99 replies to this topic

[redbird]

Passion, on 27 November 2012 - 05:55 PM, said:

Haven't been paying much attention lately, but I'll give you the final count for the year .

Leipsic 18-4 (6-1)

Grove 17-5 (5-2)

Continental 18-4 (4-3)

Miller City 17-5 (4-3)

Kalida 15-7 (3-4)

FJ 12-10 (2-5)

Ottoville 11-11 (2-5)

PG 9-13 (2-5)

I think the win total for each team is too high, except maybe Jennings. The PCL isn't as strong as it has been. I'd be surprised to see more than one team make it to the district finals.

[veteranlefty]

Is Continental really that strong this year to get to 17-18 wins? Who is coaching them now?

[Green seagull 20]

veteranlefty, on 28 November 2012 - 09:48 AM, said:

Is Continental really that strong this year to get to 17-18 wins? Who is coaching them now?

Homier is back but i don't know about that many wins..

[BB Jones]

Do the football schools have this problem? MC and Ottoville have small enrollments, but do kids really want to put the work in? If they think having a basketball coach get on their case, they should watch a football practice. K-Mac reamed me plenty of times, but it always made me work harder. I just don't think kids can handle criticicism these days. I'm beginning to sound like my dad.

[slimdogbillionare]

This is my first post on the RC so please be gentle haha

But in regards to the matter of low numbers turning out for boys basketball I think it falls on both the players and coaches. To field a team you need a healthy relationship between the two built primarily on respect. The players have to earn the respect of the coach and like it or not the coach has to earn the respect of the players. Without that you won't get a good cohesive team and you won't get guys who will work for you. The coach can't go around just blatantly yelling at players demanding their respect her has to earn it and once that happens those players will open up to more criticism and work harder for you. Likewise a player can't disrespect his coach and expect to play.

Also kids these days want to be entertained, and thats why you see a large number running of to CYO where they can basically run wild (nothing against CYO). But if you want to have healthy numbers you have to be able to have fun with the kids and toe that very fine line between coach and friend. If you can have the kids trust you and respect you and make the game fun numbers should be a hurdle that is easily over come.

I hop off of my soap box now ha

and before anyone says anything, I know I misspelled billionare, too excited to join the party to notice the typo haha

[von]

Ottoville boys have only 11 players for V/JV, so the JV will only play one half of a game. I am NOT bad mouthing the coach, because I do NOT know him. Other sports at OHS must be more important. It is rather sad to see this happen. Ottovile & FJ should have consolidated several years ago, rather than spend 50-60 million on the new schools. I wish both the Ottoville/FJ school districts the best of luck with all their empty classrooms. Go Muskies & BG. It should be the Green Muskies or the Big Orange & Green.

[Venom]

One thing for sure is the amount of kids in the high school has dropped but will eventually get bigger in a couple years. But in all honesty, there are athletic kids in these grades. Sometimes you wonder why a certain kid is not playing. But the bottom line is some don't play because they need to work, some don't play it because it is just not their sport and some don't play because they are either lazy or just can't stand the coach. I just think that's the worst excuse ever though. I mean this is where you draw the line as a parent. You gotta teach these kids that you just got to get over it. Instead it seems like parents will take the side of the kid and then do nothing but complain about the coach. Like mentioned before, some of these parents never grew up around a football town. I mean are you really going to quit your job because you don't like your boss? Or move to another school because you don't like your teacher? Whether you hate the coach or not you need to just get over it and play. But on the other hand as a coach, it will hurt you to do this but sometime you just have to change the way you do things in order to get kids to play. No kids, no team, no coaching.

[JohnMcClane]

I have a solution for Ottoville. They should hire their CYO coach as the varsity coach. That way everyone wins. The parents will not be upset because their kid got yelled at by a big bad mean coach. The kids will go out because they are having fun. Kids will be able to have a job since they only practice a couple times a week. Also a big selling point to some kids there are no training rules for CYO. So they can party it up on the weekends with no worries about getting kicked off the team. The only drawback is the players need to catholic to play. Then again this is Ottoville not LSCC. So that will not be a problem.

Edited by JohnMcClane, 29 November 2012 - 10:35 AM.

[Venom]

JohnMcClane, on 29 November 2012 - 10:35 AM, said:

I have a solution for Ottoville. They should hire their CYO coach as the varsity coach. That way everyone wins. The parents will not be upset because their kid got yelled at by a big bad mean coach. The kids will go out because they are having fun. Kids will be able to have a job since they only practice a couple times a week. Also a big selling point to some kids there are no training rules for CYO. So they can party it up on the weekends with no worries about getting kicked off the team. The only drawback is the players need to catholic to play. Then again this is Ottoville not LSCC. So that will not be a problem.

I feel your sense of humor, but in all honesty the school is in control of the training rules not the coach so that will be implied. And you don't need to attend religion to play high school basketball. I understand the joke but there is also the reality of things.

Edited by Venom, 29 November 2012 - 10:48 AM.

[bbdad]

First, kids don't owe it to their school to go out for a sport. Second, it isn't as much about entertainment or the lack thereof that I believe drives kids from a high school team. It is more effort outweighing reward. Not that little Johnny needs a participation trophy. More along the lines that kids today are far less parochial than years ago. When I stopped playing in my high school years I saw that my efforts were going to far outweigh any benefits derived from simply being on the bench playing few minutes. Also, I didn't enjoy time with the other players. I didn't deserve to play more minutes so that isn't the point. I got a job, played CYO and had a lot of fun that didn't involve any illegal activities.

