Is it better to have 1 middle school feeding your High School team or multiple???

 

Harlan County has 3: New Harlan (which is made up of 5 middleschools), Cumberland, and Evarts.

 

What do you all think and what do you have???

Personally, I would say, you want as many as your numbers will support. If you have one team, you are going to send say 20 players with a great deal of experience to the high school. If you have three teams, you are going to sent 60 players with a great deal of experience to the high school. You want as many experienced players as possible at the high school level.

Personally, I would say, you want as many as your numbers will support. If you have one team, you are going to send say 20 players with a great deal of experience to the high school. If you have three teams, you are going to sent 60 players with a great deal of experience to the high school. You want as many experienced players as possible at the high school level.

 

Well said. I agree totally. :thumb:

Is it better to have 1 middle school feeding your High School team or multiple???

 

Harlan County has 3: New Harlan (which is made up of 5 middleschools), Cumberland, and Evarts.

 

What do you all think and what do you have???

I would even like to see Harlan Co. maybe go back to the 4th team like they had a few years ago. It seems like they use to have the old Cawood feeder schools split up. I believe that would give HC another program to develop players that may not get to play for one large team. I believe the more feeder schools you have the better off your high school program will be.

Personally, I would say, you want as many as your numbers will support. If you have one team, you are going to send say 20 players with a great deal of experience to the high school. If you have three teams, you are going to sent 60 players with a great deal of experience to the high school. You want as many experienced players as possible at the high school level.

 

Totally agree, as long as the feeder teams are mirroring the offense and defense that the High School is running. Not that it has to be exactly the same but if the kids are getting a good foundation and understanding of what the Varsity team is running, they are way ahead of the curve.

In Boone County we don't have middle school football, which I feel hurts kids getting ready to go to the high school level. The problem that we have is a bit different, our pee-wee league, although pretty solid, feeds into four high schools and the kids are not necessarily drafted on to a pee-wee team that may feed into the high school that they will attend. I am very close to one of the county schools and would love to see us have a middle school football program. Sounds like you have a good program and wish you the best of luck!

Totally agree, as long as the feeder teams are mirroring the offense and defense that the High School is running. Not that it has to be exactly the same but if the kids are getting a good foundation and understanding of what the Varsity team is running, they are way ahead of the curve.

In Boone County we don't have middle school football, which I feel hurts kids getting ready to go to the high school level. The problem that we have is a bit different, our pee-wee league, although pretty solid, feeds into four high schools and the kids are not necessarily drafted on to a pee-wee team that may feed into the high school that they will attend. I am very close to one of the county schools and would love to see us have a middle school football program. Sounds like you have a good program and wish you the best of luck!

 

I completely understand where you are coming from. With your youth football program in Boone County feeding four high schools it would be hard to teach an offense and defense to match the coaching style of the coach where they are going to attend. That being said, if you go to a middle school program and it is the only feeder school for your high school, you are back to only developing a limited number of players for each position. There is no way to develop as many players on one team as you can with numerous teams. One of the main problems with the single middle school feeder program is, the middle school wants to win there regular season and tournament. Thus not as many players are developed, you play to win. You run into the same problem when you have a youth program that goes through the sixth grade, then funnels them into a single middle school. For the most part the better coached and more developed players will play for the middle school. Everyone wants to win. It is only human nature. Maybe some should think about having High school specific youth teams there.(disclaimer; I did not go to Highlands or have a child go there, or will not have a child go to Highlands, nor am I a Highlands fan) That being said, Highlands has as good of a system as possible, from my point of view. They have numerous teams competing against each other through the eighth grade. All of which will attend Highlands for the most part. Then each position player from four or five teams competing against each other, for a starting spot as freshman.Which does not include a few players from NKYFL going there as well. As a coach, if I have four or five experienced players at every position coming to me every year, well, I think Highlands goal this year is for their 19th STATE CHAMPIONSHIP. Enough said.

Think about it.

Edited November 2, 200916 yr by dd734
correction

Feeder schools are great BUT this is a different day and age we live in. Kids are not going to set around and wait their turn to play. If you bring in 40 freshman by the time they are Seniors you will have less than 1/2 left and those will be the kids that would play no matter what.

 

So my answer would be feeder schools are great but not the complete reason some schools are sucessful.

I would even like to see Harlan Co. maybe go back to the 4th team like they had a few years ago. It seems like they use to have the old Cawood feeder schools split up. I believe that would give HC another program to develop players that may not get to play for one large team. I believe the more feeder schools you have the better off your high school program will be.

 

 

The New Harlan Patriots used to be Cawood which was Hall and Cawood and West Harlan which were Rosspoint, Wallins, and Green Hills. If you ever see them practice the uniforms from those two teams are their practice uniforms. I can remember when most of the schools in the county had a football team and Loyall was still a school.

