New York Times catches MAC-tosis

 
sapientia et veritas said:
Buried in the MAC thread. Deserves its own.

www.nytimes.com

Football Is Dying in Ohio. A Coach in This County Made It Thrive. (Published 2019)

Demographics suggest football should be dying in Mercer County. Instead it’s booming and producing state champions.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

Hope the atheists don't freak out about the players praying.
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LOL! Not all atheists are against people praying, as that doesn't freak us out. To each his own. People being FORCED to pray is what freaks us out!
 
BigK72 said:
To be fair, they have a higher percentage of catholic students making up their student body than any school in the GCL
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Really nice article about a group of schools and communities that compete against one but have respect for each other. I’m just curious, are any of the MAC schools “pay to play”?
 
Oldhornetguy said:
Really nice article about a group of schools and communities that compete against one but have respect for each other. I’m just curious, are any of the MAC schools “pay to play”?
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Considering the vast majority of MAC players are farm boys and there are around 80 kids on each team, I highly doubt it is pay to play in MAC country. There is no pay to play in the WBL, thought St. Mary’s almost had it implemented a year ago or so
 
Oldhornetguy said:
Really nice article about a group of schools and communities that compete against one but have respect for each other. I’m just curious, are any of the MAC schools “pay to play”?
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Nope, none are pay to play. I think that would drive a few good players away. Since a good % are farmers, they tend to be a little frugal with their money.
 
Sounds like an awesome place. I actually liked Goodwin's quote about how the success of the sports teams showing how strong a community is. The author disagreed, but I think Goodwin has a point. Seems like at those schools, football, family, faith and hard work all go together to create a common pride and shared identity. Strong communities are the places where everyone supports each other and the success of their schools and their teams bring everyone together. Those are the places that seem to win championships and always are a level above everyone else. Fantastic article! Might have to try to see a game there sometime. Any Marion Local fans on here, you guys are lucky to have such an awesome town and coach. Good luck in the title game!
 
Bull GreenDog said:
Sounds like an awesome place. I actually liked Goodwin's quote about how the success of the sports teams showing how strong a community is. The author disagreed, but I think Goodwin has a point. Seems like at those schools, football, family, faith and hard work all go together to create a common pride and shared identity. Strong communities are the places where everyone supports each other and the success of their schools and Atheir teams bring everyone together. Those are the places that seem to win championships and always are a level above everyone else. Fantastic article! Might have to try to see a game there sometime. Any Marion Local fans on here, you guys are lucky to have such an awesome town and coach. Good luck in the title game!
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Yes we are very proud of our community and it's school and all sports. We are actually made up of six small towns each with a Catholic
church with six wetting holes. And very lucky to have coach Goodwin...............Yes come over to a game sometime... And voice don't mention
coach Cramer again as we all know he was a joke............
 
ru4ml said:
Yes we are very proud of our community and it's school and all sports. We are actually made up of six small towns each with a Catholic
church with six wetting holes. And very lucky to have coach Goodwin...............Yes come over to a game sometime... And voice don't mention
coach Cramer again as we all know he was a joke............
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What? I heard it from his own mouth at a place in NEO that he started the build....


But good article! As for praying....we did before each base ball game and Coach had a rosary in his back pocket for each game.
 
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PantherSkin said:
After the Marion vs Bremen game when the kids were all praying I heard someone say ‘that’s what happens when two Catholic schools play’
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New Bremen is Catholic now?

I would not agree that the strength of a community is reflected in the success of their sports teams. There are undoubtedly many communities in Ohio and across the country that are strong communities with pride, faith, hard work and common identity that don't win championships because they simply don't have the athletes that other schools have.
 
Not a bad article but the title is ridiculous. Football is clearly not dying in Ohio. There are thousands of kids playing and still a ton of fan interest. Participation and attendance are down from it's peak in the early 2000's, but it is far from dead.
 
Blue Jay Fan said:
New Bremen is Catholic now?

I would not agree that the strength of a community is reflected in the success of their sports teams. There are undoubtedly many communities in Ohio and across the country that are strong communities with pride, faith, hard work and common identity that don't win championships because they simply don't have the athletes that other schools have.
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I think New Knoxville is the only town in the MAC without a Catholic Church, I would guess New Bremen is half???
 
Lancers said:
Not a bad article but the title is ridiculous. Football is clearly not dying in Ohio. There are thousands of kids playing and still a ton of fan interest. Participation and attendance are down from it's peak in the early 2000's, but it is far from dead.
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I'm sure he mean going down by participation percentage which would lead to that title I'm guessing. Misleading though.
 
Blue Jay Fan said:
New Bremen is Catholic now?

