Youth Football- HS and Younger (1 Viewer)

[Fantasy_Freak]

This week was the first week of high school contact days, a week off next week, then practices start Aug.5th.

The offseason has been huge for my son, he is heading into his sophomore year, the coach has him penciled in at starting right tackle, he can be beaten out if he struggles in the preseason. My son put in a ton of work this offseason, worked with an offensive lineman coach with a few other kids and we had him working with a personal trainer to get his lifting improved. At the end of last season, PrepRedzone had him ranked 42 overall in the state for his graduation year, last week they bumped him up to 21 overall, he ended up being the highest riser in the state. In the offseason he was contacted by a number of Division 1 colleges (Northwestern, Iowa, Texas Tech, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Purdue, Illinois, Memphis, Ohio State, Syracuse, and more smaller schools) to come to their camps. In my opinion these are sued for coaches to see players in person as opposed to videos as well, it allows coaches from the school to talk to players. Problem is these camps happen over a two week period plus the travel expanses can add up. He went to one camp (northwestern) and some showcases. Next year will be key, he will likely need to decide on which college camps he will want to attend.

So far he has been invited to two colleges for gameday visits, Illinois and Purdue, we plan on visiting those schools in September. He is hoping to get more invites this season, but we will see where it goes. His team has some Division 1 talent so schools have stated to the players they intend to visit and watch a game or two this season. More opportunities exist for him to be seen by other schools as well.

For me this is something I never experienced, all new to me and exciting. Looking forward to the season starting and see where things go for my son. Also looking forward to my chauffer duties this fall.

Listen, get him down here to play for coach Prime at CU. You can use our spare bedroom when you come and visit.

LOL, we will see where he is at in two years. He still has a lot of physical growth as well as skill development to do. Among the kids my son worked with this winter was an upcoming senior who is a 4-5 star recruit committed to Notre Dame. He plans to graduate in December and enroll at Notre Dame in Spring semester. This kid has the physical traits, 6'8" 310lbs long arms, he is a mauler, had over 40 offers from top programs in the US. If my kid can get those physical attributes then anything is possible, but we will see what direction he goes. Plus, being a high school boy there is a little something that will get his focus out of line right away, high school girls.

 

[Chadstroma]

This week was the first week of high school contact days, a week off next week, then practices start Aug.5th.

The offseason has been huge for my son, he is heading into his sophomore year, the coach has him penciled in at starting right tackle, he can be beaten out if he struggles in the preseason. My son put in a ton of work this offseason, worked with an offensive lineman coach with a few other kids and we had him working with a personal trainer to get his lifting improved. At the end of last season, PrepRedzone had him ranked 42 overall in the state for his graduation year, last week they bumped him up to 21 overall, he ended up being the highest riser in the state. In the offseason he was contacted by a number of Division 1 colleges (Northwestern, Iowa, Texas Tech, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Purdue, Illinois, Memphis, Ohio State, Syracuse, and more smaller schools) to come to their camps. In my opinion these are sued for coaches to see players in person as opposed to videos as well, it allows coaches from the school to talk to players. Problem is these camps happen over a two week period plus the travel expanses can add up. He went to one camp (northwestern) and some showcases. Next year will be key, he will likely need to decide on which college camps he will want to attend.

So far he has been invited to two colleges for gameday visits, Illinois and Purdue, we plan on visiting those schools in September. He is hoping to get more invites this season, but we will see where it goes. His team has some Division 1 talent so schools have stated to the players they intend to visit and watch a game or two this season. More opportunities exist for him to be seen by other schools as well.

For me this is something I never experienced, all new to me and exciting. Looking forward to the season starting and see where things go for my son. Also looking forward to my chauffer duties this fall.

So.... who on the team is going to beat him out if he is ranked 21st in the state? Seems like more motivation talk than anything to me.

 

[Chadstroma]

This week was the first week of high school contact days, a week off next week, then practices start Aug.5th.

The offseason has been huge for my son, he is heading into his sophomore year, the coach has him penciled in at starting right tackle, he can be beaten out if he struggles in the preseason. My son put in a ton of work this offseason, worked with an offensive lineman coach with a few other kids and we had him working with a personal trainer to get his lifting improved. At the end of last season, PrepRedzone had him ranked 42 overall in the state for his graduation year, last week they bumped him up to 21 overall, he ended up being the highest riser in the state. In the offseason he was contacted by a number of Division 1 colleges (Northwestern, Iowa, Texas Tech, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Purdue, Illinois, Memphis, Ohio State, Syracuse, and more smaller schools) to come to their camps. In my opinion these are sued for coaches to see players in person as opposed to videos as well, it allows coaches from the school to talk to players. Problem is these camps happen over a two week period plus the travel expanses can add up. He went to one camp (northwestern) and some showcases. Next year will be key, he will likely need to decide on which college camps he will want to attend.

So far he has been invited to two colleges for gameday visits, Illinois and Purdue, we plan on visiting those schools in September. He is hoping to get more invites this season, but we will see where it goes. His team has some Division 1 talent so schools have stated to the players they intend to visit and watch a game or two this season. More opportunities exist for him to be seen by other schools as well.

For me this is something I never experienced, all new to me and exciting. Looking forward to the season starting and see where things go for my son. Also looking forward to my chauffer duties this fall.

Listen, get him down here to play for coach Prime at CU. You can use our spare bedroom when you come and visit.

LOL, we will see where he is at in two years. He still has a lot of physical growth as well as skill development to do. Among the kids my son worked with this winter was an upcoming senior who is a 4-5 star recruit committed to Notre Dame. He plans to graduate in December and enroll at Notre Dame in Spring semester. This kid has the physical traits, 6'8" 310lbs long arms, he is a mauler, had over 40 offers from top programs in the US. If my kid can get those physical attributes then anything is possible, but we will see what direction he goes. Plus, being a high school boy there is a little something that will get his focus out of line right away, high school girls.

What is your and your wife's (or his mothers) height?

 

[Fantasy_Freak]

This week was the first week of high school contact days, a week off next week, then practices start Aug.5th.

The offseason has been huge for my son, he is heading into his sophomore year, the coach has him penciled in at starting right tackle, he can be beaten out if he struggles in the preseason. My son put in a ton of work this offseason, worked with an offensive lineman coach with a few other kids and we had him working with a personal trainer to get his lifting improved. At the end of last season, PrepRedzone had him ranked 42 overall in the state for his graduation year, last week they bumped him up to 21 overall, he ended up being the highest riser in the state. In the offseason he was contacted by a number of Division 1 colleges (Northwestern, Iowa, Texas Tech, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Purdue, Illinois, Memphis, Ohio State, Syracuse, and more smaller schools) to come to their camps. In my opinion these are sued for coaches to see players in person as opposed to videos as well, it allows coaches from the school to talk to players. Problem is these camps happen over a two week period plus the travel expanses can add up. He went to one camp (northwestern) and some showcases. Next year will be key, he will likely need to decide on which college camps he will want to attend.

So far he has been invited to two colleges for gameday visits, Illinois and Purdue, we plan on visiting those schools in September. He is hoping to get more invites this season, but we will see where it goes. His team has some Division 1 talent so schools have stated to the players they intend to visit and watch a game or two this season. More opportunities exist for him to be seen by other schools as well.

For me this is something I never experienced, all new to me and exciting. Looking forward to the season starting and see where things go for my son. Also looking forward to my chauffer duties this fall.

So.... who on the team is going to beat him out if he is ranked 21st in the state? Seems like more motivation talk than anything to me.

I think the coach says that as a motivation tool and to ensure players understand there is no favoritism. There may be some seniors who don't put in the work in the offseason then come show up thinking they are the starter because they area senior. But the coach want to make sure all players understand best players start.

 

[Fantasy_Freak]

This week was the first week of high school contact days, a week off next week, then practices start Aug.5th.

The offseason has been huge for my son, he is heading into his sophomore year, the coach has him penciled in at starting right tackle, he can be beaten out if he struggles in the preseason. My son put in a ton of work this offseason, worked with an offensive lineman coach with a few other kids and we had him working with a personal trainer to get his lifting improved. At the end of last season, PrepRedzone had him ranked 42 overall in the state for his graduation year, last week they bumped him up to 21 overall, he ended up being the highest riser in the state. In the offseason he was contacted by a number of Division 1 colleges (Northwestern, Iowa, Texas Tech, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Purdue, Illinois, Memphis, Ohio State, Syracuse, and more smaller schools) to come to their camps. In my opinion these are sued for coaches to see players in person as opposed to videos as well, it allows coaches from the school to talk to players. Problem is these camps happen over a two week period plus the travel expanses can add up. He went to one camp (northwestern) and some showcases. Next year will be key, he will likely need to decide on which college camps he will want to attend.

So far he has been invited to two colleges for gameday visits, Illinois and Purdue, we plan on visiting those schools in September. He is hoping to get more invites this season, but we will see where it goes. His team has some Division 1 talent so schools have stated to the players they intend to visit and watch a game or two this season. More opportunities exist for him to be seen by other schools as well.

For me this is something I never experienced, all new to me and exciting. Looking forward to the season starting and see where things go for my son. Also looking forward to my chauffer duties this fall.

Listen, get him down here to play for coach Prime at CU. You can use our spare bedroom when you come and visit.

LOL, we will see where he is at in two years. He still has a lot of physical growth as well as skill development to do. Among the kids my son worked with this winter was an upcoming senior who is a 4-5 star recruit committed to Notre Dame. He plans to graduate in December and enroll at Notre Dame in Spring semester. This kid has the physical traits, 6'8" 310lbs long arms, he is a mauler, had over 40 offers from top programs in the US. If my kid can get those physical attributes then anything is possible, but we will see what direction he goes. Plus, being a high school boy there is a little something that will get his focus out of line right away, high school girls.

What is your and your wife's (or his mothers) height?

I'm 6'4", wife is 5'10". There is some height in my family, sister is 6'1".

 

[Jayrod]

My son is coming into his senior year and their team is loaded. They are the best team in Missouri outside of St Louis or Kansas City and are good enough to play with any of them (we are class 6, which is the biggest). Having a 5 star, top 20 in the nation recruit at LT helps a lot.

Thats all great, but he still won't be starting at WR. He's 6'2" weighs 185 lbs but runs around a 4.8 forty. Size is a plus, he works hard and knows the game inside and out, but just can never get fast enough. The 2 guys starting in front of him both run around 4.5's and both could be D2 WR's but one is playing D1 baseball and the other wants to play basketball in college.

All 5 starting skill position guys (3WRs, TE & RB) are seniors and could play small college FB and 4 of them were starters last year. The only new kid is a slot receiver. Then my son is the next WR up if any of the 3 are out. If the slot is out, they move one of the outside guys in and my son takes the outside spot.

My son's main asset is his size as he's the only WR over 5'10". But the other guys are much faster than him. They do like to run the jump ball fade to him in the EZ from time to time. Head coach called him "our jump ball guy".

The QB is a 6' 4" Sophomore (turned 16 in May) and will be a college QB at some level. Our passing game will be better than last season. My son has become friends with him as they also play on the basketball team together, but they've been hanging out this Summer playing poker and swimming with a group of guys.

This year is going to be awesome. I'm just hoping my son gets enough action yo get some plays on tape and show to some NAIA coaches. I think he can play at that level and it is his dream to play college football since he was like 7 years old.

 

[nirad3]

My son is coming into his senior year and their team is loaded. They are the best team in Missouri outside of St Louis or Kansas City and are good enough to play with any of them (we are class 6, which is the biggest). Having a 5 star, top 20 in the nation recruit at LT helps a lot.

Thats all great, but he still won't be starting at WR. He's 6'2" weighs 185 lbs but runs around a 4.8 forty. Size is a plus, he works hard and knows the game inside and out, but just can never get fast enough. The 2 guys starting in front of him both run around 4.5's and both could be D2 WR's but one is playing D1 baseball and the other wants to play basketball in college.

All 5 starting skill position guys (3WRs, TE & RB) are seniors and could play small college FB and 4 of them were starters last year. The only new kid is a slot receiver. Then my son is the next WR up if any of the 3 are out. If the slot is out, they move one of the outside guys in and my son takes the outside spot.

My son's main asset is his size as he's the only WR over 5'10". But the other guys are much faster than him. They do like to run the jump ball fade to him in the EZ from time to time. Head coach called him "our jump ball guy".

The QB is a 6' 4" Sophomore (turned 16 in May) and will be a college QB at some level. Our passing game will be better than last season. My son has become friends with him as they also play on the basketball team together, but they've been hanging out this Summer playing poker and swimming with a group of guys.

This year is going to be awesome. I'm just hoping my son gets enough action yo get some plays on tape and show to some NAIA coaches. I think he can play at that level and it is his dream to play college football since he was like 7 years old.

Does the team run any 2-TE sets? Does your son have any interest in learning that position? If he doesn't have the straight-line speed maybe converting to TE is the route to go? Maybe as a senior it's too late to make that switch but it sounds like he could benefit from trying TE.

