been in 8th grade in my day. He told me yesterday a classmate had a mustache and that is was “pretty awesome.” :lmao: If he doesn’t grow I worry about 8th grade at ~90lbs (or playing on the 7th/8th grade rugby team come spring).
We kind of held my son back (July 14th birthday) but, just like his father, he was late to the puberty game. Didn't really hit until 10th grade which made 9th and 10th tough as the underdeveloped kid. He was decent size all that time but he had little quickness, speed and strength compared to his already maturing teammates. Now he is starting to catch up (11th), but some of those kids are grown men now at the varsity level.
Sometimes they seem like grown men in Middle School!
 
My son is in 7th grade, starting his 3rd year of football. It has been an adjustment going from 2x week practices in youth football to everyday, plus the locker room, buses, etc. He’s also had to learn to grow mentally and “be on his own.” In youth league he was a know quantity after his first regular season. All the coaches knew him. Now it’s a blank slate. He’s on the small side (~85 lbs) but he’s fearless and tough. He loves playing OLB, which is a natural fit for him. But with his size they stuck him at CB day one. He was willing to learn the position, but wanted a shot at LB. So it’s time to grow up and talk to your coaches. Helping him learn to talk to the coaches and how to talk to them (no whining, asking for their advice on how to get where he wants) has been a small process. He also has had to learn to pace himself. He’s an active kid. He’s been working out daily over the summer, and telling him he has to cut that back to 1-2x week has been a battle. Between that and going out after school to play with his friends, he exhausted himself the first week of school. He missed a practice that caused him to be behind that resulted in little playing time the first game. It’s been hard as a parent to let him make these decisions and watch the fallout. But a couple of weeks in he’s learned a lot.

So he talked to his coaches, got some suggestions and has been working on things. At his size shedding blocks is a big hurdle as he’s giving up usually 30-40 lbs to most players (way more to OL). We had a B-team game Monday, and he played both ways almost whole game (he’s the back-up RB). He came home last night to tell me he was named starting ROLB for Thursday A-team game. Proud Dad moment.

Now I just wish he’d hit puberty. I started between my 7-8 grade years so hopefully he’s on that track. He’s a “normal” age for his grade, but a lot of people around here hold their kids back a year. So he’s playing with many kids who are a year or more older and would have been in 8th grade in my day. He told me yesterday a classmate had a mustache and that is was “pretty awesome.” :lmao: If he doesn’t grow I worry about 8th grade at ~90lbs (or playing on the 7th/8th grade rugby team come spring).
Man... that is a rough ask at 85lbs and being at OLB. Good for him for working hard to get there.... he is going to have to work just as hard in some games. My 5th grader just did weigh in this weekend so he didn't end up a striper and could play WR. He came in at 93 pounds. He also plays OLB as well. They play 5th/6th and even though my son is bigger for a 5th grader, his birthdate is right on the line and we had the choice of keeping him back where he would be in 4th this year. He doesn't usually have issues with other 5th graders but some of the 6th grader linemen are significantly bigger than him.

Is he tall and lanky or just short? Technique is lacking a lot at that age so if he really focuses on it he can still defeat bigger kids.
He’s just small. Around 4’8” and he’s thin. Thankfully he is really fast, which helps. He’s also shredded, which helps offset some of the size disadvantage. I told him until puberty hits, he will have to use technique and football smarts to win. To his credit he’s a hard worker. After a game Monday night he wanted to go outside and practice block shedding techniques and only quit when it got dark. He also will watch film.

Tonight they play what has (historically) been one of the bigger teams size-wise. I helped the coaches break down last year’s game and the team loves to pull their guards. I gave him the heads up so he could prep mentally. Cross my fingers.
 
