their free lunch program percentage is 0.37
there are schools below them that could play 8-man but choose to play A football
Iowa High School BEDS count 24-25
- Thread starter qwerty
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their free lunch program percentage is 0.37
there are schools below them that could play 8-man but choose to play A football
Oh great, the "football classes should be based on roster sizes" argument is back.
No, just the 8 man teams who are bigger than a lot of Class A teams, and annually have 35-50 kids on their rosters.
They wouldn't have those numbers if they were having their brains beat in playing 11 man. It's a complete and total chicken/egg argument.
If they qualify for 8 man, they qualify. It's not their fault other schools can't get numbers.
If they qualify for 8 man, they qualify. It's not their fault other schools can't get numbers.
If there are 35 boys in the whole school, and they all want to go out for football, then good for them.
You went from cutting kids is what you were suggesting to now a coach wanting kids to work out and not playing the kids that do, two totally different things.
The thing about sports participation is that in programs that win, the kids want to be part of the success. They are going to go that extra mile, summer workouts, going to camps to get on the field. At schools that are not winning and have little to no success in a sport like the DM metro schools, kids are not going to put in the time and effort without the reward at the end.
Its the same reason schools like BGM are playing 8 man when they could be playing 11 man, they can win more games in 8 man, get into the playoffs and maybe win a championship, which is never going to happen playing 11 man.
Oh, the school just needs to hire a coach to motivate the kids into coming out, that sounds great and easy, but kids today are not going listen. Hell most schools are struggling to hire a coach, and now we are going to hire coaching that are motivators also. Good luck with that.
Any 9th graders that weigh 140 pounds? 50 boys at Garrigan means 75% of all the boys in school go out for football. Or pretty close to that. I would GUESS, Algona High School covers almost as big an area as Garrigan covers.
If you struggle to win in Class A, you will also struggle in 8-man. Might as well get more kids on the field.
Not true at all, I have seen a couple of schools Wayne of Corydon being one that was struggling to win games and get people out in 11 man, switch to 8 man and do very well. SE Warren district would be another, just could not get kids out playing 11 man, but moved to 8 man and have been very successful and getting their numbers up.
don't remember Wayne being 8 man, but they've been A for at least the last 6 years.
There's also the fact that 8 man is much more fun game than your typical class A 11 man game.
Wayne was 8 man for either one or two cycles, then went back to 11 man when they got their numbers up and their BEDS placed them back into 11 man. Their best two players are kids from Seymour that transferred to play at Corydon, after middle school.
had to go back and look further
2012-2018 they were 8 man
7-3
8-4
7-3
8-2
6-3
4-5
in those seasons as 8 man.
Wayne was horrible before they went to 8 man, struggling to win a game, they were hoping that by dropping down they would play smaller schools and get some wins, and build back up their program. Looks like seeing their win total from those years it did work.
It worked.. sorta.
They had 3 winless seasons when they went back up. Probably another adjustment period.
see that quite often in 8 man
Stanton, who once was a pretty good football program in 8 man, has had to cancel games this season.
That was a good start but if you look back at how many schools switched classes in was in the single digits if I remember right. Look at DSM Roosevelt or Lincoln, they've both won a single football game this year but they're in the top 10 schools by BEDS numbers.
I know that no matter what you do there will always be winners and losers but the state needs to do something with those schools. It's a viscous cycle, the teams suck because they can't get kids to go out but why would the kids go out if they don't think they have a chance to be competitive.