 

[Chadstroma]

This week was the first week of high school contact days, a week off next week, then practices start Aug.5th.

The offseason has been huge for my son, he is heading into his sophomore year, the coach has him penciled in at starting right tackle, he can be beaten out if he struggles in the preseason. My son put in a ton of work this offseason, worked with an offensive lineman coach with a few other kids and we had him working with a personal trainer to get his lifting improved. At the end of last season, PrepRedzone had him ranked 42 overall in the state for his graduation year, last week they bumped him up to 21 overall, he ended up being the highest riser in the state. In the offseason he was contacted by a number of Division 1 colleges (Northwestern, Iowa, Texas Tech, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Purdue, Illinois, Memphis, Ohio State, Syracuse, and more smaller schools) to come to their camps. In my opinion these are sued for coaches to see players in person as opposed to videos as well, it allows coaches from the school to talk to players. Problem is these camps happen over a two week period plus the travel expanses can add up. He went to one camp (northwestern) and some showcases. Next year will be key, he will likely need to decide on which college camps he will want to attend.

So far he has been invited to two colleges for gameday visits, Illinois and Purdue, we plan on visiting those schools in September. He is hoping to get more invites this season, but we will see where it goes. His team has some Division 1 talent so schools have stated to the players they intend to visit and watch a game or two this season. More opportunities exist for him to be seen by other schools as well.

For me this is something I never experienced, all new to me and exciting. Looking forward to the season starting and see where things go for my son. Also looking forward to my chauffer duties this fall.

So.... who on the team is going to beat him out if he is ranked 21st in the state? Seems like more motivation talk than anything to me.

I think the coach says that as a motivation tool and to ensure players understand there is no favoritism. There may be some seniors who don't put in the work in the offseason then come show up thinking they are the starter because they area senior. But the coach want to make sure all players understand best players start.

Yea, it has to be and I can totally see that... a downfall of more than a couple of very good athletes is that they rely on their athleticism to get them by and those working hard tend to eventually pass them up.

 

[Chadstroma]

LOL, we will see where he is at in two years. He still has a lot of physical growth as well as skill development to do. Among the kids my son worked with this winter was an upcoming senior who is a 4-5 star recruit committed to Notre Dame. He plans to graduate in December and enroll at Notre Dame in Spring semester. This kid has the physical traits, 6'8" 310lbs long arms, he is a mauler, had over 40 offers from top programs in the US. If my kid can get those physical attributes then anything is possible, but we will see what direction he goes. Plus, being a high school boy there is a little something that will get his focus out of line right away, high school girls.

What is your and your wife's (or his mothers) height?

I'm 6'4", wife is 5'10". There is some height in my family, sister is 6'1".

How tall is he now? 17 years old?

 

[Chadstroma]

My son is coming into his senior year and their team is loaded. They are the best team in Missouri outside of St Louis or Kansas City and are good enough to play with any of them (we are class 6, which is the biggest). Having a 5 star, top 20 in the nation recruit at LT helps a lot.

Thats all great, but he still won't be starting at WR. He's 6'2" weighs 185 lbs but runs around a 4.8 forty. Size is a plus, he works hard and knows the game inside and out, but just can never get fast enough. The 2 guys starting in front of him both run around 4.5's and both could be D2 WR's but one is playing D1 baseball and the other wants to play basketball in college.

All 5 starting skill position guys (3WRs, TE & RB) are seniors and could play small college FB and 4 of them were starters last year. The only new kid is a slot receiver. Then my son is the next WR up if any of the 3 are out. If the slot is out, they move one of the outside guys in and my son takes the outside spot.

My son's main asset is his size as he's the only WR over 5'10". But the other guys are much faster than him. They do like to run the jump ball fade to him in the EZ from time to time. Head coach called him "our jump ball guy".

The QB is a 6' 4" Sophomore (turned 16 in May) and will be a college QB at some level. Our passing game will be better than last season. My son has become friends with him as they also play on the basketball team together, but they've been hanging out this Summer playing poker and swimming with a group of guys.

This year is going to be awesome. I'm just hoping my son gets enough action yo get some plays on tape and show to some NAIA coaches. I think he can play at that level and it is his dream to play college football since he was like 7 years old.

Does the team run any 2-TE sets? Does your son have any interest in learning that position? If he doesn't have the straight-line speed maybe converting to TE is the route to go? Maybe as a senior it's too late to make that switch but it sounds like he could benefit from trying TE.

Kind of what I was thinking... if he can't get faster then add more weight looking at a move to TE.

 

[nirad3]

My son is coming into his senior year and their team is loaded. They are the best team in Missouri outside of St Louis or Kansas City and are good enough to play with any of them (we are class 6, which is the biggest). Having a 5 star, top 20 in the nation recruit at LT helps a lot.

Thats all great, but he still won't be starting at WR. He's 6'2" weighs 185 lbs but runs around a 4.8 forty. Size is a plus, he works hard and knows the game inside and out, but just can never get fast enough. The 2 guys starting in front of him both run around 4.5's and both could be D2 WR's but one is playing D1 baseball and the other wants to play basketball in college.

All 5 starting skill position guys (3WRs, TE & RB) are seniors and could play small college FB and 4 of them were starters last year. The only new kid is a slot receiver. Then my son is the next WR up if any of the 3 are out. If the slot is out, they move one of the outside guys in and my son takes the outside spot.

My son's main asset is his size as he's the only WR over 5'10". But the other guys are much faster than him. They do like to run the jump ball fade to him in the EZ from time to time. Head coach called him "our jump ball guy".

The QB is a 6' 4" Sophomore (turned 16 in May) and will be a college QB at some level. Our passing game will be better than last season. My son has become friends with him as they also play on the basketball team together, but they've been hanging out this Summer playing poker and swimming with a group of guys.

This year is going to be awesome. I'm just hoping my son gets enough action yo get some plays on tape and show to some NAIA coaches. I think he can play at that level and it is his dream to play college football since he was like 7 years old.

Does the team run any 2-TE sets? Does your son have any interest in learning that position? If he doesn't have the straight-line speed maybe converting to TE is the route to go? Maybe as a senior it's too late to make that switch but it sounds like he could benefit from trying TE.

Kind of what I was thinking... if he can't get faster then add more weight looking at a move to TE.

One of my fraternity brothers' kid played D1 ball at a few different colleges: UNC, SMU and Texas State... because he really just couldn't stay healthy and kept finding himself on the sidelines most games. He was a bigger WR (6'4", 215 lbs.) and I would always ask my buddy why he didn't try TE. The kid wasn't especially fast and from the looks of him, had the frame to add maybe 10-15 pounds.

And actually, looks like he was invited to the Patriots' camp back in April after his old UNC QB Drake Maye recommended that the team try him out. Not sure how he did.... but still listed as WR.

 

[Fantasy_Freak]

LOL, we will see where he is at in two years. He still has a lot of physical growth as well as skill development to do. Among the kids my son worked with this winter was an upcoming senior who is a 4-5 star recruit committed to Notre Dame. He plans to graduate in December and enroll at Notre Dame in Spring semester. This kid has the physical traits, 6'8" 310lbs long arms, he is a mauler, had over 40 offers from top programs in the US. If my kid can get those physical attributes then anything is possible, but we will see what direction he goes. Plus, being a high school boy there is a little something that will get his focus out of line right away, high school girls.

What is your and your wife's (or his mothers) height?

I'm 6'4", wife is 5'10". There is some height in my family, sister is 6'1".

How tall is he now? 17 years old?

6'3" 255lbs, he wants to try and gain 5 more pounds of muscle prior to games starting. He is going into his Sophomore year, he is 15 years old, going to be 16 in November, after the season ends.

 

[Jayrod]

My son is coming into his senior year and their team is loaded. They are the best team in Missouri outside of St Louis or Kansas City and are good enough to play with any of them (we are class 6, which is the biggest). Having a 5 star, top 20 in the nation recruit at LT helps a lot.

Thats all great, but he still won't be starting at WR. He's 6'2" weighs 185 lbs but runs around a 4.8 forty. Size is a plus, he works hard and knows the game inside and out, but just can never get fast enough. The 2 guys starting in front of him both run around 4.5's and both could be D2 WR's but one is playing D1 baseball and the other wants to play basketball in college.

All 5 starting skill position guys (3WRs, TE & RB) are seniors and could play small college FB and 4 of them were starters last year. The only new kid is a slot receiver. Then my son is the next WR up if any of the 3 are out. If the slot is out, they move one of the outside guys in and my son takes the outside spot.

My son's main asset is his size as he's the only WR over 5'10". But the other guys are much faster than him. They do like to run the jump ball fade to him in the EZ from time to time. Head coach called him "our jump ball guy".

The QB is a 6' 4" Sophomore (turned 16 in May) and will be a college QB at some level. Our passing game will be better than last season. My son has become friends with him as they also play on the basketball team together, but they've been hanging out this Summer playing poker and swimming with a group of guys.

This year is going to be awesome. I'm just hoping my son gets enough action yo get some plays on tape and show to some NAIA coaches. I think he can play at that level and it is his dream to play college football since he was like 7 years old.

Does the team run any 2-TE sets? Does your son have any interest in learning that position? If he doesn't have the straight-line speed maybe converting to TE is the route to go? Maybe as a senior it's too late to make that switch but it sounds like he could benefit from trying TE.

Kind of what I was thinking... if he can't get faster then add more weight looking at a move to TE.

I mentioned it to him for a couple of years. He is similar to me in that adding weight was not easy. He also isn't a naturally aggressive blocker, tends to dance around instead of drive guys. He definitely got that from me as I was the same way until I was a senior.

 

[Chadstroma]

My son is coming into his senior year and their team is loaded. They are the best team in Missouri outside of St Louis or Kansas City and are good enough to play with any of them (we are class 6, which is the biggest). Having a 5 star, top 20 in the nation recruit at LT helps a lot.

Thats all great, but he still won't be starting at WR. He's 6'2" weighs 185 lbs but runs around a 4.8 forty. Size is a plus, he works hard and knows the game inside and out, but just can never get fast enough. The 2 guys starting in front of him both run around 4.5's and both could be D2 WR's but one is playing D1 baseball and the other wants to play basketball in college.

All 5 starting skill position guys (3WRs, TE & RB) are seniors and could play small college FB and 4 of them were starters last year. The only new kid is a slot receiver. Then my son is the next WR up if any of the 3 are out. If the slot is out, they move one of the outside guys in and my son takes the outside spot.

My son's main asset is his size as he's the only WR over 5'10". But the other guys are much faster than him. They do like to run the jump ball fade to him in the EZ from time to time. Head coach called him "our jump ball guy".

The QB is a 6' 4" Sophomore (turned 16 in May) and will be a college QB at some level. Our passing game will be better than last season. My son has become friends with him as they also play on the basketball team together, but they've been hanging out this Summer playing poker and swimming with a group of guys.

This year is going to be awesome. I'm just hoping my son gets enough action yo get some plays on tape and show to some NAIA coaches. I think he can play at that level and it is his dream to play college football since he was like 7 years old.

Does the team run any 2-TE sets? Does your son have any interest in learning that position? If he doesn't have the straight-line speed maybe converting to TE is the route to go? Maybe as a senior it's too late to make that switch but it sounds like he could benefit from trying TE.

Kind of what I was thinking... if he can't get faster then add more weight looking at a move to TE.

One of my fraternity brothers' kid played D1 ball at a few different colleges: UNC, SMU and Texas State... because he really just couldn't stay healthy and kept finding himself on the sidelines most games. He was a bigger WR (6'4", 215 lbs.) and I would always ask my buddy why he didn't try TE. The kid wasn't especially fast and from the looks of him, had the frame to add maybe 10-15 pounds.

And actually, looks like he was invited to the Patriots' camp back in April after his old UNC QB Drake Maye recommended that the team try him out. Not sure how he did.... but still listed as WR.

Frame is a big question on that and then the other side would be do they have any ability/desire to block. Did he ever give a reason for not trying to make the move? That being said, if he was good enough to get an invite to camp.... doesn't sound like too bad of a decision to stick with WR.

 

[Chadstroma]

LOL, we will see where he is at in two years. He still has a lot of physical growth as well as skill development to do. Among the kids my son worked with this winter was an upcoming senior who is a 4-5 star recruit committed to Notre Dame. He plans to graduate in December and enroll at Notre Dame in Spring semester. This kid has the physical traits, 6'8" 310lbs long arms, he is a mauler, had over 40 offers from top programs in the US. If my kid can get those physical attributes then anything is possible, but we will see what direction he goes. Plus, being a high school boy there is a little something that will get his focus out of line right away, high school girls.

What is your and your wife's (or his mothers) height?

I'm 6'4", wife is 5'10". There is some height in my family, sister is 6'1".

How tall is he now? 17 years old?

