Howe: Complicated Logistics in Navigating Roster without Fall Football

Just don't see the issue. People graduated after spending thousands and devoting their lives to learning...a few with honors from tough programs academically during and following the great recession and stats show as a group they've never fully recovered. Life is life. Its messy and unfair. Being born in certain years makes a big impact. Tens of thousand of young men born in 1924 didnt see 1946. 1955 was great year to be born financially. 1987 sucked. 1961 was terrible financially graduating into back to back recessions as the end of the baby boomer saw reality.

Not the end of the world.
 
Agree. It's not the end of the world. And I'm not screaming from the mountain tops. It's a tough time for everybody.

I think the athletic departments can make concessions to do right by unpaid labor that makes it millions and give them the best possible chance to succeed after college.
 
Just don't see the issue. People graduated after spending thousands and devoting their lives to learning...a few with honors from tough programs academically during and following the great recession and stats show as a group they've never fully recovered. Life is life. Its messy and unfair. Being born in certain years makes a big impact. Tens of thousand of young men born in 1924 didnt see 1946. 1955 was great year to be born financially. 1987 sucked. 1961 was terrible financially graduating into back to back recessions as the end of the baby boomer saw reality.

Not the end of the world.
I can see your point to an extent. This country hasn't had to deal with a level of adversity that demanded real sacrifice in three generations. And it shows.

When our country came calling in World War 2, some of our biggest name athletes made the sacrifice, and put their lives on the line. A lesser amount also did for VietNam, but a larger, more vocal group refused.

Now you are asking people, and fans, to go without college football for a year and I guarantee there will be those who won't know how to handle it. And a big reason for that is selfishness, and not knowing how or being unwilling to sacrifice.
 
Its terrible whats happening. In the end it could tear us apart or make it better.
It could be the beginning of the dystopia that books, movies, and sci-fi albums have been predicting since George Orwell and Ayn Rand. The collapse of capitalism would be the first step. People like Jonathan E (Rollerball) Tris Pryor (Divergent) Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games) and Robert Kilroy (Styx Character) were seen as dangerous people be cause they gave hope to a new repressed and obedient society to think as individuals that government officials believe led to all previous uprisings in the first place.
 
Agree with the possibilities. My first experience was watching Ukraine tear itself apart upfront and personal. I was traveling there a lot during uprisings.

Don't see it as the fall of capitalism. Just the opposite in some ways. The real Soviet leaders were quite capitalistic and became rich and filthier during and after the collapse.

I do believe the pandemic is real but used.

With automation and a i, fewer workers will be needed. Thus the need for subsistence income and lowering lifespans. Already new generations are living less long.
 
Now you are asking people, and fans, to go without college football for a year and I guarantee there will be those who won't know how to handle it. And a big reason for that is selfishness, and not knowing how or being unwilling to sacrifice.
I get the sentiment, but everyone is completely losing all perspective over this lol.

It's a game. Played by kids. 99.99% of whom will not make a permanent living from it. Middle aged fat dudes everywhere losing their goddamn minds because they don't get to watch kids a third of their age try to run 10 yards with a ball for chrissakes. I love sports and I love watching them with my kid, I really do. But I'll be ok and I'll move on until it comes back.

High school sports are also just games. Yes, it sucks that kids who like sports don't get to play them. They will still survive to be functional members of society. They won't die or become homeless or destitute because they didn't get to play their game for a year potentially. If anything it's a lesson for young people that sometimes life comes at you hard and fast and it doesn't care what age, race, or gender you are. Shit is going to happen in your life that you don't like and can't do anything about. Little Brayden and Peyton and Hailey ain't gonna keel over because they didn't get to play football or basketball or volleyball for a season. They'll be ok. Chances are that the parents most pissed off by their kids not being able to play sports are the ones who want it more than their kids do. I saw it first-hand with MS baseball getting cancelled in Iowa this year. It's wrong.

Perspective, folks...Per--spec--tive.

The best thing people can do for their kids is teach them to not take sports (or any vicariously parent forced activity) so goddamn seriously. Instead of filling their entire adolescent lives up with camps and AAU and travel ball and agility sessions and clinics and hotels and tournaments and morning weights and afternoon open gyms and Saturday BP, sit down and talk to em with no phones in the room. Find out what they like. Do something with them instead of hauling them in your SUV to their next sport that you care more about anyway. Find a hobby together. Learn to fish. Go camping. Do a project together. Work on your house or yard together and learn something about your kid. Workout or run or lift weights with your kid (without making it about sports). Just f'ing hang out together. If they refuse to do any of that then those parents should probably question whether or not they've failed at parenting.
 
