High School Sports Thread

[mramseyISU]

I see this all the time. I call it “no middle”. You end up with anybody remotely interested in a sport joining club teams, and then local/rec leagues really struggle because nobody is left who is good.

This also takes experienced parent coaches out of the pool, so the kids that already aren’t getting good coaching now have bad coaches. I’ve done what I can, I coach a lot of rec sports and I do a good job for that level but it’s really hard.

Lot of haves and have nots, with a gap that keeps getting wider from what I see. It's getting to the point where if you want your kid to see the field/court/pool you'd better get them started in a club team sometime before middle school. I'm all for relegation in a whole bunch of sports, it'll never happen but that gap will just keep getting wider.

 

[AuH2O]

I see this all the time. I call it “no middle”. You end up with anybody remotely interested in a sport joining club teams, and then local/rec leagues really struggle because nobody is left who is good.

This also takes experienced parent coaches out of the pool, so the kids that already aren’t getting good coaching now have bad coaches. I’ve done what I can, I coach a lot of rec sports and I do a good job for that level but it’s really hard.

That's a great way to describe it. I'm closest to the sports my kids played, baseball and girls basketball, and that trend seems to be exaggerated in those sports.

In the last days of the CIML in girls hoops you had Johnston, and maybe another team like Centennial that were a notch above the rest for the most part. Then you had DM East, Marshalltown, maybe Hoover and Lincoln that really struggled. But damn near everybody else - Ankeny, Valley, Dowling, Roosevelt, North, Ames, Fort Dodge, Mason City, Ottumwa... all playing pretty competitive games for the most part. Getting season splits happened a fair amount. Now there might be some clusters of teams between the CIML and Iowa Alliance that can play some competitive games with each other, but the spread between all these tiers is massive now. Seems like the last three years, playing non-con and conference for a lot of teams, both wins and losses, are pretty much never in doubt, and there are hardly close games.

Baseball at least has the equalizer that a single good pitcher can bring, so at least there's that wild card. But the problems get exacerbated when playing a bunch of games and pitching depth gets exposed.

 

[qwerty]

This is HS boys score. All is right with the world. Let's duplicate that at the college level next week.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

The gap between the good teams and the horrible ones is much wider in girls bb than in boys bb. Generally every boys teams has at least one or two kids that are decent players, that is not the case on some of these girls teams. They are just totally outclassed and it has to be depressing as hell to coach kids that are doing the best they can and are still horrible at the sport. AAU and kids specializing in fewer sports has just killed many of the schools.

 

[NATEizKING]

I thought the girl from dowling that played for iowa was going to save the sport?

My 5yo daughter playing for the first time and scored a basket in both games so far, Chad would shed a tear if he could see her play.

I won't mention that my boys started at the same age.

 

[qwerty]

The gap between the good teams and the horrible ones is much wider in girls bb than in boys bb. Generally every boys teams has at least one or two kids that are decent players, that is not the case on some of these girls teams. They are just totally outclassed and it has to be depressing as hell to coach kids that are doing the best they can and are still horrible at the sport. AAU and kids specializing in fewer sports has just killed many of the schools.

Adding girl's wrestling is decimating girl's basketball also. Lot's of good female athletes are trying wrestling instead of just going out for basketball. Participation numbers are down (not so good athletes are not going out to backfill the wrestling losses) and many schools can't fill separate 7th grade/8th grade teams in Junior High and some can't field a JV team in high school.

 

[cyfanatic]

This is HS boys score. All is right with the world. Let's duplicate that at the college level next week.

View attachment 162312

Was this a varsity game? Holy smokes!

 

[Oak]

Was this a varsity game? Holy smokes!

Yes--varsity game played on Dec. 2nd. First time I've seen a running clock in high school varsity.

 

[Isualum13]

JV girls game tonight ended 5-4. All nine points were scored in the 1st qtr. Exhilarating.

 

[BCClone]

At a varsity game where one ref is mad at rhe world. Pretty big one who even yelled at a fellow ref. He can’t really move so he avoids calling anything to go to the head table and just goes from top of the key to top of the key most of the time. I thought he might have a heart attack early in the third qtr of the girls game. Still had the boys game to go both of those teams like to run.

 

[NWICY]

If anyone is wondering if Johnston is going to take a step back when Lewis goes to ND they have an 8th grade PG that is a stud.

Is ISU recruiting her?

 

[NWICY]

This. I thought we would be entering some golden age of girls hs basketball after her run that revolutionized the women's game. Found out my hometown (3A) didn't even have enough interest to field a varsity team last season. Girls wrestling seems to be the sport that's really taking off.

Dang a 3a school didn't have enough kids to field a team? That seems crazy to me.

 

[Kinch]

 

[Cyinthenorth]

Dang a 3a school didn't have enough kids to field a team? That seems crazy to me.

I'll caveat and say they might be 2A now. Were 3A when I was a high school student roughly 20 years ago. I can't keep up with all the reclassification as I don't follow closely nor live there anymore or really keep in touch with anyone there anymore. There being Charles City

 

[BCClone]

I'll caveat and say they might be 2A now. Were 3A when I was a high school student roughly 20 years ago. I can't keep up with all the reclassification as I don't follow closely nor live there anymore or really keep in touch with anyone there anymore. There being Charles City

Charles city is 3A I’m sure. Edge of 4A maybe

 

[1UNI2ISU]

I drive through Charles City pretty often and somehow it gets sadder every time. It's not Oelwein but it's tracking that way.

 

[AuH2O]

Roosevelt looks pretty good this year. Only loss is by 1 to undefeated Ames.

 

[AuH2O]

I drive through Charles City pretty often and somehow it gets sadder every time. It's not Oelwein but it's tracking that way.

I thought the same but their population hasn’t dropped too horribly (maybe 15% in the past 30-40 years) and poverty rate is at the state average.

Maybe that just says more about the trends in the state outside of a few metros and Other towns.

 

[FLYINGCYCLONE]

Yup things and opinions change fast. When Audi was at BGHS alotof people said she needed to move to DSM. Now are those same people complaining about open enrollment?

 

[cyspy]

Dang a 3a school didn't have enough kids to field a team? That seems crazy to me.

I know that West Delaware (Manchester) isn't fielding a varsity girls basketball team this year. Starmont (Strawberry Point) and Central City are smaller schools with no girls varsity this year.