[NU Sports] Questions

Roy Lamberton rstetson at capps-assoc.com
Fri Oct 20 17:53:01 CDT 2006 

Last night I had a long conversation with a couple of parents, one of whom is
the mother of one of my starting halfbacks.

This kid and my QB [and another player] were all cut from the Middle School Team
- they're 7th graders.

The Halfback has grown quite a bit, but is still 5 or 6 inches shorter than the
kid from our team that made the middle school and is now one of their primary
RBs. My QB is still fairly short, altho he is lightning fast [scored 2 TDs last
week, both on broken plays].

The other parent, who also helps coach the HS's Frosh Team, told me that none of
the 7th graders who were cut will ever play football here in town because [here
follows a long litany of stuff that we've all heard before.]

If my QB grows 6 inches next winter, he'd be nuts not to go out for the middle
school next year as an 8th grader - he'll make it. The other kid is still
growing and will be big enough to be a force on defense next year, he's that
good and fast. 

There are parents who think that if their kid doesn't start immediately at the
next level, there is something wrong with the coaches who make the cuts. Having
just come from a game where this middle school team was manhandled by a much
bigger team, I tried to explain that 5-2 tailbacks get killed in a 5-11 world,
but never mind...

In any case, ALL of my 6th and 7th graders have been told that Coach Roy EXPECTS
them to try out for, and if at all possible MAKE the middle school team next
year, and to follow last year's MVP on to the Varsity and beyond. I don't know
what I'll do with their parents, but if you can write a script for failure,
they're doing it big time.

[BTW - most of the minority kids, particularly linemen, know about my links to
NU, The Big 10 and Scout recruiting. I still have kids check in from 7 or 8
years to see how to go about getting recruited. I wish I could get to more of
them, but my son David was the last kid from around here to play College
football and start at any level.]

[BTW2 - The team that beat us, Sussex Central is the home HS to Luke Pettigout,
and the OT who just graduated from Wisconsin. They have several kids on their
Middle School team that look like good prospects. As usual, I'll be sending
their names along when they're more recruitable - something that ALL OF US on
this list should be doing.]

Go Cats - Sparty is hurt WORSE than we are! 
All that's hurt with our Cats is Pride - they've got serious injuries...

rsl


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate
Computer Applications & Support Associates
and Publisher of Purple Reign, 
The Scout.com Northwestern University Site
(http://www.purplewildcats.com)
AIM Handle: CoachRoy74
======== Go Cats -  Beat 'em All ===========
"You have a Republic Madam --
     If you can keep it" - Benjamin Franklin
============================================

