Rec sports issue, first grade team! Is this normal?

[Anonymous]

Coach probably has a son on the team and his main concern is about his son’s development. Some of these guys really don’t care about anything else.

[Anonymous]

A depth chart is ridiculous on many levels for this age, but on the surface, it’s not even feasible. It’s rec flag football for first graders, which is the first domino to fall when a kid is sick, grandma is in town, it’s raining, or the sitter canceled. There is no way all 16 kids will show up and only play their assigned roles. Rec sports get what they get, and it’s usually a big roster because kids don’t show up.

[Anonymous]

Find new team- do not even play first game. Get out of there!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I forgot to add one thing.

Generally, my roster has 10 kids on it. If everyone showed up I had 5 kids play offense for the 1st half and 5 kids play defense for the 1st half and then they would switch. If there were less players, I fully admit my better players tended to stay on the field more - one main reason was that most of them were in better shape and had the endurance to not come off the field.

Further, and I sent this in an email at the beginning of the season. The regular season everyone is involved with trying to touch the ball. At younger ages, that basically meant running the ball. But, as they have aged up and the field gets "smaller" it means passing the ball - I don't have as much control over where the QB passes the ball. But, I tell parents in the playoffs (when everyone makes the play offs), I can do whatever I want. Everyone still plays but it might me one kid always plays defense or another kid always played QB.

I had a coach do this to my son. He never got to play offense or touch the ball in flag football in fifth grade. He is now playing college football in the SEC. A lot of dad coaches aren’t the best judge of talent. Just keep it equal for a rec team even if it means you don’t win, especially at that age.

Hopefully, your son has better reading comprehension than you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Coach probably has a son on the team and his main concern is about his son’s development. Some of these guys really don’t care about anything else.

This is very likely.

Rec. sports should be about fun and development first over winning with a set team. Bring it up to the league and tell them your concerns. They may have a coach reach out to correct the situation. Kids in Rec need equally playing time and they need to rotate positions. Hell, they philosophy is to do this in travel sports too where they prioritize development over winning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our coach said emailed out a depth chart so we learned our son is on the second string and isn’t a starter. They are in first grade. Is this normal? It’s 5v5 flag football and the kids will stick to one of 5 offensive positions and 3 defensive positions for the whole season. No changes on positions. Most are 6 and a few 7 year olds. This is my son’s second year in the program. He’s a center.

I've coached both of my sons' flag football teams from 1st through 8th grade. And, no this is not normal at all at the 1st and 2nd grade level. At that age every kid should touch the ball during the game at least once - maybe twice. At that age, everyone is just running the ball anyway. There might be one kid that can throw the ball and he's probably the only kid that can reliably catch the ball. There is a really easy ways to do get everyone a touch. You give the ball to your less the ball on 1st and 2nd down. If you don't convert then you give it to your best player. Maybe you run some diversion counter type play or reverse for your slower kids but every kid should touch the ball. Not every kid should play QB - because only a couple of kids really understand what to do and if you have someone at QB not understand then the play blows up.

I can tell you stories of guys that do it right. Like kids looking at me when I say on 4th down the ball is going to be handed off to kid X. They ask why? I say "That's there best player and he wants to get a 1st down." The coach on that team would always hand off the ball to his less talented kids on 1st and 2nd down to ensure they touched the ball. If they scored or got a 1st down - great. If not, he knew his best player likely would on 4th down.

I can tell you stories of guys that have done it wrong. Like 2 years ago, I was coaching my 4th grade son's team at the time, we played a team that handed the ball off to the one same kid 19 of 20 times. And the time they didn't he was off the field tying his shoes. He was really good athlete that we bottle up sometime and sometimes we didn't. They won by a couple of TDs but as a parent on that team I would've been livid that my kid was basically standing there on offense. Though looking at the sidelines of the other team most parents seemed to be okay with because "hey, we won."

I will say as the kids get older, center because one of the more important positions given everyone is an eligible receiver. The center is usually one of the easiest guys to get open and shot gun snaps become really important as teams want to get their QB back away from the blitz.

Hopefully the OP can clarify, because there is a way that this questionable coach might be doing things similar to what you are doing. I try to be generous in my assumptions of a coach with the amount of coaching I have done, like you, and knowing that parents don't always get things right and understand.

I'm ok with a depth chart, as long as it doesn't mean the 1st string is taking 90% (or even 60% of the snaps). Kids get tired, not everyone shows up to all games, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I forgot to add one thing.

Generally, my roster has 10 kids on it. If everyone showed up I had 5 kids play offense for the 1st half and 5 kids play defense for the 1st half and then they would switch. If there were less players, I fully admit my better players tended to stay on the field more - one main reason was that most of them were in better shape and had the endurance to not come off the field.

