This is kind of the dormant period of HS football , where the aftermath of the season fire is well past put out. Coaching changes is the next order of business and speculation is rife and most are loathe to put out a lot of names because of the possible conflicts at present jobs.
Coffman football has not been part of this discussion due to a 20 year successful run by one coach, which changed this year obviously. In many businesses , new boss's and executives are replaced due to firings and some just moving on. In many of these new-hire searches company's look for a contrast to the previous guy especially in a firing situation. Brash abrasive no non -nonsense guys who get some results early but wear out their welcome over time are often replaced by their polar opposites. OK, " We need a more thoughtful , less abrasive guy who won't wear on the team members. We need a different atmosphere in the building .
Managers and bosses who are more laid back and lenient are sometimes replaced by task masters. Often the best of the best leaders are able to shift easily in between a couple styles or adapt slightly by hiring others to be a balance { Good cop bad cop} . I have mentioned many of the qualities I really like with Coach Stokes , as I am sure that the administration feels similarly . Coffman football was ably and successfully run by Coach Crabtree who had a certain style that was detail oriented but wasn't the in your face confrontational , and he really seemed to be aiming for the players to take real responsibility and ownership of themselves and how they fit with the team .
More than one way to skin a cat is the oft used phrase when discussing coaching styles and Modus operandi's. An injection of energy is never a bad thing for any company, team. organization. or program. The Rocks certainly have that dynamic going on with Coach Stokes. Program was hardly broken , but is rebuilding . Feels like it is a new era . It is indeed a new era, but it felt like that even without Coach Crabtree retiring. Rocks fans know what I am talking about. COVID has made this seem even more dramatic. As I have said before , I would have loved to see the Rocks have a full regular season this past year with all their experience and talent they had . Some of the talent wasn't on the field late,. and it was very disappointing to end the season in that way, but it wasn't shocking. We had seen this movie the last few seasons with pretty much every loss being a different kind of excruciating.
In fact most of the few regular season losses were often very winnable games . 2018 saw the program win some of these games with a few really nice comebacks . That was fueled a lot by RB/Slot Mike Drennan. He apparently wasn't all that interested in playing his Senior year for whatever reason and there is zero doubt that in any of those go either way close ones where he didn't really play in any of them despite not being really scratched in some weeks{ Just a couple plays , never in crunch time , play one week not the next despite not appearing to suffer a noticeable injury he really might have been the difference ultimately. This dynamic will never happen again . Not just because coach Stokes is present, I don't blame the coaching staff entirely for this rare occurrence { A small handful of others who had multiple offers for a couple years competed hard and didn't just 'Sit out" of games} But I can safely say that if this crops up again in the near future ? Kid will have to watch from the stands when it becomes apparent that there isn't much desire to play. Now there may not be this kind of talent around for a while either. Who knows.
Some kids adopt the attitude of 'I have a ton of offers , what's the point of playing if I don't feel like it or am not 100 percent comfy. ? I get it even if I have no concept of it as a competitor . I have seen myself and others kill themselves to try to get back on the field after major injury's. Some D-1 and some not. Didn't matter . It didn't matter because IT REALLY MATTERD to us. The team and the game itself have to MATTER more than what you're next step is .{ This isn't to say you foolishly play with an injury that could get worse} If that's the only reason you're playing ? The just quit once you got the offers you want . TEAM has to matter to you , because that's the dynamic you will likely be operating with for your whole life. Learning not to be selfish is one of the most meaningful and important life lessons you can learn at this stage of your life. You hamper your development as a person and player and you let down and lose the respect of your teammates .
Parents move their kids from their life long community because their FRESHMAN year didn't go real well or as well as they thought it might. A parent just shot a coach because of the lack of playing time their kid was getting. That's rare and extreme obviously. But the hyper competitiveness of parents and the push for getting some kind of money from schools{ A lot more academic money and scholarships to be had and that can expand when also having a special skill { sports or otherwise } can lead to having a less than great attitude towards the experience.
I have a feeling that coach Stokes realizes that cultivating a certain selflessness and a real strong feeling of TEAM is an extremely important in his coaching 'Process". If Football was a major , Accountability 101 is a HUGE pre-requisite and one of the early building blocks of becoming a real team . Without it? True potential as a TEAM won't be reached.