I wrote a column two years ago about this time of year regarding the Cottondale Hornet’s football program not having a middle school football team that season. The good news is that the Hornet’s middle school football program returned last year and once again they will field a team this season.
The bad news for football programs in the county though is that three of the four football programs in the county will not put a junior varsity team on the field this season. Cottondale has not had a JV football team for several years now, and that is one of the things I lamented on two years ago with the cancellation of the middle school team for that season. It meant that for some kids they would not begin organized football in a school setting until the 9th grade. And then that organized football in a school setting would be as a 9th grader on the varsity.
Joining Cottondale this year with no junior varsity teams are Graceville and Sneads. In talking with all three Head Coaches at these schools, they are the first ones to tell you that they would much prefer to be able to field a JV football team. And they would be the first ones to sell you on the importance of a JV team to their overall football program.
So what is the problem? It’s a numbers game. Or to put it another way, they do not have enough players to adequately field a team. And that’s a shame. Ninth and tenth grade kids at Cottondale, Sneads and Graceville now must play at the varsity level. And while you might occasionally have a ninth or tenth grader ready to play at the varsity level, by and large most are not.
For those that are not ready for play at that level, it can’t be much fun. Just imagine, you get beat up all week long in practice by the older players and then for the most part are a benchwarmer on Friday nights. Unless they have a tremendous desire to play football, it won’t take long for some of those young players to hang up their cleats and call it quits. And even if they stick with it, they are not getting playing time like they would at the JV level. So their skills and talents are not being developed as they should.
The end result is that this can not be good for football in our county. Hopefully things will make a turn for the better next year. Until then, Simply Put, these are tough times for JV football.
From the front porch: Coach said if you don’t know where your going it doesn’t matter which road you take.
The bad news for football programs in the county though is that three of the four football programs in the county will not put a junior varsity team on the field this season. Cottondale has not had a JV football team for several years now, and that is one of the things I lamented on two years ago with the cancellation of the middle school team for that season. It meant that for some kids they would not begin organized football in a school setting until the 9th grade. And then that organized football in a school setting would be as a 9th grader on the varsity.
Joining Cottondale this year with no junior varsity teams are Graceville and Sneads. In talking with all three Head Coaches at these schools, they are the first ones to tell you that they would much prefer to be able to field a JV football team. And they would be the first ones to sell you on the importance of a JV team to their overall football program.
So what is the problem? It’s a numbers game. Or to put it another way, they do not have enough players to adequately field a team. And that’s a shame. Ninth and tenth grade kids at Cottondale, Sneads and Graceville now must play at the varsity level. And while you might occasionally have a ninth or tenth grader ready to play at the varsity level, by and large most are not.
For those that are not ready for play at that level, it can’t be much fun. Just imagine, you get beat up all week long in practice by the older players and then for the most part are a benchwarmer on Friday nights. Unless they have a tremendous desire to play football, it won’t take long for some of those young players to hang up their cleats and call it quits. And even if they stick with it, they are not getting playing time like they would at the JV level. So their skills and talents are not being developed as they should.
The end result is that this can not be good for football in our county. Hopefully things will make a turn for the better next year. Until then, Simply Put, these are tough times for JV football.
From the front porch: Coach said if you don’t know where your going it doesn’t matter which road you take.
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