High School Football in Iowa 2019

[EstronHawkKing]

For those of you who live in Iowa, what are the teams in your area looking like? I have heard Solon might be good enough to de-throne CR Xavier. The Des Moines Register beat writers all picked CR Kennedy, IC West and DSM Dowling as the best 4A teams. I wouldn't count out Bettendorf and Cedar Falls. They all picked Dowling to go undefeated and win it all again. That Iowa running back recruit, I think he was at South East Polk last year? But his parents moved to West DSM and now he will be playing for Dowling. The rich get richer I guess. A lot of people including some head coaches in 4A think the DSM schools like Dowling, Valley, Ankeny, and other bigger/better schools need to go to class 5A and have their own playoffs. Cedar Rapids Kennedy will host West DSM Valley at Kingston Stadium mid season, should be a good one. Hope Kennedy kicks their butts! By the way, that Kennedy lineman who verballed to Iowa (he's a junior) I have seen him twice in person in the last few months, He's huge! He looks like he could play for Iowa right now.

I have also heard CR Washingtn doesn't have enough sophomores to form a team, so they might have to move some freshman up. I have also heard that the IC Regina freshman may not have enough players as well. Parents are scared of the concussion issue.

 

[HawkGold]

The numbers game has been impacting schools in my state, especially bigger schools in highly educated areas. Powerhouses falling flat on the face. Kids from small schools away from universities getting fb scholarships at unheard of pace.

My small hs in Iowa was a power house and now plays 8 man. Few attend games. No real rivals anymore. Very non athletic obese kids playing that wouldnt have by shape years ago.

Question...are schools like Mediapolis really that good or has the competition been reduced? In the day they had to play Mt Vernon, Mid Prairie, Columbus and others. I think a year or so the SEI had teams playing for championships in A, 1A, and 2A.

I looked at my hs year book....the players weeent obese.

 

[Lumberman]

I have a very athletic 8th grader at home.

Momma says “No football.” Cross country is the alternative. It’s all about the concussion issue for us.

Clearly, we are not the only suburban parents thinking that way, either.

 

[CP87]

I have a very athletic 8th grader at home.

Momma says “No football.” Cross country is the alternative. It’s all about the concussion issue for us.

Clearly, we are not the only suburban parents thinking that way, either.

My kids are still a few years away from organized sports, but I think the thing giving me more pause than concussions is the requirements put upon a kid who wants to do team sports. Better start that $1000/year travel team by the time they are 10, otherwise they will be left behind!

And as ridiculous as it is, it is true because of the system in place. You have to play in those leagues to have a clue what you are doing when you get to middle school. If you don't, you will get left behind because that middle school coach (and even more so the parents chirping at him/her) wants to WIN, not develop future athletes. So if you don't show up knowing what you are doing, you don't get attention, coaching, or playing time. So at every level, you get further and further behind, all because you did not want to pay $1000/year and give up 30 Sundays a year for your 10 year old's youth sports experience. It is like the birth-month effect, but amplified.

Weirdly, I almost think football might be the destination for the kids whose parents don't want their young lives consumed by youth sports. It is less skill-intensive than sports like soccer, basketball, or baseball, and more dependent on raw athletic tools and toughness. A good athlete could come to it late and still be successful (see Kaevon Merriweather, Alaric Jackson, Tom Brady, etc.). Also, if participation dwindles, those coaches will be more than happy to develop kids as "projects."

And while some of the kids getting left out of the youth-sports complex will be those fed up with the silliness of the system, many will probably be those that simply cannot afford it. Football might be the easiest sport for these kids to break into as they get older. Football could become a sport almost exclusively for the lowest socioeconomic rungs, like boxing (I think @HawkGold has made this prediction).

 

[kameltoez102]

Here in the twin cities it is getting frustrating. I have been coaching now for over 6 years and our youth program 3-8th grades has been relatively flat for numbers which is good compared to a lot of of our surrounding communities which are either folding or drastically reduced in numbers. The thing that is really strange up here is the baseball and hockey players are pressured to play weekend tournaments etc during football season. They schedule these tournaments on purpose and it really hurts the numbers and puts the pressure on the kids to specialize.