My son is in 7th grade, starting his 3rd year of football. It has been an adjustment going from 2x week practices in youth football to everyday, plus the locker room, buses, etc. He’s also had to learn to grow mentally and “be on his own.” In youth league he was a know quantity after his first regular season. All the coaches knew him. Now it’s a blank slate. He’s on the small side (~85 lbs) but he’s fearless and tough. He loves playing OLB, which is a natural fit for him. But with his size they stuck him at CB day one. He was willing to learn the position, but wanted a shot at LB. So it’s time to grow up and talk to your coaches. Helping him learn to talk to the coaches and how to talk to them (no whining, asking for their advice on how to get where he wants) has been a small process. He also has had to learn to pace himself. He’s an active kid. He’s been working out daily over the summer, and telling him he has to cut that back to 1-2x week has been a battle. Between that and going out after school to play with his friends, he exhausted himself the first week of school. He missed a practice that caused him to be behind that resulted in little playing time the first game. It’s been hard as a parent to let him make these decisions and watch the fallout. But a couple of weeks in he’s learned a lot.

So he talked to his coaches, got some suggestions and has been working on things. At his size shedding blocks is a big hurdle as he’s giving up usually 30-40 lbs to most players (way more to OL). We had a B-team game Monday, and he played both ways almost whole game (he’s the back-up RB). He came home last night to tell me he was named starting ROLB for Thursday A-team game. Proud Dad moment.

Now I just wish he’d hit puberty. I started between my 7-8 grade years so hopefully he’s on that track. He’s a “normal” age for his grade, but a lot of people around here hold their kids back a year. So he’s playing with many kids who are a year or more older and would have been in 8th grade in my day. He told me yesterday a classmate had a mustache and that is was “pretty awesome.” :lmao: If he doesn’t grow I worry about 8th grade at ~90lbs (or playing on the 7th/8th grade rugby team come spring).
Man... that is a rough ask at 85lbs and being at OLB. Good for him for working hard to get there.... he is going to have to work just as hard in some games. My 5th grader just did weigh in this weekend so he didn't end up a striper and could play WR. He came in at 93 pounds. He also plays OLB as well. They play 5th/6th and even though my son is bigger for a 5th grader, his birthdate is right on the line and we had the choice of keeping him back where he would be in 4th this year. He doesn't usually have issues with other 5th graders but some of the 6th grader linemen are significantly bigger than him.

Is he tall and lanky or just short? Technique is lacking a lot at that age so if he really focuses on it he can still defeat bigger kids.
He’s just small. Around 4’8” and he’s thin. Thankfully he is really fast, which helps. He’s also shredded, which helps offset some of the size disadvantage. I told him until puberty hits, he will have to use technique and football smarts to win. To his credit he’s a hard worker. After a game Monday night he wanted to go outside and practice block shedding techniques and only quit when it got dark. He also will watch film.

Tonight they play what has (historically) been one of the bigger teams size-wise. I helped the coaches break down last year’s game and the team loves to pull their guards. I gave him the heads up so he could prep mentally. Cross my fingers.
In the long run, commitment, hard work, being hungry for learning and while being coachable will win over size and natural athleticism. It may not even win on the football field but it absolutely will in life. Sometimes the size comes later and super charges all of that. For those with the size and athleticism, it often is harder to develop that same level of work ethic and being teachable so it ends up working against them. It is a big fear that I have for my son that I try to work against.
 
Today is the season opener for my son. I do expect it to be a win mostly because this program starts tackle football with the 5th/6th graders will be lower and it is a program that tends to not be one of the top teams.

My son is starting WR at Z and then some formations moves into the inline TE spot. They have one play for him, he says it is called Z Screen but I am not seeing blockers come up for him. It is basically just a quck throw to him so that he can defeat the corner from a tackle and go. If they don't have a good sized corner on him.... it could very well be a TD play because he can run through the smaller kids and has the speed to beat the rest.

They have also been giving him more time with the 1st team defense at OLB in practice. I think the play of him running down the RB when he was on the weakside and they ran off tackle strong side for a TD (or if you believe my son, he knocked him out without the RB breaking the plane at the goalline).

He is also on the punt team.

So.... he should get a good amount of playing time tonight.
 
As someone whose two kids are now playing college sports I will throw in this…being big at a young age can be a curse…in many sports you develop a “false game” because you are big for a young age but really aren’t big for the long haul…it is amazing how many kids I coached that were small that turned out big and how many that were big that are not anymore and do not get much better in sports because it catches up to them very quickly……work on the skills and fundamentals…if they work hard and have some talent it will get figured out.
 
