You're having a week like my first 2 weeks. It'll pass. Interesting about COVID. I thought the CDC said you no longer have to quarantine. Last week, it was me and the HC with the 3rd graders. Smoothest practice of the year . . . until the next day and it was the header. He got through everything by himself and got done 20 minutes early.

Posted by: @gumby_in_co

I thought the CDC said you no longer have to quarantine. 

What I read said 3-5 days.  I tested each day.  Negative every time.  

--Dave

Must be something going around,

2 of our top 3 players got hurt during school hours last week (unrelated incidents) one (HB & MLB)  is coming back in time for this weeks game but is a little limpy, so we'll be limiting his action, the other (WB & OLB) broke a bone in his foot and out until the week of the championship game, then last night our DC came down ill.   We have a rare Sat - Sun slate, against 2 non-league opponents (different leagues) not the time to be losing key players.  

But worse, our HC had to have surgery on his neck, has missed most of the season, his recovery is not going well, and he may be done for the yr.  

So in addition to our starting DE breaking his foot, for some reason our Starting Right Guard and other starting DE decided not to show up at the game.  We don't do the Sunday Night Phone calls so "surprises" are much more common.  Our Team Mom seems to be the intermediary between parents and us.  We lost Saturday, 14-0.  I'm not surprised, as they were better than us in every way.  They have two teams but their A squad has the much better coach.  We managed to hang around with them, as the score was 7-0 at halftime.  We had them stopped for loss on a 4th Down but were called for a facemask penalty that gave them a 1st Down deep in our territory.  This happened on 2 separate occasions.  Our longest run of the day was negated by an illegal motion penalty.  Stupid stuff that will get you beat by an opponent that doesn't make those kind of mistakes.  Got ready to put in our backup QB to fulfill his MPR requirement but he didn't want to go in.  I told him he didn't have a choice; the MPR requirement is for everyone, not just those who want to play.  I went to dad about it at halftime to explain why his son hadn't been in the game.  Dad said his son was very nervous.  The only underage (9) kid on the team lost his mouthpiece (it's on the ground on the sideline) and we gave him another.  He gets sent out by the ref because he loses this one, as well.  One of our parents was working on the chain crew.  Said he couldn't believe how the opposing coaching staff was talking to their kids.  He said it was "eye opening" and praised how we dealt with our players.  We tried to replace the new AC who just quit with a parent who volunteered, but evidently there were "background check issues."  So it's still just me and the header.  That being said, I'm not a good AC.  At all.  I never had much patience as a header and I sure as heck don't have any as an AC.  The "I don't want to play despite having a MPR rule/losing mouthpieces/kids not showing up on gameday" is something that all coaches at the youth level go through at one time or another.  It just that my tank's capacity was filled up in this regard about 15 years ago.  I no longer speak that language or have the patience.

--Dave

Every coach I talk to is saying the same thing right now. The kids are testing everyone's patience. Did school start up for you guys too? 😆 

We won yesterday, 26-14 against a Single Wing opponent.  As I overheard one of the parents on our sideline, "Oh, this is going to be a boring game today."  Not sure what they were looking for, or expecting, as these are 10-year-olds.  Anyhoos, we scored on our second play of the game, running Power for about a 65-yard run.  Our WB wasn't outrunning anyone, but he did manage to rumble, bumble, stumble until he hit pay dirt.  However, the officials had a different idea as we were flagged for hitting a defenseless player.  Always interesting when you receive that penalty when you're on offense...

Regardless, we continued on with that possession, eventually scoring another TD to go ahead, 6-0.  The SW team came right back, with a mixture of Wedge, Power and Counter.  They scored and went ahead, 7-6.  On our second series, we inserted the MPR offense and they fumbled on the first play, losing possession.  The SW team went back to nickel and diming us until they scored another TD with about a minute remaining in the 1st Half.  We got one possession in the few remaining seconds and we went no huddle, running Power five times in a row before the half ended with us trailing 14-6.  In the 2nd Half, we got the ball, started our MPR guys to finish their play allotment and then inserted the starters on that possession.  We moved the ball down the field on a combination of Wedge, Power and Counter and scored again making it 14-13, them.  We stoned them on their next possession and began to find our groove, taking another long drive for a TD to go ahead, 20-14.  We stopped them again, and took another long possession down the field and scored, making it 26-14.  With only a couple minutes remaining, the SW team threw a pass which we intercepted and returned for a TD, but again the refs decided that we had scored enough points, said we blocked in the back and negated the score.  We drove the ball inside their 20 and took a Victory Formation on the final play. 

Next week, the play-offs start with some sort of tiered bracket system.  Not sure who we'll play, but at least we avoided the play-in game.

--Dave

Won today, 13-0.  We had two TDs called back, both of them ridiculous and I thought I might get my first ejection.  Up 7-0, we ran Wedge from mid-field which broke free for a long touchdown.  One ref signaled TD and I was already telling the QB what XP play to run when our Side Judge said he blew the whistle to stop play because he thought our guy had been tackled.  Our guy hadn't been tackled.  Our guy slipped through the Wedge and popped out the other side and took it 50 yards.  So the play was brought back...  (This also happened to me in a game when I was a high school header, back in 2011.  Our Fullback was running free downfield, and the idiot blew it dead because he thought our guy was at the bottom of the pile.)  So...on the next play we ran Counter, which also broke free for a long TD.  Except that this time one of our players had his feet tangled with a defender.  They both fell down and since the defender stumbled forward 30 yards behind on a long run, it could only be a block in the back, right?  They didn't see the tripping; only their defender falling down out of the blue.  Words cannot describe...Anyhoos, the rest of the game was uneventful.  Our opponent never came close to scoring.  We turned over the ball twice on fumbles so that impacted us, but we controlled the game.  Dunno if we have a game next week or if our season is over.  I'm voting for the former, but it might be the latter.

--Dave