There is also a very large cultural issue going on with kids not going out for sports, quitting, or just not being eligible. Our varsity team was pretty competitive a few years ago in class 4A up here ended up 9-3 for the season. Now they are lucky if they have 50 kids out this year and win 2 games. Last year they had a freshman squad game where it was at home in good weather and we had two (that's right 2) parents show up to the game. We didn't even have enough fans to support the chain gang.

I have told our players that if they are really serious about playing football there will be opportunities to play at the next level because football will not go away and the amount of players is going down. It is sad the importance of sports is anymore to some of these communities and kids. Growing up in small town Iowa that was the thing to do and support and I think it reflects a lot on where we are as a society as well.

 

[Loftis]

After reading this thread I remember my school days when we used to play football and I was one of the best midfielders of my team. But now everything has been forgotten and now I have so much burden of my studies. Now, I am busy with my work of assignment work and I did not know any writing service in NZ. But thanks to my friend who introduce me to www.Essaywriting.Net.Nz where I can pay someone to do my assignment and I liked their service so much as I never experienced this type of service in New york also. If you are a student then you should try it for the best results.

 

[Fryowa]

Better start that $1000/year travel team by the time they are 10, otherwise they will be left behind!

Try $5,000-6,000 a year bare minimum for the AAU and USSSA people.

With team fees, equipment/uniform fees, tournament fees, “recommended” camp fees, “recommended” donations, gas, hotels, food, “volunteer” hours, you’re easily at five large per year, per kid. Some parents go waaaaaaay over that, especially the ones who fly.

99.99% of AAU participation is for parents trying to make up for their own childhoods and thinking they can (and should) buy skill sets for their kids. “If we just make one more camp, Jimmy will get that full ride to Upper Poughkeepsie Area Poly Tech’s D-3 Team...”

There is admittedly an infinitesimally small number of kids who are both genetically gifted and talented who will benefit from long hours at camps and entire summers spent under mom and dad’s whip on the road playing tournaments. Some of those kids will reach D-1 scholarship level. The remaining .01% are parents who’ve been buffaloed.

How does that happen, you ask? It’s simple...

Youth club sports are the AdvoCare of basketball/volleyball/baseball/wrestling. They’re guilt-driven Ponzi schemes. There are two main parts to youth club teams—the owners who are in it because they “love the game and this is a way I can stay involved” (lol), and the semi-washed up former D-2 or NAIA college player coaches. They stand to make a metric shit ton of money from you, and through huge pressure and a heavy dose of guilt trips, they’ll get it. They’ll shovel as much manure in your mouth as it takes to get you to fork over the fees.

My town’s assistant varsity baseball coach has a son in 7th grade on a Sioux City AAU team, and frankly the kid is terrible at basketball. Which is very ok. But for years now they make the 180 mile round trip to Sioux City three times a week and god knows how many weekend tourneys all over the Midwest. The kid has yet to see the floor in a tournament and gets to play in “B” games that don’t count after the actual league games on weekends. He’s always telling us how it’s camp this and clinic that until hopefully he turns the corner. His coach keeps telling his dad to “stick it out.” Because he’s “close.”

Again there are 1 or 2 out of a thousand who will possibly benefit financially or otherwise from youth club sports. But for those of you with kids in AAU/USSSA, the odds monumentally say that the $50,000-60,000 you’ve forked over has been for your benefit, not the youngster you’ve robbed of their time smelling the roses as a kid. No matter what Bernie Madoff—I mean “Coach” tells you. I know you’re going to beat me up over this post and tell me it’s 100% for your kids’ love of the game, but that’s exactly what you’ve been brainwashed by Coach to think. Now get that checkbook out.

 

[kameltoez102]

Try $5,000-6,000 a year bare minimum for the AAU and USSSA people.

With team fees, equipment/uniform fees, tournament fees, “recommended” camp fees, “recommended” donations, gas, hotels, food, “volunteer” hours, you’re easily at five large per year, per kid. Some parents go waaaaaaay over that, especially the ones who fly.