Today is the season opener for my son. I do expect it to be a win mostly because this program starts tackle football with the 5th/6th graders will be lower and it is a program that tends to not be one of the top teams.

My son is starting WR at Z and then some formations moves into the inline TE spot. They have one play for him, he says it is called Z Screen but I am not seeing blockers come up for him. It is basically just a quck throw to him so that he can defeat the corner from a tackle and go. If they don't have a good sized corner on him.... it could very well be a TD play because he can run through the smaller kids and has the speed to beat the rest.

They have also been giving him more time with the 1st team defense at OLB in practice. I think the play of him running down the RB when he was on the weakside and they ran off tackle strong side for a TD (or if you believe my son, he knocked him out without the RB breaking the plane at the goalline).

He is also on the punt team.

So.... he should get a good amount of playing time tonight.
Well... that sucked.

We lost 24-7.

Pretty much nothing was working well. We looked sloppy and over matched. To start it all off, our starting LT was not there. Apparently he wasn't at school so maybe he was sick. So that took one of our three big kids out and obviously important piece being the LT. A 6th grader of ours was unable to play because of some sort of growth spurt hurting his ankle or some crazy thing (his Dad said the medical term to me which didn't help me). I am assuming most of their starters, if not all, were 6th graders and they had one BEHEMOTH at DT. The kid was tall, big and athletic. He had a sack early and just clogged up the middle.

My son started at WR. Our offense really never got much going. Our QB might be a big issue all year long. He was kind of a deer in highlights and the pass attempts he made were not good. He threw 2 INT's. My son didn't get a target. They lined up for the Z Screen and I got excited when I recognized the play but then the entire defense basically jumped and got an offsides call. Then they rotated my son out and called the same play. Our defense was putrid. No pressure on the opposing QB and our coverage just must have been looking in the backfield because it was busted over and over.

They put my son in at OLB for about 8 snaps to close out the 4th. He got penetration on half of them and I thought two tackles for a loss... but watching more closely to one of them I could see that one of his teammates initiated contact and my son cleaned it up so that would be .5 tackles. The other one I could not see what happened with my angle so I am going to go ahead and say it was a tackle for a loss.... just to make me feel better.

I know he is excited about playing WR so that is cool and next year he won't have the chance but I don't think he will do much from there this year. It is about a 2-1 favor to run plays (if not more) and if the line doesn't block better and our QB doesn't start to make quicker decisions.... there is not going to be much for him to do other than block CB's on run plays. On the other hand, he certainly looked better than our starting OLB's and made a difference. That goes into my thinking that his best position for the most impact for him is DE. But... I am not the coach so I will watch and see how things go.

On a bright side, hauled myself back over to my daughters basketball game and caught the second half. They won easily. My daughter had her third fourth three pointer in five games. Three of them right off of tip off.
 
They won but not a great night for my son. The starting RB wasn’t feeling great so he got to play RB quite a bit. The blocking wasn’t great so he never got much going on that front. The opponent’s size in the trenches was hard to deal with and some kids just don’t block.

The really crappy part was in D. He started at OLB. First play the call required the OLBs to swap, but the other kid didn’t move. My son was trying to get him to move, gave up, but was late to get into position. They ran right at him (of course) and broke a big gain. Coach flipped out and pulled him for the rest of the game until his replacement blew a coverage assignment that almost resulted in a game-losing TD. He got back in for the last few plays.

He’s super frustrated. Almost if he looks at the coach wrong he’ll get benched on D. Offensive coach loves him. My son loves playing defense. After 2 years of playing every down on defense on the All Star team (about 80% of that team is on his middle school team), he can barely get on the field. It seems like the coach doesn’t trust him cause he’s small. I film the games for the team, so I watch them. There is plenty of terrible play to go around.

I just try to encourage him and prod him to just work to improve his game. Worst case you just get through the season and get a new coach next year. I just hope he doesn’t get too discouraged.
 
As someone whose two kids are now playing college sports I will throw in this…being big at a young age can be a curse…in many sports you develop a “false game” because you are big for a young age but really aren’t big for the long haul…it is amazing how many kids I coached that were small that turned out big and how many that were big that are not anymore and do not get much better in sports because it catches up to them very quickly……work on the skills and fundamentals…if they work hard and have some talent it will get figured out.