Further, and I sent this in an email at the beginning of the season. The regular season everyone is involved with trying to touch the ball. At younger ages, that basically meant running the ball. But, as they have aged up and the field gets "smaller" it means passing the ball - I don't have as much control over where the QB passes the ball. But, I tell parents in the playoffs (when everyone makes the play offs), I can do whatever I want. Everyone still plays but it might me one kid always plays defense or another kid always played QB.

I had a coach do this to my son. He never got to play offense or touch the ball in flag football in fifth grade. He is now playing college football in the SEC. A lot of dad coaches aren’t the best judge of talent. Just keep it equal for a rec team even if it means you don’t win, especially at that age.

Hopefully, your son has better reading comprehension than you do.

Your words:
I forgot to add one thing.

Generally, my roster has 10 kids on it. If everyone showed up I had 5 kids play offense for the 1st half and 5 kids play defense for the 1st half and then they would switch. If there were less players, I fully admit my better players tended to stay on the field more - one main reason was that most of them were in better shape and had the endurance to not come off the field.

Further, and I sent this in an email at the beginning of the season. The regular season everyone is involved with trying to touch the ball. At younger ages, that basically meant running the ball. But, as they have aged up and the field gets "smaller" it means passing the ball - I don't have as much control over where the QB passes the ball. But, I tell parents in the playoffs (when everyone makes the play offs), I can do whatever I want. Everyone still plays but it might me one kid always plays defense or another kid always played QB.

My words: Yes, a coach did the same thing to my son in 5th grade. He always played defense. Now he's playing in college in the SEC. Dad coaches aren't the best judge of talent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our coach said emailed out a depth chart so we learned our son is on the second string and isn’t a starter. They are in first grade. Is this normal? It’s 5v5 flag football and the kids will stick to one of 5 offensive positions and 3 defensive positions for the whole season. No changes on positions. Most are 6 and a few 7 year olds. This is my son’s second year in the program. He’s a center.

While it may seem unreasonable. It is kind of refreshing for the coach to be upfront about it. It would suck to get a year into the team just to find out no matter how your kid trains he isn't ever going to get playing time. This is more often the case in youth sports than not, where it's more about the coach's kid developing than anything. Many parents are fine with dropping their kid off for "baby sitting", I don't understand it, but if you want actual coaching for your kid, you now have the option to go elsewhere, which is kind of nice when you think about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I forgot to add one thing.

Generally, my roster has 10 kids on it. If everyone showed up I had 5 kids play offense for the 1st half and 5 kids play defense for the 1st half and then they would switch. If there were less players, I fully admit my better players tended to stay on the field more - one main reason was that most of them were in better shape and had the endurance to not come off the field.

Further, and I sent this in an email at the beginning of the season. The regular season everyone is involved with trying to touch the ball. At younger ages, that basically meant running the ball. But, as they have aged up and the field gets "smaller" it means passing the ball - I don't have as much control over where the QB passes the ball. But, I tell parents in the playoffs (when everyone makes the play offs), I can do whatever I want. Everyone still plays but it might me one kid always plays defense or another kid always played QB.

I had a coach do this to my son. He never got to play offense or touch the ball in flag football in fifth grade. He is now playing college football in the SEC. A lot of dad coaches aren’t the best judge of talent. Just keep it equal for a rec team even if it means you don’t win, especially at that age.

Hopefully, your son has better reading comprehension than you do.

Your words:
I forgot to add one thing.

Generally, my roster has 10 kids on it. If everyone showed up I had 5 kids play offense for the 1st half and 5 kids play defense for the 1st half and then they would switch. If there were less players, I fully admit my better players tended to stay on the field more - one main reason was that most of them were in better shape and had the endurance to not come off the field.

Further, and I sent this in an email at the beginning of the season. The regular season everyone is involved with trying to touch the ball. At younger ages, that basically meant running the ball. But, as they have aged up and the field gets "smaller" it means passing the ball - I don't have as much control over where the QB passes the ball. But, I tell parents in the playoffs (when everyone makes the play offs), I can do whatever I want. Everyone still plays but it might me one kid always plays defense or another kid always played QB.

My words: Yes, a coach did the same thing to my son in 5th grade. He always played defense. Now he's playing in college in the SEC. Dad coaches aren't the best judge of talent.

Nope. You are still missing the reading comprehension.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like a terrible coach. Beware.

Sounds like a winning coach.

[Anonymous]

Not normal at all. Kids should get equal playing time at a variety of positions - including quarterback. My H has been coaching for 7 years. This is a rec sport, everyone pays the same amount and should get equal playing time. The only exception possibly being playoffs.

Find another team/league.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just to clarify: the child’s ONLY position is second string center?

Or he has other positions and is the backup center?

Is this program attached to a facility that is building its competitive football presence?

Our non-profit rec league requires all players to play roughly half the game. We don’t ordinarily time it, but if they are seeing the same kids sitting on the sideline the refs will say something to the coach.

With 6 year old? What a bunch o bs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like a terrible coach. Beware.

Sounds like a winning coach.

Ooooooo. So manly. Getting your self esteem from rec games for 6 year olds.

Pathetic.