Halloween Party for the football team....We are still kids

Today we had our annual Halloween Party for the football team. I started this a few years ago when I was still at Mason County. Our team meeting starts 5 minutes early on Monday, the week of Halloween. Every kid gets one piece of Halloween candy (tight budget) and we watch this video:

Monster Mash

Today the candy of choice was a Tootsie Pop. I like the old fashioned peanut butter candy, but you have to watch it with all the allergies in the 21st century.

October is a great month of football.  Halloween is a fun holiday that fits well with the game of football, especially on a cool, dark, windy Friday night.   Halloween has some large, scary, hairy, weird characters..... have you ever been in a football locker room... or worse.... the coaches' office!?  

Of course, I enjoy being around those characters and that has been true my entire life. 

The party lasts five minutes. Then, we are moving on to preparing for our next opponent. It doesn't take long, but I think it is a good thing for our team and kids. We are going into the playoffs and need to make the most of the opportunity. I think a good reminder of how much we enjoy being together and our times together as a team is a subconscious incentive to practice and play well. And, even if it doesn't provide that incentive, it is ok for all of us to be kids for just 5 minutes. The time for these guys to be kids is running out when you hit October, especially your seniors. If we can make that time last just a little bit longer, it is worth doing.  

On the Same Side.... Fighting for Football

One of the best things we have done in our program over the past 20 years has been our freshman/JV conference. We find schools similar in size to ours and play freshman/JV doubleheaders on Monday night. We started this at Mason County when my good friend Dan Gooch, then the head coach at Montgomery County, suggested it.  The quarters are very short, but it allows our kids to get quality reps against kids the most like them. These conference games are a key component in the development of our players. Obviously, player development is a priority for our program.

Over the past couple years, it has been a struggle for many of the teams in our conference and surrounding area to field a freshmen team. Although our record was not very good, we are excited that we began the season with 22 freshmen and have kept those guys together. We are also excited because our current 8th graders will be another strong group of freshmen.  In 2017, it is a huge accomplishment to field a freshmen team, even though several of their games this year had to be played against teams that included some upperclassmen. 

All of the coaches in our conference are committed to fielding freshmen teams next season. It will be rough and there may be nights that we can only play JV games, but we will all do our absolute best to play freshmen games. 

If we want to keep our freshmen, we have to have freshmen teams and freshmen games. When we give up on that, our numbers will decline.

In many ways, even though our conference teams are opponents on the field, we all share a common goal and interest.... to keep the game of football alive & healthy in our area for the kids in our schools. We all believe that football can make a large & positive impact in the development of young men and in the overall school culture.  I am the football coach at Mercer County. It is in the best interest of Mercer County football that Boyle, Lincoln, Anderson, Franklin & Western Hills are able to field freshmen and JV teams.  

You won't find me wearing a Rebel(Boyle County) football sweatshirt, but we need those guys!