Rule of thumb is the kid's in middle school that have mustaches already have peaked size wise and won't get much bigger. I'll take the slightly undersized kid with the skills/fundamentals and preferably parents with size (for sports where size matters) as they are the ones more likely to develop into the better athletes in high school or beyond.

A 6th grader of ours was unable to play because of some sort of growth spurt hurting his ankle or some crazy thing (his Dad said the medical term to me which didn't help me). I am assuming most of their starters, if not all, were 6th graders and they had one BEHEMOTH at DT. The kid was tall, big and athletic. He had a sack early and just clogged up the middle.
Severs Disease by any chance? Pretty common at this age during growth spurts, usually presents as very similar to Plantar Fasciitis or Achilles Tendonitis if it's affecting the ankle/heel area or like a patellar tendinitis if it's affecting their knee. Basically it's what happens when their bone structure is growing so fast that the tendons and ligaments can't keep up and are in a constant state of tension/inflammation.
 
So my son finally had some real on-field success last night for the first time in 4 years.

Since he was a 3rd grader, all he wanted to do was catch TD passes as a wide receiver. Like his #1 goal in life (not joking).

I've chronicled in here his struggles to get on the field as a late-bloomer at a large and highly competitive school district. Largest class in the state and one of the best programs chock full of athletes in every sport. He's had a hard time even earning PT for the last 3 years as other kids hit puberty before him, much less getting passes thrown to him.

Now he is a Junior playing JV and last night caught 3 passes and 2 for touchdowns. It was the first time he'd been in the end zone in a game since 7th grade. As a 17 year old, he tries to be cool at all times but he was noticeably excited after the game.

His first catch was on a deep route where he had to come back a bit and jump for it over the DB. After catching the ball around the 10 yd line, he stiff armed the defender and stumbled in for the touchdown. Was about a 35-40 yd play. His second was on a curl by the sideline where he caught it for about 12 yds and jumped out of bounds to stop the clock (7 seconds left and he was around the 30 yd line). He then ran the next play into the EZ, jumped over the DB again and caught his second TD. The team was up 42-7 at halftime and he didn't get to play in the 2nd half.

Just as cool, however, is that the varsity head coach was at the game and after the game my son got emailed the offensive game plan for Friday night, indicating he may be in for more than just 4th quarter mop up duty on varsity.

I don't think I realized how much I have been hoping for something like this to happen for him until afterward. I had flashbacks to last season when he would cry after games because he didn't play much in the JV game. He literally caught 0 passes in a game all of last season and it was crushing him inside.
 
As someone whose two kids are now playing college sports I will throw in this…being big at a young age can be a curse…in many sports you develop a “false game” because you are big for a young age but really aren’t big for the long haul…it is amazing how many kids I coached that were small that turned out big and how many that were big that are not anymore and do not get much better in sports because it catches up to them very quickly……work on the skills and fundamentals…if they work hard and have some talent it will get figured out.

Rule of thumb is the kid's in middle school that have mustaches already have peaked size wise and won't get much bigger. I'll take the slightly undersized kid with the skills/fundamentals and preferably parents with size (for sports where size matters) as they are the ones more likely to develop into the better athletes in high school or beyond.

A 6th grader of ours was unable to play because of some sort of growth spurt hurting his ankle or some crazy thing (his Dad said the medical term to me which didn't help me). I am assuming most of their starters, if not all, were 6th graders and they had one BEHEMOTH at DT. The kid was tall, big and athletic. He had a sack early and just clogged up the middle.
Severs Disease by any chance? Pretty common at this age during growth spurts, usually presents as very similar to Plantar Fasciitis or Achilles Tendonitis if it's affecting the ankle/heel area or like a patellar tendinitis if it's affecting their knee. Basically it's what happens when their bone structure is growing so fast that the tendons and ligaments can't keep up and are in a constant state of tension/inflammation.
I think the Severs was it. It was an ankle but he was healthy and at practice with no noticeable favoring of his ankle as of Monday.
 
Between yesterday practice and today he has been moved around alot.

