High School Football during Thanksgiving Break

[LTFALCON]

So I am curious who supports or do not support High School football during Thanksgiving break? I am 100% a football guy and there is something special about playing football during the Thanksgiving break. Heck memories of doing walk through practices on Thanksgiving day will never be forgotten. I attended the Huffman vs Carthage game and was embarrassed for Huffman and the community. Huffman had maybe 15 band members, a handful of their dance team, no cheer leaders, and missing some players who i guess had prior engagements. . I don't get it!!!!!! Yet across the way, Carthage had the stands full, band was in full effect, cheerleaders, drill team, blow horns, YOU NAME IT, Carthage had it all. Obviously Huffman band, drill team, hell even the football team were not aware there was a 2nd round playoff game happening. Yes I get it, the odds were against you going against the 2018 STATE CHAMPIONS. (Yes they win it all this year) but how in the heck does Huffman allow players, drill team members, band team, cheer leaders, all just not participate in this game? The season is not over people. If I hear, this is just HS football again, I am going to blow! LOL

[L-Train11]

That’s probably the reason Carthage is the defending champs, and are a powerhouse year in and year out.

But also Huffman probably just doesn’t have a lot of football support. Lumberton stands were pretty full Friday and we weren’t the defending champs. And that was an afternoon game too. It just varies by community 

[PlayActionPass]

52 minutes ago, LTFALCON said:

So I am curious who supports or do not support High School football during Thanksgiving break? I am 100% a football guy and there is something special about playing football during the Thanksgiving break. Heck memories of doing walk through practices on Thanksgiving day will never be forgotten. I attended the Huffman vs Carthage game and was embarrassed for Huffman and the community. Huffman had maybe 15 band members, a handful of their dance team, no cheer leaders, and missing some players who i guess had prior engagements. . I don't get it!!!!!! Yet across the way, Carthage had the stands full, band was in full effect, cheerleaders, drill team, blow horns, YOU NAME IT, Carthage had it all. Obviously Huffman band, drill team, hell even the football team were not aware there was a 2nd round playoff game happening. Yes I get it, the odds were against you going against the 2018 STATE CHAMPIONS. (Yes they win it all this year) but how in the heck does Huffman allow players, drill team members, band team, cheer leaders, all just not participate in this game? The season is not over people. If I hear, this is just HS football again, I am going to blow! LOL

Hargrave plays football in their spare time. That "community" could care less about football.

[ST413]

It actually probably due to the fact Huffman knew what was going to happen ahead of time and had better things to do.

[badndn]

57 minutes ago, LTFALCON said:

So I am curious who supports or do not support High School football during Thanksgiving break? I am 100% a football guy and there is something special about playing football during the Thanksgiving break. Heck memories of doing walk through practices on Thanksgiving day will never be forgotten. I attended the Huffman vs Carthage game and was embarrassed for Huffman and the community. Huffman had maybe 15 band members, a handful of their dance team, no cheer leaders, and missing some players who i guess had prior engagements. . I don't get it!!!!!! Yet across the way, Carthage had the stands full, band was in full effect, cheerleaders, drill team, blow horns, YOU NAME IT, Carthage had it all. Obviously Huffman band, drill team, hell even the football team were not aware there was a 2nd round playoff game happening. Yes I get it, the odds were against you going against the 2018 STATE CHAMPIONS. (Yes they win it all this year) but how in the heck does Huffman allow players, drill team members, band team, cheer leaders, all just not participate in this game? The season is not over people. If I hear, this is just HS football again, I am going to blow! LOL

I hear ya, but I guarantee you those same folks saying “this is just HS Football” would be calling for the Head Coach to be fired if Huffman wasn’t winning! 

[PlayActionPass]

5 minutes ago, badndn said:

I hear ya, but I guarantee you those same folks saying “this is just HS Football” would be calling for the Head Coach to be fired if Huffman wasn’t winning! 

Not in Hargrave, they really don't care.

[LCMAlumtiger32]

3 hours ago, LTFALCON said:

So I am curious who supports or do not support High School football during Thanksgiving break? I am 100% a football guy and there is something special about playing football during the Thanksgiving break. Heck memories of doing walk through practices on Thanksgiving day will never be forgotten. I attended the Huffman vs Carthage game and was embarrassed for Huffman and the community. Huffman had maybe 15 band members, a handful of their dance team, no cheer leaders, and missing some players who i guess had prior engagements. . I don't get it!!!!!! Yet across the way, Carthage had the stands full, band was in full effect, cheerleaders, drill team, blow horns, YOU NAME IT, Carthage had it all. Obviously Huffman band, drill team, hell even the football team were not aware there was a 2nd round playoff game happening. Yes I get it, the odds were against you going against the 2018 STATE CHAMPIONS. (Yes they win it all this year) but how in the heck does Huffman allow players, drill team members, band team, cheer leaders, all just not participate in this game? The season is not over people. If I hear, this is just HS football again, I am going to blow! LOL

LCM would have brought everyone and still took the whipping. I’ve notice Huffman doesn’t even feel up thier home stands. Why don’t they have any support ?