> -----Original Message-----
> From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com 
> [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of Jeff Beamsley
> Sent: Friday, October 20, 2006 5:15 PM
> To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
> Subject: RE: [NU Sports] Questions
> 
> 
> I think that it is all of the above including Baz.
> 
> I agree that winning will resolve this, but it will take 
> leadership from Fitz to earn the trust of the team.  It will 
> also take the team to realize that they are part of the 
> equation here too.  They have to be willing to commit before 
> anything good is going to happen.
> 
> I know that we all hoped that Fitz would be able to fill the 
> void left by RW. As much as he may want to be, Fitz is not RW 
> and the team is going to have to change as a result.  They 
> haven't all figured that out yet.
> 
> Jeff
> 
> BTW, I'm not sure the player/parent issues with RW ever 
> completely disappeared. But we covered some of the reasons 
> for that in a previous post.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Roy Lamberton [mailto:rstetson at capps-assoc.com] 
> Sent: Friday, October 20, 2006 3:17 PM
> To: jeffb at hilgraeve.com; nwu-sports at tssi.com
> Subject: RE: [NU Sports] Questions
> 
> If the Blank is "Randy Walker" then its almost to be expected.
> 
> If the Blank is someone else, then I don't know what to tell you.
> 
> All I know is that these kinds of rumors swirled around the 
> team during RW's two bad years also, and quickly disappeared 
> [except on the message boards] once the team started winning.
> 
> rsl
> 
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate
> Computer Applications & Support Associates and Publisher of 
> Purple Reign, The Scout.com Northwestern University Site
> (http://www.purplewildcats.com)
> AIM Handle: CoachRoy74
> ======== Go Cats -  Beat 'em All =========== "You have a 
> Republic Madam --
>      If you can keep it" - Benjamin Franklin 
> ============================================
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com 
> [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] 
> > On Behalf Of Jeff Beamsley
> > Sent: Friday, October 20, 2006 11:56 AM
> > To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
> > Subject: RE: [NU Sports] Questions
> > 
> > 
> > Roy,
> > 
> > I agree that this is the case on virtually any competitive 
> team where
> > you have starters and reserves.  This particular piece of gossip 
> > (that's all it is at this point) came from the parents of a 
> starter so 
> > it suggests a little more serious discontent.  But given everything 
> > that everyone on this team is going through, I'm not surprised that 
> > they are having a tough time rediscovering their team unity.  They 
> > aren't playing as well as they are capable of playing.  As 
> a result, 
> > they aren't competitive.  The good news is that they don't like to 
> > lose.  The bad news is that some may be thinking along the 
> lines of, 
> > "If _____ (you fill in the blank) were here we wouldn't be having 
> > these problems."
> > 
> > They (and we) need to trust that Fitz will lead them out of 
> this, but
> > it could easily take most of the season do it.
> > 
> > Jeff
> > 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Roy Lamberton [mailto:rstetson at capps-assoc.com]
> > Sent: Friday, October 20, 2006 10:38 AM
> > To: jeffb at hilgraeve.com; nwu-sports at tssi.com
> > Subject: RE: [NU Sports] Questions
> > 
> > Over the years I've learned that when a team isn't winning there are
> > almost always problems with the coaches and coordinators 
> when you talk 
> > to the kids who aren't starting or playing regularly.
> > 
> > I've had parents question my choices, and last night I 
> heard an earful
> > about player choices made by coaches at the lower levels of our HS 
> > program. [Which I didn't agree with, but kept my silence]
> > 
> > What I always tell my kids who raise the playing issue is that they
> > need to stop asking to play, and start stepping it up in 
> practice. If 
> > they can step it up against the starters, it makes them all better 
> > players.
> > 
> > I think Walker approached "problems" differently than Fitz 
> does - he'd
> > have to because he's a different guy, but I think RW was 
> approachable 
> > when a kid had a problem. [altho Webb and Walker apparently never 
> > "bonded."]
> > 
> > Anyway, parents are the first to hear the griping from 
> their kids and
> > will tend to share it with others who are in the same boat. I've 
> > always said that on a football team there are between 15-25 sets of 
> > parents who think the head coach is a genius. The rest 
> think he's an 
> > idiot for not playing their kid!
> > 
> > rsl
> > 
> > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> > Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate
> > Computer Applications & Support Associates and Publisher of Purple
> > Reign, The Scout.com Northwestern University Site
> > (http://www.purplewildcats.com)
> > AIM Handle: CoachRoy74
> > ======== Go Cats -  Beat 'em All =========== "You have a Republic 
> > Madam --
> >      If you can keep it" - Benjamin Franklin 
> > ============================================
> > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
> > [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com]
> > > On Behalf Of Jeff Beamsley
> > > Sent: Friday, October 20, 2006 8:18 AM
> > > To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
> > > Subject: RE: [NU Sports] Questions
> > > 
> > > 
> > >  
> > > Just a little gossip to add to the mix.
> > > 
> > > I've heard through a third party close to a football 
> parent that at
> > > least one of the kids on the team describes serious 
> "problems" with 
> > > the new OC and DC.
> > > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > nwu-sports site list
> > nwu-sports at tssi.com 
> > http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports
> > 
> 
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