Youth Football- HS and Younger (1 Viewer)

[Chadstroma]

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.

I have been lucky coaching basketball since I have only done it with this small Catholic school. I have mostly known or been around the parents to varying degrees of knowing each other. At these younger ages, we are supposed to and I try to get 'equal' time but at the same time I know I fell short of that. This is the last year of that development and starting next year it will be tryouts for A and B teams. I talk to the AD a good amount and there has been a lot of drama about the A and B cuts so they bring in coaches from the local HS and they do the assessment out of the tryouts so none of the coaches (mostly parents) are involved to try to cut off any accusations of favoritism or whatever drama. Still.... there were plenty of kids who don't make A team so then they don't play B. Which is silly. My nephew did it the right way... he requested to be on the B team as he knew he would likely make A but would not get as much playing time but on B team would get tons of playing time and be able to develop more since he came to basketball late. He did that and then has made the HS basketball team. I always thought that was a very mature and smart move on his part. I was pretty proud of him because with me at that age.... I would have gunned for A no matter what. I would not quit if I made B but I would never opt for B to get more playing time.

My coaching will stay at the elementary/JR HS level with this school. I have a ways to go before my kids grad but I likely will end up coaching there after they do. I have not yet had any issues with playing time or other issues from the parents.

For other sports, I am not the coach. Heck, the HC for football asked me what I thought where my son should be. I told him, I am not the coach and he pressed so I told him, I really like him at DE and then on offense TE. He was put in at WR.... though they really don't have a TE but when they do line up, he moves inline TE position in those formations and CB at first which I didn't think was a good use of him but I am not the coach. They moved him to OLB and not MLB and have added RB to him while still playing WR. MLB is a good use of him for sure, maybe even better than DE but I just love how he penetrates and gets in the backfield at DE. Anyways... I am not the coach. I defer to them. He didn't get much snaps at OLB in the first game until the end... I thought that was a mistake but I am not the coach.

All that being said, there are some parents that stay at the practices and we sit and chat. One has voiced displeasure about a few things about what the coaches are doing for the 3/4 team. I think they coaching staff is going a great job with them and I try to give her more perspective than just 'my son didn't play'. She has never said anything negative about another kid but I wouldn't put that beyond her.

Sigh. Some people just can't enjoy the sport and build up/support the kids.

 

[Chadstroma]

Well... that sucked again.

Lost 20 something to 0.

My son started at WR and played every snap on offense in the 1st half. Never targeted. Played a few snaps in the 2nd Q at MLB. Had put himself in position to make a tackle for loss but just blew the tackle. Their RB broke two other tackles and took it for about a 65ish yard TD. He didnt play a snap in the 3Q. In the 4th, he had a couple more snaps at MLB and then they put him at DT at the end of the game.

I did think we would be much more competitive than we are though I was ready to lose more than a couple of games this year.

 

[Fantasy_Freak]

My son played Freshman and JV last night right tackle and right guard primarily, won both games 23-0 and 24-14. Same dad in our freshman game where we won 23-0 was complaining about the offensive line not blocking on the first set of plays, commented that all they do is stand there. All of our touchdown were due to runs with open holes and not once did he commend the line. It bothers me because my kid is a part of position this guy wants to single out but at the same time not give them any credit. My wife was able to come to this game and was getting pissed, this morning we talked that either we address it or grow thick skin. I don't want to make a big thing about this but at the same point I cant listen to this loudmouth for another 2 or 3 years. I think I just need to come to terms that my son plays a position that receives no glory. QB, RB, receivers get all the love on the big plays, lineman only get beat up on holding, false starts and sacks.

The cool thing is that the team sees that my son has raw skills, being that he played only two years so the coaching they are providing is excellent. There is no yelling and screaming, they pull a player aside and provide guidance on what the players need to do on a particular play to make it more successful. Last night one of the varsity lineman came to watch the games and he spent both games next to my son talking to him. You could tell he was offering guidance on some of his blocking to help during the game, as well they likely just talked about odds and ends. For a freshman that has to be pretty huge to have an upperclassman offering that guidance.

I guess if the worst thing is dealing with a crappy parent in the stands I can get beyond that and just enjoy my son's growth this season and in the future. This Friday is our varsity game against a rival school, my son will dress for varsity but we will see if he plays.

 

[acarey50]

My son played Freshman and JV last night right tackle and right guard primarily, won both games 23-0 and 24-14. Same dad in our freshman game where we won 23-0 was complaining about the offensive line not blocking on the first set of plays, commented that all they do is stand there. All of our touchdown were due to runs with open holes and not once did he commend the line. It bothers me because my kid is a part of position this guy wants to single out but at the same time not give them any credit. My wife was able to come to this game and was getting pissed, this morning we talked that either we address it or grow thick skin. I don't want to make a big thing about this but at the same point I cant listen to this loudmouth for another 2 or 3 years. I think I just need to come to terms that my son plays a position that receives no glory. QB, RB, receivers get all the love on the big plays, lineman only get beat up on holding, false starts and sacks.

The cool thing is that the team sees that my son has raw skills, being that he played only two years so the coaching they are providing is excellent. There is no yelling and screaming, they pull a player aside and provide guidance on what the players need to do on a particular play to make it more successful. Last night one of the varsity lineman came to watch the games and he spent both games next to my son talking to him. You could tell he was offering guidance on some of his blocking to help during the game, as well they likely just talked about odds and ends. For a freshman that has to be pretty huge to have an upperclassman offering that guidance.

I guess if the worst thing is dealing with a crappy parent in the stands I can get beyond that and just enjoy my son's growth this season and in the future. This Friday is our varsity game against a rival school, my son will dress for varsity but we will see if he plays.

Sucks about that parent, but yes, there will always be parents bemoaning this, that or the other. It's easy to criticize from the stands, and people forget that these are kids still learning the game. But basically that dude is a jackass.

Interesting that your state allows kids to play on different levels in the same day. In California, it's a CIF violation, so it's why almost always the Freshman and JV teams play one day, then varsity another, so that they can dress kids from Frosh/JV for varsity.

And kudos to that upperclassman talking with your son. That sort of thing needs to be commended. If you can, I'd try make it a point to find his parents at the varsity game and let them know that him being there is not going unnoticed.

 

[Fantasy_Freak]

My son played Freshman and JV last night right tackle and right guard primarily, won both games 23-0 and 24-14. Same dad in our freshman game where we won 23-0 was complaining about the offensive line not blocking on the first set of plays, commented that all they do is stand there. All of our touchdown were due to runs with open holes and not once did he commend the line. It bothers me because my kid is a part of position this guy wants to single out but at the same time not give them any credit. My wife was able to come to this game and was getting pissed, this morning we talked that either we address it or grow thick skin. I don't want to make a big thing about this but at the same point I cant listen to this loudmouth for another 2 or 3 years. I think I just need to come to terms that my son plays a position that receives no glory. QB, RB, receivers get all the love on the big plays, lineman only get beat up on holding, false starts and sacks.

The cool thing is that the team sees that my son has raw skills, being that he played only two years so the coaching they are providing is excellent. There is no yelling and screaming, they pull a player aside and provide guidance on what the players need to do on a particular play to make it more successful. Last night one of the varsity lineman came to watch the games and he spent both games next to my son talking to him. You could tell he was offering guidance on some of his blocking to help during the game, as well they likely just talked about odds and ends. For a freshman that has to be pretty huge to have an upperclassman offering that guidance.

