retiredoldcoach

700 wins! An ICON! A KING of man! Why is it that the naming of that field at BC after Chuck has not passed yet?

Do Vidor's JV and/or Ozen's JV have a game on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday? I would assume that they have a regularly scheduled district game on Tuesday, is that correct?

No new vote this year. This has been the rule in the local 4A district for over 30 years.

One point has been vaildated. BH kids all played select in different directions. They INDIVIDUALLY got scholarships but their high shool team underachieved. We all hear about the erosion of the team concept in high school sports. In my opinion select sports, whether it be baseball, basketball, or volleyball has contributed to the downfall of TEAM. Its all about ME and MY playing time, and MY performance, and MY scholarship, and MY son or daughter. I have lived through these changing times. I have watched it, I have lived it, and I am disappointed that it has happened.

I think it is ok for coaches to go watch some of the kids that will be coming his way in the future. But I do not agree with him going out to watch for the reasons you guys list. DAD, the little league coach, has been playing him at SS and batting him 3rd since he was wearing diapers. The assitant coaches son is hitting clean up and pitching. No high school coach cares where these kids played in little league. No high school coach cares who was the best in little league. All they care about who is the best player now! (and believe me it is rarely the one that was the best in little league) One guy wrote, "select makes players better". This may be or may not be the truth. I do know one thng I believe is truth. Select does not make our local high school teams better. Local examples: In the eighties and ninties the Houston area schools were ahead of us and already playing selcet ball. Our local playoff teams rolled though Houston like a steam roller after spending the entire year practicing and playing here at home. (TOGETHER) We had a rep in Austin about ten years running. We had teams from the same district playing all of the way through the bracket and meeting in the region finals. Select baseball moved into SETEX and our local high school teams have fallen off of the map. You take the best kids (three or four) off of 8 teams in the area and you just left 8 local high school teams playing in a weak pony league. When is the last playoff run that we have had in 4A or 5A? When is the last top ten team that we have had in 4A or 5A? When is the last team that we had that competed to go to Austin? Don't say Jasper either because they play together year round. I am sure you are going to be able to name a school or two that beat the recent trend, but the name of that school will not be Westbrook, it will not be Nederland, it will not be Vidor, it will not be Lumberton, it will not be LCM, it will not be Ozen, it will not be PNG, it will not be Dayton, it will not be Barbers Hill, and it will not be Livingston. Baseball and basketball! Play together or you will lose. That is just an honest opinion of a retiredoldcoach.

A good portion of that scrutiny that you say they have to endure, is dished out right here on this message board. I am in no way saying that the message board is the problem. We all know the problem. People who feel they have been wronged by such things as playing time is the problem. That, and people who think the coach should be able to win the thoroughbred race riding a donkey.

Mr. Ellison 3amagic was not throwing a jab at you. I understood exactly what he was trying to say. He was saying hire an AD that will treat all sports like they are big school. I have seen this problem for years. If you are going to hire a head football coach that does not teach class. Hire an offensive coordinator that teaches one PE class a day. Then hire a defensive coordinator that teaches one PE class a day. You have given three top football coaches a schedule that is conducive to winning. (and most don't stop there) Football is one of eight major team sports. Ex. Jay Stone left Nederland Baseball Coaching position because he was teaching something like seven Math classes a day. The argument that gets started when is that no one ever gives even the head coach of those other four major boys sports or the head coaches of the other major girls sports an inch of a break in their schedule to help them succeed. WHY is this? Football is the most important sport in Texas. Except to the thousands of coaches, players, and parents of players that do not coach or play football. (I am saying this and I was a football basketball and track guy) The sport they play and coach is the most important sport to them and they would like the opportunity to succeed as well. Ellison, I think you have in both of these sets of shoes. Care to shine some light on this topic?

FYI Saturday is the next available date. If you don't play Saturday for any other reason than field is unplayable, then it is illegal to play on Monday (if either team has a game Tues, Wed, or Thurs.) You would have to play the next Saturday. Just trying to help some guys keep it legal.

How many bases? (first few are no brainers for good umps) Man on first in all situations. 1) Pitched ball hits plate and goes over backstop. 2) Pitched ball hit to short and short throws it over first and out of play. 3) Pitched ball hit to rf, runner has to make sure it is down. Overthrow of second rolls to third, hits base and caroms up and out of the park. 4) Pitched ball hit to on ground to rf, throw at runner at third sails out of the park. 5) Pitched ball hit on ground to rcf gap to the wall, (should be a triple) rf picks up ball, sees the runner on his way to second is not going slow, and on his draw back to throw the ball in he loses his grip and tosses the ball over the outfield fence.

Gunho What you should have said was, "I can't believe Vidor was stealing down eight runs." You should also be made aware that with that lead and runners at the corners, you always try to gun down the runner at second. (I should not say always, but that is how the game is supposed to be be played in that situation)

MCM is correct. High school earned run averages are an average of earned runs given up in seven innings. College and pro ERA's are based off of nine innings.

