SL Predictions

It will be a tough league this year...when you replace Barberton with Nordonia, the league just got tougher there...Highland returns everyone, so does Tallmadge basically...Revere still has some size...Cloverleaf still had Dearth and a few other pieces...Green has new coach, but should be okay...Wadsworth is Wadsworth...Copley is very young...

After Wadsworth and maybe Green, this league is wide open...
 
warriors378 said:
HOWEVER, if Murphy(or someone else on his staff) can not or does not find the time to teach the fundamentals to the youth of the school district, Highland will be back in the bottom half of the Suburban League in 5 years...
Click to expand...
What is your point about "finding time to teach to the youth of the school district"? Is there a problem you would like to share with us in a direct way? Golly gee, the first game hasn't even been played and here go the Highland faithful. No wonder Highland cannot keep good coaches and will forever dwell in the bottom half of the league. At least give Murphy & Co. a chance before you start sniping at them. You have a proven excellent coach again in the system and I would suggest you give him his due and not this backhanded criticism and let the man coach.:soapbox:
 
20/20 said:
What is your point about "finding time to teach to the youth of the school district"? Is there a problem you would like to share with us in a direct way? Golly gee, the first game hasn't even been played and here go the Highland faithful. No wonder Highland cannot keep good coaches and will forever dwell in the bottom half of the league. At least give Murphy & Co. a chance before you start sniping at them. You have a proven excellent coach again in the system and I would suggest you give him his due and not this backhanded criticism and let the man coach.:soapbox:
Click to expand...

Because if you focus fundamentals to the youth, you won't have to spend time in practice going over fundamentals every day...you can focus all that time on what you want to do in the next game or that particular season...

It's not just Highland, every head coach at a high school program in any sport should have something to teach fundamentals to the youth of their school district to make them the best they can be when they get to high school...
 
20/20 said:
What is your point about "finding time to teach to the youth of the school district"? Is there a problem you would like to share with us in a direct way? Golly gee, the first game hasn't even been played and here go the Highland faithful. No wonder Highland cannot keep good coaches and will forever dwell in the bottom half of the league. At least give Murphy & Co. a chance before you start sniping at them. You have a proven excellent coach again in the system and I would suggest you give him his due and not this backhanded criticism and let the man coach.:soapbox:
Click to expand...

To be honest, I think that anyone could be the head coach of Highland for the first couple of games, show up and do nothing strategically, and still win...that's how easy their first two games are...
 
1) wadsworth - no competition in the sl for them this yr (a really down yr for this lg)
2,3) nordonia and green battling it out
4,5,6) cloverleaf, revere, tallmadge (you really could lump these 3 with final 2 for the last 5 spots)
7,8) highland and copley fighting to stay out of the basement
imo you can make an all star team out of all the schools except the grizzlies and still not be talented enough to beat wadsworth
 
First off I think it's really a waste of time to predict the season outcome, but I will respond since it's been discussed. Responding to replies about HHS:
In Highland 's early losses last year, they were by less than 5 points:to North Royalton & Brunswick, and by 10 to Medina. Poor game-day coaching and lack of depth were major problems throughout the season.
A new coach,a few new players & new attitudes=wins. Most observers on the outside will be surprised and maybe even shocked what good coaching can do for a program. And all those predicting the basement for Highland will NEVER admit how wrong they were.
 
warriors378 said:
It will be a tough league this year...when you replace Barberton with Nordonia, the league just got tougher there...Highland returns everyone, so does Tallmadge basically...Revere still has some size...Cloverleaf still had Dearth and a few other pieces...Green has new coach, but should be okay...Wadsworth is Wadsworth...Copley is very young...

After Wadsworth and maybe Green, this league is wide open...
Click to expand...

Just because a league evens up a bit (by top tier teams worsening imo), that doesn't make it tough. This set of SL teams is nowhere near on the level of a typical year in the recent past and further back in the SL

I will agree with your premise though that after Wadsworth, the rest will be much tighter than normal. I'd be surprised if there weren't a few ties for places with multiple losses.
 
MCGal said:
Just because a league evens up a bit (by top tier teams worsening imo), that doesn't make it tough. This set of SL teams is nowhere near on the level of a typical year in the recent past and further back in the SL

I will agree with your premise though that after Wadsworth, the rest will be much tighter than normal. I'd be surprised if there weren't a few ties for places with multiple losses.
Click to expand...

I understand. Haven't heard too much about Green or Nordonia. Nordonia is new to league, and Green lost Pastor which basically carried the team last year....
 
Last edited:
warriors378 said:
Just so you're not getting the wrong assumptions, the players loved Coach Seth, and they still do. I know a couple of the players(even middle school players), and seen a couple at Suburban League soccer games, and they were depressed when Coach Seth left, but said that we need to move on and get back to playing basketball this year...

