[PHSForever]

Ive thought about this a million times and even discussed it on here a million times.
I know Whitley has had some GREAT middle school teams. Even going undefeated for 5 or 6 straight years and beating teams like Bell County and so on but when they get to high school they lose to Bell.
From the way ive got it figured, youve got 8th grade teams at Whitley over the years who have dressed close to 60-70 players. All of the kids from 6 different elementary school join up with each other and dominate. The biggest thing is, its not as serious and its FUN for the kids.
You can almost guarantee that by the time freshman year comes, that number will be cut in half atleast. A lot of kids are scared or dont think they can play at the high school level so they just dont bother. so when you cut that number in half every year they go threw high school, you end up having 7 or 8 seniors.
To make this work i fully believe you have to have a coach thats not content with the old way style of coaching and the "hard ass" approach to football like it use to be. Dont get me wrong, i love are coach, but i fully believe that in the near future, young energetic coaches will be the only way to go. If i was a new coach the very first day of school id walk in and say i need to see all boys in the school for 20 minutes in the gym. Then when i got them in there id say anybody who wants to play, come out. Nobody is going to bother you. If its not for you, fine go on home, nothing will be said. If you like it, heck we might come up with a pretty good football team and more importantly a good start to building a PROGRAM.

I'm of the same opinion somewhat. My thoughts are:

1) TEACH THE BASICS OF FOOTBALL TO ALL THE PLAYERS FROM 3rd/4th GRADE ON.
2) Dont' settle on 11-15 players whom are your best and the heck with the rest of the team, develop 'em all, play 'em all
3) By junior high, they should have strong fundamentals and know base offense and defense of the high school program
4) Junior high starts seperating them a little based on talent, but not always, so keep playing as many as you can, try them on both sides of the ball and at different positions, coaches' job is to win, yes, but also put kids in best position to succeed and contribute
5) MAKE IT FUN while young and develop a camraderie. That's what happened with Pikeville's magical run in the 80's, those kids grew up playing together and having fun.
6) High school, junior high, and elementary/little league coaches should talk and pick each other's brains.

I was watching the 5th/6th grade here practice the other night. I've had my concerns about some coaching, but, for the first time, I noticed some of the junior high players out there giving little tips here and there and watching the younger players. Good to see that, and good to see the coaches didn't seem bothered by this. Continuity is the key. Heck, my own son pals around with the high school player who wears the same number, and he has been a GREAT example for my son, talking to him about being aggressive but also playing within the rules and enjoying the game. That goes a long way.