I guess if the worst thing is dealing with a crappy parent in the stands I can get beyond that and just enjoy my son's growth this season and in the future. This Friday is our varsity game against a rival school, my son will dress for varsity but we will see if he plays.

Sucks about that parent, but yes, there will always be parents bemoaning this, that or the other. It's easy to criticize from the stands, and people forget that these are kids still learning the game. But basically that dude is a jackass.

Interesting that your state allows kids to play on different levels in the same day. In California, it's a CIF violation, so it's why almost always the Freshman and JV teams play one day, then varsity another, so that they can dress kids from Frosh/JV for varsity.

And kudos to that upperclassman talking with your son. That sort of thing needs to be commended. If you can, I'd try make it a point to find his parents at the varsity game and let them know that him being there is not going unnoticed.

Here we have a quarter limit, not sure the exact rule but there are limits. We usually have JV/Frosh on one day, than later in the week is Varsity, I suspect, can't say for certain, that my kid is getting the extra work to get ready for more varsity action and less freshman play. Again only a suspicion. As far as the varsity kid, yes I agree wholeheartedly, I was going to try and speak with the kid last night and personally thank him for working with my son on the side but I could not find him after the game. You raise a good point that I should introduce myself to his parents and commend them on their son.

As far as the parent thing, I have seen all kinds through my kids sports endeavors, I make sure to remind myself not to be that parent. As far as this guy goes, I am just going to let it go, and know that my kid is developing he will make mistakes and this guy can yell and scream it will not change anything as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Gally]

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.

My son had this starting in late 7th grade and into 8th grade. It completely zapped all of his quickness and mobility which killed him for basketball. He was one of the best players around with ball handling and shooting skills and played great defense. Going into his 8th grade season he just couldn't move because of the pain in his heals and knees. It was sad to watch. He still was more skilled than most but he just couldn't move to keep up so he was basically useless on the court.

Once he started growing up (between 9th and 10th grade) all the pain went away and he was able to get his quickness back. By then it was too late and he had given up on basketball. Now he is 6-1 and I would be interested to see him try and play basketball in HS.

ETA: The most frustrating part was there was no fix to the pain. Just rest and grow. It sucked for him.

 

[Gally]

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.

Someone did a study about this situation dealing with soccer clubs. Basically it was that kids that grew/matured faster ended up using their size/strength to excel in their younger years and lacked the development of actual footwork skills because they didn't need it to get by and they plateaued even when given the opportunity to go to advanced club teams with better training because they never developed the creativity/footwork needed to be elite as they got older. The kids that were smaller and had to develop those skills at an early age ended up being part of the elite teams in their mid 20's more often because as they grew the skills flourished and they were able to put the two together.

It makes sense when you think about it but it wasn't something that I had thought about before. I have known a bunch of kids that dominated early with size but never developed skill and petered out even at the HS level.

 

[Gally]

I saw my first ever youth (younger than HS) tackle football game over the weekend. It was the middle youth group (11 year old range). I was watching a friends grandson's team play. It was painful to watch. I don't know how those coaches could have the patience to deal with these kids with the complicated aspects of meshing line play, etc that it takes for football.

 

[Andrew74]

I saw my first ever youth (younger than HS) tackle football game over the weekend. It was the middle youth group (11 year old range). I was watching a friends grandson's team play. It was painful to watch. I don't know how those coaches could have the patience to deal with these kids with the complicated aspects of meshing line play, etc that it takes for football.

Having coached 11-12 yo football, I can verify it is a great test of patience.

 

[Chadstroma]

I saw my first ever youth (younger than HS) tackle football game over the weekend. It was the middle youth group (11 year old range). I was watching a friends grandson's team play. It was painful to watch. I don't know how those coaches could have the patience to deal with these kids with the complicated aspects of meshing line play, etc that it takes for football.

Now imagine doing flag football with 6 and 7 years olds.

 

[Chadstroma]

Football day... HOCO for the school.

First up my little guy. We played the same team (broken down into 4 separate teams that play their 4 separate teams) as we did on our first game. We did MUCH better (at least in my game). We even went 3-3 on passes with one of them a TD which was really surprising as I don't think we have ever completed a pass in practice scrimmages. It is much more about corralling the kids than teaching football. We started 8 vs 8 but then I would have to ask them to go to 7 v 7 or 6 v 6 because someone cried because... I really don't know.... or someone had to go tell their mom something so they just run off or a couple of times getting a little banged up on a play. Much more progress but still have to explain almost everything to almost everyone on almost every play. The kids had fun though so that is good.

Then my older son. They revamped their offense and defense which made sense as we were getting killed in the first two games. They basically went to a wishbone offense. I am not sure what the change on D was. For the first time ever in any sport, my son played less than half the game... in fact, he didn't play a single snap in the 4 quarters. There was a 5th quarter where they play kids that didn't get time and he played there as MLB and had a great hit (best in the game) on a kid near the end zone to save the TD. Knocked the ball out which would have been a fumble if he didn't knock him out of bounds on the hit. It was surprising to me as I watch the practices and he is in at WR, RB and MLB constantly and often with 1st team. I told him to go to the coach and ask him what he needs to do to earn more time. I am hoping this generates more of a work ethic on his part as he is so use to just showing up and being one of the better players at whatever sport because of his athleticism. I told him whatever the coaches say to work on that I was willing to work with him on it but I wasn't going to make him. We shall see if he does or he just wants to play video games still on all his free time. As for the game, we lost 0-13 which is a lot better than our previous games of 0-20something.

 

[Chadstroma]

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.

Someone did a study about this situation dealing with soccer clubs. Basically it was that kids that grew/matured faster ended up using their size/strength to excel in their younger years and lacked the development of actual footwork skills because they didn't need it to get by and they plateaued even when given the opportunity to go to advanced club teams with better training because they never developed the creativity/footwork needed to be elite as they got older. The kids that were smaller and had to develop those skills at an early age ended up being part of the elite teams in their mid 20's more often because as they grew the skills flourished and they were able to put the two together.

It makes sense when you think about it but it wasn't something that I had thought about before. I have known a bunch of kids that dominated early with size but never developed skill and petered out even at the HS level.

I think it is true of most sports and I think it is really tied into the work ethic. For the kids that don't have the size for basketball or football especially for them to compete, they have to work harder- they have to focus on their technique while those with more size early can use that and don't need to work harder or work on the technique as much. You can't coach size but for the kids that really work hard and develop their skillsets and THEN get their growth later that is a huge advantage for them versus a kid who relies on their size and athletic ability and don't hone their skills and develop habits of working hard. It is my biggest fear for my boys.

 

[Andrew74]

The odd saga of this year continues. Not going to bore everyone with details, but I’ve come to the conclusion the coach is flying by the seat of his pants and that why nothing makes sense. My son seems happy so I’m going to be happy with him. I think he’s learned some things and matured and that’s always a win in middle school.