6'3" 255lbs, he wants to try and gain 5 more pounds of muscle prior to games starting. He is going into his Sophomore year, he is 15 years old, going to be 16 in November, after the season ends.

Sounds like he has another 2 inches left in him at least. I would be force feeding him protein. calcium, omega fatty acids, ginger (helps with digestion to absorb the good stuff), amino acids, and your general vitamins. If you can get him in the pool, that helps promote height and plus is unbeatable for conditioning. And make sure he is getting good sleep.

 

[Chadstroma]

Kind of what I was thinking... if he can't get faster then add more weight looking at a move to TE.

I mentioned it to him for a couple of years. He is similar to me in that adding weight was not easy. He also isn't a naturally aggressive blocker, tends to dance around instead of drive guys. He definitely got that from me as I was the same way until I was a senior.

Yea, those are the two main factors for being a WR vs TE. Good height at WR even if a little on the slower side can be a great weapon specially if coupled with great technique and route running.

 

[nirad3]

My son is coming into his senior year and their team is loaded. They are the best team in Missouri outside of St Louis or Kansas City and are good enough to play with any of them (we are class 6, which is the biggest). Having a 5 star, top 20 in the nation recruit at LT helps a lot.

Thats all great, but he still won't be starting at WR. He's 6'2" weighs 185 lbs but runs around a 4.8 forty. Size is a plus, he works hard and knows the game inside and out, but just can never get fast enough. The 2 guys starting in front of him both run around 4.5's and both could be D2 WR's but one is playing D1 baseball and the other wants to play basketball in college.

All 5 starting skill position guys (3WRs, TE & RB) are seniors and could play small college FB and 4 of them were starters last year. The only new kid is a slot receiver. Then my son is the next WR up if any of the 3 are out. If the slot is out, they move one of the outside guys in and my son takes the outside spot.

My son's main asset is his size as he's the only WR over 5'10". But the other guys are much faster than him. They do like to run the jump ball fade to him in the EZ from time to time. Head coach called him "our jump ball guy".

The QB is a 6' 4" Sophomore (turned 16 in May) and will be a college QB at some level. Our passing game will be better than last season. My son has become friends with him as they also play on the basketball team together, but they've been hanging out this Summer playing poker and swimming with a group of guys.

This year is going to be awesome. I'm just hoping my son gets enough action yo get some plays on tape and show to some NAIA coaches. I think he can play at that level and it is his dream to play college football since he was like 7 years old.

Does the team run any 2-TE sets? Does your son have any interest in learning that position? If he doesn't have the straight-line speed maybe converting to TE is the route to go? Maybe as a senior it's too late to make that switch but it sounds like he could benefit from trying TE.

Kind of what I was thinking... if he can't get faster then add more weight looking at a move to TE.

One of my fraternity brothers' kid played D1 ball at a few different colleges: UNC, SMU and Texas State... because he really just couldn't stay healthy and kept finding himself on the sidelines most games. He was a bigger WR (6'4", 215 lbs.) and I would always ask my buddy why he didn't try TE. The kid wasn't especially fast and from the looks of him, had the frame to add maybe 10-15 pounds.

And actually, looks like he was invited to the Patriots' camp back in April after his old UNC QB Drake Maye recommended that the team try him out. Not sure how he did.... but still listed as WR.

Frame is a big question on that and then the other side would be do they have any ability/desire to block. Did he ever give a reason for not trying to make the move? That being said, if he was good enough to get an invite to camp.... doesn't sound like too bad of a decision to stick with WR.

Never got a reason and yeah you're right if he's getting invited to NFL camps then maybe there's something there.

 

[Chadstroma]

First day of practice for both boys. I am helping out with my younger kids team so I didn't really see much of my older son practicing. Practice was cut a little short with some lightning in the area but the boys were pretty pumped and are excited for the season.

 

[Fantasy_Freak]

First day of practice for both boys. I am helping out with my younger kids team so I didn't really see much of my older son practicing. Practice was cut a little short with some lightning in the area but the boys were pretty pumped and are excited for the season.

My son starts today, he is pretty excited. Get their gear and necessary first day stuff, then on the field. He was watching team videos the coach sent of the plays getting ready for the season.

 

[Chadstroma]

First day of practice for both boys. I am helping out with my younger kids team so I didn't really see much of my older son practicing. Practice was cut a little short with some lightning in the area but the boys were pretty pumped and are excited for the season.

My son starts today, he is pretty excited. Get their gear and necessary first day stuff, then on the field. He was watching team videos the coach sent of the plays getting ready for the season.

Of course we had to make a last minute run to.... the sporting goods store that the censorship will not allow.... to get a new chin strap since my older son did not listen to me and put the one from last year in his bag as I said at the end of last season. And of course he didn't even care to look until the last minute.... thankfully, I had told them practice started 30 minutes earlier than it did so we actually had time.

My younger son, even though I told him to put his water in his bag when not using it... didn't and almost left it.... just like he almost lost one of his gloves.

sigh.

 

[belljr]

Dicks

 

[Chadstroma]

Dicks

I specifically remember it doing the #### on it before. Nice to know as that is a lot shorter to type out.

 

[Chadstroma]

It is fun being able to see my younger son start his football career as I am helping coach. Something that I have not had any experience with my older son on. I am not sure where he will end up but likely a skill position and maybe DB... possibly LB. It will be interesting to see how much time he gets. Most of the team is 4th graders and he is one of the few 3rd graders on the team but he is keeping up with the faster/athletic 4th graders and holding his own.

Really working on his mental approach. The first couple of practices, he stopped running and ended up like 3rd or 4th from last.... only beating the really big lineman who obviously struggle on those runs. It is all in his head as soon as he feels discomfort, he gets overly dramatic and stops. I have seen the same thing in BJJ as well. I talked to him last night about it and today in practice he did better on the long run.

With my attention on the 3/4 team helping coach, I have not seen much of my older son practicing at all. A few brief glances here and there. I talked to his HC today after practice and told him "I am going to preface this with I don't care where you play him- wherever it is the best for the team and him..... but that said, give him some throws and see what you see out of it" and then explained why in what I was seeing with him throwing. He told me that that was good to know as they didn't 'know' and were thinking of him at RB and LB. On the way home, we talked about it and he said they were putting him at RB and Mike. He said that he went out with my other son with the pads and helmet on and were throwing a bit as that was his big fear. He said it felt weird, but it wasn't affecting him at all. He did say that he 'thinks' he might want to play RB over QB- which is fine if that is what he really does want to do but I think that is because he knows that at this level it is not a pass heavy offense and thinks he will get more action at RB. I reminded him that he will not be a bell cow RB because they have a couple of boys that would be taking snaps too. He would certainly be the 'power' back while the others are very much scat backs. He played Mike last year and seems to very excited about playing Mike again and being the 'playcaller' for the defense. At RB, if he learns to really run through then he could do some damage.... last year they had him at RB but like emergency back and didn't get any snaps. I think that was mostly because he was trying to dance too much playing like the other backs on the team instead of cut and go and learning to aim for the outside shoulder on a tackler than try to juke him. This is all assuming he make weight. He has to be under 100 pounds. He has been losing some weight before practices even started with trying to watch what he eats.

Both teams should do well this year. Our 7/8 team should as well. We got significant additions for both the 5/6 and 7/8 teams. For the 5/6 this kid is amazing. He is my son but a year older and more serious about getting better. There is no doubt in my mind that this kid will be the league MVP. He is the second tallest kid on the team, the fastest, the strongest and he gives 110% effort every freaking second. I mean, I watched him do some warm up drills and the kid had perfect form on all of them and not cheating in any way, shape or form. The older team got a big guy on the team. They are all on the far side so I don't see anything from them but I am told that even though he is big, he has some quickness, he is just out of shape. He is certainly a big guy and will be a good addition to that team.

I am really looking forward to this season. It will be a lot of football and I am praying that my back holds up. It has been pretty rough on me to make it through the last few days but I have made it. I am hoping I can nurture it, continue to lose weight and hopefully strengthen everything so I am not in pain the entire time.

 

[Andrew74]

Good luck to everyone this season!

 

[Chadstroma]

Things are starting to take shape.

My older son is pretty much locked in as RB and Mike and I think possibly 2nd or 3rd string QB. My guess is that they will start him at Mike and he will play the majority of snaps on defense and then part of a committee at RB. One of our RB's from last year didn't come back (which sucks because he is a very good athlete.... stupid soccer) and another was on vacation so has not been to practice yet. The one on vacation is a short very quick/fast kind of scat back. My son is the power back. If he learns to use his power, not try to dance and realize a couple extra yards is often much better than trying to break a long run and getting taken down earlier.... he should do some damage. He seems excited for both positions, he is pretty laid back so as much as he gets excited for stuff that isn't vbucks.

For my younger son, I am helping coach the LB/DB's. We broke into position groups Thursday and my son was in the skills group. I have not been in any of the discussions of what they are thinking of using him. The rest of the staff is all returning and I am the new guy with almost no prior relationships with any of the staff except the most junior coach so I am not exactly helping run the team. We have on paper 27 kids but I don't think we have had more than 21 at practice yet. We are unsure if vacations are still going or other commitments and the rest will show up or not. The younger is super excited as well.

One huge point of concern: The size of the 3rd graders (3) on the team and that we already know the 2nd grade class has an extremely small class (8 boys total). If we don't get more kids in then there will be no team next year for that age group which would beyond suck. My sons grade has a good group of boys.... likely pushing 20. Most played flag football last year. I didn't expect all of them to play tackle but I was absolutely shocked when I was told we had 3 including my son. Not sure what the deal is. Some of the parents were talking about it yesterday (out of the group that stays and sort of watches the kids but mostly drink and talk) and one theory was that we are pretty much the last of the Gen X parents at these ages and the younger kids parents are now Millennial. I am not going to get into a gen war here but I think pretty much most rational people would agree that the tendency for Gen X parents is more of a 'tough it out kid' while there is more of a 'OMG, we have to bubble wrap our little boy'. The Moms of the group were saying that they noticed a lot more Mothers who were more against football than they were.... and they all were either reluctant or fought against them playing. I am going to be on top of my boy for him to be in the ears of all his friends all year long about how much fun football is and recruit them. No doubt that if the boys tell their Moms "I wanna play!" more than a couple will cave in. We can also pull from a couple of other nearby schools without football programs and CDC classes but I have heard there is some issues with recruiting from them. One church nearby that we could recruit from that has a sports program refuses to take part. My best guess is that they fear the kids will jump ship and then the parents will start attending mass at ours.... which is stupid. Other than football, you have to be a student for all the other sports. The person in charge of CDC will not give us the names of the boys.... for what reason.... I have no idea. The other schools don't push it. I think we have 2 boys in the 5/6 team that come from them. It is giving me anxiety because if we don't fix it with more boys next year, I have no idea what my son will do.

 

[Chadstroma]

My younger son asked to work on his football skills, so we went outside and I threw him some balls off of routes and then I had him run towards me, trying to get him to understand how to power through a tackle. We did that for a while too.

Then my older son came out. We went back to running routes and throwing.... he was doing some nice catches off of adjusting from my horrible throws. More than a couple of one handed grabs. Then we went back to the... I will call it 'run through drill' because with him confirmed at RB, I want him to understand how to use his power. After a few of them, I had to stop. The kid was hitting freaking hard. I am not a small guy.... 6'1'' prob about 290 ish now.... and I have a blocking pad to soften the blow.... and dang. It surprised the heck out of me. If he runs like that in a game, there are not going to be many kids that will be able to stop him. Add in our new transfer student which is my son but a year older- and taller, stronger, faster, etc.... who will be over stripper weight limit and be on the line blocking for him.... where I promise you, unless there is also some new kid the other schools have, NO one will be be able to stand up to him and take his block on. I can see my son running behind him as he goes from first and second levels and then is just wishing a fool would try at the third level after with the two previous defenders are nursing themselves up after being laid on their back. This could shape up to be a very good year for my son.

Note: I love seeing my younger son have a drive to work on skills at home. I had signed up my oldest to do a basketball camp this weekend (he wanted to go because the coach leading it spent time in the NBA). It ended up getting canceled by the cancelation notice went to my spam. Another camp was there and he could have done that but didn't want to. Which kind of annoyed me. Then, after communicating to the camp, they offtered to do a couple of private sessions which my son declined to do. Again, annoying me. My younger son JUMPED at the opportunity. In response to that my older son said he would go to. I am really hoping that the transfer student, which is basically showing my son what elite really looks like and the drive of my younger son rub off on him more. I have seen a higher level of pulling himself away from video games to actually work on something and I hope it continues and grows.

 

[Chadstroma]

My older son told me that he is the starting RB and 3rd string QB. Also, might be moved to OLB from MLB and don't know where he is on depth chart for defense. I do expect him to get a good amount of time playing both ways.