Select baseball leaves many many kids with nowhere to play. If there is a pony colt league, it is so stripped of the good players it is not worthwhile. This has widened the gap between the haves and the have nots. Theses are the kids dropping the majority of the fly balls and kicking the bigger share of the ground balls. IMO roc

You have helped me see the bigger picture. Now we have a starters dad at home that thinks he is smarter than the coach. His son comes home from school every day and has to hear how dumb the coach is from his dad that he loves. Eventually he believes it and loses confidence in anything his coach tells him. His dad goes around the community telling everyone how dumb the coach is and they believe him because he is the dad of a a good high school player. They decide not to play high school baseball for the dumb coach and only two 9th graders show up to tryouts. There is an old saying in sports. "You are either with us, or you are against us". It is obvious what you are to the HF Baseball Program. A thorn in their side. Do you think writing this stuff for the public to read about your sons team is helping them win ball games? The answer is no. I do not live in a dream world. I live in a world where parents like you tear apart athletic teams every year. PS I would appreciate it if you would not call me an idiot. roc

(joemike) I read your post before it was edited and just did not get a chance to respond until today. High school athletic programs take over guidance of the kids when they show up for try outs in the 9th grade. They take the kids that are handed off to them by little league coaches who are parents. If only two were handed off to the high school coach it sounds like a parent problem to me. It is a well known fact among area coaches that HF has one of the best head coaches around. I also promise you this, no dad in HF has any influence on where that coach puts his kids. He puts his kids where they need to be to win. Then some dad like you, whose kid is not where he thinks he should be, writes on a message board that the coach is being influenced by other dads. That is not the case, he is being influenced by the fact that your son is not as good as the other kid. My advice is move to a lower classification school so Johnny can play shortstop there. Be careful though. he might still be standing (or sitting) in the same spot when you get there. I have seen that before. roc 20 excuses I have heard that dads gave others for why Johnny is not playing the spot he thinks he should: (I could list 100) "The only reason the other kid is playing is that" 1) Dads tell the coach where to play the kids. (get in line and tell him if this is true) but it is not 2) His mom works at the school (get a job at the school) I bet it does not help 3) His mom is good looking (I don't know what to tell you there) 4) His dad buys an ad in the program (buy an ad that says Johnny should play shortstop) 5) The coach likes football players (sign him up) 6) The coach does not like football players 7) The coach only likes big kids 8 The coach only likes little kids 9) The coach only likes fast kids (run fast) 10) The coach knows his dad (socialize) 11) The coach only likes wealthy kids (work some overtime) 12) The coach is a poor judge of talent (put a bug in the assistants ear) 13) The coach only likes left handers (switch hit) 14) The coach only likes black kids 15) The coach only likes hispanic kids 16) The coach only likes white kids 17) The coach only likes asian kids 18) The kid's parent is on the school board 19) The kid's parent is in the booster club 20) The coach is kin to him This is all a bunch a hogwash! The fact is, you can take any starter on any team, and choose an attribute and say that is why the coach plays him. Another fact is that you can bet that it is the total package that the kid brings to the table that gets him into the lineup. Sometimes it is sorry parents that are part of a kid's total package that leads to a decision by the coach to go with someone else. Let me tell you who the coach does like: The left or right handed kid of any race, that runs well, makes good grades, and can help his team win.

It would be safer to let him make out the lineup than to allow him to call pitches. imo

Fans like 2000 are cancerous to a program. There is an old saying in coaching. "You are either WITH US, or AGAINST US." All I am certain of is that 2000 is not WITH US! And that only leaves one thing.

Man Law! No poems on the football board. This one poem is acceptable because today is declared Lumberton Day, it is nicely written, and is by a female. If any of you Lumberton guys write one an Old Milwaukee Beer Can will come down out of the sky on your head. roc

I may be wrong, but I think all D-1 football scholarships are full. They don't give partials like basketball and baseball.

Now that was one of the top ten posts in setxsports history. My hat is off to you vpride. roc

When he meets the parents of his communtiy and realizes you can't breed thoroughbreds out of jack azzes.

Could it be possible that you need to wish for the Vidor kid's to give the coaches a chance to win? I am no expert on Vidor football, but I would think after your track record, that you would be satisfied with having a coach that is a good man, a good role model, and one that helps mold your kids into good people. That is what you have now. Be careful for what you wish for. You could end up with a bad man, a bad role model, someone that does not help your kids become better members of society, and still lose.

Venom33 You evidently missed the thread entitled Toby Foreman Please Come Home You thought wrong!

Gas You have been on a team before. Think back to who was your coach. To you, a punch thrown at him, might as well have been a punch thrown at you. Correct? That is a team. You guys verbally abuse one coach, and you have gone after them all, and the players. IF they are a team. I apologize if you thought it looked as if I was trying to make this into something that it is not. I just think it needs to stop.

I predict that following the game, no matter what the outcome, that the disloyal people of West Orange Texas will gripe about the play calling. This reminds me of the movie "Radio". The barbershop scene. The coach in that movie is a great coach. He is a great man and has a loving family. The sorry people of that town wear him out behind his back, but don't have the guts to say a word when he enters the barbershop on a Saturday morning following a loss. If his team would have won it would have been because of the players. If his team loses it is because of him. Every play that is drawn up on the chalk board is designed to score. Every defensive player on the other team has an offensive guy assigned to block him. Kids miss blocks, fumble balls, drop passes, and listen to their parents blame it on someone else when they get home. Quit blaming their failures on the coach. You probably have already undermined the faith that those kids need to believe in what the coaches are doing. I personally feel that you guys may never be happy again. You were once a powerful 5A team. Then you dropped to 4A. Then you dropped to 3A. And now you are in the category of small 3A. I don't wish this on you, I just think that you may never be back to where you can have teams comparable to those of the past. You would be one step in the right direction if you all stuck together. A wise old coach once said, "If you are not with US, you are against us." At this point in time I think it is safe for the WOS coaching staff to say, "You are not with us." roc

This is nothing new to this area. It happens every year right here in Southeast Texas in a town called Nederland. The Babe Ruth World Series has conflicted with the start of football for many many years. This incident includes a starting quarterback and some other players vital to success. They won't miss one down of football after the scrimmages end. You can bet on that.