Team lost their first game this week in a crazy 38-22 affair. Lot of scoring for 7 minute quarters. The other team had a big, fast kid at RB. He looked like a high school kid out there. More like Tecmo Bowl Bo Jackson. Every time we got close, he’d bust out a 60 yard TD. My son played OLB quite a bit on D due to an injury. Proud dad moment when the RB tried to cut an inside run to his side and my son attacked the LOS, hit him with all he had and drove the feet. Stood him up and some teammates helped finish him off.

Evidently the team coaches don’t do the all-stars/post-season, so I got asked to help out. I had to say yes; it’s just fun.

 

[Chadstroma]

I told my son that if he wanted to play more then he needed to go to the coach and ask him "How can I get more playing time". After practice yesterday, I asked him if he did and he said yes that the coach said "try hard all the time in practice, pay attention and don't make mistakes"

So.... translating from coach speak that tells me that last weekends game was a message to him due to his effort and focus in practice which tracks. I know at times during practices he is more about being with the guys than about getting better. Though I do watch a lot of his practices, it is too far off for me to really see what he is or isn't doing but I can see some drills where he clearly isn't going 100%. I am sure he is joking with friends too. When I coach him at basketball, I see the same, so it isn't surprising.

After practice, he usually wants to stay and play with the whatever kids stay (some just hang out a little longer after practice some have older brothers in the older team to wait for) and I have to either pull him off or just let him stay.... yesterday, right after practice he came to the car and was ready to leave. It was a cooler day but he looked sweaty so maybe that message got to him and he was working harder. Hopefully. I keep trying to get him to understand that if he wants to be really good, he needs to do work harder.... at practice, on his own, etc.

 

[Jayrod]

I told my son that if he wanted to play more then he needed to go to the coach and ask him "How can I get more playing time". After practice yesterday, I asked him if he did and he said yes that the coach said "try hard all the time in practice, pay attention and don't make mistakes"

So.... translating from coach speak that tells me that last weekends game was a message to him due to his effort and focus in practice which tracks. I know at times during practices he is more about being with the guys than about getting better. Though I do watch a lot of his practices, it is too far off for me to really see what he is or isn't doing but I can see some drills where he clearly isn't going 100%. I am sure he is joking with friends too. When I coach him at basketball, I see the same, so it isn't surprising.

After practice, he usually wants to stay and play with the whatever kids stay (some just hang out a little longer after practice some have older brothers in the older team to wait for) and I have to either pull him off or just let him stay.... yesterday, right after practice he came to the car and was ready to leave. It was a cooler day but he looked sweaty so maybe that message got to him and he was working harder. Hopefully. I keep trying to get him to understand that if he wants to be really good, he needs to do work harder.... at practice, on his own, etc.

Great lessons to be learned early.

My son struggled his first year of youth football, but got better over the years and learned how to work hard. Served him well until puberty delays caused him to fall behind physically. Now he is finally catching back up and outgrowing some of them and has the work ethic and practice habits already in place. No one (child or adult) really learns how to work if all they experience is success. Failure and struggle make us better.

This season, playing on the JV team, he has become the go-to WR over the past 3 weeks. They figured out he can win most jump balls thrown his way and has had 5 catches in the end zone (2 were 2-pt conversions) over those weeks. He did misplay a ball last night, but made 2 very tough catches and drew a DPI as well.

While yes, I'm absolutely bragging, he is an example of someone who didn't give up after 2 tough years of barely playing in games. Last year he was a backup JV receiver with zero catches all year and that was after ending his Freshman season with a dislocated hip (as brutal as it sounds) playing as a backup running back with zero TDs on the season.

 

[nirad3]

My son caught his first pass this past Friday night. He typically just plays defense (linebacker) but since his team was up pretty big they gave him more offensive snaps. In the past if he got in on offense it was just at RB and they'd just have him run a little route that would never see the ball. But Friday they had him split out kind of in a tight end spot and he ran a little drag route, QB threw him the ball and somewhat surprisingly to me immediately turned upfield and got some extra yardage before getting his flag pulled and running into another kid and fell to the ground. Very proud of him!

 

[Chadstroma]

I told my son that if he wanted to play more then he needed to go to the coach and ask him "How can I get more playing time". After practice yesterday, I asked him if he did and he said yes that the coach said "try hard all the time in practice, pay attention and don't make mistakes"

So.... translating from coach speak that tells me that last weekends game was a message to him due to his effort and focus in practice which tracks. I know at times during practices he is more about being with the guys than about getting better. Though I do watch a lot of his practices, it is too far off for me to really see what he is or isn't doing but I can see some drills where he clearly isn't going 100%. I am sure he is joking with friends too. When I coach him at basketball, I see the same, so it isn't surprising.

After practice, he usually wants to stay and play with the whatever kids stay (some just hang out a little longer after practice some have older brothers in the older team to wait for) and I have to either pull him off or just let him stay.... yesterday, right after practice he came to the car and was ready to leave. It was a cooler day but he looked sweaty so maybe that message got to him and he was working harder. Hopefully. I keep trying to get him to understand that if he wants to be really good, he needs to do work harder.... at practice, on his own, etc.

Great lessons to be learned early.

My son struggled his first year of youth football, but got better over the years and learned how to work hard. Served him well until puberty delays caused him to fall behind physically. Now he is finally catching back up and outgrowing some of them and has the work ethic and practice habits already in place. No one (child or adult) really learns how to work if all they experience is success. Failure and struggle make us better.

This season, playing on the JV team, he has become the go-to WR over the past 3 weeks. They figured out he can win most jump balls thrown his way and has had 5 catches in the end zone (2 were 2-pt conversions) over those weeks. He did misplay a ball last night, but made 2 very tough catches and drew a DPI as well.

While yes, I'm absolutely bragging, he is an example of someone who didn't give up after 2 tough years of barely playing in games. Last year he was a backup JV receiver with zero catches all year and that was after ending his Freshman season with a dislocated hip (as brutal as it sounds) playing as a backup running back with zero TDs on the season.

It is a fear of mine for sure. Last year, he had nothing but success... football = undefeated, basketball = championship, soccer = second place and swim = made regionals in 50 free. After our first loss I was talking to another Dad and were lamenting how badly we got beat but then I told him 'it is actually a good thing though- knock them down a notch and remind them they have to work for success'. I think my son has enough natural athletic ability that if he works hard then he can go pretty far (I guess I will define that as playing after HS) in whatever sport he decided on but he doesn't have that much athletic ability that he can just coast on it and not work hard.

One thing that I have noticed and that I am very proud of is that whether in defense or offense, I have noticed my son correcting other kids on where they are supposed to be. So mentally, he seems to be on top of things but just needs to keep engaged physically and stop taking drills off or half rearing it at times.

It is awesome to see that his perseverance paid off. You can see a lot of kids give up in sports because they don't get a ton of playing time or are not the star or whatever else. If you don't love the sport then I guess that makes sense... who wants to work hard for something you don't like. But if you do like the sport and quite because you don't get what you want then I think that is a bad life lesson.

 

[Chadstroma]

My son caught his first pass this past Friday night. He typically just plays defense (linebacker) but since his team was up pretty big they gave him more offensive snaps. In the past if he got in on offense it was just at RB and they'd just have him run a little route that would never see the ball. But Friday they had him split out kind of in a tight end spot and he ran a little drag route, QB threw him the ball and somewhat surprisingly to me immediately turned upfield and got some extra yardage before getting his flag pulled and running into another kid and fell to the ground. Very proud of him!