99.99% of AAU participation is for parents trying to make up for their own childhoods and thinking they can (and should) buy skill sets for their kids. “If we just make one more camp, Jimmy will get that full ride to Upper Poughkeepsie Area Poly Tech’s D-3 Team...”

There is admittedly an infinitesimally small number of kids who are both genetically gifted and talented who will benefit from long hours at camps and entire summers spent under mom and dad’s whip on the road playing tournaments. Some of those kids will reach D-1 scholarship level. The remaining .01% are parents who’ve been buffaloed.

How does that happen, you ask? It’s simple...

Youth club sports are the AdvoCare of basketball/volleyball/baseball/wrestling. They’re guilt-driven Ponzi schemes. There are two main parts to youth club teams—the owners who are in it because they “love the game and this is a way I can stay involved” (lol), and the semi-washed up former D-2 or NAIA college player coaches. They stand to make a metric shit ton of money from you, and through huge pressure and a heavy dose of guilt trips, they’ll get it. They’ll shovel as much manure in your mouth as it takes to get you to fork over the fees.

My town’s assistant varsity baseball coach has a son in 7th grade on a Sioux City AAU team, and frankly the kid is terrible at basketball. Which is very ok. But for years now they make the 180 mile round trip to Sioux City three times a week and god knows how many weekend tourneys all over the Midwest. The kid has yet to see the floor in a tournament and gets to play in “B” games that don’t count after the actual league games on weekends. He’s always telling us how it’s camp this and clinic that until hopefully he turns the corner. His coach keeps telling his dad to “stick it out.” Because he’s “close.”

Again there are 1 or 2 out of a thousand who will possibly benefit financially or otherwise from youth club sports. But for those of you with kids in AAU/USSSA, the odds monumentally say that the $50,000-60,000 you’ve forked over has been for your benefit, not the youngster you’ve robbed of their time smelling the roses as a kid. No matter what Bernie Madoff—I mean “Coach” tells you. I know you’re going to beat me up over this post and tell me it’s 100% for your kids’ love of the game, but that’s exactly what you’ve been brainwashed by Coach to think. Now get that checkbook out.

I have seen the same thing myself as my daughter is involved in club softball which travels throughout the Midwest states and as far as California. She is an above average player and will not play D1 unless something major changes and I am perfectly fine with that and so is she. I have seen firsthand the craziness involved with [parents, coaches, tournament organizers, etc. My wife and I stay out of the drama as much as possible because this is my daughters journey not ours, but we really enjoy watching the game as well.

The thing I want to add from my perspective is I am okay with paying the extra money knowing that she really enjoys playing the game, which she does all year round as her only sport. She is actively involved in several bands in high school and gets good grades. She has met some good friends and had some good experience and because she is busy with it she has stayed out of trouble and runs with a good crowd. So I see it as we either pay money here or pay money doing something different to keep her active and out of trouble.

You take the bad with the good but I have seen it as well on the youth football side where it is 100% not for the kids and a giant money grab in some of these traveling football teams. You really have to find a situation that fits your kids needs and your family lifestyle. My son's league travels in the twin cities but that is it and would be similar to the teams he will play in high school and not any farther than what I did when I played middle school football in Iowa. No way I would ever be involved in traveling all over the country like we do with softball for football as our experience in both has been so much different from many aspects with the only constant is there are always the crazies.

 

[Fryowa]

I have seen the same thing myself as my daughter is involved in club softball which travels throughout the Midwest states and as far as California. She is an above average player and will not play D1 unless something major changes and I am perfectly fine with that and so is she. I have seen firsthand the craziness involved with [parents, coaches, tournament organizers, etc. My wife and I stay out of the drama as much as possible because this is my daughters journey not ours, but we really enjoy watching the game as well.

The thing I want to add from my perspective is I am okay with paying the extra money knowing that she really enjoys playing the game, which she does all year round as her only sport. She is actively involved in several bands in high school and gets good grades. She has met some good friends and had some good experience and because she is busy with it she has stayed out of trouble and runs with a good crowd. So I see it as we either pay money here or pay money doing something different to keep her active and out of trouble.