The little one really struggled on Monday- the first day of full pads and hitting. Just being soft which is understandable at his age and first time but the other boys in the same boat as him stepped up, worked hard, no complaints, didn't cry like their back was broken after being tackled, and ran hard. My son had some ailment every time someone hit him or he went to the ground. In running both long run and sprints was only beating two boys on the team... these two boys are very big (hefty) boys who struggle running and it isn't physical at all as I would put him on the top 1/3 of the team in speed. All mental.

I spoke with him before practice yesterday and told him that coaches were watching and how he acts determines what positions and how much time he gets. He responded. On the long run was right in the middle of the pack. He gave it all in all the drills and did not quite. We even ran a drill of ball carrier and defender round cones and then go at each other. My poor little guy ended up going against the biggest boy on the team but he didn't quite and went at him every time. He didn't bring him down (couldn't get his arms around the boys legs) but for basically the first couple of days of hitting was getting in there well and wrapping up. After, I told him that I didn't care that he didn't bring him down but that I did care and loved the effort and not stopping. Told him that I was proud of him.

 

[Andrew74]

It has been an interesting year so far. A week before practices started, my son got accidentally hit in the head with a rock and got three staples. He wasn’t able to practice for a week. He is growing slowly, but he is still one of the smallest guys on the team. He just hit 100 pounds and he’s in eighth grade. He started on the B team at RB and CB once he was able to practice. While he was disappointed, his attitude is vastly different than last year. He has definitely matured some. He kept working hard and the defensive back, coach told him he liked what he saw, but needed to see more. Said he had a good shot of moving to the A-Team. We had a scrimmage last week, and in the six plays he was in, he got a tackle and an interception. Wednesday this week he got moved to a starter at cornerback. We had a second scrimmage last night and he played on the starting defense. He’s pretty excited.

I talked to a couple of the coaches last night, and they were all very complementary of him. The running back coach wants to give him carries on the A-Team, but they are worried, understandably, at giving him too much at his small size. He got all the carries on the B team offense last night. The blocking was atrocious, and he was getting hit in the backfield on most plays. But he was running hard, and able to make every play a positive yardage play. The head coach sent me an email last night and said he had a good game.

Hopefully things continue to trend in the right direction. Honestly as a parent, it is nerve-racking, watching him play when he gives up so much height and weight!

 

[Chadstroma]

It has been an interesting year so far. A week before practices started, my son got accidentally hit in the head with a rock and got three staples. He wasn’t able to practice for a week. He is growing slowly, but he is still one of the smallest guys on the team. He just hit 100 pounds and he’s in eighth grade. He started on the B team at RB and CB once he was able to practice. While he was disappointed, his attitude is vastly different than last year. He has definitely matured some. He kept working hard and the defensive back, coach told him he liked what he saw, but needed to see more. Said he had a good shot of moving to the A-Team. We had a scrimmage last week, and in the six plays he was in, he got a tackle and an interception. Wednesday this week he got moved to a starter at cornerback. We had a second scrimmage last night and he played on the starting defense. He’s pretty excited.

I talked to a couple of the coaches last night, and they were all very complementary of him. The running back coach wants to give him carries on the A-Team, but they are worried, understandably, at giving him too much at his small size. He got all the carries on the B team offense last night. The blocking was atrocious, and he was getting hit in the backfield on most plays. But he was running hard, and able to make every play a positive yardage play. The head coach sent me an email last night and said he had a good game.

Hopefully things continue to trend in the right direction. Honestly as a parent, it is nerve-racking, watching him play when he gives up so much height and weight!

Yea, I can imagine.

We have a couple of brothers one is on the 'varsity' team (7/8th grade) and then the younger is on the 3/4 that I help coach. Both are very much undersized for their ages. We (his father coaches with me on the younger team) were joking about the older one could go to weigh in with all his pads on after a rain storm and still make weight. But both give more than the get. The older one is the fastest of his grade and the younger one may be as well (I am usually glaring at my son on runs so I am not seeing who is coming in on the top).

As I keep telling this kids, technique is even more important when you are giving up size. You don't want to get trucked and feel like crap, get low, drive your shoulder in and wrap up. Football is a dang rough spot though and I feel nervous as is when my kids play and my son is one of the bigger/stronger kids on the field usually.

 

[Chadstroma]

My older son missed the weigh in weight so he will get moved to the DLine and OLine for the season. He is very upset about it.

He will be a force at both new positions for sure. I am expecting him to be at DE and then not sure about Oline. G or T or which side. I was told (by one of the coaches) that he can weigh in again before playoffs and be eligible to play RB, LB or whatever position during playoffs.

They had another scrimmage Sat. He had a very good game all around. Nice tackles, good runs, and ridiculous blocks. I saw three pancakes he had and he didn't just send these kids back on their back but they literally flew and landed on the back of their shoulder pads.

My lil guy needs to continue to develop. It is a little frustrating on my end because it isn't physical ability but way more mental. He doesn't hold his blocks and doesn't shed blocks like he could but this is his first year so you really can't expect him to just walk on as an all-star.

 

[Fantasy_Freak]

My older son missed the weigh in weight so he will get moved to the DLine and OLine for the season. He is very upset about it.

He will be a force at both new positions for sure. I am expecting him to be at DE and then not sure about Oline. G or T or which side. I was told (by one of the coaches) that he can weigh in again before playoffs and be eligible to play RB, LB or whatever position during playoffs.

They had another scrimmage Sat. He had a very good game all around. Nice tackles, good runs, and ridiculous blocks. I saw three pancakes he had and he didn't just send these kids back on their back but they literally flew and landed on the back of their shoulder pads.

My lil guy needs to continue to develop. It is a little frustrating on my end because it isn't physical ability but way more mental. He doesn't hold his blocks and doesn't shed blocks like he could but this is his first year so you really can't expect him to just walk on as an all-star.

Unfortunately, one of the things your son will have to come to accept is Oline and Dline do not have much recognition or should I say good recognition. While the offensive players can get receptions, passing, rushing and TD, and most of the defensive players get tackles and interceptions, Oline don't have much to hang their hat on. Now, when there is a sack or tackle for loss you will hear cries from parents from improved blocking. I am slowly coming to terms with it, but it is hard. My son absolutely loves playing offensive lien and does not care about the glory.

 

[The Z Machine]

My older son missed the weigh in weight so he will get moved to the DLine and OLine for the season. He is very upset about it.

He will be a force at both new positions for sure. I am expecting him to be at DE and then not sure about Oline. G or T or which side. I was told (by one of the coaches) that he can weigh in again before playoffs and be eligible to play RB, LB or whatever position during playoffs.

They had another scrimmage Sat. He had a very good game all around. Nice tackles, good runs, and ridiculous blocks. I saw three pancakes he had and he didn't just send these kids back on their back but they literally flew and landed on the back of their shoulder pads.

My lil guy needs to continue to develop. It is a little frustrating on my end because it isn't physical ability but way more mental. He doesn't hold his blocks and doesn't shed blocks like he could but this is his first year so you really can't expect him to just walk on as an all-star.

Unfortunately, one of the things your son will have to come to accept is Oline and Dline do not have much recognition or should I say good recognition. While the offensive players can get receptions, passing, rushing and TD, and most of the defensive players get tackles and interceptions, Oline don't have much to hang their hat on. Now, when there is a sack or tackle for loss you will hear cries from parents from improved blocking. I am slowly coming to terms with it, but it is hard. My son absolutely loves playing offensive lien and does not care about the glory.

O-Line is a lot of fun. When the offense is clicking, you know that it's because you and your crew are dominating. It's definitely the most "team" portion of football. The 5 guys have to work in unison in order to be successful.

One thing that might suit your son is if he can play Guard and pull on toss sweeps or similar plays. If he's got speed and size, he can do some damage clearing the way for the ball carrier. Nothing better than seeing a G clear out a Safety and run into the endzone ahead of the running back. An RB that scores like that, untouched into the endzone knows who did the work for the 6 points, and it wasn't the guy holding the pigskin.

 

[Chadstroma]

My older son missed the weigh in weight so he will get moved to the DLine and OLine for the season. He is very upset about it.

He will be a force at both new positions for sure. I am expecting him to be at DE and then not sure about Oline. G or T or which side. I was told (by one of the coaches) that he can weigh in again before playoffs and be eligible to play RB, LB or whatever position during playoffs.

They had another scrimmage Sat. He had a very good game all around. Nice tackles, good runs, and ridiculous blocks. I saw three pancakes he had and he didn't just send these kids back on their back but they literally flew and landed on the back of their shoulder pads.

My lil guy needs to continue to develop. It is a little frustrating on my end because it isn't physical ability but way more mental. He doesn't hold his blocks and doesn't shed blocks like he could but this is his first year so you really can't expect him to just walk on as an all-star.

Unfortunately, one of the things your son will have to come to accept is Oline and Dline do not have much recognition or should I say good recognition. While the offensive players can get receptions, passing, rushing and TD, and most of the defensive players get tackles and interceptions, Oline don't have much to hang their hat on. Now, when there is a sack or tackle for loss you will hear cries from parents from improved blocking. I am slowly coming to terms with it, but it is hard. My son absolutely loves playing offensive lien and does not care about the glory.

He has played both Dline and Oline before. He actually has played every position at either practice or a game except Center with this going into his 4th year.

My focus for him on Oline will be pancakes and getting to his second blocks. I really talked up those pancakes he had at the scrimmage but that was before I knew he missed weight. Two years ago when playing RG, he had three pancakes in one play. It was just awesomeness.... DL went down, then LB and then Safety.

On defense, there are not a lot of sack opportunities as it is probably a 5 to 1 ratio of run to pass at this level still but he did get a sack last year from the Mike position. So I am going to really talk up tackles for losses. He will get a good amount of those. Him and another kid on the Dline will be really hard for any of the other teams to block either and both together will be pretty close to unblockable. My son is a beast and then we have basically a clone of him but a year older and taller, bigger, stronger, faster.

I think there will be more than enough awesome plays that he gets recognition and glory but the driving thing for him wasn't so much the glory as he just wants to have the ball in his hands. When I asked him what he wanted to play position wise it was "A skill position and then on defense LB or DB" and previous to that last year when he was asked by the HC and myself, he kind of just shrugged his shoulders. I offered up 'whatever helps the team the most?" and he got a big smile and strongly nodded yes.

I was looking forward to seeing him at RB but more because he hasn't done it before and his power running ability brought something to the team that basically all the other teams do not have. I like our scat backs we have but it would have been nice to have the mix of some power. I am still very much looking forward to his season this year though whatever he plays because wherever he is, he will make an impact on the game.

 

[Chadstroma]

My older son missed the weigh in weight so he will get moved to the DLine and OLine for the season. He is very upset about it.

He will be a force at both new positions for sure. I am expecting him to be at DE and then not sure about Oline. G or T or which side. I was told (by one of the coaches) that he can weigh in again before playoffs and be eligible to play RB, LB or whatever position during playoffs.

They had another scrimmage Sat. He had a very good game all around. Nice tackles, good runs, and ridiculous blocks. I saw three pancakes he had and he didn't just send these kids back on their back but they literally flew and landed on the back of their shoulder pads.

My lil guy needs to continue to develop. It is a little frustrating on my end because it isn't physical ability but way more mental. He doesn't hold his blocks and doesn't shed blocks like he could but this is his first year so you really can't expect him to just walk on as an all-star.

Unfortunately, one of the things your son will have to come to accept is Oline and Dline do not have much recognition or should I say good recognition. While the offensive players can get receptions, passing, rushing and TD, and most of the defensive players get tackles and interceptions, Oline don't have much to hang their hat on. Now, when there is a sack or tackle for loss you will hear cries from parents from improved blocking. I am slowly coming to terms with it, but it is hard. My son absolutely loves playing offensive lien and does not care about the glory.

O-Line is a lot of fun. When the offense is clicking, you know that it's because you and your crew are dominating. It's definitely the most "team" portion of football. The 5 guys have to work in unison in order to be successful.

One thing that might suit your son is if he can play Guard and pull on toss sweeps or similar plays. If he's got speed and size, he can do some damage clearing the way for the ball carrier. Nothing better than seeing a G clear out a Safety and run into the endzone ahead of the running back. An RB that scores like that, untouched into the endzone knows who did the work for the 6 points, and it wasn't the guy holding the pigskin.

His first year (3rd grade) he played LT. The following year they moved him to G. I was pretty confused about that at first but then as I watched their plays, I saw a lot of pulling Guard plays and it make perfect sense. This year I have not seen a lot of pulling guards on plays they were running. I wonder though if that was because of personnel and having my son at powerback. The plays seemed built around him with a lot of dives or off tackle type of plays with some misdirection, jet sweeps, and sweeps thrown in. With our little guys having to carry the load, I could very well see them adding in more plays to the outside to try to get them more space to use their extra speed (not overly faster than my son but the new #1 is the second fastest boy and the new #2 is prob the third fastest) and quickness. If they do, adding in more pulling guard plays would make sense and then he could be plugged in there. But I don't know. My daughter had a procedure on her arm today to both my boys missed practice today.