It is funny to me how many plays in flag football end up with tackles as the kids try to get the flag. We had a couple of times that our kid goes to grab the flag but grabs like extra part of the belt hanging out and just held on for dear llife as the other kid tried to get away.

 

[nirad3]

My son caught his first pass this past Friday night. He typically just plays defense (linebacker) but since his team was up pretty big they gave him more offensive snaps. In the past if he got in on offense it was just at RB and they'd just have him run a little route that would never see the ball. But Friday they had him split out kind of in a tight end spot and he ran a little drag route, QB threw him the ball and somewhat surprisingly to me immediately turned upfield and got some extra yardage before getting his flag pulled and running into another kid and fell to the ground. Very proud of him!

It is funny to me how many plays in flag football end up with tackles as the kids try to get the flag. We had a couple of times that our kid goes to grab the flag but grabs like extra part of the belt hanging out and just held on for dear llife as the other kid tried to get away.

Yeah there ends up being a fair amount of "contact" in these games and even at practice. I guess it's kinda-sorta getting them prepped for the "real thing".

 

[Chadstroma]

My son caught his first pass this past Friday night. He typically just plays defense (linebacker) but since his team was up pretty big they gave him more offensive snaps. In the past if he got in on offense it was just at RB and they'd just have him run a little route that would never see the ball. But Friday they had him split out kind of in a tight end spot and he ran a little drag route, QB threw him the ball and somewhat surprisingly to me immediately turned upfield and got some extra yardage before getting his flag pulled and running into another kid and fell to the ground. Very proud of him!

It is funny to me how many plays in flag football end up with tackles as the kids try to get the flag. We had a couple of times that our kid goes to grab the flag but grabs like extra part of the belt hanging out and just held on for dear llife as the other kid tried to get away.

Yeah there ends up being a fair amount of "contact" in these games and even at practice. I guess it's kinda-sorta getting them prepped for the "real thing".

Funny thing is almost all the time they don't mean to tackle but they have better form than most of the older kids in tackle football because they go for both flags and end up wrapping up

 

[Chadstroma]

My son didn't start but played the majority of defensive snaps at MLB. 2 tackles, Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1-3 assists (hard to tell for sure on them) and then about 3-4 missed tackles. His tackles were not impressive like the one that was the last play of last game. The reason he had so many missed tackles was he isn't driving his shoulder into the player then wrapping up but rather just trying to arm tackle. He is also getting lost in the wash with too much sideline to sideline movement instead of attacking the ball carrier. I am not sure if he is just learning, not really a good fit at MLB or thinking too much etc. It was a 20-0 loss. Our lines are just getting overwhelmed by superior size in every game. No snaps on offense at all which he hasn't had any since starting at WR game 1 and then they went to a different offense starting in game 2 and got moved to reserve RB.... prob like 4th or so on the depth chart and hasn't been on the field in a game on offense since. He could use some humbling for sports and hopefully this drives him to work harder.

 

[Fantasy_Freak]

Well, last Monday at my sons JV1 game he got a concussion. Out of 22 symptoms he tested positive for 21 according to the trainer. Stayed home from school last Tuesday and rested in a dark room. He has been getting better but has occasional minor headaches. I have no desire to rush him back, he is only a freshman. I did get a chance to talk to the upperclassman who was working with my son during a JV game two weeks ago. I thanked the kid for taking my son under his wing and providing guidance. The kid responded no problem, he's my project to turn into a stud. So my son will go to the game tonight and work the sidelines after meeting with the trainer. The trainer meets with him everyday to discuss the concussion symptoms. So for now we are a brief hiatus that could possibly extended further.

Good luck to all of you as season begin to wind down into the playoff season.

 

[dgreen]

No varsity snaps yet for my son. They were blown out once and won big once, but not a lot of backups were played in by the coaches in either game.

JV is going pretty well. A couple games ago, he had a few tackles early and then got charlie-horsed by the ball-carrier's knee. After that, a ton of missed tackles and was eventually removed from the game on defense. He kept long-snapping, though. However, that didn't go well as he had a horrible punt snap that gave the opponent great field position which led to they tying touchdown. The next punt was a bad snap but decent enough that the punter could get a punt off. Then, on the last play of the game, his FG snap was low and the kick was blocked so the game ended in a tie. I don't think the kicker was going to make it anyway, but my son felt horrible about his performance after the game.

Last week he was back to full health and had a few tackles and good long snaps. He also joined the kickoff and kick return teams, so he's increasing his time on the field.

 

[Chadstroma]

No varsity snaps yet for my son. They were blown out once and won big once, but not a lot of backups were played in by the coaches in either game.

JV is going pretty well. A couple games ago, he had a few tackles early and then got charlie-horsed by the ball-carrier's knee. After that, a ton of missed tackles and was eventually removed from the game on defense. He kept long-snapping, though. However, that didn't go well as he had a horrible punt snap that gave the opponent great field position which led to they tying touchdown. The next punt was a bad snap but decent enough that the punter could get a punt off. Then, on the last play of the game, his FG snap was low and the kick was blocked so the game ended in a tie. I don't think the kicker was going to make it anyway, but my son felt horrible about his performance after the game.

Last week he was back to full health and had a few tackles and good long snaps. He also joined the kickoff and kick return teams, so he's increasing his time on the field.

Being a long snapper has to be rough. You will never get any recognition for a job well done and if you mess up the snap everyone knows who messed up.

 

[dgreen]

No varsity snaps yet for my son. They were blown out once and won big once, but not a lot of backups were played in by the coaches in either game.

JV is going pretty well. A couple games ago, he had a few tackles early and then got charlie-horsed by the ball-carrier's knee. After that, a ton of missed tackles and was eventually removed from the game on defense. He kept long-snapping, though. However, that didn't go well as he had a horrible punt snap that gave the opponent great field position which led to they tying touchdown. The next punt was a bad snap but decent enough that the punter could get a punt off. Then, on the last play of the game, his FG snap was low and the kick was blocked so the game ended in a tie. I don't think the kicker was going to make it anyway, but my son felt horrible about his performance after the game.

Last week he was back to full health and had a few tackles and good long snaps. He also joined the kickoff and kick return teams, so he's increasing his time on the field.

Being a long snapper has to be rough. You will never get any recognition for a job well done and if you mess up the snap everyone knows who messed up.

Definitely. I mean, his first bad punt snap that I mentioned was really, really bad. It didn't even make it halfway to the punter. Everyone knows that's his fault and it was really costly. But, I've really enjoyed watching him long snap. So many HS teams, even some varsity, don't have decent long snaps so it's fun to watch him regularly get it to the punter quickly and in a good spot. He's a junior back-up safety and the two starting safeties are also juniors so he's unlikely to get much playing time on defense his senior year on varsity. Long snapping is a great way to get on the field and be an important part of the varsity team next year.

 

[Andrew74]

No varsity snaps yet for my son. They were blown out once and won big once, but not a lot of backups were played in by the coaches in either game.

JV is going pretty well. A couple games ago, he had a few tackles early and then got charlie-horsed by the ball-carrier's knee. After that, a ton of missed tackles and was eventually removed from the game on defense. He kept long-snapping, though. However, that didn't go well as he had a horrible punt snap that gave the opponent great field position which led to they tying touchdown. The next punt was a bad snap but decent enough that the punter could get a punt off. Then, on the last play of the game, his FG snap was low and the kick was blocked so the game ended in a tie. I don't think the kicker was going to make it anyway, but my son felt horrible about his performance after the game.