You take the bad with the good but I have seen it as well on the youth football side where it is 100% not for the kids and a giant money grab in some of these traveling football teams. You really have to find a situation that fits your kids needs and your family lifestyle. My son's league travels in the twin cities but that is it and would be similar to the teams he will play in high school and not any farther than what I did when I played middle school football in Iowa. No way I would ever be involved in traveling all over the country like we do with softball for football as our experience in both has been so much different from many aspects with the only constant is there are always the crazies.

If you feel like it works for you guys that’s great. My experience has been with coaching USSSA level, and unfortunately volunteering to help friends at the organizational level in AAU basketball and amateur wrestling events. Never again.

The amount of pond scum associated with youth club sports is just so much higher proportionally compared to decent parents/coaches that I really believe it’s a net negative to kids and sports in general. I’ve seen fist fights, kids get verbally abused in front of crowds (I’m talking stuff that would make Lenny Bruce blush) by parents who weigh 325, smoke, and have never stepped on an athletic field, kids literally bawling in dugouts and in locker rooms because of mom and dad...Kids have approached me in private after practice and say they don’t like playing club ball. I relay that to parents and the response has 100% been that the parents make them keep going because they’re just “down,” and that they’re “not quitting after we’ve spent all this money...”

It’s a horrible fucking industry (that’s exactly what it is, an industry), and I’m sorry, it needs to go away. It isn’t worth the happy 2% for the shitty, vile examples that parents and coaches are setting for the other 98% of kids, Organizers and parents have two goals in almost all cases. 1) they want to make money, and 2) they were shit athletes when they were young and want to live vicariously through their own kids (who are the ones who suffer). It’s funny, really, in all my time coaching and officiating I’ve met and gotten to know many great parents, and lots of them I knew from high school/college sports when we were younger. You know what? Those parents, the ones who have actually been there and had success, played the sport...you don’t hear a fucking peep out of ‘em. Not a whisper. They know what kids are going through and they don’t have some stupid insecure hole to fill because they didn’t make the varsity team when their fat asses were in high school.

I’ll just say it, amateur youth sports beyond the regional level is nothing more than a human version of a puppy mill. Are there some feel good stories? Every once in a great while. But it chews most of these kids up and they come out of it feeling worse about themselves, resenting their parents, and with a whole lot less self confidence than they had going in.

College and professional sports existed without it, and it will would still exist if it went away. Which hopefully will happen someday.

 

[kameltoez102]

If you feel like it works for you guys that’s great. My experience has been with coaching USSSA level, and unfortunately volunteering to help friends at the organizational level in AAU basketball and amateur wrestling events. Never again.

The amount of pond scum associated with youth club sports is just so much higher proportionally compared to decent parents/coaches that I really believe it’s a net negative to kids and sports in general. I’ve seen fist fights, kids get verbally abused in front of crowds (I’m talking stuff that would make Lenny Bruce blush) by parents who weigh 325, smoke, and have never stepped on an athletic field, kids literally bawling in dugouts and in locker rooms because of mom and dad...Kids have approached me in private after practice and say they don’t like playing club ball. I relay that to parents and the response has 100% been that the parents make them keep going because they’re just “down,” and that they’re “not quitting after we’ve spent all this money...”

It’s a horrible fucking industry (that’s exactly what it is, an industry), and I’m sorry, it needs to go away. It isn’t worth the happy 2% for the shitty, vile examples that parents and coaches are setting for the other 98% of kids, Organizers and parents have two goals in almost all cases. 1) they want to make money, or 2) they were shit athletes when they were young and want to live vicariously through their own kids (who are the ones who suffer.

I’ll just say it, amateur youth sports beyond the regional level is nothing more than a human version of a puppy mill. Are there some feel good stories? Every once in a great while. But it chews most of these kids up and they come out of it feeling worse about themselves, resenting their parents, and with a whole lot less self confidence than they had going in.

College and professional sports existed without it, and it will would still exist if it went away. Which hopefully will happen.

I forgot to mention one interesting fact that both my wife and I have noticed is most teams that my daughter has played that are coached by parents have this negative vibe associated with them. It is much more common in our experience for kids to be berated, officials yelled at, and more vocal crowds when the coaches are parents of the kids.