On Monday, he was running at WR pretty much exclusively up until I heard a coach call him out "What was that?! That was not a post route!" something along those lines and then from that point on, they had him at RT.... which had him matched up against one of our biggest kids (we have three bigs, two are pretty much same height and same big build so not sure who the 'biggest' is) on the team at DE. :lmao::lmao::lmao: I am not sure of that was meant to be punishment but I like to think it was.

Today, when I pulled up (coming late from coaching my youngest flag football... which is just a mess) he was lined up at RB. Then they pulled him and had him switch sides to defense where he was lined up at MLB. And then a little later back at WR.

I didn't see him carry the ball at all but he said was getting 5 yards a carry when he got it. I saw him make several nice plays on defense and then on offense the one pass thrown to him which was out on the flat, he dropped.

Afterwards, I said "I saw you at RB" and he said he was the RB on second team now and still starting WR. I said that it looked like they moved you from OLB and MLB and he said that they want to move him around a lot.

Largely due to swim plus football, basketball and soccer, his conditioning is much better than most kids his age so they could play him both ways but even if they favored him getting snaps on one side, I still think he can make the most impact on defense. I would personally still like to see him at DE but he has been doing well at LB during practices and at the end of the first game. During the first game, he played.... I am going to say..... about 60-70% of the offensive snaps at WR and only played on defense towards the end. I am wondering if how they are having him practice means he will pick up more playing time in different roles.

The one thing I have been very proud of is that I have observed him getting other kids into position on offense several times. I like that he knows what he is doing. I also like that the fact that he is getting time at so many different positions because as I told him "you are really going to be able to see the game as a whole and not just as an offensive lineman or a WR or whatever else but increase your football IQ from doing all these different roles."

- - -

The flag football is rough. Most of the girls much rather talk to each other than play football and then the boys are more interested in pulling each other's flags than learning how to play. Trying to get the lines up to do a drill or try to get them to listen for 30 seconds to explain something quickly is a huge chore and takes 3 minutes each. Being the first year, no one knows what we are doing so the approach changes every practice and how we have broken the kids down into groups changes. I talked to the AD who I have a pretty good relationship with and told him how things were going. I mean, the biggest goal of doing the flag football program was to keep our school kids from going to the local club team to play flag football and then getting sucked into their program. The girls, at this point, won't have anything for grade 3 (at least at school) and the boys start tackle football where they end up listing more and are, a year or two older as well which helps. Tiring as heck though.
 
From the practice I saw... they gave him a lot of time at RB. He might not get much playing time in a game unless he learns to run downhill. He is doing way too much dancing and then going no where. With his size, strength and speed, he needs to hit holes... even if that hole isn't really a hole.

More time at WR and MLB.

I suspect he will get more time on defense than the first game. He is all over the field clogging holes in run defense and penetrates in pass rush. I didn't see it but one of the coaches came up to me all excited after practice and asked if I saw it... but apparently when at MLB, he took on one of the biggest kids on the team on a block and not just shed him but basically threw him down. Coach was like "it was awesome! I was so proud of him!"

The first game, he was under utilized in my opinion with the majority snaps at WR and then only put in at the end of the game on defense. From watching practice, it looks like they are going to try to get much more out of him. We shall see Sat. (I will try not to post again until then lol)
 
Tuesday night my son (freshman) had his first full game at high school level. He has played a quarter or two at varsity earlier in the season, but Tuesday night was a full night. He played with his freshman team in a full game, primarily played right tackle, but for two quarters played on defensive line as well. Then he was told to stay for the JV game as well, he was only able to play in 1 quarter in that game. The team was down 40 points but he still worked his butt off in the 4th quarter still trying to get some points. I was proud of how hard he played in both games and how much work he got which will help him dramatically. I know the coaches like him and they hope he can move up and challenge for a varsity spot in a few weeks. He dresses for every varsity game, he is considered the first back-up for the offensive line. In fact he has been used to light a fire under a starters butt, knowing there is a freshman behind these seniors and juniors who will play in their place can be the fire needed to get top play out of the line.

