Survey Says

I have tabulated the results of the survey. We received 33 responses and many comments. Thank you! If you don't know or didn't see, we passed out a survey at the banquet Monday night. The key was:

5 = Strongly Agree

4 = Agree

3 = Neutral or Don't Know

2 = Disagree

1 = Strongly Disagree

The survey had ten statements and space for comments. Below are the results and my impressions of what they meant.

Statement: My child had fun playing football this year. Average Answer: 4.78

Strongly Agree: 25

Agree: 7

Neutral or Don't Know: 1

Disagree:

Strongly Disagree:

97% of the parents thought their son had fun playing football, with one TBD. Since goal number one was to Have Fun, we feel pretty good about that outcome.

Statement: My child became a better player this year. Average Answer 4.59

Strongly Agree: 21

Agree: 10

Neutral or Don't Know: 2

Disagree:

Strongly Disagree:

94% of the parents thought their son became a better football player. Since goal #2 is Get Better, we feel pretty good about that outcome too. And from a coaching point of view, I thought the numbers were probably 38 out of 38 players. I can point out something about every single kid that improved versus the beginning of the year, though it may be harder to see from the bleachers.

Statement: I enjoyed the experience of being a football parent this year. Average Answer 4.66

Strongly Agree: 23

Agree: 8

Neutral or Don't Know: 2

Disagree:

Strongly Disagree:

94% of the parents had fun. As long as we're all out there together, I'm glad that we all had fun too.

Statement: Two squads with the same coaches was better than dividing into separate teams. Average Answer 3.72

Strongly Agree: 8

Agree: 15

Neutral or Don't Know: 3

Disagree: 2

Strongly Disagree: 4

I thought this was the most difficult question on the survey to answer. The parents that disagreed with the way we did it had comments like "Combining the teams to practice together in my opinion was very non productive" and "I would like to see the squads practice as separate teams and then scrimmage each other." One parent that liked the way we did it offered "It seemed better for practices, it allowed more per player play time; It may have decreased coach player time during practice" and "The two squads allowed for newer guys more time I think. It seemed to work out better for us as first year people." We had 23 responses (about 70%) that favored the way we did it. About 20% didn't care for it, and 10% were neutral. I had hoped that it would be a little more clear than that, but it is still a pretty substantial majority that thought it was a good system.

I have many more thoughts about this system and what worked and didn't, and I will write an entire post about it shortly. I want to meet with the coaches first to de-construct the season and get their impressions.

Statement: I liked the way my son was coached this year. Average Answer 4.25

Strongly Agree: 17

Agree: 10

Neutral or Don't Know: 3

Disagree:

Strongly Disagree: 2

27 out of 32 liked the way their son was coached. That's over 84%, and there were many kind comments about our efforts. Thanks for those. It appears that the two that didn't like "the way my son was coached" were not thrilled with the one team, two squads system. One of them even wrote "Thank you for your time & support. You're all great. But I didn't like the 2 teams." There were a couple of critiques as well about the offense - "The wishbone was a little too complex in the blocking schemes to have success in achieving long drives" and, more directly put, "I would like to see them run a different offense!!" But other than that, people seemed generally pleased.

In my view, our offense was decent for the black squad, and below average for the blue squad. I don't agree that the blocking schemes were too complex. Some boys totally understood them, and some boys struggled. I did study the 'long drive' comment, using the black squad, which was a middle of the pack team in their division. Looking back at the long drives for the season (and I will characterize a long drive as one of more than 50 yards) our black squad had seven drives of over 50 yards. Our opponents had only four. It is possible that the comment was alluding to long, multi-play drives that were absent of big plays. And most of our long drives did have a big play or two. But the long drives against us were similar.

Drives of 50+ against ONW Black

Olathe East - 70 yards, two 25 yard plays were big

Olathe East - 74 yards, a 57 yard TD was the big play

Gardner - 53 yards, a 53 yard TD play was the only yardage

Olathe South - 53 yards, a 53 yard TD play was the only yardage

Drives of 50+ for ONW Black

Blue Valley West - 80 yards, a 75 yard option pitch for TD

Olathe South Masters - 70 yards, big plays were 19, 26, & 21 spread between five other plays

Olathe South Masters - 54 yards, big play was 49 yard option pitch for TD

Gardner - 50 yards, big play was 43 yard option keep

Gardner - 71 yards, big play was 67 yard option keep for TD

SMNW - 51 yards, big play was option keep for 42

SMNW - 54 yards, 12 plays, longest was 18 yard pass

So while I agree that our offense did not have very many long, multi-play drives, I would argue that nobody does in youth football. Another way to measure the driving capability of the offense is to measure first downs plus touchdowns. Considering only the six similar opponents for the black squad (eliminating over-matched SMW and Olathe South Masters) our first downs plus touchdowns were virtually even. We had 31, while our six top opponents managed 34.

