From what I hear....

[richaboli]

Questioning the number of football teams really has to do with this question:
What is the purpose of high school sports?
Is it to provide the students an intensified physical education?
Is it to provide students a way to vent their energy?
Is it to teach students about teamwork and the mechanics of a sport?
Is it to provide the school and community alot of winning ra ra publicity?
Do you believe that every student that wants to participate in a sport should be allowed to do so?
Is it to provide the most gifted athletes their greatest desire?
Is it to provide a small percentage of the school's athletes with athletic scholarships?
Again, it has to do with what you view the purpose of high school sports is.
If you are able to choose the most important answer to that question you will be able to answer how many middle school/ high school football teams there should be.

[The Ancient Enemy]

Lakers, only 11 kids can play at one time, bud. JV provides invaluable experience for younger kids who would not get it otherwise. This has nothing to do with coddling kids. Coddling would be requiring every kid to get equal playing time.

[lakersfan24]

11 kids at a time. 11 spots on offense, defense, kick off, kick return, punt, punt return, field goal, hands team. That's 88 spots total not including back ups who give kids breaks. Obviouslly, almost all of these are filled by the same kid multiple times. I never said JV wasn't important. But it should include 9th grade an eliminate the 9th grade team as well as be limited to underclassmen. How is having a JV (developmental) squad not coddling kids if upperclassmen are playing? You're saying, it's okay you're not good enough. You can still play with these other not-so good kids. That's not what JV should be about. It should be for the younger kids who haven't grown physically, athletically, or mentally enough yet to compete at the varsity level. Once you hit the junior level, your opportunity to play JV should be over.

[wpbc]

PA is kind of backward on the JV/Varsity alignment. Most other states including Maryland have JV for freshman/soph. and Varisty for Jr/Sr.'s. They also have rules governing the separation and participation of this. Works pretty good. I think it would work here as well giving some schools JV teams and cutting JH back to just 7/8 grade. Make sense since High Schools are 9-12 around here and middle schools have 7/8 grades together.

Southpaw, I don't think the MD system is the answer, actually I hated it when I was there. There are many problems that I saw there comparing it to a system like PA's. In MD (I believe it was up to individual counties to implement this rule) sophomores could play up but Jr's couldn't play down. So coaches had dilemmas especially with semi talented 10th graders. Do you bring them up to get spot minutes and play special teams or leave them down on the JV's to learn how to be a starter and be a leader because the roles that they would need to play would be different. These decisions were extremely hard to make considering you only had a few days in the preseason to evaluate players before rosters were set. I think the PA system really helps develop players in the 10th and 11th grade. Here, especially in basketball a JV player can have a breakout game and then carry that over into a varsity game. In MD they wouldn't be given the opportunity. You mention that 11th graders shouldn't play down. There are a lot of players that are late bloomers athletically and physically and giving them that extra year can help a year later. I saw many 11th graders get cut because they weren't quite up to par varsity wise but weren't allowed to play down. These same kids would have been all stars in D6 and D5.

[The Ancient Enemy]

Again, Lakers proves he's on drugs when he posts.

How many schools in the LHAC only play kids one way? Those 11 kids are usually the same 11 kids who play on both sides.

And again, seniors dont play JV, only younger, inexperienced kids.

Unfortunately for you, Lakers, there is much more to team sports than just starting spots. Thats where you never caught on, and never will. I'm done arguing this, let me know when you graduate kindergarten.

[lakersfan24]

Nothing you've just said wasn't already found in my post. I said myself that a lot of the spots are filled by the same kid. I also said that JV football should still exist, but combine it with the 9th grade team. As I stated, there is no reason for both teams in the LHAC or Westpac. If there is more to football than starting spots, why do we need another team to accomodate kids who cannot perform at the level they are at (high school). Seniors may not play at FH, but that isn't the case for every school. You'll see plenty of schools playing their seniors who couldn't get into starting positions, or worse, juniors who are playing a lot of varsity and they want to get even more experience. Like I said before, JV should be 9th grade and 10th grade kids only, and comprised of the kids who cannot either start or contribute at the varsity level. The situation would be fluid as kids could move to and from each team but only play 1 game per week (you can't play JV and Varsity on the same week, but you could play JV one week and play Varsity the next). It would make things so much simpler and help out schools who already have low enrollment that can't even field a 9th grade OR JV team because of low enrollment numbers. The JV team will essentially be the Varsity's practice squad, and would help raise talent levels by having the young kids compete everyday against better competition. How is this idea a bad one? Just because they'll be less overall starting positions and less teams?

[psycho]

DON'T YOU PEOPLE UNDERSTAND!!!!!!!!!!! Every child deserves a TROPHY!!!!!!! It's not about developing potential and excellence in westpac ( or many LHAC schools for that matter) -- It's about participation -- just like intramurals was in the evil, dark days of competitiveness when band kids played in the band and football players played football and coaches were allowed to coach.

The trophy..ahhh...the TROPHY...... i love a good trophy....makes me feel good about myself in my own little world......... where there is no competition.........

That's why there's a westpac and westpac sports reporters at the Tribune who artificially create a fake "illusion" (I know I am being redundant) of competitiveness. It's all quite pitiful really.

[say_oww]

That's why there's a westpac and westpac sports reporters at the Tribune who artificially create a fake "illusion" (I know I am being redundant) of competitiveness. It's all quite pitiful really.

Gee, and I always thought writers covered high school sporting events because it sells newspapers. I didn't realize I was wrong all of these years!

By the way, could someone contact username and ask him to make psycho his own bleachercoach trophy since he isn't good enough to go against real competition and get a job for a newspaper or a sports network. After all, he is the one who said everyone deserves a trophy...

Psycho buddy, don't you get it. Just because the Trib covers a game and writes about it in detail doesn't mean we think the kids belong in the NBA. Consequently, we also realize that just because you logon each day and rant that you are not on ESPN.

[say_oww]

Getting back to the subject, it should be noted that competition is a two-way street. If its agreed that teams get better by playing tougher opponents, conversely they should suffer by playing lesser opponents. In the end, who really benefits?

[YARDMARKER]

West Pac is cutting 7th grade football also this year.