Last week he was back to full health and had a few tackles and good long snaps. He also joined the kickoff and kick return teams, so he's increasing his time on the field.

Being a long snapper has to be rough. You will never get any recognition for a job well done and if you mess up the snap everyone knows who messed up.

I was the long snapper for my team in 8th grade for a couple of games. I did not enjoy it one bit and was glad someone else got to do it.

 

[The Z Machine]

I played center in high school and they pulled me for long snaps... I could barely keep it in the same spot for shotgun snaps. I did not enjoy either.

 

[Chadstroma]

We lost our center for the year. Not a football injury or anything but ended up in the hospital because he had extremely high BP (he is fine, on BP meds and they are trying to figure out what the issue is but out for the year). Even before that, there was improvement needed on the snaps but we took a step back in that regard. The last game we had several muffed snaps from under center. It is tough. Our centers are 5th graders and probably under sized for 5th grade too. Shorter but hefty type builds. Going against some teams with some big 6th grade DT's lined up across from them. That being said, the couple of punt snaps we did ranged from decent to very good. It is a tough job for sure... and I am sure even more so when your got kids a year older than you that are big for that age barreling down on you as soon as you get that ball moving.

 

[Andrew74]

We are down to 2 games left and just gutting it out. My son continues to be a team player, so I’m proud of him for sticking it out. After coming off the bench and playing well due to an injury, he got leapfrogged by someone who hasn’t played a snap all year at OLB. I’m 99% sure coach won’t play him because he’s small. I guess nothing else matters.

What’s interesting is there is talk of the local youth league taking over the middle school programs. I know the 7th grade coaches aren’t school employees. Evidently there are issues with both middle schools only giving playing time to 12-14 kids while 20 just sit around. I know last week we handily beat a team 22-8. They didn’t even put subs in with < 1 min to go. What a mess.

My son, who loves playing football, was going to skip the all-stars/post-season. Once he learned the all-star coaches from last year were running the team, he was 100% on board. I happy this season will end on a positive note.

ETA: We did have a B-team game last week vs the largest middle school in the area. End up a tie. The other team had over 50 kids dressed. They had some good kids playing. My son played both sides all game save 2 series on D. He had two good runs but most of the time was getting swarmed in the backfield. On D he played well, with only one bad play where he took to wide an angle and got cut back on. Otherwise he had 5 tackles, 2 assists and 2 TFL. 1 TFL came on a big play on the other team’s last series, resulting in a 5-6 yd loss.

 

[Chadstroma]

They did two games yesterday. A JV "B" game and then the JV game. This was meant to give both teams a chance to get players that don't get to play as much more time to play.

My son played most of all the defensive snaps at MLB and then actually got thrown in at RG for a bit as well in the "B" game and then played around 50% of the snaps coming off the bench at MLB in the JV game. He ended up with 5 or 6 tackles with two of them tackles for losses. He also had a couple of missed tackles. One of them was on the far end of the field in far corner where he was trying to save a TD. I couldn't see but he says that he lead with his right shoulder instead of left (runner is running from his right to left) and so he just missed and glanced off of him. He was going at full speed (something he needs to learn how to do more) and if he connected with the runner would have blown him up.

We lost both games but the positive is in the JV game we finally scored! Actually two times. So, that was a positive for the team.

 

[nirad3]

Tale of two cities with our game a couple weeks ago versus this past Friday. Two games ago we rolled and my kid got plenty of snaps in, including his first catch (see upthread), but this past Friday we got demolished. We actually drove the ball well the first series and got a girl-to-girl TD (the QB is a girl, she's got an arm! And one of the receivers is a girl and is super athletic) to start... but from then on it was all downhill. Played a team of 6th graders (our team is all 5th) and their talent level was just leaps and bounds higher than us. One kid had incredible ball skills and speed. He just torched us. Not a fun game to watch, and my kid didn't play but maybe half the game because of the overall team speed on the other side of the ball.

 

[Chadstroma]

Tale of two cities with our game a couple weeks ago versus this past Friday. Two games ago we rolled and my kid got plenty of snaps in, including his first catch (see upthread), but this past Friday we got demolished. We actually drove the ball well the first series and got a girl-to-girl TD (the QB is a girl, she's got an arm! And one of the receivers is a girl and is super athletic) to start... but from then on it was all downhill. Played a team of 6th graders (our team is all 5th) and their talent level was just leaps and bounds higher than us. One kid had incredible ball skills and speed. He just torched us. Not a fun game to watch, and my kid didn't play but maybe half the game because of the overall team speed on the other side of the ball.

That is impressive for a girl to throw well. We have a couple of girls that are very good natural athletes that will give the boys all they can handle in speed and agility but none of them can throw well. There is one girl who is super athletic, in fact, the basketball coach for my daughters 7th grade class has a son in the same grade as mine and we have been 'scouting' the basketball talent for that grade and he said to me "is there a way we can get Fiona to the boys basketball?" A couple of weeks ago in the game, she asked to play QB which is odd because she never wanted to before. At this level, trying to get everyone time playing everything as much as possible and since she is athletic "sure". She goes in and we do a few running plays and then time for a pass! She goes back and then throws with two hands on the ball, it went like a yard. "OK! We are doing a fake hand off, QB run the other direction!"

One boy has a very impressive arm for 2nd grade. My son is probably the second best arm but not close to this kid. Hopefully he doesn't end up striping out. In 3/4 a QB isn't all that important as you do maybe 4 or 5 passes all year but 5/6 grade you start to see a shift where the QB becomes more important and that only grows from there.

Speaking of my daughters basketball team, watching the game last night one of her teammates had a moving screen on a girl and just took her out. Not intentionally or anything but Emma, the girl on my daughters team, is a little more sturdier built than most other girls and plays all the sports basically... basketball, volleyball, soccer, softball, etc. Us parents on this team tend to make peanut gallery comments and I said "Ohhh, moving screen.... GREAT football move though!" with some laughter and then her mother turns around was like "Shut up! She will want to play football now too!" "Well, yea, she would be a great MLB with that move!"

 

[ChiefD]

What’s interesting is there is talk of the local youth league taking over the middle school programs. I know the 7th grade coaches aren’t school employees. Evidently there are issues with both middle schools only giving playing time to 12-14 kids while 20 just sit around. I know last week we handily beat a team 22-8. They didn’t even put subs in with < 1 min to go. What a mess.

My son, who loves playing football, was going to skip the all-stars/post-season. Once he learned the all-star coaches from last year were running the team, he was 100% on board. I happy this season will end on a positive note.

Football coaches are the absolute worst of the worst when it comes to coaching kids.

I will have some thoughts to share after high school football season is over, but these coaches at the middle school and high school act like they are God and think they are auditioning for NFL jobs. It's honestly the worst sport we have experienced from all of our kids being in sports.

 

[Chadstroma]

Just found out that the 6th grader who was 'starting' at MLB has a broken toe and is out for the remainder of the year. I use quotation marks because other than the one game my son didn't get any snaps in the regular game time but then played in the 'extra quarter' which I think was a message to my son to stop screwing around, pay attention and work hard (which I think worked and I am grateful for as he tends to have an attitude of "I am so good I can just show up" which I have worked against for a while) they have split time about 50/50 and tend to put my son in on crucial downs.