 

[Chadstroma]

So the drama continues with my son and not making weight. I would love to get perspective and thoughts even advice from you guys on all of this...

Sunday was weigh in. My son missed it but it was fairly close. Monday my daughter had to be put under for a medical procedure on her arm. I failed to inform the coaches that we wouldn't be there because it simply wasn't on my mind as my nerves were a little on edge with her being put under. Tuesday, when it was time to go to practice, my son woke up from a nap (huge issue as when he is tired and wakes up from a nap he is perhaps the most unreasonable person on the planet), he was obviously still disappointed about missing weight and he also was concerned about having to go the bathroom while at practice since we gave him some exlax on Sunday to help him poo everything out and he was still going from that. I went to practice and told one of the coached (not the HC as he was running a drill) and update. I tried to be collaborative and suggested they could talk to him and help pep him up. After all, he is an 11 year old who just had his whole dream for this season crushed, not some HS kid who needs to step up and be a man. Yesterday, he went to the walk through for the game tonight. As I was coaching the other team on the other side of the field, I would look over to see if they got him involved in anything. They did not. As far as I know, no one talked to him either. So, this 11 year old who is emotional kid to begin with, just had his dream crushed and struggling with that was basically ignored and put in the dog house.

I had observed that their whole offense was built around my son. He is the only true power runner they have and the plays leaned heavily on power running. So, I knew that they would have to make major changes there to accommodate that my son would not be a RB. They ended up moving the QB to RB and then put another kid at QB. I will talk about defense later... I knew that they didn't have my son the last two days as they scrambled to come up with new gameplan and maybe plays and then try to get the kids who have switched positions up to speed in their new positions. I did not expect my son to stroll in and start. That didn't make any sense to think that. I did think that they would try to give him a pep speech or something and then rotate him in on defense.

As I saw them basically hold him out the entire walk through, I knew my son would be upset. I went over to him with the excuse of telling him we had to do something as soon as his brothers practice was done but the real reason was so I could gauge how he was doing. He said to me dejected "I don't want to go to the game tomorrow" I asked why and he said "because I am not going to play". I told him we would talk later and then I sought out the HC. He started walking away from me and I called out to him which he ignored. I increased my pace and caught up with thim. I said "Hey Matt, I just wanted to get an idea of what your plans are for (my son)" he immediately says to me, very aggressively "you tell me." I replied, confused why he was being aggresive, "what do you mean, I am asking you what your guys plans are" and again "you tell me". I kept my cool and continually tried to deescalate. He brought up that my son wasn't there the last two days and that I had mentioned to the other coach for them to talk to him with something along the lines of "that isn't our job, sounds like a parenting issue." followed by "other parents get their kids here" I really, really, really wanted to go nuke on him at that point but I continued to swallow my pride, try to deescalate and talk to him. at one point he said that he had my son at RB and backup QB- where you wanted him. I told him "I never said I wanted him at QB, I don't care where he plays- I told you play him wherever but you would want him to throw for you a bit because I observed a lot of improvement in his throwing" (that later verified by another coach who was there that that is exactly what I said). He did tell me that my son had been lying to him about being in the 90's all the time before the season. It basically ended that he would talk to the position coaches because he just handles the backs.

I asked one of the coaches, who I am friends with, if I could call him that night. We talked. He heads up the defense and basically told me that they were running a 5-3 defense with my son being the key part of it as we have one stud on the line that other teams will run away from and basically he had my son at LB on the other side to clean up. No one can take the place of my son so he is moving to a 6-2 defense. So, both offense and defense were basically built around my son making weight. They had to make major changes (which I expected from observing) and with my son not there for the two days of practice, they plugged other kids into the positions. It wouldn't be fair to those kids to let my son stroll in and take over and really not even having practices his new positions. I agreed with everything he said about everything pretty much. That for tonights game, he planned on getting my son in on rotation but would not promise it (which I fully understand and would have done the same in his position). He couldn't speak for the offense but that his plan on defense is to have my son and the other stud line up as DT's either side of the Center and force them to choose... which they will double the stud and let my son feast on one on one blocking. Likely getting more 'glory' than the stud or just as much.

I talked to my son and basically all he heard was 'not playing' and got all into his emotions again.

Below is the text exchange afterwards from the HC. Copy and pasted with me changing out the names the only changes.

Hello Chad. I talked with (my son) position coaches and this is the summary: We are a TEAM. No one is above the TEAM. The coaches coach whoever is there. We certainly want (my son) part of the team. He missed 2 instructional practices this week. He is obviously changing positions so those 2 days were important. He wasn’t there. I understand he was upset, it upset our TEAM, but he was upset that HE wasn’t going to be RB/LB. I can not say if he is or is not going to play tomorrow. There are no promises to anyone on this TEAM.
Now going forward he is a striper and if he is under weight at the playoff weigh in, if we make the playoffs, is he going to accept the possibility of not being a RB/LB and continue as a lineman to help the TEAM. We have no idea how this season is going to go but we will coach the kids who are there and put the kids in the best place to help the TEAM. So I and the coaches would love for (my son) to be on the TEAM as long as he willing to accept whatever role is asked of him. If he going to sulk all season about being a striper then he is thinking of himself before the TEAM and the coaches and I cannot tolerate that. Hopefully we can keep him on and involved.

Thank you for the text. I do need to let you know that Monday he was not there not at practice because his sister has a medical procedure at UofC in Hyde Park. It was minor but having your daughter go under is still nerve wracking. I dropped the ball in communicating that to you guys as football practice just wasn't something on my mind. On Tuesday, I was blind sided with (my son) not going. I do believe it was due to a few things, being disappointed of course but also he woke up from a nap and often is unreasonable when he wakes up as well as we had given him exlax on Sunday to try to make weight. He was still having major poo issues and was scared to go to practice and crap his pants.

I know football well enough to know that the offense was built around him as a power back and then Monte as a scat back. I get that it threw all the plans and all that the team was working towards up to this point and having to scramble to move players around and prob even change gameplanning. I know that is frustrating and would piss me off as well, even more so if the kid had been lying to me all season long (which I obviously did not know about)

I am a team guy. I know I haven't coached (his son in my son's grade) in bball but for me the team was all three Mike's teams. I went out of my way to encourage the boys on the other teams. How I coach and how I parent is trying to instill life lessons about being a team player. I am in agreement with you with team comes first.

I was simply trying to get information from you today so that I can better father my child and try to take this opportunity for life lessons to the fullest as well as help the team. I did not want to tell him things that would be wrong because that does no good for anyone but without talking to you it would just be me guessing.

Thank you for the clarification in the text and getting back to me. I will continue to talk to (my son) about helping the team in any way he can and to earn his playing time as well as make sure he understands how the lying negatively impacted the team.

We have to remember that these boys are 11-12 years old and (my son) is the youngest 6th grader on the team. They are boys starting to learn how to be men but still boys.

 

[Chadstroma]

My older son had their first game yesterday. My plan of talking to him the night before and let him adjust to it paid off. He came home and immediately grabbed his game pants and said that he was going to get changed now and ready to go so he didn't have to rush later. That was a big internal sigh of relief for me.

We didn't see this team last year at all and they had more than a couple of hefty boys on the line. We don't have a ton of size to begin with and the size we do have is not hefty. We are a fast/athletic team. The game went the way I expected, our stud player got the first tackle off of the kickoff... basically throwing the kid down and taking the ball from him as he went down. It was called that the boy was down before he took it but that was a bad call. I think the ref had a bad angle and I had a perfect angle to see it. He continued to disrupt plays and make plays all game long. The defense was pretty good lead by him. Our offense would get some big plays but several of them got called back on penalty and then sputtered out a lot. We scored by punt return and a passing TD. Game ended 12-0 and first win.

My son did play. He got put in with one ST play and then a handful of defensive plays. He did get one tackle. The DC told me after the game (basically telling me without telling me why my son didn't play more) was that since they had so much size upfront he was trying to get our boys with more size to match up. Even though my son was probably giving up 50 pounds or more to these boys, he was holding up- not getting pushed around but wasn't getting any penetration either. I understood what he was saying but if it was me, I would have put my son at the opposite DE spot from the stud DT as the team certainly did look to run away from our stud. Having my son on the edge to help contain I think would have made sense plus it would have got him away from their real big boys. But that is just what I would have done.

Afterwards, I told my son that I was more proud of him for being at the game, supporting his team and celebrating the successes of his teammates than I would have been if he was the star player of the game getting all the great plays and stats because he had a real tough week but got back up to keep fighting and did the right thing. Seeing him have the ability to rebound from failure is more important to me than seeing him have success.

Offensively, the game made me more confident that if we make playoffs (we should) they will work my son back in at RB assuming he makes weight. They moved our previous starting QB to starting RB. He can run and has about the same speed as much son but doesn't have as much power. There was one 6 yard run that he had that I am sure if it was my son it would have been an 8-9 yard run if not breaking it open. We were, for the most part, feast or famine on offense. I think my son would be able to help them be able to keep drives alive more. Also, I am not sure if it was due to injury (the starting QB did get banged up on a ridiculous late hit... he was down for like 5+ seconds and this kid came flying in and speared him with his helmet as he was still tush to the ground) but they did rotate the old starting QB back to QB. They threw three times, twice was the old QB throwing and the third was our new starting RB on a trick play (that I am sure was drawn up with my son in mind). The new starting QB doesn't have as good of an arm as our old starting QB or my son so I am wondering if they will rotate them in some way through the season.... if so, the chances of my son getting into the RB rotation would seemingly be high to me..... assuming we make playoffs and he makes weight then.

 

[dgreen]

I have such a bad attitude about my kid’s playing time. First game tonight and he got one snap and that was because a guy had some blood that had to be cleaned off. I just sit in the stands fuming on the inside because I watch another kid starting over my son who plays every snap while making many mistakes, getting pancaked a few times, and making basically zero positive plays. I then childishly have some not-very-positive thoughts about the coaches and even this kid who is starting. I see my son appear disappointed on the sideline and I just want this for him so badly.

Then I pick him up after the game, he gets in the car, and he’s just a happy kid. I know he wishes he could play and he is disappointed he didn’t get snaps tonight, but he doesn’t seem to be pouting like his dad. I guess I could learn something from him.

 

[houston]

I have such a bad attitude about my kid’s playing time. First game tonight and he got one snap and that was because a guy had some blood that had to be cleaned off. I just sit in the stands fuming on the inside because I watch another kid starting over my son who plays every snap while making many mistakes, getting pancaked a few times, and making basically zero positive plays. I then childishly have some not-very-positive thoughts about the coaches and even this kid who is starting. I see my son appear disappointed on the sideline and I just want this for him so badly.

Then I pick him up after the game, he gets in the car, and he’s just a happy kid. I know he wishes he could play and he is disappointed he didn’t get snaps tonight, but he doesn’t seem to be pouting like his dad. I guess I could learn something from him.

100% yes to the bolded. It’s their race, let them run it. I struggle with this as well. But we can’t do it for them, we can’t let our dreams for their future get in the way of the enjoyment of their youth, and we can’t keep rolling the red carpet out every time an obstacle is in the way.

 

[Boston]

So the drama continues with my son and not making weight. I would love to get perspective and thoughts even advice from you guys on all of this...

Sunday was weigh in. My son missed it but it was fairly close. Monday my daughter had to be put under for a medical procedure on her arm. I failed to inform the coaches that we wouldn't be there because it simply wasn't on my mind as my nerves were a little on edge with her being put under. Tuesday, when it was time to go to practice, my son woke up from a nap (huge issue as when he is tired and wakes up from a nap he is perhaps the most unreasonable person on the planet), he was obviously still disappointed about missing weight and he also was concerned about having to go the bathroom while at practice since we gave him some exlax on Sunday to help him poo everything out and he was still going from that. I went to practice and told one of the coached (not the HC as he was running a drill) and update. I tried to be collaborative and suggested they could talk to him and help pep him up. After all, he is an 11 year old who just had his whole dream for this season crushed, not some HS kid who needs to step up and be a man. Yesterday, he went to the walk through for the game tonight. As I was coaching the other team on the other side of the field, I would look over to see if they got him involved in anything. They did not. As far as I know, no one talked to him either. So, this 11 year old who is emotional kid to begin with, just had his dream crushed and struggling with that was basically ignored and put in the dog house.

I had observed that their whole offense was built around my son. He is the only true power runner they have and the plays leaned heavily on power running. So, I knew that they would have to make major changes there to accommodate that my son would not be a RB. They ended up moving the QB to RB and then put another kid at QB. I will talk about defense later... I knew that they didn't have my son the last two days as they scrambled to come up with new gameplan and maybe plays and then try to get the kids who have switched positions up to speed in their new positions. I did not expect my son to stroll in and start. That didn't make any sense to think that. I did think that they would try to give him a pep speech or something and then rotate him in on defense.