That was one of the big draws for our situation as opposed to playing within the city type league. Most city leagues that we were involved with did not want to pay the money to bring in actual coaches but in fact had mom or dads or other volunteers do it that had very little experience coaching or didn't see the big picture about developing kids and teaching them the correct way to play, it was just always about winning.

Fortunately for us our situation has worked for us where the organization she is involved with has coaches and student coaches that have coached/played or are playing at the division 1 ,2 and 3 level with the owner of the company being a former all-American and NCAA champion at the D1 level.

While we do not always agree with everything they do the atmosphere and parents has been good and in my opinion they are going about things the right way especially towards the younger kids. Unfortunately for most situations it is all about the money and or the kids not being involved in the situation and being forced to play whether because of living through their kids or a status symbol.

 

[CP87]

It’s funny, really, in all my time coaching and officiating I’ve met and gotten to know many great parents, and lots of them I knew from high school/college sports when we were younger. You know what? Those parents, the ones who have actually been there and had success, played the sport...you don’t hear a fucking peep out of ‘em. Not a whisper. They know what kids are going through and they don’t have some stupid insecure hole to fill because they didn’t make the varsity team when their fat asses were in high school.

My wife and I (both of us have coached) talk about this all the time. We always used the Kittles as an example. My wife coached at West High when Emma was playing, and Bruce (former Iowa FB captain) and Jan (all-American BB player at Drake AND a softball player there) were incredibly supportive and engaged in their kids' sports. But they never needed to have "the talk" with coaches about why Emma wasn't getting enough touches. Those teams seemed to have lots of parent-drama swirling about them, but none of it ever came from them.

 

[Fryowa]

I forgot to mention one interesting fact that both my wife and I have noticed is most teams that my daughter has played that are coached by parents have this negative vibe associated with them. It is much more common in our experience for kids to be berated, officials yelled at, and more vocal crowds when the coaches are parents of the kids.

That was one of the big draws for our situation as opposed to playing within the city type league. Most city leagues that we were involved with did not want to pay the money to bring in actual coaches but in fact had mom or dads or other volunteers do it that had very little experience coaching or didn't see the big picture about developing kids and teaching them the correct way to play, it was just always about winning.

Fortunately for us our situation has worked for us where the organization she is involved with has coaches and student coaches that have coached/played or are playing at the division 1 ,2 and 3 level with the owner of the company being a former all-American and NCAA champion at the D1 level.

While we do not always agree with everything they do the atmosphere and parents has been good and in my opinion they are going about things the right way especially towards the younger kids. Unfortunately for most situations it is all about the money and or the kids not being involved in the situation and being forced to play whether because of living through their kids or a status symbol.

What worked best for me was a compromise of sorts. I played baseball in college, and never had an interest in coaching at the youth level. When my son hit kindergarten there was no one willing to coach (parent volunteers), so I took it on. It was one of those, "don't know until you try" things and I found out that I loved it way more than the varsity coaching I did at the same time.

Then I started getting involved with USSSA...

Originally it was because I had 10 or 11 kids out of the 22 rec kids who were serious about it and I wanted to give them an opportunity to compete. It didn't take long to start hating that, so what I did was get out of the sanctioned amateur stuff. I had a meeting with the parents and said I'm not bringing teams to regional tournaments under USSSA anymore (Babe Ruth and Little League don't have a presence here), but I'd be 100% willing to take a travel team and enter tournaments unattached. Same practices, same kids, same everything. It went over absolutely great. We could pick and choose where we wanted to play, and avoid the ridiculousness. My son's class had an absolute blast doing that those last 3 years and it was stress-free. To the folks who say it doesn't produce the same amount of talent by doing that, 1) I don't give a F, and 2) yes it does.

