Greetings Coaches,
Pretty excited, tonight the H.S. starts their football “camp” for our league kids. We’ve been running ‘skills and drills’ once a week for a month now, but a lot kids either are in baseball or getting in their vacations. Most years, the H.S. camp is well attended – and parents are good about not being on vacation this week. So, while its not quite the combine, we’re getting our 1st real chance to scout the kids going into the draft. Anticipated numbers indicate ~16 kids / team. So, we should be looking at 6 picks in the draft.
FWIW, the state of our team coming into the draft…
Strengths
- Returning 10 of 15 members from an 11-1 team.
- Returning 4 starters on OL.
- Returning starters at TB and Three solid WB coming back. [Our starter at WB is accident prone, and his 2 back-ups were solid in the 3 games he missed; one for poison ivy, one from allergic reaction to Bee sting, one from bicycle accident]
- Returning both OLBs and DEs – should be solid defensively on the perimeter
- Returning a solid DB
Weaknesses
- No returners at QB & Center.
- Returners do not include a “power” back, or TE.
- No established receivers
- No established ILBs
- Returning DT’s are small and were pushed around last season
Threats
- 2 of the opposing teams put together long drives up the middle against us last yr. Both coaching staffs feel playing ‘keep away’ is the way to stop our offense.
- 2 teams return their key players and are in draft position to add serious playmaking talent to their rosters. There are 3 extremely gifted kids moving up from the 7U; they will be long gone before we draft.
- Rule changes favor the interior Defensive front, putting more pressure on our C and Gs.
Opportunities
- Rule changes favor our defense, should improve our ability to stop drives up the middle if we can’t upgrade the interior talent level.
- 3 returners were only in 2nd grade last season, giving us the opportunity to coach up their middle-to-late round talent for another yr, before they reach 4th .
Challenges
- Those 3 unusually talented play-makers in this draft will be gone before we pick. We will have to be prepared to coach against them.
- We will likely have picks in the last 2 rds to add to our last rd kid from last yr’s draft. Three last rd kids will require we play them properly and really coach ‘em up.
- Our autistic kid returns, we have him down for 2 tackles last season, tho it looks like he got knocked into them by other players. With continued improvement we look for him to double his production this season.
- We should be very competitive this season, but need to draft with the 3rd graders in mind, or we’ll be at the mercy of the draft in 2024
Umm.... why does that 6 ft tall 9 yr old have a goatee...?
Last night the HS camp for the league kids finished up with flag football, seeing them compete – even if it was flag, was pretty cool. Several of the top level draftees are in baseball, or vacation, so we’ll see a lot more in the combine. But evaluations from camp… [usual caveat, combine will likely change the eval on some kids]
Those top 3 kids coming up from 7U, WOW! Better than advertised. In the 8 yrs I’ve been back in the game, these 3 are among the top 6 prospects I’ve seen. We won’t get one, but at least they’ll be spread over different teams.
There is a 4th grader who grades out right with those 3 athletically and has a great arm for this age group, but never played before and is tiny. He’s very gifted, but would be a one-and-done kid for our age group. Normally, I’d pass on a 4th grader in the 1st rd, but he won’t be there for us in the 2nd, not sure it’d be wise to let him pair up with one of the big 3.
Bear Bryant was once asked, " What do you see when you look at the 100 players on your bench who won't get into the game." Bear said, "I see 100 guys who are not playing for the other team." Not only is this kid's athleticism shining out, so is the prospect of having him paired with one of the big three and having to play them as a combo. Going to have to meditate on this. I saw no other kids I’d give a 1st rd grade to at this point.
Three kids I’d give 2nd rd grades to, and two a 3rd rd grade. Several kids who were not there will likely get 2nd / 3rd rd grades. And there are always a couple kid who show up at the combine no one knows, either just moved to the area / never played. Looking forward to seeing how the combine fleshes this draft class out.
It’s the mid-rd kids tho that really have me excited, Kids I’ve given 4th rd grades will carry right into the 7th rd. This is where the depth of this draft class is. I’m seeing a lot kids who look to be solid, one-way players. Kids I think will be fun to coach.
Umm.... why does that 6 ft tall 9 yr old have a goatee...?