As I saw them basically hold him out the entire walk through, I knew my son would be upset. I went over to him with the excuse of telling him we had to do something as soon as his brothers practice was done but the real reason was so I could gauge how he was doing. He said to me dejected "I don't want to go to the game tomorrow" I asked why and he said "because I am not going to play". I told him we would talk later and then I sought out the HC. He started walking away from me and I called out to him which he ignored. I increased my pace and caught up with thim. I said "Hey Matt, I just wanted to get an idea of what your plans are for (my son)" he immediately says to me, very aggressively "you tell me." I replied, confused why he was being aggresive, "what do you mean, I am asking you what your guys plans are" and again "you tell me". I kept my cool and continually tried to deescalate. He brought up that my son wasn't there the last two days and that I had mentioned to the other coach for them to talk to him with something along the lines of "that isn't our job, sounds like a parenting issue." followed by "other parents get their kids here" I really, really, really wanted to go nuke on him at that point but I continued to swallow my pride, try to deescalate and talk to him. at one point he said that he had my son at RB and backup QB- where you wanted him. I told him "I never said I wanted him at QB, I don't care where he plays- I told you play him wherever but you would want him to throw for you a bit because I observed a lot of improvement in his throwing" (that later verified by another coach who was there that that is exactly what I said). He did tell me that my son had been lying to him about being in the 90's all the time before the season. It basically ended that he would talk to the position coaches because he just handles the backs.

I asked one of the coaches, who I am friends with, if I could call him that night. We talked. He heads up the defense and basically told me that they were running a 5-3 defense with my son being the key part of it as we have one stud on the line that other teams will run away from and basically he had my son at LB on the other side to clean up. No one can take the place of my son so he is moving to a 6-2 defense. So, both offense and defense were basically built around my son making weight. They had to make major changes (which I expected from observing) and with my son not there for the two days of practice, they plugged other kids into the positions. It wouldn't be fair to those kids to let my son stroll in and take over and really not even having practices his new positions. I agreed with everything he said about everything pretty much. That for tonights game, he planned on getting my son in on rotation but would not promise it (which I fully understand and would have done the same in his position). He couldn't speak for the offense but that his plan on defense is to have my son and the other stud line up as DT's either side of the Center and force them to choose... which they will double the stud and let my son feast on one on one blocking. Likely getting more 'glory' than the stud or just as much.

I talked to my son and basically all he heard was 'not playing' and got all into his emotions again.

Below is the text exchange afterwards from the HC. Copy and pasted with me changing out the names the only changes.

Hello Chad. I talked with (my son) position coaches and this is the summary: We are a TEAM. No one is above the TEAM. The coaches coach whoever is there. We certainly want (my son) part of the team. He missed 2 instructional practices this week. He is obviously changing positions so those 2 days were important. He wasn’t there. I understand he was upset, it upset our TEAM, but he was upset that HE wasn’t going to be RB/LB. I can not say if he is or is not going to play tomorrow. There are no promises to anyone on this TEAM.
Now going forward he is a striper and if he is under weight at the playoff weigh in, if we make the playoffs, is he going to accept the possibility of not being a RB/LB and continue as a lineman to help the TEAM. We have no idea how this season is going to go but we will coach the kids who are there and put the kids in the best place to help the TEAM. So I and the coaches would love for (my son) to be on the TEAM as long as he willing to accept whatever role is asked of him. If he going to sulk all season about being a striper then he is thinking of himself before the TEAM and the coaches and I cannot tolerate that. Hopefully we can keep him on and involved.

Thank you for the text. I do need to let you know that Monday he was not there not at practice because his sister has a medical procedure at UofC in Hyde Park. It was minor but having your daughter go under is still nerve wracking. I dropped the ball in communicating that to you guys as football practice just wasn't something on my mind. On Tuesday, I was blind sided with (my son) not going. I do believe it was due to a few things, being disappointed of course but also he woke up from a nap and often is unreasonable when he wakes up as well as we had given him exlax on Sunday to try to make weight. He was still having major poo issues and was scared to go to practice and crap his pants.

I know football well enough to know that the offense was built around him as a power back and then Monte as a scat back. I get that it threw all the plans and all that the team was working towards up to this point and having to scramble to move players around and prob even change gameplanning. I know that is frustrating and would piss me off as well, even more so if the kid had been lying to me all season long (which I obviously did not know about)

I am a team guy. I know I haven't coached (his son in my son's grade) in bball but for me the team was all three Mike's teams. I went out of my way to encourage the boys on the other teams. How I coach and how I parent is trying to instill life lessons about being a team player. I am in agreement with you with team comes first.

I was simply trying to get information from you today so that I can better father my child and try to take this opportunity for life lessons to the fullest as well as help the team. I did not want to tell him things that would be wrong because that does no good for anyone but without talking to you it would just be me guessing.

Thank you for the clarification in the text and getting back to me. I will continue to talk to (my son) about helping the team in any way he can and to earn his playing time as well as make sure he understands how the lying negatively impacted the team.

We have to remember that these boys are 11-12 years old and (my son) is the youngest 6th grader on the team. They are boys starting to learn how to be men but still boys.

I will be direct since you asked for advice...under no condition should you ever confront a coach on a field/gym/rink without a predetermined appointment to discuss something like playing time or what position your child is playing...100% not acceptable...there is no middle-ground with this issue as far as I am concerned and I feel very comfortable saying this is universally agreed upon in the sports community be it youth-high-school-college sports.

 

[Chadstroma]

I will be direct since you asked for advice...under no condition should you ever confront a coach on a field/gym/rink without a predetermined appointment to discuss something like playing time or what position your child is playing...100% not acceptable...there is no middle-ground with this issue as far as I am concerned and I feel very comfortable saying this is universally agreed upon in the sports community be it youth-high-school-college sports.

That is a fair position.

As a coach, I have one rule for parents when it comes to talking to me. If there is something you are upset about or feeling negatively about anything- just give it 24 hours and we will talk. Personally, I do not care if a parent talks to me before or after practice or even before or after a game. As long as it is not during practice or a game, then I am open. In fact, I want them to. Why? Because I recognize good communication avoids 95% of all the drama that coaches cry about when dealing with rational well adjusted adults. I am in several groups of basketball, football and swim coaches and it is a common gripe- 'the parents'. There is no doubt in my mind that much of it is caused by the coaches either by their actions, defensiveness or very much so their lack of communication. Again, as a coach, I over communicate to my parents. I rather then be bored with information than starving for it and frustrated. As a result, I have yet to have one single negative experience with any parent at any time. No one will ever convince me that doing anything different than approaching parents in this way will be bad and I am convinced that coaches being touchy is why they have so much drama to begin with. That being said, there are some irrational not well adjusted semi formed adults that are parents and they can throw anything into chaos simply because they are agents of chaos. But again, if you communicate with parents continually and open for them to talk to you, most of the issues I hear about would not be issues between coaches/parents. So again, I would agree with your statement that essentially a parent should never confront a coach on the field/court/etc. That is in line with my philosophy. But if you have had time to cool off emotionally and would like to discuss a concern or issue- I really do not care where it is and I don't need to have an appointment to talk about it. Now, if you take the position that a parent should never talk to a coach before or after a practice or game without an appointment- then you or any coach that acts that way is just asking for drama.

More importantly is that this was not a confrontation. I was simply asking for what their plan was so I could speak with my child accordingly. I had no agenda or was wanting to make sure their plan was 'ok' by my standards. Knowing my son and that he is 11 years old and is an emotional kid that if I did not talk to him that night then there was a real possibility of him refusing to go to the game the next day- which would result in this whole thing continuing to unravel, be distracting to the team and not benefit my son in any way. I had zero anger or issues with anything. I was seeking information so I could work with the coaches to help a young kid who just had his dreams crushed get back to being a team player and helping the team win. My son has always been a team player- he has played every position either in practice or games over the last 3+ years now (with the same HC) and never once whined or groaned if it was a position he didn't exactly love and never campaigned for a position he would like to play. He has never been down if he didn't get personal glory or stats or recognition but lives and dies on the wins and losses of the team. Never once hearing him say "but I got 10 tackles" in a loss or upset he wasn't used more or a particular way in a win. Never once being upset about not getting to do something he preferred or being asked to do something he did not prefer. But yes, he is 11 years old and very upset because he worked very hard and was very much looking forward to playing RB and LB. He is still learning how to take failure and get back up from it. This is all should be a life lesson which is my main goal and for me to better help father him through it- I felt getting information from the coach on what they were thinking for the season for him would be helpful.

Another aspect that I think changes this is that I am on staff of the younger team. We practice on the same field basically next to each other. We (myself and the coaches on my sons older team) continually talk before and after practices with regularity. Most of the conversation is around the two teams and sometimes the varsity team (7/8 grades). I really wouldn't normally talk about my son with them but I also did not avoid it. Often they would bring him up to me and ask my opinion or thoughts on something. So, I am on the field daily and having discussions with the coaches is nor abnormal or unusual in any way.

I had no agenda. I was not looking for a particular outcome and if it was not to my standard would be an issue. If he said "Well, him not making weight and lying to me about it all pre-season really caused a lot of issues for the team. We built the offense around him and he was the second most important piece on defense for us and now both plans are completely thrown out the window and we have to scramble to get ready for a game- which we had three days to prepare for and get the kids coached up on, and your son missed two of those days. He may not play this next game. We likely will get him in but I can't promise anything. After that, he needs to be at practice with the right attitude and earn his position and playing time in the new positions. And I will not say that he will be able to play RB and/or LB in playoffs if he makes weight then, it will be based on the needs of the team" Ok- great. Thanks coach. I appreciate it. Conversation done. Heck, if he told me "You know, he lied to us and it screwed us over so now we are going to punitively bench him for the entire year and he will be lucky to get one snap in." I would have been shocked but I would not have turned it into WWIII or anything. I likely would have said something like "that sounds a little extreme to me." and then made plans for him to play in a flag football league for the season though I would have talked to the AD about it before.

Now, I am not sure if the coach is just defensive in nature (the other coaches on the staff have made comments about him being somewhat so, even more so after the winless season last year) or if he perceived me as being a threat or he was really pissed off at my son for lying and causing disruption or if he thought I was doing some power play or if he was just having a bad day. But even when he kept, from the start and consistently through the whole conversation, trying to make it a confrontation, I kept trying to deescalate. I did not even react to him comments, more than a couple of times of "sounds like a parenting issue" because again, this was not a confrontation and I rather take needless jabs at my ability to parent than make it a confrontation. I will also say that we have lost several very good players over the last couple of years. I don't get into gossip and since I didn't really know the parents of the kids much except for one- not something where I would be like "hey why did you guys leave" I picked up bits and pieces that it was the kids wanting to play specific positions- which could very well be it but this whole experience has me wondering if those parents had conversations with the coach and it went the way it did with me..... because if so, I can see them leaving. It isn't a consideration for me and short of my son not playing at all, he would still be on the team but the way he handled it was pretty much an expert class on how not to handle communicating with parents- even more so when the parent is not being confrontational and was actually an ally of yours, supporter of the team and has never once pushed a position or playing time on them EVEN last year when he saw the field very little because they favor the upperclass of the team to get the bulk of playing time..... even though my son was better than most of those upperclassmen.... and we went on to a winless season. Only having some success literally on the last game of the season when they played my son and a few other underclassmen instead of the upperclassmen almost winning the game, having the most success on offense and my son racking up his first ever sack.

I thank you for your perspective. I think it is fair and a good one. I don't think it really fits this perfectly though. I am very confident that how I acted was above and beyond the call for a parent talking to a coach as I think most parents would have exploded on him.

 

[Chadstroma]

I have such a bad attitude about my kid’s playing time. First game tonight and he got one snap and that was because a guy had some blood that had to be cleaned off. I just sit in the stands fuming on the inside because I watch another kid starting over my son who plays every snap while making many mistakes, getting pancaked a few times, and making basically zero positive plays. I then childishly have some not-very-positive thoughts about the coaches and even this kid who is starting. I see my son appear disappointed on the sideline and I just want this for him so badly.

Then I pick him up after the game, he gets in the car, and he’s just a happy kid. I know he wishes he could play and he is disappointed he didn’t get snaps tonight, but he doesn’t seem to be pouting like his dad. I guess I could learn something from him.

