This question comes from one of our podcast episodes... there is absolutely NOTHING on the horizon like this coming from the KHSAA. But, former OHS Coach, Jay Fallin, had an interesting idea. Shorten the season to 9 games. Start practices and conditioning later in the summer. He thought doing so could increase participation numbers.... especially for the incoming freshmen. Do you agree or disagree with Coach Fallin's idea?

 

 

1 hour ago, ChiefSmoke said:

This question comes from one of our podcast episodes... there is absolutely NOTHING on the horizon like this coming from the KHSAA. But, former OHS Coach, Jay Fallin, had an interesting idea. Shorten the season to 9 games. Start practices and conditioning later in the summer. He thought doing so could increase participation numbers.... especially for the incoming freshmen. Do you agree or disagree with Coach Fallin's idea?

 

 

100% agree

And not necessarily bc of the heat, because it’s cooking in August, even into September as much or more than it is in July.

But due to most school districts having now switched to their school start dates to in and around the first week of August for the last 20 years or so?  You’d see a lot less transportation issues for the many of the programs across the state.

And let me just go ahead and get out in front of this for the ones against a later start for worry that kids in our state will miss out on “development” with a later start date compared to the Georgia, California,  Florida and Texas’ of the world.

**Newsflash**
 

We don’t & won’t EVER have the copious amount of raw DUDES those states have.  It’s not anywhere near as much a development thing as it is DNA & numbers thing-  by a disproportionate amount.
 

Kentucky HS Football trying to measure up to those states would be about like expecting Miami (OH) to catch up with Miami (FL) on a regular basis.

….ain’t happening (pre transfer portal for sure wasn’t).
 

And, this goes without saying the fact that colleges at practically every level don’t start practice until around that August 1 mark, with a Labor Day weekend opening game. Even better? The highest level of our game in the world? It doesn’t open until the SECOND weekend of September.

Meanwhile…high school football here & and several other states? Nah.

 “Boys of Fall”? More like “Boys of Summer”.

Makes total sense. (No sarcasm there whatsoever, nope, none.)

One or two weeks will make little to no difference in the heat department. August and even early  September can be as hot or hotter than July and typically are. 

As far as getting more freshmen out, some schools do a great job of recruiting their middle school hallways (and not just the middle school team). While some coaches take the attitude, "I'm not going to ask any kid to play for me, they either come to practice or they don't." They hang a flyer up or make one PA Announcement and that's it. 

11 minutes ago, Jumper_Dad said:

One or two weeks will make little to no difference in the heat department. August and even early  September can be as hot or hotter than July and typically are. 

As far as getting more freshmen out, some schools do a great job of recruiting their middle school hallways (and not just the midfle school team). While some coaches take the attitude, "I'm not going to ask any kid to play for me, they either come to practice or they don't." They hang a flyer up or make one PA Announcement and that's it. 

This. 

Two weeks will make zero difference in the heat. If kids aren't playing because it's hot, they shouldn't be playing football anyway. 

#Soft

14 hours ago, Calico Jack said:

And let me just go ahead and get out in front of this for the ones against a later start for worry that kids in our state will miss out on “development” with a later start date compared to the Georgia, California,  Florida and Texas’ of the world.

California, Florida, Georgia, and Texas all have later start dates than KY, yes. However, even with the later start dates, they have FAR worse heat issues than KY. Wouldn’t that suggest that heat and participation are quite uncorrelated? 

Removing a week or more of football for a marginal (or likely completely nonexistent) increase in participation seems like a very, very silly thing to do. It would almost certainly be bad for football in the state. Less games and less practices—believe it or not—will lead to less good football. 

“Hey coach I would come out and play, but it’s too hot in July? What do you say we move the first practice to that cool month of August instead?” 

For the record, I’m not for shortening the number of regular season games played.  
 

Actually, I’d like to see it moved to an 11 game regular season + a later start date, and for a revamp of the entire post season.  All of which that would still have things ending the first weekend of December. 
 

But that's for an entirely different topic/thread.