He said coach told him he is first team now (not surprisingly). I asked who they moved to second team and he said he was second team too. So, I told him he better not get hurt then. Only two more games left but he should get all the playing time which I think he good for his development.

Also asked him if he studied their playbook and he said he knew what he was supposed to do. I asked him if he knew what everyone is supposed to do and he said no, just the linebackers. So, I tried to get him to understand that he needs to understand everyone's role/responsibilities because then that helps him be able to react to the play. I was trying to figure out a way to explain it after he asked why and said "well, if there is a run to the outside and you know the DE or OLB are supposed to have containment then you can cheat up into the inside lane to cut that off rather than try to take an angle to beat the runner to the sideline" (not sure if that was the best example but it was all I could think of). I also explained that with his ability to play different positions that he could be asked to move to another position because of injury so being ready and able to do that helps the team.

 

[nirad3]

Tale of two cities with our game a couple weeks ago versus this past Friday. Two games ago we rolled and my kid got plenty of snaps in, including his first catch (see upthread), but this past Friday we got demolished. We actually drove the ball well the first series and got a girl-to-girl TD (the QB is a girl, she's got an arm! And one of the receivers is a girl and is super athletic) to start... but from then on it was all downhill. Played a team of 6th graders (our team is all 5th) and their talent level was just leaps and bounds higher than us. One kid had incredible ball skills and speed. He just torched us. Not a fun game to watch, and my kid didn't play but maybe half the game because of the overall team speed on the other side of the ball.

That is impressive for a girl to throw well. We have a couple of girls that are very good natural athletes that will give the boys all they can handle in speed and agility but none of them can throw well. There is one girl who is super athletic, in fact, the basketball coach for my daughters 7th grade class has a son in the same grade as mine and we have been 'scouting' the basketball talent for that grade and he said to me "is there a way we can get Fiona to the boys basketball?" A couple of weeks ago in the game, she asked to play QB which is odd because she never wanted to before. At this level, trying to get everyone time playing everything as much as possible and since she is athletic "sure". She goes in and we do a few running plays and then time for a pass! She goes back and then throws with two hands on the ball, it went like a yard. "OK! We are doing a fake hand off, QB run the other direction!"

One boy has a very impressive arm for 2nd grade. My son is probably the second best arm but not close to this kid. Hopefully he doesn't end up striping out. In 3/4 a QB isn't all that important as you do maybe 4 or 5 passes all year but 5/6 grade you start to see a shift where the QB becomes more important and that only grows from there.

Speaking of my daughters basketball team, watching the game last night one of her teammates had a moving screen on a girl and just took her out. Not intentionally or anything but Emma, the girl on my daughters team, is a little more sturdier built than most other girls and plays all the sports basically... basketball, volleyball, soccer, softball, etc. Us parents on this team tend to make peanut gallery comments and I said "Ohhh, moving screen.... GREAT football move though!" with some laughter and then her mother turns around was like "Shut up! She will want to play football now too!" "Well, yea, she would be a great MLB with that move!"

Yeah the girl QB is... let's say... hefty? Not like chubby or anything, just built like a tank. She has a terrific arm and places the ball really well in many instances.

 

[belljr]

My daughter was the steady QB for gym football. She had a better arm than 80% of the boys

Not to sidetrack here but at a carnival when she was in 9th grade maybe, they had a baseball radar booth. Young guy gets up throws not great. Daughter steps up, a "few comments/jokes" from guy that threw and a couple others. First throw she threw faster than him by like 6 mph it was the best

 

[Fantasy_Freak]

My son was released from concussion protocol yesterday, he is able to suit up for the varsity game tonight and the JV game on Monday. He has not had symptoms in over a week, this week had to do some rehab work, mostly work on a stationary bike, and yesterday he was able to practice with full gear. Tonight they play the cross town rivals so my son is really hoping he can get in and play, he knows a few kids on the other team. In fact the school tried to get him to come play for them, but we were not interested.

The coaches have already told my son if he does the appropriate work in the off season they are figuring he will be the starting right tackle next year at varsity. Yesterday I spoke with a trainer who works with offensive lineman in the Milwaukee/Chicago area. The core of this training is technique and weights so this will be good for my son to reach the next level. I'm excited for him, but he has to do the work not me.

 

[Chadstroma]

Second to last game. Lost again badly. 29-7. Our 7 came on the last play of the game which was an 85 yard run by our back up QB, who was our starting QB last year on the 3/4 team when we went undefeated.

My son played first at DE which was surprising because I have never seen him practice at DE this year and the starting MLB was out with a broken toe. He had a couple of tackles, a fumble recovery and his first ever sack which was late in the game. He blitzed up the middle from MLB and took the QB down after he tried to scramble to the right.

 

[Fantasy_Freak]

My son got to play Friday at varsity, played the 4th quarter at right tackle, he did a great job in my biased opinion. Its hard to put concrete stats for offensive lineman to determine how well they play. There were no hurries on pass plays, he had two pancakes on running plays and another he blocked a d lineman 10 yards deep on a running play. Every play running or passing were positive plays so he and the rest of the line should get credit. Tonight he plays on the JV team and gets to play both offensive and defensive lines. He told my wife and I how much mayhem he is going to cause tonight. I told him, just keep your head up and on a swivel so there are no blind side hits.

The varsity team has one more regular season game next week and JV has two (tonight and next Monday). Then varsity moves on to the state playoffs, which my son will likely dress in. Just the experience of being on the sidelines will only help next year when he is a sophomore. The cool thing is this year is the 5th time in over 50 years since the football team qualified for state playoffs and they have never one a state playoff game. Hoping for our boys to start to change the tide.

He is having a blast playing football and informed my wife and I he is not playing hockey this upcoming season, he wants to focus on oline work and working out. a friend of mine who is the high school hockey coach told him he can come out to practice anytime he wants to continue to work his feet, which can only help on the offensive line.

 

[dgreen]

Second interception of the season last night! A few weeks ago, he got the first interception on a heave at the end of the end of the first half and returned it 25 yards (but brought back for a crack back block on the return). That team only threw 4-5 passes all game and none of them were close to being completed. Last night, their opponent passed quite a bit, including some downfield shots. Down 7 with about 2 minutes left, the opponent had a 4th-and-12ish from the plus 35ish and went for it. My son was one-on-one with a receiver on a long ball to the end zone and came down with a 50/50 ball. The pass was slightly underthrown so the receiver turned so he and my son were face-to-face and when the ball arrived and my son just took it right out of his hands for the touchback. Yeah, ideally he'd have knocked it to the ground instead of intercepting it, but nice to get his third career INT. Unfortunately, a few plays later, with a little over a 1:00 left, my son's team threw an INT and the game was over.

All his XP snaps were good and he had one good punt snap, but he also had another really bad punt snap. It went way over the punter's head who was then tackled for a big loss giving the opponent a short field and an important TD in such a close game.

He's been practicing more with varsity to give the starting safety some rest. I'm hoping his improved play on JV and the increased varsity practice gets him some varsity snaps soon. I think they might get blown out tonight, so maybe there's a chance.