Last night the team they faced ran a defensive three man front with blitzing linebackers. My son has never seen this style of defense so he and the right guard struggled early on, but you could see with the coaches work they were starting to understand their responsibility. Its exciting to see your kid develop within a game, he was starting to understand the concepts on who to block. They were able to move the ball in the second half of the freshman game but just came up short. Tonight the varsity team has a game which he is dressing for and may play in a mop up roll or possibly to fill in for an injured player.

My son is pretty excited at the fact that the varsity running back has a D1 offer and other major D1 schools sniffing around. The running back is a sophomore this year, so still has a few years to go. My son is excited at the prospect of blocking for this kid for the next 2 to three years with colleges seeing the videos he is hoping to get noticed by opening holes for the running back.

Lastly, I want to say parents and grandparents suck, especially all the ex youth coaches. Tuesday I had to hear screams for the line to block for their son/grandson who was the quarterback. I was getting pissed but kept quiet. Again the boys were learning assignments with a 3 man front. Near the end of the game one dad yelled to block and asked loudly why they were not blocking, I finally informed him half the o-line is playing both ways and are gassed. Then his son at qb fumbled a shotgun snap that hit him in the hands, I noticed silence, no yelling. My feelings are these are 14 and 15 year olds, sure we would all love for them to be perfect but they aren't and will make mistakes and hopefully will learn from these mistakes. There are no state tournaments at Freshman and JV, just development. I just wish other parents would understand that. Ok sorry for my brief rant. Looking forward to tonight and the possibility of seeing my son play again.
 
Lastly, I want to say parents and grandparents suck, especially all the ex youth coaches. Tuesday I had to hear screams for the line to block for their son/grandson who was the quarterback. I was getting pissed but kept quiet. Again the boys were learning assignments with a 3 man front. Near the end of the game one dad yelled to block and asked loudly why they were not blocking, I finally informed him half the o-line is playing both ways and are gassed. Then his son at qb fumbled a shotgun snap that hit him in the hands, I noticed silence, no yelling. My feelings are these are 14 and 15 year olds, sure we would all love for them to be perfect but they aren't and will make mistakes and hopefully will learn from these mistakes. There are no state tournaments at Freshman and JV, just development. I just wish other parents would understand that. Ok sorry for my brief rant. Looking forward to tonight and the possibility of seeing my son play again.
Well said. I get annoyed at anyone in the stands critiquing the kids out loud for any level below Varsity. Even on varsity, I don't see too many times when it would be beneficial to voice frustration at 16-18 year olds.
 
I don't understand why anyone would say anything negative like that about kids. Even the other team, let alone the kids teammates. They are kids.

There is a little bit of a different dynamic with my sons teams as most of his is playing with the small Catholic school where a lot of families not only know each other but are friends separate from their kids etc. but even for my sons club swim and daughters club volleyball I have never heard any parents be critical like that to other kids. Critical of coaching? Yes. Critical of refs? 100%. Critical of the other team? A little bit but more when a kid gets out of line like a hard foul or something. Critical of their own kid? All day long.

It is sad that grown adults have such little awareness and self-respect to tear down kids in some selfish attempt to build up their own kid.
 
I don't understand why anyone would say anything negative like that about kids. Even the other team, let alone the kids teammates. They are kids.

There is a little bit of a different dynamic with my sons teams as most of his is playing with the small Catholic school where a lot of families not only know each other but are friends separate from their kids etc. but even for my sons club swim and daughters club volleyball I have never heard any parents be critical like that to other kids. Critical of coaching? Yes. Critical of refs? 100%. Critical of the other team? A little bit but more when a kid gets out of line like a hard foul or something. Critical of their own kid? All day long.

It is sad that grown adults have such little awareness and self-respect to tear down kids in some selfish attempt to build up their own kid.
Just wait til you get to the age where it's a bit more competitive for playing time. In general, parents (and grandparents) are the least capable of comprehending skill level of players. They are not there for the hours and hours of practice, but clearly their kid should be starting - and they will nit pick every other kid out there - friend or not - and find a way that their own kids mistakes aren't really their fault.

At least with football there are 22 spots... with basketball where there are only 5 starting spots, and in the more competitive high school leagues/levels maybe a 7-8 man rotation when games are tight, parents are obnoxiously toxic.
 

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