You have to remember, this is like the 5th or 6th different coach in 8-10 years...not good stability for a program...

I don't even see Coach Murphy staying for the long term...I see him leaving in 1-2 years when a particular head coaching job becomes vacant...
Click to expand...

Who is coach Murphys assistant coaches?
Did he bring anybody back from Copley?
 
warriors378 said:
once again, what's your definition of tough? My definition of tough is "nothing is going to be easy"...and it won't be for teams after Wadsworth...I do feel it's a down year...

And to be honest, gobluego, the Coach Seth and the varsity assistant coach had the players prepared. The players never executed it...I was at some of the games, and heard Coach Seth yell out what the other team's play was("screen coming to your left", etc.), but the players would look at her like :shrug: ....and Coach Seth was right every time what the play was...the other team would stop using that play or call it differently so Coach Seth couldn't pick up on it until later in the game....

I heard from a very reliable source that each player had a "cheat sheet"(scouting report) to the "test"(the opponent for that game), and the players just didn't follow it...One thing I heard from my source, was it went as deep as other team's offensive sets, defensive sets, OOB/SOB plays, and even each player's strengths and weaknesses for the opposing team...For example, one sheet supposedly said that so and so can only dribble with her right, so make her go to her left and dribble with her left...

So to tell me it was poor game day planning, you're mistaken there if my source is correct...Highland's basketball players last year were young, and don't have the basketball IQ that this year's Highland 8th grade team has...
Click to expand...
You DO realize that every team has scouting reports prepared like the one you describe? Well, unless they are playing a team that sucks, so maybe you wouldn't have seen opposing coaching doing it.
 
With the new tournament assignments, how far does everyone think each Suburban League team will go? Medina District looks really tough now...
 
Last edited:
What's the non-conference schedule for each Suburban League School? How many are playing Barberton?
 
Last edited:
parentbball said:
Sorry, but this is very optimistic. 10 wins would be a fantastic season. I'd be pleased with 6 to 8 wins.

Murphy will do his best, and these girls will improve a lot as the season goes on. But there are a lot of problems in this program. Lack of fundamentals, only a couple of scorers, weak ball handling, lack of physical toughness, underdeveloped basketball IQ, etc. Their strong points are team spirit, effort/hustle, pretty good size, solid athleticism.

It may look like I am bashing, but I'm not. I like these girls, and just wish that they had learned a lot more about basketball and the fundamentals in their earlier years. They are way behind where a varsity basketball team should be.
Click to expand...

Most reasonable post regarding Highland. I think they will win a few more than 6-8 but yes, that would be a huge improvement. In regards to the youth program and 7th/8th grade - it has been totally changed. New coaches at the 7th and 8th grade and Murphy has brought some of his Wadsworth youth coaches to coach the youth travel teams. Things will get better at Highland but it will take some time. Don't know Murphy's long-term plans but if he stays 3 + years Highland's overall program will be much improved. The players and program are in much better hands now.

Warrior, think you are way to close to the previous coach...
 
How's your scrimmages been going the past three weeks? Are you ready for the season opener? Any new additions to your team? Any players that really improved over the summer? How do you like the new sectional sites?
 
Week 1 Results:

Green over Perry 46-37 (nice win for the young bulldogs)

Tallmadge over Streetsboro 43-36 (would have expected them to win big)

Highland over North 69-17 (nice confidence builder for Highland)

Revere lost to Lake 67-25 Is Lake that good or another long year for Revere?)

Nordonia over Aurora (didn't see score) (Nordonia could be the sleeper team this year)

A
 
Nordonia will be amongst the best of the rest but no one's touching Wadsworth imho. Green showed people shouldn't overlook them Saturday... if Corle's healthy, they're a 2nd place team imho.
 
Tallmadge played pretty well against Wadsworth. Grizzlies got up early but basically played even in the second half. Tallmadge looked much improved!

Anyone at the Highland / Nordonia game? Shocked by that score. Did Nordonia have all of its players? Maybe the SL isn't so bad... Grizz at Nordonia on Wednesday.
 
grizzhoops said:
Tallmadge played pretty well against Wadsworth. Grizzlies got up early but basically played even in the second half. Tallmadge looked much improved!

Anyone at the Highland / Nordonia game? Shocked by that score. Did Nordonia have all of its players? Maybe the SL isn't so bad... Grizz at Nordonia on Wednesday.
Click to expand...

What's the status with the O'Brien girl? The Wadsworth Post article makes it seem like she is playing, but haven't seen her in the box scores.
 
O'Brien was at the game but did not play. I have heard that she did receive the approval from OHSAA but is waiting for it to be finalized. Don't know about timeline.
 
Yes Nordonia had all their players and Highland was missing a starter that was away for soccer. Highland JV beat their varsity in 4 quarter. Wadsworth should beat them by a ton.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top