 

[acarey50]

It is great to hear the stories of how everyone's kids are doing, progressing, succeeding and overcoming challenges.

Unfortunately my son's (12 year old) season is ending early, with 3 games to go. Dislocated patella in the game last Saturday. It appears no ligament damage which is a relief, but still have an MRI scheduled to check for cartilage damage and anything under the knee cap that they can't pick up on X-Ray or from the mobility testing. PT starts next week. Best case scenario is he will be back to athletics in about 6 weeks, which is a bummer as he made the school volleyball team (1st time the school has ever fielded a boys team) and that season starts in a couple weeks and isn't that long - he may make it back for the last couple weeks of it. And it will push back getting back to basketball which he was going to be starting back up with at the end of the month.

Footballwise he made great progress this season, his first of tackle. Has been the starting TE all season whenever we ran sets with TE, and had just earned the starting MLB spot and was having a really good game when he got hurt. Injury could have happened anywhere I suppose, but I truly believe playing on turf contributed to the injury, as it was an impact injury from hitting the ground. Grass would have had more give and lessened the chances of this happening. Long story short, he was in at MLB, it was a run play and the OL had a decent block on him. He shed the block and right at that time the second OL crushed him from the side and he went flying, landing on the knee. Clutched it immediately. All things considered, the dislocated patella with no surrounding ligament damage is the best case scenario.

To my kid's credit, while we were at the ER, he kept asking if he'd be able to get back out there this season, and if he'd be able to go to practice this week. Unfortunately, he won't be back for this season, but he is out there every practice, with the two other injured kids, so far doing what little he can to help out - whether it's leading warm ups or holding onto the balls between plays, etc. And to his coaches and teammates credit, 5 of the players and the 2 head coaches came to the ER after the game and stayed until well after midnight even though they weren't able to come back and see him beyond a few Facetime calls.

 

[The Z Machine]

yeah, sounds like turf likely contributed to the injury unfortunately.

 

[Chadstroma]

It is great to hear the stories of how everyone's kids are doing, progressing, succeeding and overcoming challenges.

Unfortunately my son's (12 year old) season is ending early, with 3 games to go. Dislocated patella in the game last Saturday. It appears no ligament damage which is a relief, but still have an MRI scheduled to check for cartilage damage and anything under the knee cap that they can't pick up on X-Ray or from the mobility testing. PT starts next week. Best case scenario is he will be back to athletics in about 6 weeks, which is a bummer as he made the school volleyball team (1st time the school has ever fielded a boys team) and that season starts in a couple weeks and isn't that long - he may make it back for the last couple weeks of it. And it will push back getting back to basketball which he was going to be starting back up with at the end of the month.

Footballwise he made great progress this season, his first of tackle. Has been the starting TE all season whenever we ran sets with TE, and had just earned the starting MLB spot and was having a really good game when he got hurt. Injury could have happened anywhere I suppose, but I truly believe playing on turf contributed to the injury, as it was an impact injury from hitting the ground. Grass would have had more give and lessened the chances of this happening. Long story short, he was in at MLB, it was a run play and the OL had a decent block on him. He shed the block and right at that time the second OL crushed him from the side and he went flying, landing on the knee. Clutched it immediately. All things considered, the dislocated patella with no surrounding ligament damage is the best case scenario.

To my kid's credit, while we were at the ER, he kept asking if he'd be able to get back out there this season, and if he'd be able to go to practice this week. Unfortunately, he won't be back for this season, but he is out there every practice, with the two other injured kids, so far doing what little he can to help out - whether it's leading warm ups or holding onto the balls between plays, etc. And to his coaches and teammates credit, 5 of the players and the 2 head coaches came to the ER after the game and stayed until well after midnight even though they weren't able to come back and see him beyond a few Facetime calls.

Make sure he doesn't rush back in. I had a major knee injury in 9th grade and kept pushing to get back to playing and kept reinjuring it to the point that I reinjured during a summer basketball league for JV and that was it... I could never really do competitive sport again. It is great to see that drive to get back to the field as quickly as possible because it shows the passion but that passion can be woefully self-defeating as well.

I look back to that injury as being one of those major points in your personal history that things changed. I think I likely could have played D3 basketball somewhere but instead with the one thing I cared about at school gone, I ended up leaving mid junior year and did not finish HS. (Poor choice, not for school really as I now have a bachelors degree and was half way through a masters degree but for life experience, I do regret missing out on some of the HS stuff). A lot of things changed for me there.... in the end, all good but it could have easily turned for the worse.

Be sure to hold back his enthusiasm to push getting back to playing is my warning from personal experience.

 

[acarey50]

It is great to hear the stories of how everyone's kids are doing, progressing, succeeding and overcoming challenges.

Unfortunately my son's (12 year old) season is ending early, with 3 games to go. Dislocated patella in the game last Saturday. It appears no ligament damage which is a relief, but still have an MRI scheduled to check for cartilage damage and anything under the knee cap that they can't pick up on X-Ray or from the mobility testing. PT starts next week. Best case scenario is he will be back to athletics in about 6 weeks, which is a bummer as he made the school volleyball team (1st time the school has ever fielded a boys team) and that season starts in a couple weeks and isn't that long - he may make it back for the last couple weeks of it. And it will push back getting back to basketball which he was going to be starting back up with at the end of the month.

Footballwise he made great progress this season, his first of tackle. Has been the starting TE all season whenever we ran sets with TE, and had just earned the starting MLB spot and was having a really good game when he got hurt. Injury could have happened anywhere I suppose, but I truly believe playing on turf contributed to the injury, as it was an impact injury from hitting the ground. Grass would have had more give and lessened the chances of this happening. Long story short, he was in at MLB, it was a run play and the OL had a decent block on him. He shed the block and right at that time the second OL crushed him from the side and he went flying, landing on the knee. Clutched it immediately. All things considered, the dislocated patella with no surrounding ligament damage is the best case scenario.

To my kid's credit, while we were at the ER, he kept asking if he'd be able to get back out there this season, and if he'd be able to go to practice this week. Unfortunately, he won't be back for this season, but he is out there every practice, with the two other injured kids, so far doing what little he can to help out - whether it's leading warm ups or holding onto the balls between plays, etc. And to his coaches and teammates credit, 5 of the players and the 2 head coaches came to the ER after the game and stayed until well after midnight even though they weren't able to come back and see him beyond a few Facetime calls.

Make sure he doesn't rush back in. I had a major knee injury in 9th grade and kept pushing to get back to playing and kept reinjuring it to the point that I reinjured during a summer basketball league for JV and that was it... I could never really do competitive sport again. It is great to see that drive to get back to the field as quickly as possible because it shows the passion but that passion can be woefully self-defeating as well.

I look back to that injury as being one of those major points in your personal history that things changed. I think I likely could have played D3 basketball somewhere but instead with the one thing I cared about at school gone, I ended up leaving mid junior year and did not finish HS. (Poor choice, not for school really as I now have a bachelors degree and was half way through a masters degree but for life experience, I do regret missing out on some of the HS stuff). A lot of things changed for me there.... in the end, all good but it could have easily turned for the worse.

Be sure to hold back his enthusiasm to push getting back to playing is my warning from personal experience.

