Should big enrollment equal football wins?

[warningtrackpower]

Great email on this week’s SVC Sports Talk (podcast for SVCsportszone.com) asking about why enrollment figures have not equaled more wins for one school in the SVC. The response is in the final 10-15 minutes of the show. Just click link, hit play arrow, and FF over to final 15 minutes. We would love to hear your feedback. Here is the link…

http://www.dbkmediaservices.com/wordpre ... talk100812

[eagles73Taylor]

Enrollment is just one factor in a bunch that determines athletic successs, especially football. These other factors include socioeconomic, parent involvement, tradition, school support, boosters, and other sports coaces attitudes! lol

I have been to numerous state championships and I have watched small D VI schools who have a total of 120 boys field 60+ football players, and I have watched other games around here with D IV teams who struggle to get 30+ out.

Parent involvement and socioeconomic factors are the big ones in my opinion. Without good parent support, kids arent involved as much and dont attend camps or other sports related activities to make them better at a young age. Parents also influence their kids not to play certain sports, it seems some schools are just not football schools, and this changes over decades. Unioto was a power in football in the early 70's winning several league championships, now it seems football is just a secondary sport up there. This is of course just my opinion! lol

[dreamweaver]

amen eagle

[YOU'RE TIGER BAIT]

great post eagle

[farmer]

That question has been talked about on here dealing with Northwest in Scioto County. That they have brought in different coaches and still can not get anything going. Next year they will be dropping down to be playing the smaller schools in the SOC in football.

One of the biggest problems in having a big enrollment is the size of the district. Having a big enrollment in a small area is different than being spread out over many miles. Especially with gas prices of today. Getting to and from practices are not easy for families. Also the schools must pay more to bus the kids in. So more of the budget goes for transportation in a spread out district.

[warningtrackpower]

Great post - I know in preparing for podcast it was incredible to find out that Unioto has 30 soccer players (14 seniors) on an undefeated D-II soccer team.

I appreciate the comments. If you are just now reading this thread, the link to the podcast is up in the first post. This email was discussed in the final 10-15 minutes.

[svcbaseballfan]

30 is a bit on the low end, sorry I didn't get back to you before the podcast, was out of town for a family funeral. But Unioto has close to 40 out for soccer. We also had close to 20 out for golf, 20 for Cross Country and another 60 in the band. Our numbers are up across the board this year as to years past, but are spread across several sports. Some of the school's best athletes don't play fall sports either, many of them concentrate on one sport. When basketball season comes around, look at the number of kids on the team who played football, and the same with baseball season, not many of the players play football. I think a lot of this has to do a lot with what Eagle posted, tradition. Unioto may be the largest school in the county, but they also offer more sports than anyone else. Soccer(boys and girls), Tennis, Cross (Boys and Girls), Wrestling, Swimming, Indoor Track.

[fortdawg]

The easy answer is yes. The hard part is like the above posters have pointed out---can you get them out. By them I mean the better athletes in your school. Other sports, travel, economic conditions, are just a few of the things that can trip a program up. I've found that the parents of your athletes can be as big of a determinate as the coaching staff in building a winning program. Do they support the team? Are they willing to sacrifice along with their kids for the good of the team? I think the coaching staff, boosters, and parents are all needed for winning to become ingrained in a program. I could cite several programs that we could call meteors (they shine bright with a good class or two and then flame out) and we also see NY, The Burg, and others that are there year end and year out----I don't believe that happens by accident.

[robycop3]

Big Enrollment = football success? Not necessarily. Look at Riverside HS in WV, a consolidation of two football powers, Du Pont and East Bank. Huntington High and cabell Midland haven't had REAL success until this year. And it still eludes Spring Valley, a consolidation of three football powers, Buffalo/Wayne Co, Vinson, and many-time state AA champs Ceredo-Kenova. I hope the local Ohio counties keep this in mind, and remember "consolidation" is a 4-letter word when it comes to schools.

I agree with what Eagle said. 'Tis much more than a large number of team members that make a winning football team.

[wipala]

Large schools, one would think would have better success than some...Some really good points have
been made both ways..My two cents worth..when schools combine it takes, usually sometime for
the old ways and thinking of the schools to merge,,maybe 3-4 years IMO, the schools boundry sometime
become so large,,i.e. Northwest that it is hard to get the students and parents on board. COACHING at
the high school level is paramount. A really good coach is worth, again IMO 4 or maybe 5 wins a season
that his or her team should maybe not have won..The real advantage that larger schools should have is
the number of quality players that are there,,,then getting them out...for reasons only they know sometimes
this does not happen....A good example of coaching is the coach at Wheelersburg, does not always
have the better talent in games,,,but they win...No, I am not a burg grad,,a PHS grad from the dark ages
Thanks for reading my two cents worth.

[Riverhog]

Interesting topic. I will listen to the podcast then comment. Plus it will be much easier to type a post on an actual keyboard. I will say one thing regarding Unioto. They have a head coach in place who is dedicated to the program and willing to develop it from the elementary school on up.