Is your Spring Ball a Success?

The KHSAA, unlike many other states' athletic associations, allows for the participation in spring football and a scrimmage if you deem it appropriate. Many schools use this opportunity that we are fortunate enough to have. Some use this opportunity as a way to preview next seasons team or host a spring game as a fundraiser.

At the close of our spring practice, as I begin to evaluate what we did and did not accomplish, I question, "Was our spring ball a success?"

A little background: Our squad is about 44 guys annually, 10-12 in each class. Spring ball is only current grades 9-11, so we only have a maximum of around 30-36 kids that could participate. Due to spring sports and those usual turds that think they can skip out on off-season workouts, we only get 2/3 of our kids on a given day. We gave out 31 sets of pads this spring, but had attendance that ranged 25 on the high end and 17(!) on the low end. Not to mention the kids we lose to spring sports are usually our athletes and not our big guys. A spring game is out of the question for us. We will have to repeat everything we installed at the same pace if not slower for the rookies. We only got 8/10 practices in due to weather.

Still, it was successful because we got to run around with pads on and the ones that were there every day got better every day. It was also easy to see what we needed work on and what would work itself out with reps.

How was yours? Do you do spring ball? Do you use this time differently if you are a small school? Big School? What are your alternatives? Thanks!