Statement: My son was placed on the appropriate squad based on his ability and experience. Average Answer 4.63

Strongly Agree: 23

Agree: 7

Neutral or Don't Know: 1

Disagree:

Strongly Disagree: 1

30 out of 32 thought that placement was correct, for 94%. One probably thought that son could have played on either team (likely) and the parent that strongly disagreed was one that did not care for the 1 team, 2 squads system.

Statement: I would have liked for my son to get more playing time. Average Answer 3.19

Strongly Agree: 2

Agree: 5

Neutral or Don't Know: 11

Disagree: 9

Strongly Disagree: 4

This was a tricky question to answer too. If you want more playing time for your son, then you would agree with the statement - but only 2 of 32 strongly agreed. The five others that agreed weren't adamant about it, and I would suspect recognize the difficulty of the numbers. For the same reason many of us put neutral or don't know - that is, sure, it would be nice if my kid got to play more, but he didn't have to. The score for this answer was the closest to neutral of all the questions.

Statement: I wish my son could have played a different position. Average Answer 2.78

Strongly Agree: 2

Agree: 5

Neutral or Don't Know: 13

Disagree: 8

Strongly Disagree: 4

This statement was also fairly close to neutral. If a parent answered neutral or disagree, then I took it to mean that they were at least comfortable with the position their son played. So that worked out to 78%. The other 22% would have liked to have seen their sons play a different position, which may also mean playing on another side of the ball - I don't disagree with that at all, but once again, roster numbers tended to reduce our ability to do that and still have fun.

Statement: I would like for my son to play football again next year. Average Answer 4.84

Strongly Agree: 29

Agree: 2

Neutral or Don't Know: 1

Disagree:

Strongly Disagree:

This statement garnered the most positive reactions on the survey. 97% of you parents would like for your son to play football again next year. I deliberately left the statement vague, i.e. what position, what coach, what team, etc. I wanted to make sure that we hadn't ruined the game for anybody, as that would be really disheartening. So far, so good.

Statement: Football is expensive. Average Answer 3.52

Strongly Agree: 7

Agree: 5

Neutral or Don't Know: 12

Disagree: 4

Strongly Disagree: 1

The one that strongly disagreed with this statement probably pays for premier soccer. I think football is a little bit expensive, but when I compare it to some other sports, it actually becomes somewhat reasonable. Nevertheless, I ask this in part to communicate to the FCCJC board that costs do matter, and to let our sponsors know that every little bit helps.

Thank you all so much for your responses and insight about our program!

Two Plays

Great effort this weekend by both squads.

Our Blue squad won against SMN - an experienced team that already had two wins against teams that had wins over us. Great job Blue squad!

Our Black squad played the other 3rd place team, Shawnee Mission Northwest. The Cougars had given BVNW their only division loss and had the most points in the National division. Two plays made all the difference.

The first play was our touchdown play. If you option out to the right often enough, then start that way one more time you can wrong-side the linebackers. Watch all three of SMNW's linebacker's end up on the wrong side of the umpire.

The other play was 4th and goal for SMNW, in their overtime period. They'd managed to get to the 1 inch line in three plays, and this was the whole ball game. Coach Lee was pretty excited.

Time Change Again

Fall has begun! On a cloudy day, we can't see at 7:30 p.m. any more, so we have moved the start time for Monday and Wednesday practices to 5:30 p.m., beginning this Wednesday, 9/23. We will still start at 5:00 p.m. on Friday nights.

Beginning Monday October 12th, all three practices will begin at 5:00 p.m.

Early Friday Practice Times Begin This Week, High School Football

With the advent of the high school football season, our Friday practices will now begin at 5 p.m., and end at 6:40 p.m.

Monday and Wednesday practices will still be from 6 p.m. until 7:40 p.m.

The Olathe Northwest Ravens High School Team will play their first game this Thursday night at CBAC against the Shawnee Mission East Lancers. The game is at 7 p.m. Hope to see you all there.

