dograt
Well-known member
I immediately amend this. TC 6tie, LC6tie, Cov 8
2022 Three Rivers Conference thread
- Thread starter Bless Em All
- Start date
I know a total of 2 people on the Covington community, but those 2 people are adamant about the dislike of the head coach. From what I gather it’s the following…
1. Ty Cates leaving; he was overall very well liked
2. New conference; No longer big fish in a little pond
3. New coach rubs some the wrong way
4. Very UN-Covington like season at 1-9
5. New coach (starting 2nd year) hasn’t gotten better at #3
There’s no…
Bradford
Mississinawa
Twin Valley South
Tri-County North
National Trail
To beat up on
I’m not saying big fish as in numbers, I’m saying from competitiveness. From top to bottom, the TRC is better than the CCC was.
BucksFan937
Well-known member
How quickly things declined at Covington is what surprises me the most. Hopefully they can bounce back from this quickly...
Weiskittle
Active member
Any more kids need their ego stroked, they need a reason to go out there and work their tails off. It’s not a common thing in this country anymore to work for no reward, and the reward most kids these days want is a pat on the back and to be told they are good enough.
idk if it is sad that they need that affirmation or not, but that is pretty much the whole purpose of social media. Look at me, pay attention to me.
idk if it is sad that they need that affirmation or not, but that is pretty much the whole purpose of social media. Look at me, pay attention to me.
Jimurphey1
Well-known member
I agree with what your saying but I also think more kids work now and want money. At the end of the day saving up for college or future car, house,etc is better for most kids then playing football. Football takes up alot of time and kids that play can't get jobs/ can't work much at all because of football.
Captain Obvious
Member
I believe this to be true. For many kids, Stokes is a hard coach to play for. If Morgan went into this situation thinking he was going to coach kids as hard as Stokes, and keep them happy with poor results, he was out to lunch. It’s not a good sign an administrator is going around asking kids to play.
Bless Em All
Well-known member
You get 4 years in High School. you have the rest of your life to work. It's our society and what's important today. All sports take time, but I was able to play 3 sports and work. You see it all of the time.
Covington is going through the same downward cycle that many schools go through that are that size. Larger schools have more fish in the pond to rely on.
I bet this coach will turn the program around and make it a winner again. This happened to MU back in the 80s when we joined the SRC and Magoteaux left in 84 for Piqua. 1973-1983 Milton won 7 league titles, had 3 undefeated seasons. 1984-1994 was a flip flop. No league titles and no undefeated seasons. They had an 0-10 season in 1994.
Covington will be back.
Bless Em All
Well-known member
Yes for 4 seasons.
21 underclassmen...that spells 0-10 for Covington. Basically, they will be a reserve team. The TRC is going to be weak this year, again! Outside of MU, Northridge and Riverside, who else is going to be decent? I know Covington had some good kids returning but they decided not to play. That is a program killer at a school like Covington.
Maybe they get more kids to go out? There is still time to get them ready.
I believe you have the bottom three and top three correctly identified, just not sure of what order other than #1. Bethel and East are both due for an improvement in overall competitiveness.
ex_dc_atc
Moderator
Agreed. Covington has had success consistently since 1995. They did have some pretty big changes in the past couple of seasons. A sudden league change, a sudden coaching change, and then a season they haven't had to deal with in 25 years. At a small school, even with a lot of tradition, I think it could be something that's hard to bounce back from.
Weiskittle
Active member
Also fyi, Miami East won’t have a JV team this year…
Bless Em All
Well-known member
These were issues I wondered about with this conference...
dograt
Well-known member
But I initially worried about this with TC and LC, not Covington and East!
Reading on some broader boards it becomes apparent football is in for a dog fight over kids being taken out if programs due to legitimate concerns over safety (concussions primarily) and competition from soccer, cross country and band. As fewer kids attend games that also disincentives young men to play football over soccer or cross country or their trombone.
A few professional opinions I have read see 2030 as the likely end of football as we know it? That would surprise me but the numbers now surprise me.
yakyak
Well-known member
The overall popularity of football ( not participation) seems quite high. High schools will need to play football with other schools at the small school level. Numbers at larger schools seem ok?
Bless Em All
Well-known member
Football will never go away. You might see the end of tiny schools having it, but d4 and up will always have it. It's too much money and the colleges will never allow that. I'd like to know where you read that at.
I'm thinking you allow schools like Covington and Bradford to merge personnel and field a team. Miami East and Bethel could allow kids from both schools to play at say, Miami East, if there was a participation issue.
When I played in the early 80s we had 35 kids on our 10-0 SWBL Championship team. Grades 10-12. Frosh were about 15-20 but they played a separate schedule. I think the elimination of Freshman football hurt participation. Winning cures a lot.