We are definitely going to take time to get back. I was similar to you in that I rushed back way too quickly from every injury and I am paying for it today. Timeline indicates he should be good/cleared around Thanksgiving, but will probably try ease things back in through Christmas, assuming all clearances from PT and doctor are there and no setbacks.

 

[Snotbubbles]

I'm pretty turned off by youth sports. It's become such a racket. My daughter played high-level softball. Bats $400. Gloves $300. Hitting lessons $60 an hour. Pitching lessons $110 an hour. Team registration fee $5000. $10000 in travel expenses. Team practice twice a week. Tournaments every weekend from Sept to November and then again from March to August (June to August once you hit high school because you play school ball from March to June). Offseason workouts. Why? So she can go play at Oklahoma and win a National Championship (by the way one of her old teammates just committed there).

Then I go to the fields and see how some of the parents act. Yelling at their kids. Yelling at the umps. Yelling at the coaches. It's disgraceful. I think a lot of parents are living out their dreams through their kids.

 

[BassNBrew]

I'm pretty turned off by youth sports. It's become such a racket. My daughter played high-level softball. Bats $400. Gloves $300. Hitting lessons $60 an hour. Pitching lessons $110 an hour. Team registration fee $5000. $10000 in travel expenses. Team practice twice a week. Tournaments every weekend from Sept to November and then again from March to August (June to August once you hit high school because you play school ball from March to June). Offseason workouts. Why? So she can go play at Oklahoma and win a National Championship (by the way one of her old teammates just committed there).

Then I go to the fields and see how some of the parents act. Yelling at their kids. Yelling at the umps. Yelling at the coaches. It's disgraceful. I think a lot of parents are living out their dreams through their kids.

Lucky it's not soccer. 10 month season and practice 5 nights a week. Some Kids don't get home until 10pm because so many teams need to use limited fields.

 

[Snotbubbles]

I'm pretty turned off by youth sports. It's become such a racket. My daughter played high-level softball. Bats $400. Gloves $300. Hitting lessons $60 an hour. Pitching lessons $110 an hour. Team registration fee $5000. $10000 in travel expenses. Team practice twice a week. Tournaments every weekend from Sept to November and then again from March to August (June to August once you hit high school because you play school ball from March to June). Offseason workouts. Why? So she can go play at Oklahoma and win a National Championship (by the way one of her old teammates just committed there).

Then I go to the fields and see how some of the parents act. Yelling at their kids. Yelling at the umps. Yelling at the coaches. It's disgraceful. I think a lot of parents are living out their dreams through their kids.

Lucky it's not soccer. 10 month season and practice 5 nights a week. Some Kids don't get home until 10pm because so many teams need to use limited fields.

No, it's like soccer. We'd have pitching lesson on Monday. Team practice Tuesday. Individual throwing session on Wednesday with hitting lesson after. Team practice Thursday. Friday off. Saturday and Sunday tournament. Would do that from September to December. Take December off. Then go from January to July. Take August off.

 

[BassNBrew]

I'm pretty turned off by youth sports. It's become such a racket. My daughter played high-level softball. Bats $400. Gloves $300. Hitting lessons $60 an hour. Pitching lessons $110 an hour. Team registration fee $5000. $10000 in travel expenses. Team practice twice a week. Tournaments every weekend from Sept to November and then again from March to August (June to August once you hit high school because you play school ball from March to June). Offseason workouts. Why? So she can go play at Oklahoma and win a National Championship (by the way one of her old teammates just committed there).

Then I go to the fields and see how some of the parents act. Yelling at their kids. Yelling at the umps. Yelling at the coaches. It's disgraceful. I think a lot of parents are living out their dreams through their kids.

Lucky it's not soccer. 10 month season and practice 5 nights a week. Some Kids don't get home until 10pm because so many teams need to use limited fields.

No, it's like soccer. We'd have pitching lesson on Monday. Team practice Tuesday. Individual throwing session on Wednesday with hitting lesson after. Team practice Thursday. Friday off. Saturday and Sunday tournament. Would do that from September to December. Take December off. Then go from January to July. Take August off.

Nice. I assume some personal training and probably some increased medical expenses for injuries too????

 

[Snotbubbles]

I'm pretty turned off by youth sports. It's become such a racket. My daughter played high-level softball. Bats $400. Gloves $300. Hitting lessons $60 an hour. Pitching lessons $110 an hour. Team registration fee $5000. $10000 in travel expenses. Team practice twice a week. Tournaments every weekend from Sept to November and then again from March to August (June to August once you hit high school because you play school ball from March to June). Offseason workouts. Why? So she can go play at Oklahoma and win a National Championship (by the way one of her old teammates just committed there).

Then I go to the fields and see how some of the parents act. Yelling at their kids. Yelling at the umps. Yelling at the coaches. It's disgraceful. I think a lot of parents are living out their dreams through their kids.

Lucky it's not soccer. 10 month season and practice 5 nights a week. Some Kids don't get home until 10pm because so many teams need to use limited fields.

No, it's like soccer. We'd have pitching lesson on Monday. Team practice Tuesday. Individual throwing session on Wednesday with hitting lesson after. Team practice Thursday. Friday off. Saturday and Sunday tournament. Would do that from September to December. Take December off. Then go from January to July. Take August off.

Nice. I assume some personal training and probably some increased medical expenses for injuries too????

Yes, we did one night a week on our own at a speed and agility place. Then her club team had a personal trainer come out and he was one of their drill stations in their workouts. She tore her labrum (doing cheerleading) and had to have surgery. She hasn't been cleared to return to action, but I don't think she's going back. The time away has really opened our eyes to just how much of a waste spending all that time and money was. We have had a much better quality of life without softball and all the craziness. I also like having spending money. If she were a boy and had the future prospects of playing professionally, I might feel different, but for girls, it all pretty much ends after college. Then if you want to stay in the game, you either become an instructor, a coach or tour the country doing guest hitting/pitching clinics.

 

[Chadstroma]

Football season ended yesterday. We followed up an undefeated season last year with a winless season this year. It was not completely shocking. After last year, I told the parents that we could expect alternating from being one of the lower teams to being one of the dominating teams. This is because each team is grouped together with 3/4, 5/6 and then 7/8 grades. Our upper class is on the smaller side (in total kids) with about 4 kids that really are good versus these other teams that typically field a whole unit with upperclassmen. On top of that, it seemed that the coaching favored giving 6th graders who were not very good or IMO at least not better than some of the lowerclassmen the playing time. This is in line with the general philosophy we have seen from the coaching staff with an eye towards long term development and growth of both the kids and program. So, I can live with that but in terms of being able to win now, I think it put us in a tough spot.

There was reason to be optimistic about next year though. They played our backup QB (who was our starting QB last season). In comparison to the 6th grader he took over for, the 5th grader backup is a better runner and is cooler under pressure being able to make smoother and better decisions while at the same time they basically have about the same amount of arm talent. He is actually the one that scored our only TD of the entire season last game and the offense did perform better with him at QB.

My son played OLB for all but 2 or 3 snaps for the game. He had a couple of tackles. They had the kid that I thought was the teams best MLB playing there. I think OLB is probably a better fit for my son but they other team was running to the other side of the defense all day long and it was harder for him to get over and make a play coming from the other side. I still think he would have been best at DE. My guess is he will be playing on the line next season though.