I get it... I feel bad about having those kinds of thoughts about the other team. Last game for my son, our starting QB gets tackled to the ground. Is sitting in an upright position for a good several seconds that the play has been dead enough that pretty much every player on both teams have already starting walking back of to the line of scrimmage. In comes this kid with at least a ten yard running start, and plows into our QB spearing him with his helmet. That and a couple of other things I saw that were on the other side of the dirty line and when I saw their RB get held up by one of our guys and then basically at a standing position about to try to break and one of our boys came flying in with a beautiful, text book, legal hit hitting the kid squarely in the lower back. He went down and I could tell he was not getting back up on his own anytime soon.... my first thought was 'good, serves them right' immediately followed by 'dang it, don't think like that. It is just a kid and on top of that not the kid that did the cheap hit.' You kind of have to remind yourself these are kids. Even up to HS when on the football field, some of these 'kids' tower over me and I am not a small guy..... or at least like Minschew would say ‘I’m little out here, but not always — you know.'” Good gawd, watching the varsity team of private school- upper echelon school in Illinois football- geebus!!! Kids were not that big when I was in HS. Anyways, I digress.

Other than last year and this first game in football for my older son, he has always been a starter or star in every sport, every season. The previous year sucked because they favor the upperclass of the team for playing time which I get but then my son was clearly better than most of the upperclassmen and we kept losing.

With my daughter, her first year of basketball was a trainwreck. She was easily the worst player in the league. I mostly wished they didn't play her as much as they did She improved to be one of, if not the best player on her B team for school- good enough that the A team coach wanted her and was pissed that she stayed on B. She has mostly been favored in volleyball as well once the coaches realize that she isn't the best hitter or blocker or server or setter or digger etc but she is prob the most well rounded of anyone on the team. She is kind of like a utility infielder in baseball but for volleyball. Even so, there were games I was wondering why she was not playing much and had to just chalk it up to wanting to get other girls more playing time.

My younger son is just starting sports. He is physically talented but mentally soft. He hold himself back and is learning how to push himself when he is tired or hurting or someone looked at him oddly or the sun is too hot or whaetver else it is. This football season, I have to be prepared for him to play very, very, very little. My only hope is that he doesn't get frustrated and allow it to negatively impact him. I am going to try to direct him to work harder and develop that mental toughness but it is a long road considering he goes to therapy for having a hard time regulating his emotions.

All that to say, I think it is a common struggle for parents and playing time. You want you kid to succeed and enjoy what they are doing. For me, as long as it makes sense to me of why they are not getting playing time then I am good with it. I do struggle if I can't make sense of it and think the team is suffering because of it- which is rooted in my being so damn competitive.

 

[Chadstroma]

Oh, I went back and looked at the film on the snaps my kid played. First play he got in which was a kick return..... he made a baseball player out of a kid. Ball goes opposite side of the field, he adjusts over and then looks upfield to the first kid near him. Goes and sends the kid flying right on his butt.

Second play on defense, he stunts from DT postion. Takes out a RB as the lead blocker but the ball is pitched to the outside. He runs it down and once one of his teammates slowed the runner he came in and cleaned up the play with a solid tackle,

Later, a stunt from DT again and the play ran right into him. He took the blocker and back down almost together.

The couple of times he stayed and went up against these Guards that had a good 50 pounds on him. He held his ground and basically stood them up. I would have liked to seen him use his speed to shed the blocks but it was still impressive that he wasn't getting pushed around by those big boys.

 

[Boston]

Here is my reply (it is not allowing me to attach to your post for some reason):

Two things...agree totally about communication by the HC...besides being the right thing to do it solves a ton of issues and if you set expectations early and often things usually go much smoother and you can limit distractions...over-communication especially at the youth levels is also smart because you never know what you are dealing with as far as parents go and some literally need their hand-held as they may have zero sports experience...I am also a firm believer that pain-in-the-butt parents usually know who they can and can't screw with and when they know a HC has his ****-together they usually back-off.

Two, I cannot stress enough how inappropriate it is for a parent to initiate a conversation out of nowhere at a game or practice about playing time or something like what position someone plays...quite honestly I have never seen it advocated by anyone anywhere and any league either me or my kids have been involved in have had very specific rules against doing this (I am still on the Board of our town lax league even though my kids are now playing college and we have parents sign a Code of Conduct and that is part of it)...there is usually some type of procedure about how to set up a meeting about stuff like this and the smart leagues always make sure two coaches or a coach and league official are present so there can be no BS about what was said or how it was said later (you can never under-estimate how crazy some parents can be with regard to their kids)....reading your past posts I am quite sure your intentions were very honest and on the up-and-up (and you being a fellow Coach the dynamic can be a bit different because you are on the field) but IMO this is one of the golden-rules of youth sports (in high school and college it is up to the kid to advocate for themselves)...in general a situation like that has a chance to get ugly and if it is before or after a game or practice it will be on display for everyone to see and that is just no good for anyone.

 

[Jayrod]

My son's first game as a Senior was last night. It was also Senior Night, so we walked out with the players. Have 23 seniors playing this year. 5-6 will play college FB and another could but is going to play D1 baseball.

My son doesn't start, but played 2 special teams plays (punt block) and then played all of the last drive of the 3rd quarter and entire 4th quarter at WR. But the game was over and we didn't throw a pass during his plays.

I'm not kidding when I say it is the most complete HS offense I've ever seen around this area. The O-line avgs 6'4", 280 lbs led by a 5-star LT. RB is a stud and expects to run for over 2000 yards and 20 TDs. Our 2 outside WRs both run under 4.6 40s and can catch. The QB has a cannon, is 6'4" and had an 80 yard TD run last night as well. Just stupid talent and no one on their schedule can slow them down.

If the defense is just adequate (we have a great secondary, good DL but our LBs are shaky), then we have a legit shot at winning the Missouri 6A championship. We have to go through the Kansas City schools. The only loss last season was in the semi-Finals but our QB was a weak spot and that is no longer the case.

All that said, my son's opportunities will be limited because of the talent level of the team. It kind of sucks because he'd start and get plenty of passes thrown his way at any other school in the area. Still, the opportunity to be a part of the best team in school history is cool.

 

[Chadstroma]

Here is my reply (it is not allowing me to attach to your post for some reason):

Two things...agree totally about communication by the HC...besides being the right thing to do it solves a ton of issues and if you set expectations early and often things usually go much smoother and you can limit distractions...over-communication especially at the youth levels is also smart because you never know what you are dealing with as far as parents go and some literally need their hand-held as they may have zero sports experience...I am also a firm believer that pain-in-the-butt parents usually know who they can and can't screw with and when they know a HC has his ****-together they usually back-off.

Two, I cannot stress enough how inappropriate it is for a parent to initiate a conversation out of nowhere at a game or practice about playing time or something like what position someone plays...quite honestly I have never seen it advocated by anyone anywhere and any league either me or my kids have been involved in have had very specific rules against doing this (I am still on the Board of our town lax league even though my kids are now playing college and we have parents sign a Code of Conduct and that is part of it)...there is usually some type of procedure about how to set up a meeting about stuff like this and the smart leagues always make sure two coaches or a coach and league official are present so there can be no BS about what was said or how it was said later (you can never under-estimate how crazy some parents can be with regard to their kids)....reading your past posts I am quite sure your intentions were very honest and on the up-and-up (and you being a fellow Coach the dynamic can be a bit different because you are on the field) but IMO this is one of the golden-rules of youth sports (in high school and college it is up to the kid to advocate for themselves)...in general a situation like that has a chance to get ugly and if it is before or after a game or practice it will be on display for everyone to see and that is just no good for anyone.

I understand your perspective and I respect it. I would agree with you as well if there was anything other than asking for information. If I was confronting or advocating that would certainly be an issue and my guess is that the reason he kept trying to turn it into a thing was that he thought I was confronting or advocating.

In all the circumstances involved, on top of the other things I listed previously, such as being a small school team where our boys end of playing on several teams all year round (football, basketball, soccer, track, etc) I think that dynamic is different from other leagues like the one you are involved in. There is a community you have that you don't have in a league or club. Your kids are in the same classes, your kids play multiple sports together, your kids friends are mostly these same boys, many of the families have been a part of the church/school as second or third generation, families know each other and hang out with each other. I guess that might be why we don't have a code of conduct like your league and self-regulate mostly. This 'incident' which wasn't really much of a thing, is pretty much the most drama I am aware of including my daughter being in 8th grade playing basketball and volleyball, my middle son playing football, basketball, soccer, and track and my youngest starting flag football last year and heading into football, basketball and I am sure soccer as well.

My son can be intensely emotional and often doesn't know how to handle that so the result is that he shuts down and will refuse to do anything no matter the consequences or rewards. When he gets into this, I use the Titanic to explain how stubborn he is, I could tell him to get in a lifeboat and he would say "No. I am not going." and reiterate with the ship is sinking and you will die and he would respond "I don't care." If I didn't talk to him that night, there is a real possibility of him refusing to go to the game which would have ended up pissing the coach off even more (really the only one that seems mad, basically at my son, was the HC) and then it would be a spiral thing that would not be good for the team or my son. My son is clearly the second best player on the team and coupled with the best player on the team can easily lead this team to the championship. I honestly was not only trying to assist my son to handle the situation, teach life lessons and get him back on the field but also to help the program.

I would do it again if given the chance to relive that moment. Though I would have either gone to one of the coaches I have a stronger relationship with or if I approached the HC, done a better job of prefacing my question with "My son is having difficulty with the disappointment and I need to talk to him tonight so he had time to process it all and be good for the game. It would help me if you could give me an idea how you guys think you will use him now so I can help shape that in his mind."

 

[Chadstroma]

My son's first game as a Senior was last night. It was also Senior Night, so we walked out with the players. Have 23 seniors playing this year. 5-6 will play college FB and another could but is going to play D1 baseball.

My son doesn't start, but played 2 special teams plays (punt block) and then played all of the last drive of the 3rd quarter and entire 4th quarter at WR. But the game was over and we didn't throw a pass during his plays.

I'm not kidding when I say it is the most complete HS offense I've ever seen around this area. The O-line avgs 6'4", 280 lbs led by a 5-star LT. RB is a stud and expects to run for over 2000 yards and 20 TDs. Our 2 outside WRs both run under 4.6 40s and can catch. The QB has a cannon, is 6'4" and had an 80 yard TD run last night as well. Just stupid talent and no one on their schedule can slow them down.

If the defense is just adequate (we have a great secondary, good DL but our LBs are shaky), then we have a legit shot at winning the Missouri 6A championship. We have to go through the Kansas City schools. The only loss last season was in the semi-Finals but our QB was a weak spot and that is no longer the case.

All that said, my son's opportunities will be limited because of the talent level of the team. It kind of sucks because he'd start and get plenty of passes thrown his way at any other school in the area. Still, the opportunity to be a part of the best team in school history is cool.

That is a double edged sword for sure. One on side is being on a really good team, doing a lot of winning, maybe a Championship but on the other side not getting a ton of playing time. Hopefully your son can focus on the positives and enjoy it. There is no doubt that he will look back on it with fond memories.

 

[Chadstroma]

1st game of the season for my little one. It was rescheduled to last night from last week as it was too hot/humid (for Illinois) to play. This is also the 1st tackle game for my son.

We started off well. A 3 and out where they lost yardage on each play. Our first play on offense was a touchdown. Again a 3 and out defensive stop and again our first offensive play a touchdown. We were up 26-0 by half and kept it there as we got all the boys plenty of snaps.

My son didn't do anything special but I also did not see him get pushed around or demolished. He had fun and enjoyed it.

 

[Boston]

Here is my reply (it is not allowing me to attach to your post for some reason):

Two things...agree totally about communication by the HC...besides being the right thing to do it solves a ton of issues and if you set expectations early and often things usually go much smoother and you can limit distractions...over-communication especially at the youth levels is also smart because you never know what you are dealing with as far as parents go and some literally need their hand-held as they may have zero sports experience...I am also a firm believer that pain-in-the-butt parents usually know who they can and can't screw with and when they know a HC has his ****-together they usually back-off.

Two, I cannot stress enough how inappropriate it is for a parent to initiate a conversation out of nowhere at a game or practice about playing time or something like what position someone plays...quite honestly I have never seen it advocated by anyone anywhere and any league either me or my kids have been involved in have had very specific rules against doing this (I am still on the Board of our town lax league even though my kids are now playing college and we have parents sign a Code of Conduct and that is part of it)...there is usually some type of procedure about how to set up a meeting about stuff like this and the smart leagues always make sure two coaches or a coach and league official are present so there can be no BS about what was said or how it was said later (you can never under-estimate how crazy some parents can be with regard to their kids)....reading your past posts I am quite sure your intentions were very honest and on the up-and-up (and you being a fellow Coach the dynamic can be a bit different because you are on the field) but IMO this is one of the golden-rules of youth sports (in high school and college it is up to the kid to advocate for themselves)...in general a situation like that has a chance to get ugly and if it is before or after a game or practice it will be on display for everyone to see and that is just no good for anyone.

I understand your perspective and I respect it. I would agree with you as well if there was anything other than asking for information. If I was confronting or advocating that would certainly be an issue and my guess is that the reason he kept trying to turn it into a thing was that he thought I was confronting or advocating.

