to field a team or not......

[Rida4Life]

all this year to year crap with schools not fielding football teams is getting old.  How do we end it?  Well Louisiana has pretty stout penalties from what I hear.  Here are my suggestions from what I've heard about LA and what I think would be fair.

1.  take the average gate for each school in a given season.... divide it up to a per school average.... the forfeiting school would pay each league school that money for lost revenue. 
2.  if you don't field a team during a cycle you must wait until the next cycle begins to get back into the conference. 
3.  once readmitted, you have ZERO home games the first season back. 
4.  If you do not field a team, you are ineligible for post season play in that sport for a set amount of time (3-4 years or whatever)

If there is no penalty for this then teams (as we have seen) will be on the fence about fielding a team every year and as a result put other schools in scheduling difficulties every year. 
I know that no one likes to see programs shut down, but it's getting old fast with a lot of the same schools pulling this card every year or two.  Just my suggestions and I know they really mean nothing as I have no pull but you would think the schools are getting tired of it.

[nomorewhining]

The only problem with that is......the programs are shut down because of the number of kids that will commit to play. If they don't come out, and commit to being there every day, you can't play. Why penalize the school. They don't WANT to shut down, they have no choice.

[Rida4Life]

because it's not JUST about that school..... it's about the other schools on their schedule.  It's not fair to the kids at school B to have two open weeks simply because schools A and C couldn't field a team that year.

[dragondad]

Not sure I'd fine the school, I agree it's not their fault the kids aren't showing up.....or is it?? For most it's not

[THA TRUTH]

It's not because of the kids in Hampton I hear

[#72 Bearden Bear]

It's not because of the kids in Hampton I hear

A guy I work with from Hampton says its a little bit of both, kids and coach. They are pretty bad in all sports, he said they would probably win a cell phone state championship.

[Elvis]

This happens every year. At least they are telling you now so you do have a chance to find someone to play. 8 season games are plenty of high school football 2A.

[Backwoods Bart]

This happens every year. At least they are telling you now so you do have a chance to find someone to play. 8 season games are plenty of high school football 2A.

No it's not! It's not fair to the opponents who have to grind the week for no reason! Unless your hurt, or scared!

[Elvis]

Bump up and play 3A, and you dont have to worry about it.

[THA TRUTH]

Sorry tht us down in the 8 like to play week in and week out

[Proud Buckaroo]

It's not just the kids... The drive has to be there with the fans, the coaches, and the administration. You have to get the kids interested in playing... If you had a good coach, and support from the locals. The kids would want to play more.

[MR#1]

"A guy I work with from Hampton says its a little bit of both, kids and coach. They are pretty bad in all sports, he said they would probably win a cell phone state championship." - #72 Bearden Bear

+1 --- Now that's funny, but sad also.

[Wilson]

The reason Louisiana has gone to penalizing programs for dropping football is because some schools were dropping their programs sighting lack of participation but had numbers ranging anywhere from 20 to 30+ . . the real reason they were dropping was a lack of success causing low gates for home games and making the program operate at a loss financially . . A lot of districts are run by pencil pushers that don't care one bit for athletics and would much rather not have to deal with them. .any chance to kill a program they take. . Louisiana has addressed this

[BigBrother]

Im with rida. I've been around folks who think hs athletics are about rules and harsh punishments. It is not. To get commitment you have to make kids want to commit. Vince Lombardi said when everything is bad you have to build your players up, when its going good ride them for every mistake. When building a program you have to be part con man. Once its built then you apply the whip.

[sevenof400]

This thread isn't exactly painting a positive picture of high school football...

[Rida4Life]

my point is don't play football year to year... if you can't sustain a program, then drop football and focus on basketball.  don't keep the other teams in the conference in a yearly bind.

[Lions84]

Football doesn't have the societal or parental support or push that it used too.  Grown up in Clarendon if you were not club footed or had the palsy your parents and community expected you to play and if not they would say something to you and your parents about it.  My Dad would not let me play for 2 years cause the Coach was a HS classmate that he could not stand. I caught it till my Cousin who ran the Lumber shed called off the dogs when he found out how Daddy felt.