Finally, the combine begins tonight. Kids will be divided into 4 groups, we'll see 2 tonight, the other 2 tommorow night, and then all 4 in rapid succession thurs night. We can run any non-contact drills we like. Sat is the draft.
We lost another returner, moving out of state, so we're down to 9 coming back from last season.
Feelin' pretty fired up!
Umm.... why does that 6 ft tall 9 yr old have a goatee...?
How'd it go?
Really nice draft class. The depth in the mid-rds is the best I can recall. Numbers are up, looking at 17-18 per team. More passers than usual, fewer jumbos, a lot of tallish, nice sized kids neither heavy nor thin, ... general overall athleticism is better than usual.
We'll see them once more tonight to firm up our impressions. Unless we see something new, we've got a pretty good idea who'll be there when we make our 1st pick (we draft last) and who is likely to be there when we make our 2nd pick Our approach is to grab playmakers in the 1st two picks - unlike some of our competitors, we see linemen as potential playmakers.
At present there are 3 intriguing kids we think could be there for us in the 1st two rounds, and (Based on our knowledge of what the other teams / coaches look for) hope to get one of 2 DT type kids w/ our 3rd pick. But, who knows. We'll give 'em one more look tonight tweak our rankings a bit, and hope for the best come Sat morning.
Umm.... why does that 6 ft tall 9 yr old have a goatee...?
I have my draft Saturday. Little bit different. They will hand me a piece of paper with a list of names and say "here's your roster". I have 15 returning players. 8 from last year won't be returning and possibly a 9th.
1 - I invited the family not to return because the dad can't behave.
1 - Decided to play closer to home (lives 45 minutes away)
1 - School/grades issues
1 - still recovering from injury (ACL and patella tendon)
1 - family emergency
1 - registration/finance issues (owes back fees, waits until registration is closed, repeatedly fails/refuses to apply for available scholarship/payment plans). Possible he comes back.
3 - decided football (or Outlaws football) is not for them
Game plan? I got your game plan. We gonna run the bawl some. We gonna throw the bawl some. We gonna play some defense. We gonna run some special teams, but we better not run kick return but one time and we sure as heck better not punt.
Little bit different.
Very different, how is your roster determined?
Umm.... why does that 6 ft tall 9 yr old have a goatee...?
So, we drafted this morning, and we've got our team for this season. 17 kids of whom 11 are returners.
Ended up adding ...
a very athletic on the small side with no experience.
a mobile kid with experience under center, decent arm, and fierce defensive play about ave size.
A fairly athletic - ave sized kid with a very high motor.
A moderately athletic ave sized OL with experience at C.
A moderately athletic a little thin, but tallish kid with decent hands
And once again, the numbers came out where we got the last kid in the draft, an overweight girl with nothing particular that indicates she should be playing football, other than she wants to... I can work with "want to".
There was a run on the big kids early, and after the 1st three went, we had couldn't see passing on other kids simply to take a kid who was big. So, we have no big kids at all, our largest kid on the team is 120 lbs. Gotta emphasize the A in F=MA.
What we do see is a lot of versatility when added in with our returners. Its an intriguing situation.
Can't wait till Tues (1st practice) to start coaching 'em up!
Umm.... why does that 6 ft tall 9 yr old have a goatee...?
And once again, the numbers came out where we got the last kid in the draft, an overweight girl with nothing particular that indicates she should be playing football, other than she wants to... I can work with "want to".
In my experience, girls as late round draft picks are an excellent choice on that very principle. You didn't have a choice, but if she was "the girl", the other teams passed up what's usually a good opportunity.
Little bit different.
Very different, how is your roster determined?
Trying my best to describe this simply. Here goes.
Our league is Jeffco Youth Football Association. My club is Arvada Youth Football. Troy's is Mountain Youth Football. No coach may recruit a player who is already in the league. 2 year absence is treated as a "new player". So it is illegal for me to even ask one of Troy's players to join my team or for me to ask a player on another team within my club. 1 year suspension, but inconsistent enforcement and plenty of loopholes.
We are allowed to recruit players who are new to the league. I must request that the club put them on my team and the family must ask the club to put their player on my team. Then, it's not 100% guaranteed, but I have not yet had a request that was denied or ignored.
