Good topic Buddy, and hope you're health is improving?
I think the game of football itself is in trouble.....When is the last time that we seen two longtime small rural schools such as North Stokes and South Davidson, have to cancel their season, due to lack of participation?....This is NOT an isolated problem, but a problem that continues to grow and spread, and I fear that our beloved sport of Football is in trouble, moving forward.....The numbers from various youth leagues around the state and country tell us that is the trend.....The Constant barrage from the media in hammering home the Concussion issue, and the overall safety of the sport as a reason kids should find some other way of getting their exercise, rather than risk future medical issues?.....Folks, that ain't going to go away anytime soon, and Pay to Play is already starting to spread nationwide, and gain even more momentum, and may be the norm very soon....Would that mean in the future that we are one bad economy away from seeing more small schools fold up their football programs?
In addition, we have already seen Icons like Brett Farve and Lebron James say they would, or have discouraged their kids NOT to play the sport of football, and there's many more who are saying the same, such as our current President....
Amazing to think that in only a short period of time, former powerhouse programs such as Cummings, Thomasville and Albemarle have fallen from the top of the football landscape, while other much larger schools near those communities have flourished such as East and West Alamance and North Davidson to name a few....Staying on top is harder and harder too do for many reasons...
Coaching does matter, and it matters a lot in terms of getting the kids to first show up, and then be willing to due the work that is required to be successful, starting with work in the classrom and the weightroom which is vitally important in order to compete....Coaching stability can also provide for long term success as we've seen at Murphy, Robbinsville, East Surry, Mount Airy, West Montgomery and other schools where Head Coaches and their staffs have mostly remained in place, and established a tradition of football excellence...Those sadly are the exceptions rather than the rule nowadays as Coaches move around more so today than ever before which can and usually does impact the success of a football program, and the communities in which they reside....Football helps to fund the other atheletic teams, and also helps local economies on friday nights....The better the team means more money for the school, and it's community.....
This generation of young people have more options than ever before, and I'm just not sure anymore where the game of football fits in the priority department of today's youth?.....Football is a tough sport, and it requires a lot of hard work and dedication from the student atheletes,, their parents, the Coaching staff and the Community in order to make things work out, and have success......
I'm not even going to get into the politics that surround each community in the state, and those elected officials who make boneheaded decisions at times without fully understanding the future impact of those decisions to Kids, the School or the community that they were elected to serve?....
Rosman had to fold it's JV program this year before the season ended in order to have enough kids to help with depth issues on the varsity team, and the results that you see are evident when mostly underclassmen try to compete against other teams who have more, size, depth and experience.....It quickly becomes a season to forget, and those seasons seem to have been more frequent nowadays than were 20 or 30 years ago?....
I'm already hearing that County School Consolidation is being discussed yet again, and will be coming back up for discussion in the near future for Transylvania County, so the little public school of Rosman may either become a Charter, or disappear altogether in the not too distant future?
Rosman would become a ghost town without a school, but does that matter to elected officials?
Guess a person would have to ask them, and attend some County meetings to know for sure?
As I told someone at the Rosman game on friday, I would support Consolidation ONLY if the new County High School was located in Rosman which is generally considered to be near the center point of the County anyway....
Brevard already has a College, so it's only right that a new County High School should be located in Rosman....Brevard High School's campus could be sold to Brevard College since the Tornadoes already use Brevard Memorial Stadium, and the High School is close to the College....Brevard's gymnasium would also be a welcomed upgrade compared to the Tornadoes old Boshamer gymnasium?
Don't think that many people in the upper end of Transylvania County would want their kids to travel to Brevard to go to school, and there's probably more than a few Brevard parents who feel the same about Rosman, but still I think that it's the only fair thing to do since most future County growth will probably occur between Rosman and Brevard....Brevard Academy has already located their school to the eastern part of the County, and Rosman would be an ideal location for a new County school if one were built....
Oh well, enough about what may or may not happen in the future because us old geezers need to take it just a day at a time...lol
Once again, a good topic, Buddy!