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I also use- perspective- a lot as a buzz word. Mass media and gobs of true/untrue/misconstrued information dumped in our laps. However, with the issue of us old guys complaining, there is the additional angle. You only have so many opportunities in life and if you are a player it can really put a wrench in your school/sports/life plans.

The virus isn't going away anytime soon. The numbers don't really support the extreme caution. At some point, we need to live life and accept the consequences. Short of filtering oxygen into a human sized bubble and rolling around, there is always a chance of getting the virus. Put safety protocols in place in sports just like with the public wearing masks. Lets move on.
 
I get the sentiment, but everyone is completely losing all perspective over this lol.

It's a game. Played by kids. 99.99% of whom will not make a permanent living from it. Middle aged fat dudes everywhere losing their goddamn minds because they don't get to watch kids a third of their age try to run 10 yards with a ball for chrissakes. I love sports and I love watching them with my kid, I really do. But I'll be ok and I'll move on until it comes back.

High school sports are also just games. Yes, it sucks that kids who like sports don't get to play them. They will still survive to be functional members of society. They won't die or become homeless or destitute because they didn't get to play their game for a year potentially. If anything it's a lesson for young people that sometimes life comes at you hard and fast and it doesn't care what age, race, or gender you are. Shit is going to happen in your life that you don't like and can't do anything about. Little Brayden and Peyton and Hailey ain't gonna keel over because they didn't get to play football or basketball or volleyball for a season. They'll be ok. Chances are that the parents most pissed off by their kids not being able to play sports are the ones who want it more than their kids do. I saw it first-hand with MS baseball getting cancelled in Iowa this year. It's wrong.

Perspective, folks...Per--spec--tive.

The best thing people can do for their kids is teach them to not take sports (or any vicariously parent forced activity) so goddamn seriously. Instead of filling their entire adolescent lives up with camps and AAU and travel ball and agility sessions and clinics and hotels and tournaments and morning weights and afternoon open gyms and Saturday BP, sit down and talk to em with no phones in the room. Find out what they like. Do something with them instead of hauling them in your SUV to their next sport that you care more about anyway. Find a hobby together. Learn to fish. Go camping. Do a project together. Work on your house or yard together and learn something about your kid. Workout or run or lift weights with your kid (without making it about sports). Just f'ing hang out together. If they refuse to do any of that then those parents should probably question whether or not they've failed at parenting.
My kid has found a non sports interest.

Girls.

I could sense some overkill in eighth grade when he got tired of traveling 75 minutes to Verona or Stoughton for AAU practice(usually after a track meet and always after a full day of school).

When he said he didn't want to play for a Madison based AAU team anymore I didn't even stand in his way. I did make sure he was keeping himself occupied and was limiting screen and social media time.

I see kids burn out on sports by the time they get to high school all the time, much to the chagrin of some of the parents. For starters, kids should take a three month break, minimum, from all travelling sports teams. Athletes at our school usually take off August and September, longer if they are playing football. They should take a longer break even if they aren't playing football. Their bodies are still growing, and too much of too much can lead to injuries, both short and long term.
 
My son bailed on club soccer in 8th grade right around when he became in climate change activism.

Middle daughter still plays club volleyball at 13 but I can tell she’s doing it to be with friends more than love of the sport.

The youngest plays basketball because I help Kyle Galloway coach the team. Our youngest are the same age. She’s good at volleyball as well but doesn’t want to play club. My wife wants her to try. I don’t want to push her.

I’ve always given them space to play because they enjoy it and to stop when they want.
 
Middle daughter still plays club volleyball at 13 but I can tell she’s doing it to be with friends more than love of the sport.
This is a great point that I don’t think a lot of parents consider. Some kids go out for a particular sport to be with friends and that’s totally ok. My son sucks at wrestling but he does it because his best friends all wrestle. We don’t try and push him at all. When he stops having fun he’ll give it up.
 
My son bailed on club soccer in 8th grade right around when he became in climate change activism.

Middle daughter still plays club volleyball at 13 but I can tell she’s doing it to be with friends more than love of the sport.