New players who are not recruited enter "the draft", which is blind and random. In our club, one lady randomly assigns players to teams within their respective age groups. This "draft" is tightly scrutinized by a league rep to ensure no teams are being "stacked". However, it happens on occasion. So a new player should have an equal chance to be put on any team within the org and age group. Our org has 4 teams for 7th grade. Troy's has 2.
Returning players who register with their returning org are automatically assigned to last season's team unless they request to leave that team. If that's the case, they request to enter the "draft". So a returning player entering "the draft" has a very different experience in my org vs Troy's org. In mine, a returning player entering the draft has an equal chance of landing on any of 3 teams. In Troy's org, that same player goes to the other team. In my org if player wants to switch from my team to another team in my org, it may happen, but the odds are against it. If one of Troy's players wants to leave his team and go to the other team, it's a done deal (in theory). Troy's team is very good. The other team in his org is very bad. I don't know the situation up there, but I could see a lot of kids wanting to leave that team to join Troy's, which is not tenable. So I assume Troy's org would simply deny those requests to enter the draft.
This year, none of my returning players entered the draft. They either came back to me or left the org or left football entirely. I have 14 or 15 returning players (depends on whether 1 returner can get registered by Monday) out of 22. Then, I have 6 new players (all tackle rookies) that I recruited and picked up 6 in the draft I know nothing about the draft picks other than their name, height and weight (highly suspect). So I will have either 26 or 27 (if that kid registers Monday).
Game plan? I got your game plan. We gonna run the bawl some. We gonna throw the bawl some. We gonna play some defense. We gonna run some special teams, but we better not run kick return but one time and we sure as heck better not punt.
Trying my best to describe this simply. Here goes.
Seems far from simple from my side of the 'puter screen, but I guess it comes down to what you're used to.
For all the ups and downs of our combine and draft, I think ours is pretty simple by comparison.
Umm.... why does that 6 ft tall 9 yr old have a goatee...?
For all the ups and downs of our combine and draft, I think ours is pretty simple by comparison
And as much as I hate being in a redraft league, it’s definitely way simpler than the way others are doing things, apparently.
For us, we just split the kids into 4-5 even teams and then draw numbers from a hat as to who gets what team. If my son or my 1 AC’s son ends up on another team, then we just trade equivalent round picks for them.
Trying my best to describe this simply. Here goes.
Seems far from simple from my side of the 'puter screen, but I guess it comes down to what you're used to.
For all the ups and downs of our combine and draft, I think ours is pretty simple by comparison.
Yeah. Sorry about that. We used to be a VERY big league. Some orgs could field 8 teams in a single age group (1 year age groups). Some could only field 1. We had 3 levels of play with D1 at the top. There used to be a lot of trash talk in school from D1 kids to D2 and D3 kids, so everyone wanted to be D1. The only way for a smaller org to compete at D1 was to ensure that the larger orgs couldn't use their numbers to stack teams. Coaches could (can) stack teams, but being in a larger org isn't necessarily an advantage.
Therefore, the league is designed in a way that all teams should be randomly selected. Doesn't really work out that way.
Game plan? I got your game plan. We gonna run the bawl some. We gonna throw the bawl some. We gonna play some defense. We gonna run some special teams, but we better not run kick return but one time and we sure as heck better not punt.
1. The only way for a smaller org to compete at D1 was to ensure that the larger orgs couldn't use their numbers to stack teams
Looks like it sorta evolved over time due to necessity. Or at least the appearance of promoting parity of a sorts.
Umm.... why does that 6 ft tall 9 yr old have a goatee...?
1. The only way for a smaller org to compete at D1 was to ensure that the larger orgs couldn't use their numbers to stack teams
Looks like it sorta evolved over time due to necessity. Or at least the appearance of promoting parity of a sorts.
Yeah. Each org gets 1 vote regardless of size. There are many more small orgs than big orgs.
Game plan? I got your game plan. We gonna run the bawl some. We gonna throw the bawl some. We gonna play some defense. We gonna run some special teams, but we better not run kick return but one time and we sure as heck better not punt.
Latest Post: 2023 Hardin Reynolds Rebels Our newest member: LArecio Recent Posts Unread Posts