I would not agree that the strength of a community is reflected in the success of their sports teams. There are undoubtedly many communities in Ohio and across the country that are strong communities with pride, faith, hard work and common identity that don't win championships because they simply don't have the athletes that other schools have.
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NB is probably 60 - 40 Catholic at least. Other communities may have some of the same qualities but they do not have the coaches to go with that community " pride ". MAC coaches will tell you the reason they succeed is because of the culture in the area.
 
Great article! Not sure what is in the water over there. Those schools could have a tic tac toe team and win championships. I grew up just north of their and the MAC has always been tough. Hard nosed and hard working people. Hard not to cheer for those schools.
 
bigkat said:
I know it is the new York times..but read the replies from the people who responded to the article....something tells me a few of them have never competed in a sport......but got plenty of participation ribbons...and are NOT big fans of the man upstairs...
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100% agree. One guy said that the kids are from “Marion, Ohio” and the parents who let their kids play should be accused of child abuse.

However, there was a comment that stuck out to me. A guy compared the deaths of football and the deaths of working on a farm throughout a year. He found it roughly equal. He also stated that there is a much higher chance of a teenager dying in a pool or in a car accident than playing football. His point was that we can’t eliminate the chance of death. Freak accidents happen, people die. That is part of life. Trust in the Lord that everything happens for a reason. In inner city communities, football gets kids off the streets and into the weight room or on the practice fields, so you could say football in those areas save lives.
 
It is really eye opening to see how negative people are nowadays about everything that goes on. I cant imagine being one of those and I feel bad for people who were raised that way. A simple article about football and what good the coach and team brings to the community brought out the worst in these comments. I dont like to cheer for the MAC schools because no one seems to like the best unless you are the best but there is still tons of respect. I also know that some times it gets chippy on here and things are said in a negative light however in my eyes its mostly friendly banter between schools. With that said good luck to Marion Local this weekend and thanks for sharing the article!
 
HighSchoolFB45 said:
100% agree. One guy said that the kids are from “Marion, Ohio” and the parents who let their kids play should be accused of child abuse.

However, there was a comment that stuck out to me. A guy compared the deaths of football and the deaths of working on a farm throughout a year. He found it roughly equal. He also stated that there is a much higher chance of a teenager dying in a pool or in a car accident than playing football. His point was that we can’t eliminate the chance of death. Freak accidents happen, people die. That is part of life. Trust in the Lord that everything happens for a reason. In inner city communities, football gets kids off the streets and into the weight room or on the practice fields, so you could say football in those areas save lives.
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I wholeheartedly believe that being part of any team or organization is beneficial to the overall well being of a kid, and adult for that matter. There are inherent risks in everything we do. Do people die from playing football? Yes. Many people also die at work, driving, biking, running, eating, etc. I believe the mental well being of participating in sports, to go along with the physical fitness aspect is a life long positive for kids.

People can discuss the merits of religion all they want and you wont change their minds so it is fruitless to even attempt.

However, I did move a little bit away from Mercer County over 18 months ago and when I head home I can always tell when I hit Mercer County with all the Pray to end abortion signs and I love it.


Godspeed my friends.
 
Lancers said:
Not a bad article but the title is ridiculous. Football is clearly not dying in Ohio. There are thousands of kids playing and still a ton of fan interest. Participation and attendance are down from it's peak in the early 2000's, but it is far from dead.
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Agree, typical of today's low journalistic standards they fail to prove the assertion with proper statistics. Don't tell me there are fewer kids playing football today than in the past, and think you have made much a point. Tell me that the percentage of kids playing football has dropped. But even then, things will always fluctuate year to year. Show me a 10 year trend where the percentage of kids is dropping. Short of that, the author is just making things up to fit his theory.
 
The hardest thing for me to bite my tongue about with the comments has to be the constant attacks on the community's use of religion as a sense of pride. People saying it's such a conservative way of thinking and non inclusive. That is a load of BS. Conservative America may show their religious beliefs more than some, but in Maria Stein, it's another way our community comes together. At every mass offered in the cluster on Sunday, there is almost standing room only or they have to bring out the folding chairs. Religion is who we are and has always been who we are, so what gives them the right to say we cant use religion in sports, when they have no idea our background. I have no right to tell them to believe in God, so they have no right to tell us to stop our traditions. As for inclusion, no one says they have to do the prayer. At Marion I played with a couple players who didn't go to church or necessarily believe in God. We also had a trainer who openly didn't believe in God, they still bowed their heads with us and held hands because it showed unity, which is what you need in a team. No one told them they had to, they just did it. As for women inclusion, the girl student body are gigantic supporters because all the guys play football, the women make up the student section. Marion also has storied womens sports programs. Anyone who stoops to bashing us using the political affiliation of our area, and inclusion, are just arrogant and are in fact showing how non inclusive they are to our beliefs, which is very hypocritical.
 
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