Another great matchup will happen on the same field on Friday night. The Olathe East Hawks will play the Lawrence Free State Firebirds at 7 p.m. The two teams tied for 3rd in the pre-season Sunflower League coaches poll. Free State is my dark horse to win the league - if I'm allowed to call a team picked 3rd a dark horse - and I'm a huge fan of their dynamic quarterback Camren Torneden. He's not a very big guy, but in football, you do have to actually touch a guy to have a chance to bring him down. In Torneden's case, that's easier said than done.

Now that Free State is finally absent graduated fullback Chucky Hunter, expect most teams to spread out defensively against them, stay in their lanes, and force Torneden to be a pocket passer. Mind you, he can pass just fine - but he'll kill you with his legs.

If you're staying in on Friday night and Metro Sports is in your cable package, watch the Hutchinson Salt Hawks and the Rockhurst Hawklets instead. Question - can speed and talent on defense really shut down the triple option? My guess is yes - but as an option fan, I'll root for Hutch!

Cut Blocking - Teach it or Reject it?

Want to see a great block? Watch this video of the right guard and center, on our nose tackle (the defender right over the ball).

But now watch this video, focusing on the same guys (right guard, nose tackle, and center) and what starts out to be the same sort of block.

So what is an offensive youth coach to do? You want your guy to block well. The nose tackle just made a play on that same series, and you don't want him to stop you any more.

Both of these blocks are legal by the way, as far as I know. Everything is just simultaneous enough, the blocks happen in the free blocking zone, and football is a physical game. The risk for injury is there on every play.

Some coaches don't teach this type of blocking at all. Some coaches teach the blocking shown in the first video, but the kids themselves will accidentally (or on purpose, if they're pissed off) end up with a high low as shown in the second situation.

(By the way, the kid was fine - no harm this time.)

Personally, I'd like to see this type of blocking outlawed, at least at the youth level, and probably at all levels. See this article for an NFL version of this controversy. Here are my reasons we should do away with it in FCCJC and the Blue Valley League, and CYO for that matter.

1. If the other team is doing it, and you're not, you feel like you have to do it too in order to give your team a better chance to win.
2. If the other team does it and you don't like it, you retaliate in kind - players and coaches both.
3. The retaliation escalates, and pretty soon your blocking purposes are not just to advance the ball - they're to hurt somebody.

Kids are pretty flexible, so this may not be as bad a problem as it seems to me. But if I were running the youth league, this would be illegal. Basically, the high school chop block rule would be amended in youth leagues to remove the 'delay' requirement. That's it. You could still cut block - you just couldn't do so at any time that the player you were cutting was being blocked by another player. Or put another way, both the blockers on a double team are responsible for staying high.

I think that would be simpler to teach than trying to warn and teach defensive players about avoiding and defeating high-low blocks - which is what we have to do these days.

Practice Canceled Tonight

Due to the line of thunderstorms, the practice tonight (Wednesday 8/19) has been postponed until tomorrow, same time, same place. Yvette has sent a text, and I have sent an E-Mail regarding the same.

Still Tinkering

The chief challenge for the coaches this year has been the size of our team. With 38 players, we're the size of some high school teams.

Some youth coaches might think it would be great to have 38 players and two squads playing games, because you'd always have a scrimmage partner. There is that. And it is a great thing that we'd anticipated and it's been wonderful.

The downside is mathematical. There are 22 players active on any given play. We have 72% too many for one scrimmage, and only 86% of what we need for two scrimmages. We figured that last little bit out last week when we tried to set up two separate scrimmages and very quickly had quarterbacks playing guard and cornerbacks playing tackle, with 8 v 10 on the two scrimmages such as they were. It wasn't quite what we'd hoped.

So after a few E-Mails back and forth, the coaches hit on having three teams per night. On offense nights we have two offenses of 11 or 12 and a scout defense of 14 to 16. The offenses take turns running plays. Between plays they listen to coaching points about their execution and performance. The scout defense lines up in the particular formation we believe we will be encountering that week, shifting as needed to demonstrate each offense's opponent. We flip that on defense nights, to have one scout offense and two defenses. The scout offense draws plays in the dirt, mimicing the opponent's offense as best we can.

That seems to be working reasonably well, though I have the same problem that higher level teams have - not enough reps for the depth chart. For example, the boys on the scout defense are pretty much the #2's on their respective squad's offenses. Especially in the backfield, the players can develop a timing that is hard-earned. That may be a rough spot for us until we find a proper mix. But we're still tinkering.