 

The one advantange I see to having one team is that they all know each other and mostly like one another. With three teams I can see some kids not getting along because they come from Cumberland, Evarts, and New Harlan. But Coach Larkey has blended our boys together perfectly so far and with him being as involved as he is with our middle schools I'm sure he will continue.

I would even like to see Harlan Co. maybe go back to the 4th team like they had a few years ago. It seems like they use to have the old Cawood feeder schools split up. I believe that would give HC another program to develop players that may not get to play for one large team. I believe the more feeder schools you have the better off your high school program will be.

 

 

 

Who is not getting to play who can? I don't see splitting New Harlan. They don't have that many to begin with.

 

 

We have all these theories, but what's the reality?

How many of these eastern Kentucky schools don't have one 7-8 team?

 

Bell

Knox

Whitley

Letcher

Johnson

Belfry

Leslie

Clay

North Laurel

South Laurel

Perry Central

Is it better to have 1 middle school feeding your High School team or multiple???

 

Harlan County has 3: New Harlan (which is made up of 5 middleschools), Cumberland, and Evarts.

 

What do you all think and what do you have???

 

Not trying to sound sarcastic here, but what would be a scenario for not wanting multiple feeder schools?

Who is not getting to play who can? I don't see splitting New Harlan. They don't have that many to begin with.

 

 

We have all these theories, but what's the reality?

How many of these eastern Kentucky schools don't have one 7-8 team?

 

Bell

Knox

Whitley

Letcher

Johnson

Belfry

Leslie

Clay

North Laurel

South Laurel

Perry Central

I am not saying they should split the team, but give this some thought. If you went back to a fourth team it might encourage more kids to come out and play because this could possibly give you 22 more starting spots. :popcorn: That would give you a total of 88 starting spots for "O" and "D" if my math is correct. Then they can come together on the high school level and compete with each other. That is just some words for thought HDE. Remember, a kid could be average in Junior high and grow into a great player in High School.

Before starting Middle School (1991 I think) Clay County had 8 Grade Schools feeding the freshman programs. Bobby Kieth had 8 point guards trying out for the starting freshman team. Eugene Hensley had 8 quarterbacks competing for the QB1 spot on the freshman squad. The same goes for EVERY position.

 

Now Clay has one Middle School feeding. Our 8th grade football team will have around 23players as well as the 7th. Some of the 7th graders will play on the 8th grade team (whatever it takes to win). Some years the 8th grade QB won't even play football as a freshman and that class has no QB. We can't even field a freshman team!

 

Our participation numbers have steadily dropped since the Middle School opened. Sadly, so has our competitiveness. With one Middle School feeding, we've been weeding players out after the 6th grade. This cannot be good.

 

I know winning is important for Middle School coaches and players, but if I were over the PROGRAM I would consider insisting the MS football coach start 22 players every game and NEVER move a 7th grader up. I would also insist that there be two QB1's that got equal playing time. Does this sound too drastic?

Before starting Middle School (1991 I think) Clay County had 8 Grade Schools feeding the freshman programs. Bobby Kieth had 8 point guards trying out for the starting freshman team. Eugene Hensley had 8 quarterbacks competing for the QB1 spot on the freshman squad. The same goes for EVERY position.

 

Now Clay has one Middle School feeding. Our 8th grade football team will have around 23players as well as the 7th. Some of the 7th graders will play on the 8th grade team (whatever it takes to win). Some years the 8th grade QB won't even play football as a freshman and that class has no QB. We can't even field a freshman team!

 

Our participation numbers have steadily dropped since the Middle School opened. Sadly, so has our competitiveness. With one Middle School feeding, we've been weeding players out after the 6th grade. This cannot be good.

 

I know winning is important for Middle School coaches and players, but if I were over the PROGRAM I would consider insisting the MS football coach start 22 players every game and NEVER move a 7th grader up. I would also insist that there be two QB1's that got equal playing time. Does this sound too drastic?

I agree, the more teams you have grades 5-8 the better the talent will be when they enter high school.:thumb: (Great Post/SKINPIG)

The more middle school teams you have the better off you are. One middle school team will be destruction. I know for a fact. Numbers will drop and by the time they play HS the numbers will get worse. Sounds like the more the merrier.

New Harlan was the worst idea for the overall benefit to the high school; yeah New Harlan sends a message to kids from Evarts and Cumberland that this is our all star middle school and you can join them in 9th grade, especially with the amount of press New Harlan receives.

 

There are tremedous benefits by splitting up New Harlan. First, it levels the playing field for Cumberland and Evarts. Secondly, it makes scheduling much easier for everyone. Lastly, it promotes an increase in football participation because some students and parents do not want to play against the more talented New Harlan.