The youngest plays basketball because I help Kyle Galloway coach the team. Our youngest are the same age. She’s good at volleyball as well but doesn’t want to play club. My wife wants her to try. I don’t want to push her.

I’ve always given them space to play because they enjoy it and to stop when they want.

Little piece of advice, bud. Buy a rowing machine for those girls. Assuming football doesn't go totally tits up and rowing is still used to offset it for Title IX, if your daughters have backs as wide as Brock Lesnar's by the time they are 18, they can get a scholarship nearly anywhere. Don't skip leg day, either. They need big quads as well.
 
Little piece of advice, bud. Buy a rowing machine for those girls. Assuming football doesn't go totally tits up and rowing is still used to offset it for Title IX, if your daughters have backs as wide as Brock Lesnar's by the time they are 18, they can get a scholarship nearly anywhere. Don't skip leg day, either. They need big quads as well.

I didn't realize you had to actually row to get a rowing scholarship. I spend way too much time paying attention to what's currently trending at USC. So there are athletes that actually row... who saw that coming?
 
I didn't realize you had to actually row to get a rowing scholarship. I spend way too much time paying attention to what's currently trending at USC. So there are athletes that actually row... who saw that coming?

No, you don't have to row. Most don't. They are recruited solely on potential, but if Rob's daughters are built like a brick shithouse, that will show potential and get them picked up by a team.
 
I do not have kids so take it fwiw. It seems sooooo competitive now. If your kid isn't doing x,y or z, he or she is falling behind the other kids, not just athletically, but academically as well. In theory I agree with what @Fryowa is saying a 1000%, but how practical is that raising kids today?

I grew up in an era if you were not from a affluent family you got a part-time gig in high school or you got a summer job working those 3 or 4 months. If I were raising a kid now, unless it was volunteer work, my kid wouldn't be working. Here is a low mileage Honda Accord or Toyota Corrolla, give'em gas money, drive the shit the out of it. My point is how do you push your kids without being a overbearing maniac?
 
Not sure how many, but members of the Iowa rowing team are participating in the sport for the first time ever when they get here. There's not a big pool of high school rowers from which to choose.
 
I do not have kids so take it fwiw. It seems sooooo competitive now. If your kid isn't doing x,y or z, he or she is falling behind the other kids, not just athletically, but academically as well. In theory I agree with what @Fryowa is saying a 1000%, but how practical is that raising kids today?

I grew up in an era if you were not from a affluent family you got a part-time gig in high school or you got a summer job working those 3 or 4 months. If I were raising a kid now, unless it was volunteer work, my kid wouldn't be working. Here is a low mileage Honda Accord or Toyota Corrolla, give'em gas money, drive the shit the out of it. My point is how do you push your kids without being a overbearing maniac?
It's very practical. Keep in mind that of the millions of kids playing sports in the US only a very, very tiny fraction of them will play beyond high school. And an even tinier fraction of those will play beyond college. I've been around youth sports long enough at both the parent and coaching level to know that in the vast majority of cases where a kid is playing at a club level such as AAU, USSSA, legion ball, etc, the parents are pushing it because it's a "my kid is just as good or better than your kid and I'm going to vicariously make up for my own shortcomings whether my kid likes it or not " contest. There are definitely cases where a kid is really, really talented and benefits from the increased level of competition and a rigorous schedule for their development. But again, in most situations it's a parent or parents who have decided that they're going to try to buy their kid a bunch of talent by spending tens of thousands on camps, fees, clinics, and hotels which is impossible. At the top level there is no amount of training or practice that's going to make your kid a college athlete. None. They were either born with that potential or they weren't.

Amateur club level youth stuff was intended as an organized recreational opportunity for kids to play sports when it started. But it's nothing more than a machine where parents throw GOBS of money at it hoping their kid is the next Mike Trout or Zion WIlliams, but the gamble almost never pays off. It just burns kids out and makes it a job that they hate (yes, moms and dads, no matter what you say your kid likely hates the AAU grind but they won't tell you because you want it more than them) instead of a fun sport that they can enjoy.

So in that respect it's very practical to raise a kid by not pressuring them into playing a sport if they don't want to. Statistically your kid isn't that one in a million unicorn player that you think he is and no amount of parent-pressured club sports is gonna change that.

It's very practical for them to have a part time job if they don't play sports or participate in other extra-curricular activities. Working and earning money can be a very valuable experience before going into the workforce.
 

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