[ya_know]

I agree it varies by Community.  Pretty disappointing when the kids put in the work to not have support on a Friday night.  

Players should not miss games over Thanksgiving Break.  You know when you start the season there is a chance to be playing. If you are not comfortable with that, then you shouldn't play to begin with.  

My question is, who deserves the blame, the parents or the kids? 

[Guitar Man]

It is a whole different culture with East Texas football, especially Carthage. Everything is centered around football. Yeah, they have all the other sports and other extracurriculars, but everyone knows in those communities that football is second to nothing, and that is why Carthage does well every year.    

[oldschool2]

The fact that this is even a thread leads me to believe that Huffman (or any school that feels remotely similar to this) will never have any real success in football.  "who supports or do not support High School football during Thanksgiving break?"..  Get out the flags Huffman.  You're officially playing intramural football over there.

[PlayActionPass]

20 hours ago, ya_know said:

I agree it varies by Community.  Pretty disappointing when the kids put in the work to not have support on a Friday night.  

Players should not miss games over Thanksgiving Break.  You know when you start the season there is a chance to be playing. If you are not comfortable with that, then you shouldn't play to begin with.  

My question is, who deserves the blame, the parents or the kids? 

This is a top down problem. Everybody is to blame. It starts with the parents and the community, but the whole Administration is to blame. 

[SmashMouth]

1 hour ago, PlayActionPass said:

This is a top down problem. Everybody is to blame. It starts with the parents and the community, but the whole Administration is to blame. 

I posted in a thread earlier which got locked shortly thereafter, but it dealt with this same discussion:

"Lumberton, LC-M, Bridge City, Hamshire Fannett (Include Huffman, if you wish) and other teams that don't consistently win will never consistently win.

It's not because their coach sucks, or there kids "just aren't as big as kids on the other team" or because select baseball or band or because no one gives them a chance or BLAH BLAH BLAH and the sickening list goes on and on...

The kids, the parents, the community, the fans, the school system - they are all complacent.

Until that kid wakes up at 5:30 each morning and gets a run or a lifting workout in before school or goes to the gym on the weekends and eats a good diet to pack on some beneficial muscle mass and gets some other leaders from his team to force all the other kids to join him, then it will never work. Those kids need to be salesmen for the team. Talk it up with the band kids or soccer athletes or baseball players that don't play football and try to get them to play. Until the student athlete takes control of every aspect of his athletic ability and knowledge of his position, then it will never work.

Until the parents quit bitching about the coaches' crappy decisions about who should start at QB, until they nudge their athlete at an early age to condition and stay active and athletic, until every parent of an athlete joins the booster club and actually does more than pay their once a year dues, until they are ALL IN on their town's football program, then it will never work.

Until the community & fans backs the football program like they do at PN-G where season tickets are passed down from generation to generation, until every business owner has the school colors in their windows during football season, until the people who pass an athlete in a letter jacket at the grocery store and tell him "Good Luck" or "Go Bears", until Friday night stands are packed out with folks that don't even have a kid on the team, then it will never work.

What does the school district need to provide? A coaching staff. I'm not knocking ANY of the coaches in our area. Quite frankly, I know several of them, and they are pretty good guys that feed their families by coaching high school sports. But if I have the means, and I want to win, I'm getting the best that's available. Not just from an X's and O's standpoint, but someone that can help turn a program around. Someone that can not only draw up plays and prepare for their opponents week to week, but someone that can help with the kids and the parents and the community issues above. How many coaches of what would be considered average schools in this area have had consistent 4 deep playoff runs? How many have been to state more than once (or ever)? ANY? More like none. Forget the pretty turf stadium (Lumberton, for instance) and spend that money on a coach. Until the school and the community are willing to pay, then it will never work.

A very good friend of mine who has coached at a lot of schools coaches at WOS. He says the atmosphere there is much more different than you find at the "average" schools. Until the atmosphere changes and people quit being complacent, and until it makes each player AND parent AND fan AND school teacher/administrator AND anyone else in the community physically ill to lose, then it will never work.

Winning is not just a goal, but an expectation. Anything less isn't good enough..."

 

[LTFALCON]

SmashMouth - Gr8 post man