We can say the kids should get past the work involved, the lack of fun, etc. However, how many of us complain of the drudgery of our jobs, the lack of mental stimulation in our employment and the low quality of the people we deal with at work (actually, they complain about me but that is another story for another day!)? If our kids perceive the work to be on a team as being a grind, how can we ask them to "play"?

I don't blame the coaches either. I see few postings on this board as to the human qualities the coaches possess. I see a great number of posts about wons and losses. Imagine being a coach in a small town and having a few losing seasons in a row. Often you are a teacher or town resident and have to endure scorn and ridicule NOT because you fail as a person but because you fail as a coach. And then we wonder why the coaches treat the kids harshly and drive them so hard?

And lest you think I'm some Obama lovin' wimp, I don't think the answer is to go easy on the kids. Instead, coaches have to recognize that they are competing against other distractions and options and they have to sell their programs. In my day (sounding like an old man) basketball was the sport in the county and the highest level of competition. And chicks dug the basketball players. Today, with so many options, the rise of soccer, the rise of women's sports, ease of travel to other distractions, boys basketball does not have the glamour it once had.

[Dark Knight]

Well said dad! Definitely food for thought!

[Maltese Falcon]

Out of conference winners tonight:

Ottoville
Leipsic
Miller City

Losses:

Conti
FJ

DNP: Kalida, Grove PG

[Passion]

Hound Dog, on 27 November 2012 - 06:33 PM, said:

who's going to beat Leipsic and Grove?

I believe Grove has the potential to beat Leipsic, there can always be a surprise as well. Grove can lose to MC and possibly Continental, and again, there is potential for a surprise team.

[Passion]

guru8, on 27 November 2012 - 06:34 PM, said:

If Kalida goes 15-7 Coach K will be ohio high school coach of the year. Probably be very lucky to win half of that.

Kalida, even in their bad years wins a decent amount. I stick to that #.

[Passion]

redbird, on 27 November 2012 - 10:26 PM, said:

I think the win total for each team is too high, except maybe Jennings. The PCL isn't as strong as it has been. I'd be surprised to see more than one team make it to the district finals.

I agree, the league is down big time. But I also look and see that a lot of teams are following the same pattern as the county. There are a few who have increased, or at least stayed at the same talent level, but I think you'll be surprised. Basketball means a lot in Putnam County, and those teams will fight hard, and there are many good coaches in the league as well. So although the talent may not be great, and I don't see much of a tournament run out of anyone but possibly Leipsic at this time(Teams could improve though), I see the teams they are playing, and I think they have a good chance of winning quite a few games.

[charliesheen]

Hound dog....you have at least 25 too many wins there. You are probably at leaat 4 wins too high on half the teams you listed

[Dark Knight]

Passion---for the most part, I would say all teams have increased (except Ottoville) because every school in the PCL has a freshmen team.(except Ottoville) It has been years since there have been this many freshmen teams.

[Hound Dog]

charliesheen, on 30 November 2012 - 11:23 PM, said:

Hound dog....you have at least 25 too many wins there. You are probably at leaat 4 wins too high on half the teams you listed

It wasn't me who did the predictions. I also feel they are overestimating the win totals.

[Passion]

Dark Knight, on 01 December 2012 - 04:50 AM, said:

Passion---for the most part, I would say all teams have increased (except Ottoville) because every school in the PCL has a freshmen team.(except Ottoville) It has been years since there have been this many freshmen teams.

I said increasing talent, not numbers. Numbers has relatively little to do with how good the team will be.

[Dakota Green]

Basketball in Putnam County as of right now has taken a backseat to video games, CYO participation, part time jobs, and a lot more items that could be mentioned. I always grew up with the notion that even though more is better in everything in life, more is not better when it comes to CHOICES and that is the common theme that dots the landscape. A lot of things have changed in my life regarding so many things, choices, you name it, but certain things have not changed. Such as adding hours to a day, still have 24, days to a week still have 7, minutes in an hour right at 60. Those standards for some reason and the reality of more choices is one of the reasons that high school basketball particularly in putnam county has gone in some sad respect to the wayside. Folks basketball in this county is not the priority it once was to a number of high school kids. For the reasons I mentioned two sentences back it regards to choices. All people not just teenagers cannot handle more choices in whatever comes in their particular life. When more activities, or gadgets, or whatever is new comes into peoples life, it cuts into what some people think it should not cut in and the interest of in this case high school basketball suffers because of it. I know, I know everybody wishes that things would go back to the good old days when life was simpler and Friday nights in the winter were exclusively for high school basketball and we as fans poured out our hearts and souls and voices rooting for our particular team. I just think as the years go by that this is a era that has passed by and we older fans are unhappy, upset, you name the adjective towards this reality.
The fact of the matter as far as fans go really resonates when you go to an O-G game. Heck sometimes I wonder if I am at a game or an AARP convention waiting for a speaker to show up to talk about Social Security. Give it 10 years and the landscape of a basketball fan is going take on a different clientile. And that clientile is going to be people dressed up like an empty seat because interest has gone to the wayside and these towns wont be able to afford their school system, much less their basketball team. As I said earlier high school sports in this county is going to change dramatically in the next 10 years and the reasons are the above mentioned overabundance of choices or things to do and another reason is MONEY or more then likely the lack thereof. There will be disagreement in what I have stated and typed, but I think I going to be closer to right then what people think.