This will sound pompous, but I feel that I have a very good gauge of whether a 7th/8th grader has the intangibles to play somewhere after high school. I have two of those right now (we still do unattached stuff separate from school), and whether we continued in sanctioned amateur ball or not, those same two kids would be potential prospects, and none of the others would magically be Mike Trout just by playing on a grueling USSSA circuit. Playing beyond high school is a mix of natural born talent and coaching, not putting your kid through a ridiculous grind of 100 games a year. That just doesn't work (by itself). I'm not Bobby Cox by any stretch, but I'm lucky enough to have been through the ringer a little and know what's needed and expected if you want to keep playing. The difference is that I make it 100% clear that it's voluntary, and I'd love all of those kids just as much if they came to watch instead of play. I run a pretty loose ship organizationally, the only thing I ask is that kids at least commit to the weekends that we sign up for. Since I only have 11, it's pretty tough if two kids quit the day before a tournament. I charge parents tournament entry fees divided by 11. That's it. I even email them my credit card receipt to show them all that I paid out exactly what they gave me. We use our city rec uniforms so we don't have to buy more equipment, and I leave travel 100% up to parents to decide. But we have fun before everything else. I volunteer all of my time which I'm fine with because I also get to coach my son and I won't be doing it anymore once he hits high school. I'll have a plate full going to all of his varsity games and umping the other nights.

Long ridiculous story, but I want to let people who hate the grind of amateur circuits know that it's possible to do without it and still have success if you're willing to put a bunch of time into it. But...the puppy mill is where the money is so it will keep reigning supreme.

 

[Fryowa]

And I genuinely apologize to anyone who has kids playing the amateur circuits if I offended you, I’m going to go under the assumption that anyone here is civil enough to not be an overbearing douche bag to your kids or officials. But I stand by every word I said about it as a whole.

 

[Hawk90]

This is one of my pet peeves; club sports, that and you knuckleheads that blow snow back into the street. I saw club sports destroy the Babe Ruth League in my town, club sports sucking up the best players. You would think kids still developing would have a chance to improve, but not when the average pitcher has trouble getting the ball near the plate.

I grew up in towns that every kid played youth baseball, just about every kid went out for 7th grade football, basketball and wrestling, then those coaches convinced them to go out for track. The benefits of team sports far out way the negative. I can tell which millennials here at work played a team sport, and which didn't. Others, at work have commented on it as well. My kids are all grown now, and they did play some club sports, so yes I am a hypocrite. But I think club sports should be banned, because it leaves too many kids behind that may have developed later. It would be better for schools and the workforce.

 

[HawkGold]

This is one of my pet peeves; club sports, that and you knuckleheads that blow snow back into the street. I saw club sports destroy the Babe Ruth League in my town, club sports sucking up the best players. You would think kids still developing would have a chance to improve, but not when the average pitcher has trouble getting the ball near the plate.

I grew up in towns that every kid played youth baseball, just about every kid went out for 7th grade football, basketball and wrestling, then those coaches convinced them to go out for track. The benefits of team sports far out way the negative. I can tell which millennials here at work played a team sport, and which didn't. Others, at work have commented on it as well. My kids are all grown now, and they did play some club sports, so yes I am a hypocrite. But I think club sports should be banned, because it leaves too many kids behind that may have developed later. It would be better for schools and the workforce.

At a glance I would say that. However, if a kid is that good AND has the personality to do it because they are good and absolutely love it, they will almost everytime find a way. the kids that are better, but don't have that personality won't fight through. So in the end it doesn't matter almost all the time.

 

[Robowe]

And I genuinely apologize to anyone who has kids playing the amateur circuits if I offended you, I’m going to go under the assumption that anyone here is civil enough to not be an overbearing douche bag to your kids or officials. But I stand by every word I said about it as a whole.

You made some good points with I agree with. I always found it funny that both of my kids played club sports but also participated in school music programs (orchestra and band). The groups of parents can look similar, but act totally differently. I have seen parents yell things at games or take their kids' home during a game/tournament in which they didn't think the kid was being treated fairly/properly. I have never seen a music parent do the same with a kid who wasn't being treated fairly/properly at a concert or competition. And, don't let the difference between sports and other types of programs fool you - they are both competitive, but it plays out in a different manner.

I find the difference fascinating, but you touched on the points that matter - frustrated parents trying to live their dreams through their kids. Why does it seem to happen more in sports than in the other types of programs like music or educational opportunities? As usual, it comes down to one thing ... greed/money.