1 hour ago, WishboneCity said:

California, Florida, Georgia, and Texas all have later start dates than KY, yes. However, even with the later start dates, they have FAR worse heat issues than KY. Wouldn’t that suggest that heat and participation are quite uncorrelated? 

Removing a week or more of football for a marginal (or likely completely nonexistent) increase in participation seems like a very, very silly thing to do. It would almost certainly be bad for football in the state. Less games and less practices—believe it or not—will lead to less good football. 

I'm not for backing it up due to heat.  Like I said earlier in that original post- the heat in August and September is every bit as much and even more than it is in July as we all know.

However, do I think starting practice when KY does impacts numbers to a degree at many of our very rural “county” schools due to transportation issues with some families? Absolutely.

When guys worked outside all day, and then you had 2-a-days and 3-a-days, you could handle mid-August games. 

I am not arguing against the rules and restrictions we have in place to keep our kids safe. But, those rules and restrictions are a reflection of how our kids are no longer acclimated to the heat. 

Mid-August games are still the same as 30 - 50 years ago... except played at a much faster pace. But, our bodies and the prep work we are allowed to do are very different from those days. 

We can navigate the prep work by going at 7 am in July and going on Wednesdays at 6 am inseason.  Never having more than two days in a row after school in the heat helps significantly with the fatigue and we can a get a bunch of more quality reps. 

So far, our answer has been to play alot more kids in those early games than we would have in the old days. 

I appreciate everyone's response. And, I agree with what Coach Smith said...if the season is backed up, the other sports need to be adjusted as well. 

 

If pushing the season back to avoid heat to help increase numbers, I say it doesn’t matter. Like as stated before it’s just as hot in September as July. In football a kid is going to come out whether it’s 100 degrees or negative 100 degrees. Football isn’t a sport you just casually play because there is way more negatives to just going through the motions in a violent full contact sport such as this.

Would you guys agree or disagree with this... A later start might help you get more  freshmen, which would give you a chance for them to have a good experience, and eventually keep more of those guys playing?

Of course though, you could say that many of us will take freshmen when school starts.. so that may be the better way to handle that aspect.

I have wondered this before... in the long run, it MIGHT be good if those kids do miss that freshman season, regret it, and then they are more excited and locked in going forward. 

I have let guys come out late for JV/freshmen and regretted it. Have had others come out late, get excited, and really excel the next 2-3 years. 

Any time it is "easy" to be on the football team, taking guys late...even if it is just freshman/JV, I get concerned about that. 

4 minutes ago, ChiefSmoke said:

Would you guys agree or disagree with this... A later start might help you get more  freshmen, which would give you a chance for them to have a good experience, and eventually keep more of those guys playing?

Of course though, you could say that many of us will take freshmen when school starts.. so that may be the better way to handle that aspect.

I have wondered this before... in the long run, it MIGHT be good if those kids do miss that freshman season, regret it, and then they are more excited and locked in going forward. 

I have let guys come out late for JV/freshmen and regretted it. Have had others come out late, get excited, and really excel the next 2-3 years. 

Any time it is "easy" to be on the football team, taking guys late...even if it is just freshman/JV, I get concerned about that. 

Yes on the freshmen.

About positive Jim McKee does this at Scott County and has for almost his entire tenure there.  
 

Those guys don’t come out until the first Monday in/around August 1. Obviously not all programs can do that, though.

@barrel ? Am I right on that or way off and thinking somebody else?

They don’t do anything at all in June. Unless something has changed they really didn’t do spring or like most teams do spring. 
 

I do think they do something different with the freshmen too. 

1 hour ago, barrel said:

They don’t do anything at all in June. Unless something has changed they really didn’t do spring or like most teams do spring. 
 

I do think they do something different with the freshmen too. 

That’s right.  I forgot about no spring practice, like you, unless something has changed recently (the late, great Ty Scroggins and Lou. Central didn’t, either).

Now that you mention “something different” with their (Scott County) freshmen, I’m not so sure they even include them in a full blown “offseason” during the winter and spring months, either. I’m thinking  some kind of modified version where they bring them in on 10-12 specific dates during the spring semester(s) of their 8th grade years.