In all the circumstances involved, on top of the other things I listed previously, such as being a small school team where our boys end of playing on several teams all year round (football, basketball, soccer, track, etc) I think that dynamic is different from other leagues like the one you are involved in. There is a community you have that you don't have in a league or club. Your kids are in the same classes, your kids play multiple sports together, your kids friends are mostly these same boys, many of the families have been a part of the church/school as second or third generation, families know each other and hang out with each other. I guess that might be why we don't have a code of conduct like your league and self-regulate mostly. This 'incident' which wasn't really much of a thing, is pretty much the most drama I am aware of including my daughter being in 8th grade playing basketball and volleyball, my middle son playing football, basketball, soccer, and track and my youngest starting flag football last year and heading into football, basketball and I am sure soccer as well.

My son can be intensely emotional and often doesn't know how to handle that so the result is that he shuts down and will refuse to do anything no matter the consequences or rewards. When he gets into this, I use the Titanic to explain how stubborn he is, I could tell him to get in a lifeboat and he would say "No. I am not going." and reiterate with the ship is sinking and you will die and he would respond "I don't care." If I didn't talk to him that night, there is a real possibility of him refusing to go to the game which would have ended up pissing the coach off even more (really the only one that seems mad, basically at my son, was the HC) and then it would be a spiral thing that would not be good for the team or my son. My son is clearly the second best player on the team and coupled with the best player on the team can easily lead this team to the championship. I honestly was not only trying to assist my son to handle the situation, teach life lessons and get him back on the field but also to help the program.

I would do it again if given the chance to relive that moment. Though I would have either gone to one of the coaches I have a stronger relationship with or if I approached the HC, done a better job of prefacing my question with "My son is having difficulty with the disappointment and I need to talk to him tonight so he had time to process it all and be good for the game. It would help me if you could give me an idea how you guys think you will use him now so I can help shape that in his mind."

Ours is a town league and while there are 32,000 people in the town and it is very tight-knit and everyone knows everyone and the kids definitely play multiple sports together (our lax program has app. 400 boys and girls)...the code of conduct (by the way this is getting pretty common in our area...we got the idea from Pop Warner a few years back and I know that Mass Youth Lax which I believe is the biggest lax organization in the country advocates strongly for it) is not just for situations like we have been discussing but also with regard to not getting on refs and general behavior from the stands and stuff like that...you need to be consistent when dealing with "situations" and it's very tough to do without rules already in place....having been involved in this world for quite some time you can never under-estimate the potential for idiocy with some parents.

 

[Chadstroma]

Here is my reply (it is not allowing me to attach to your post for some reason):

Two things...agree totally about communication by the HC...besides being the right thing to do it solves a ton of issues and if you set expectations early and often things usually go much smoother and you can limit distractions...over-communication especially at the youth levels is also smart because you never know what you are dealing with as far as parents go and some literally need their hand-held as they may have zero sports experience...I am also a firm believer that pain-in-the-butt parents usually know who they can and can't screw with and when they know a HC has his ****-together they usually back-off.

Two, I cannot stress enough how inappropriate it is for a parent to initiate a conversation out of nowhere at a game or practice about playing time or something like what position someone plays...quite honestly I have never seen it advocated by anyone anywhere and any league either me or my kids have been involved in have had very specific rules against doing this (I am still on the Board of our town lax league even though my kids are now playing college and we have parents sign a Code of Conduct and that is part of it)...there is usually some type of procedure about how to set up a meeting about stuff like this and the smart leagues always make sure two coaches or a coach and league official are present so there can be no BS about what was said or how it was said later (you can never under-estimate how crazy some parents can be with regard to their kids)....reading your past posts I am quite sure your intentions were very honest and on the up-and-up (and you being a fellow Coach the dynamic can be a bit different because you are on the field) but IMO this is one of the golden-rules of youth sports (in high school and college it is up to the kid to advocate for themselves)...in general a situation like that has a chance to get ugly and if it is before or after a game or practice it will be on display for everyone to see and that is just no good for anyone.

I understand your perspective and I respect it. I would agree with you as well if there was anything other than asking for information. If I was confronting or advocating that would certainly be an issue and my guess is that the reason he kept trying to turn it into a thing was that he thought I was confronting or advocating.

In all the circumstances involved, on top of the other things I listed previously, such as being a small school team where our boys end of playing on several teams all year round (football, basketball, soccer, track, etc) I think that dynamic is different from other leagues like the one you are involved in. There is a community you have that you don't have in a league or club. Your kids are in the same classes, your kids play multiple sports together, your kids friends are mostly these same boys, many of the families have been a part of the church/school as second or third generation, families know each other and hang out with each other. I guess that might be why we don't have a code of conduct like your league and self-regulate mostly. This 'incident' which wasn't really much of a thing, is pretty much the most drama I am aware of including my daughter being in 8th grade playing basketball and volleyball, my middle son playing football, basketball, soccer, and track and my youngest starting flag football last year and heading into football, basketball and I am sure soccer as well.

My son can be intensely emotional and often doesn't know how to handle that so the result is that he shuts down and will refuse to do anything no matter the consequences or rewards. When he gets into this, I use the Titanic to explain how stubborn he is, I could tell him to get in a lifeboat and he would say "No. I am not going." and reiterate with the ship is sinking and you will die and he would respond "I don't care." If I didn't talk to him that night, there is a real possibility of him refusing to go to the game which would have ended up pissing the coach off even more (really the only one that seems mad, basically at my son, was the HC) and then it would be a spiral thing that would not be good for the team or my son. My son is clearly the second best player on the team and coupled with the best player on the team can easily lead this team to the championship. I honestly was not only trying to assist my son to handle the situation, teach life lessons and get him back on the field but also to help the program.

I would do it again if given the chance to relive that moment. Though I would have either gone to one of the coaches I have a stronger relationship with or if I approached the HC, done a better job of prefacing my question with "My son is having difficulty with the disappointment and I need to talk to him tonight so he had time to process it all and be good for the game. It would help me if you could give me an idea how you guys think you will use him now so I can help shape that in his mind."

Ours is a town league and while there are 32,000 people in the town and it is very tight-knit and everyone knows everyone and the kids definitely play multiple sports together (our lax program has app. 400 boys and girls)...the code of conduct (by the way this is getting pretty common in our area...we got the idea from Pop Warner a few years back and I know that Mass Youth Lax which I believe is the biggest lax organization in the country advocates strongly for it) is not just for situations like we have been discussing but also with regard to not getting on refs and general behavior from the stands and stuff like that...you need to be consistent when dealing with "situations" and it's very tough to do without rules already in place....having been involved in this world for quite some time you can never under-estimate the potential for idiocy with some parents.

I understand

I would say that small town community and religious/small school community with a thriving sports program is not the same. Not even close. Is it more community than a burb or big city, yes, but the community derived from common religious background, a small school of a few hundred kids from K-8th, almost all the boys you play with on each team- you play with in the other sports teams, the kids primary and best friends all being from the same school, the majority of the parents established friends with other families and hang out together, etc etc etc.... it is a different level.

Of course, people are people regardless but I do think the community aspect helps keep those "situations" within guard rails that it is not possible to have in other sports settings.

We are also involved in some club teams outside of the school and none of them have any rules about talking to a coach. The nearest to it is swim where parents are not allowed on deck but you can (and I have) talked to the coaches before/after/practice/meets... heck, during meets. As a fairly well respected coach, I would never want a parent not talk to me to get information and I don't care the place or time- excluding actual game time. It is how you defuse things from getting crazy to begin with.

There is a huge difference between talking to a coach for information and confronting a coach or advocating for something for your child. HUGE difference. But I absolutely understand the need for such things in other leagues because 'information' could be used as an excuse to confront or advocate.

 

[Boston]

Here is my reply (it is not allowing me to attach to your post for some reason):

Two things...agree totally about communication by the HC...besides being the right thing to do it solves a ton of issues and if you set expectations early and often things usually go much smoother and you can limit distractions...over-communication especially at the youth levels is also smart because you never know what you are dealing with as far as parents go and some literally need their hand-held as they may have zero sports experience...I am also a firm believer that pain-in-the-butt parents usually know who they can and can't screw with and when they know a HC has his ****-together they usually back-off.

Two, I cannot stress enough how inappropriate it is for a parent to initiate a conversation out of nowhere at a game or practice about playing time or something like what position someone plays...quite honestly I have never seen it advocated by anyone anywhere and any league either me or my kids have been involved in have had very specific rules against doing this (I am still on the Board of our town lax league even though my kids are now playing college and we have parents sign a Code of Conduct and that is part of it)...there is usually some type of procedure about how to set up a meeting about stuff like this and the smart leagues always make sure two coaches or a coach and league official are present so there can be no BS about what was said or how it was said later (you can never under-estimate how crazy some parents can be with regard to their kids)....reading your past posts I am quite sure your intentions were very honest and on the up-and-up (and you being a fellow Coach the dynamic can be a bit different because you are on the field) but IMO this is one of the golden-rules of youth sports (in high school and college it is up to the kid to advocate for themselves)...in general a situation like that has a chance to get ugly and if it is before or after a game or practice it will be on display for everyone to see and that is just no good for anyone.

I understand your perspective and I respect it. I would agree with you as well if there was anything other than asking for information. If I was confronting or advocating that would certainly be an issue and my guess is that the reason he kept trying to turn it into a thing was that he thought I was confronting or advocating.

In all the circumstances involved, on top of the other things I listed previously, such as being a small school team where our boys end of playing on several teams all year round (football, basketball, soccer, track, etc) I think that dynamic is different from other leagues like the one you are involved in. There is a community you have that you don't have in a league or club. Your kids are in the same classes, your kids play multiple sports together, your kids friends are mostly these same boys, many of the families have been a part of the church/school as second or third generation, families know each other and hang out with each other. I guess that might be why we don't have a code of conduct like your league and self-regulate mostly. This 'incident' which wasn't really much of a thing, is pretty much the most drama I am aware of including my daughter being in 8th grade playing basketball and volleyball, my middle son playing football, basketball, soccer, and track and my youngest starting flag football last year and heading into football, basketball and I am sure soccer as well.

My son can be intensely emotional and often doesn't know how to handle that so the result is that he shuts down and will refuse to do anything no matter the consequences or rewards. When he gets into this, I use the Titanic to explain how stubborn he is, I could tell him to get in a lifeboat and he would say "No. I am not going." and reiterate with the ship is sinking and you will die and he would respond "I don't care." If I didn't talk to him that night, there is a real possibility of him refusing to go to the game which would have ended up pissing the coach off even more (really the only one that seems mad, basically at my son, was the HC) and then it would be a spiral thing that would not be good for the team or my son. My son is clearly the second best player on the team and coupled with the best player on the team can easily lead this team to the championship. I honestly was not only trying to assist my son to handle the situation, teach life lessons and get him back on the field but also to help the program.

I would do it again if given the chance to relive that moment. Though I would have either gone to one of the coaches I have a stronger relationship with or if I approached the HC, done a better job of prefacing my question with "My son is having difficulty with the disappointment and I need to talk to him tonight so he had time to process it all and be good for the game. It would help me if you could give me an idea how you guys think you will use him now so I can help shape that in his mind."

Ours is a town league and while there are 32,000 people in the town and it is very tight-knit and everyone knows everyone and the kids definitely play multiple sports together (our lax program has app. 400 boys and girls)...the code of conduct (by the way this is getting pretty common in our area...we got the idea from Pop Warner a few years back and I know that Mass Youth Lax which I believe is the biggest lax organization in the country advocates strongly for it) is not just for situations like we have been discussing but also with regard to not getting on refs and general behavior from the stands and stuff like that...you need to be consistent when dealing with "situations" and it's very tough to do without rules already in place....having been involved in this world for quite some time you can never under-estimate the potential for idiocy with some parents.

I understand

I would say that small town community and religious/small school community with a thriving sports program is not the same. Not even close. Is it more community than a burb or big city, yes, but the community derived from common religious background, a small school of a few hundred kids from K-8th, almost all the boys you play with on each team- you play with in the other sports teams, the kids primary and best friends all being from the same school, the majority of the parents established friends with other families and hang out together, etc etc etc.... it is a different level.

Of course, people are people regardless but I do think the community aspect helps keep those "situations" within guard rails that it is not possible to have in other sports settings.

We are also involved in some club teams outside of the school and none of them have any rules about talking to a coach. The nearest to it is swim where parents are not allowed on deck but you can (and I have) talked to the coaches before/after/practice/meets... heck, during meets. As a fairly well respected coach, I would never want a parent not talk to me to get information and I don't care the place or time- excluding actual game time. It is how you defuse things from getting crazy to begin with.

There is a huge difference between talking to a coach for information and confronting a coach or advocating for something for your child. HUGE difference. But I absolutely understand the need for such things in other leagues because 'information' could be used as an excuse to confront or advocate.

Probably time to move on…feels like our areas of the country and our sports experiences are more different than I understand and what goes on here in Eastern Massachusetts is different than your area…I hope all works out with your son and football.