It takes these kids realizing they aren't going to be champions at everything. Learning to lose is an important thing as well.
Last edited:
Good or Bad. Kids have more options today then they did 10/15 years ago.
New conference: New coach: Coming off worst year in a while is a perfect way for losing kids interest.
The concerning part is that He is loosing players that were already playing as young players and starting as underclassmen. That says he potentially has the wrong read on the kids in the community. You can lose upcoming seniors or lose kids year 1. Losing a few from a team year 2 is bound to happen. But so many of them playing significantly last year is what should worry the coach.
May be time to adjust his expectations/demands. Or maybe he is getting kids that will be bought into his standards.
After all...There is a reason the coach prior to him left his "dream job" . Possibly saw that the pipeline was thinning out for a few years?
Numbers even at larger programs seem to be falling off for a variety of reasons.
More options for kids to form bonds/community other ways than sports
Safety
Pay to play
And the thing many I've talked with are seeing is flat "Burn out" for a lot of kids.
Why do MAC schools constantly have 70+ kid teams in similar communities to a covington etc? Many I've talked with point to their lack of youth football. Some communities youth football starts early summer, even before HS practices and goes later than hs programs, while playing on the varsity field and in some cases having much nicer equipment.
Why play HS when you have a super bowl ring from little league? Or all you did was run at each other in practice to see who could knock the other over. Loser has to run. Or you got hurt. I know some friends who's kids play 12-15 games in youth football, including a tournament (in 1 weekend like baseball). Things that until deep playoff runs/college that do not take place anywhere but youth.
While your D1 and 2 schools will feel the impact slower. They are feeling it. 500 boys in a graduating class and only 15 play football? That is not a good percentage. Now put that percentage on a school with 100 boys per class (that would be 3 per class). Small schools are going to feel the crunch much faster.
Bless Em All
Well-known member
Yeah, pee wee football is a bad idea in my book. Bad coaching, bad experiences, injuries, burn out. Not much difference between Covington and Minster or New Bremen.
I’ve been against pee wee for several years.
Milton has about 50 out in 9-12. 18 are seniors. So, just let the burn out flu hit MU and they are in the same boat. Could happen to any TRC school, really. I’m still in favor of a frosh program to increase participation. Problem is schedule and JV football suffers.
Graduating fromm a MAC school I can tell you that those kids are playing peewee ball for other schools. A lot of those MAC schools are starting flag programs which usually transitions into tackle. I can understand the burned out points but if a kid likes a sport they'll play. Most of this is coming from parents afraid of concussions and media making football look bad. As far as your kids friends playing 12-15 peewee games plus a tournament, I would love to know where that's at because no peewee team should be playing that many.
I would have disagree somewhat. When I played peewee ball that was when I received some of the best coaching that still sticks with me today and had some of my best football memories playing peewee. I can remember one bad injury and that was a broken arm. These kids at these ages hit the ground harder than they hit each other half the time. I know MU peewee program fairly well and it is ran great. The burn out is going to happen in all sports eventually with year round sports like basketball, soccer, baseball etc. I'd say its more parents afraid of concussions then anything.
Bless Em All
Well-known member
I’ve been around football since the early 70s when I played pee wee at Milton, and I can tell you that it’s really different today. There is too much emphasis put on winning and losing and not enough on learning to play as a team and learning fundamentals. Pee wee should be 6-7 games, that’s it. There are some schools that start kids in kindergarten. There are pee wee programs that play more games and longer seasons than varsity, I’ve seen it. I appreciate your opinion, it’s another look at this subject. Thanks!
Are there quality youth programs. You bet. I do not know anything about MU youth so won't speak on it. Just know what I've seen. A lot of youth coaches that I have seen do not do basic instruction with kids in many communities. A lot of "toughen Johnny up" drills of running into each other to see who knocks the other one over. Loser runs laps.
My youth experience was great. However, there is no reason for kids to be practicing in June/July. There is no reason to play more games than a HS program. There is definitely no reason to do a weekend tournament.
Is the media/concussions part of the issue. Sure. But as Bless Em All mentioned. The "Win at all costs" of youth is also a part of it. 3 hour practices, giving the ball to the 1st kid that develops faster over and over does not prepare them for the next stage.
Again, maybe the youth team you know 1st hand is different. Maybe you're looking at it with Rose Colored glasses from our days of old playing the game with our own great experiences. However. What would the HS staff say about the way a youth practice is run? And Vice Versa? If the youth program is not focusing #1 on keeping every Johnny and Joey playing for the next 6-12 years so that they can continue to learn the values that football can teach as they continue to develop into young adults, then the priorities are probably in the wrong place.