It will give them a chance, in the class they are now, they do not have that.
This will not ensure that they are going to become a power in the lower class, but it gives them the opportunity that they now do not have.
2022 Iowa High School Football Playoffs
- Thread starter BigJCy
- Start date
This will not ensure that they are going to become a power in the lower class, but it gives them the opportunity that they now do not have.
I would love to agree with you, but I just don't see it happening. Their issues run deeper than playing schools with smaller rosters.
As a reference point Clarke of Oceola......a 2A school in my kids school district that played both 3A Saydel and 4A Perry in football this past season.
They beat 3A Saydel 71-0
They beat 4A Perry 68-9
Saydel finished 0-9 on the year.........Perry 1-8. Who was the school Perry beat.......................Hoover.
And before anyone thinks Clarke was any good.....they weren't. Des Moines Christian beat them 41-14. And DMC finished 3-5.
I love how we’re all here just projecting on HS kids that their hopes and dreams center around wanting to become a power in IA HS football.
You say that but I know a kid who did transfer to Waterloo East so he could play varsity baseball as a Freshman.
I officiated a scrimmage with Saydel and class A colfax mingo who did not win a game, either. Colfax beat up on Saydel.
KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
In my case, it’s not that these high school kids want to become a “power,” but just that they’d like to take the field on Friday nights and not feel like they’re going to be pounded into the turf for nine straight weeks. Give them four or five competitive games where they feel like they have a fighting chance.
I don’t know how to do that. So many of these football programs are just physically and psychically crushed and demoralized … I saw CR Jefferson play a few times last year and this year, and with the transfers and the beat downs and the suspect coaching in 2021 the football team was caught in a spiral of “the team is bad-good athletes won’t go out for the team because it’s bad-the team gets worse-rinse and repeat.” But when they played Davenport Central, you could see they thought they had a shot, they played with intensity, they played hard, and were devastated when they lost in OT. You just want to try to give those programs more games like that.
Is the answer that some of these schools should shut down the football program? Maybe. But it just feels weird if a school like CR Jefferson - one of the biggest high schools in the entire state - just decided not to play anymore. Isn’t there another option?
Judging by the amount of kids I saw at isu wearing their 1a letterman jackets and bragging about being all conference at a school of 300 I'm not sure this is far off.
No one says it will instantly give them more wins, but it won't hurt and its possible that the kids will think it won't be so bad and maybe give it a shot. Many times there are kids in school who don't want to lose and if the team is bad they won't go out. I have seen it where there are some very athletic kids who decide to just play basketball or run track and don't go out for football.
First thing you have to do to build something is to have numbers. Without numbers you will struggle. Any thing to help with that could get a team that has continuous running clock in the second to losing games by 14 in a year or two. Go from being embarrassed to being semi competitive is a big difference.
I got to see CR Jeff play when the played Waterloo West this year and they have a sophomore QB it looked like he was going to be a stud next year if they can keep him from transferring.
The letter jacket wearers usually showed up second semester with their Christmas presents, a new winter coat.
there is 70 8man football teams in Iowa. Another 50ish play in class A.
I can tell you when I go out to these small schools on friday nights these kids are bragging about being all conference.
They're just glad they can get enough kids to field a team to play the game on the field that is basically made of gravel with 2 crooked field goal posts.
And what is crazy, many of those small towns with limited resources could come in to the metro and mop up these 4 and 5A schools.
maybe a few-
most would struggle.
I officiated an 8 man game last season and they had 11 players on the sideline.
Another A school had 21 kids.
Not the bad ones, but the top couple probably could. That is another reason for this. Being from NC Iowa, everyone wanted to play Mason City. They were a 4A (back before 5A) and were very bad. They were getting beat by Clear Lake, a 2A school, and sometimes not tight games.
The 4As had to balance, is it better to get destroyed by other 4As or lose by 10 points to a 2A school. They generally chose to get hammered because losing to a school so much below you was more embarrassing. Drop them down a class and now it's not so embarrassing since it's just a class below and you can schedule those non districts against smaller schools.
Not sure about the last two years. Schools were getting so much Covid money still that we about went into shock this September when we had to pay for our kids meals for the first time since the Covid outbreak. Had been free up to this point for everyone. Not sure if it was just ours or all schools though.
I think that while it's possible we're talking about 3 or 4 2A sized schools that could beat up on 3 or 4 5A sized schools.
I could see CR Jeff, Hempstead or DM Lincoln losing to a 2A team that made the dome but outside of that I'm not buying it.
