Joe T. is ready to play center field for the Mets if they need him.
By Joe Torosian
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”—Groucho Marx
Kick it!
Right off the Top: I liked Pete Carroll’s fake punt last Thursday night…If the Rams weren’t going to defend against it…then take it…I can think of a few current and former coaches who appreciated the move.
Besides, you don’t wear blue and white helmets with darker blue and St. Louis gold trim…Gag!
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Question to Chuck Leonardis, Jim Singiser, Chris MacMillan, Hunter Duran, Wolf, Tim Hawkins, Dominic Salmon, Steve Singiser…all the Mrs. Singisers; How many times have you watched the replay of the Knights CIF title victory over Rancho Mirage?
I’m at three
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Got up on Sunday and it was cold. Left for church with my family, had a great service and then hung out with some of the best people in the world. Came home, played a board game with the family, ate BLATs for lunch, and survived the site of Hayden Christiansen at the end of “Return of The Jedi.”…Took a nap…Rooted for Tampa Bay against Dallas…Saw two episodes of the old “Kolchak: The Nightstalker” television series…It was such a peaceful and relaxing day.
I went to bed wondering why I felt so good…and it came to me. The Rams lost their game on Thursday, and it left Sunday free and clear.
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Interacted with an educator, and he told me more changes are coming to high school football. As more and more programs are being placed in the hands of walk-on coaches, expect schools to drop from 11 to 8-man football in the coming future.
“The idea is to de-emphasize the sport overall and bring it back into standing with all the other sports. This won’t happen at places like Charter Oak, La Habra, or La Mirada but in time you will see a rise in 8-man football in the San Gabriel Valley as a way of maintaining football but eliminating costs and risk.” I was told via email.
“May I tag your name to this in my column?” I wrote back.
“This isn’t life and death, so I would prefer to remain anonymous. I’ve seen your message boards.”
The last thing this educator said, “As administrators and teachers are feeling taxed with their time from academic responsibilities to time spent at home, you can expect to see the whole Friday night football scene scaled back. Not over night but in the next decade.”
The bright, wide, and awake part of me thinks, no way…but the world is changing so fast, coaches are coming and going so quickly, it feels (I said: feels) like it is possible.
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I’ll always be partial to Doug France, Tom Mack, Rich Saul, Dennis Harrah, and Jackie Slater…but the Cowboys offensive line is special.
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Do you know how many coaches remain in our MVS coverage zone who have been at their school for ten years?
Looking back at 75 schools from Burbank to LaVerne and Pasadena to La Mirada…Six remain. Six out of 75.
Since 2011? 13
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Last Add Cowboys: I wonder how good Dak Prescott would be if Rams left tackle, Greg Robinson was protecting him?
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Donny is looking a little older than Marie in this pic.
Rich Whittington living la vida loca!
MVS staffer Rich Whittington is living life in the fast lane these days.
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Note to Dodgers Fans: Are you good with a trade for Minnesota Twins second baseman Brian Dozier if it includes Jose De Leon?
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I love football…and nothing seems to quench my passion for it…neither Jeff Fisher, the Rams offensive line, Case Keenum, Dallas Cowboys success or ESPN can separate me from the love of football…Except…
Have you ever tried to watch “Good Morning Football” on the NFL Network? It’s worse than sitting through a Transformers movie…I tried and I tried, but I cannot watch it…Go MLB Network.
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Midbits (same as ‘Tidbits’)
Midbits: Has the NBA season started yet?
Midbits: On this date in 1976 the Rams went to Dallas and defeated the Cowboys, 14-12, in the first round of the NFC playoffs…This came just one year after the Rams, 37-7, loss at home to the Cowboys in the NFC Championship game. In this defensive struggle Pat Haden was picked off three times but so was Roger Staubach. The difference was the Dallas special teams which harassed Rams punter Rusty Jackson all night.
After a defensive stand gave the Rams the ball deep in their own end in the game’s final minutes; Los Angeles HC, Chuck Knox made the decision for Jackson to run out of the end zone and take the safety rather than give the Cowboys a chance to block the punt…Jackson, who would only play in one more game as a Ram, spiked the ball as he went out of the end zone.
What a great night to be Rams fan.
Midbits: The Handsdrade Award this week goes to Tampa Bay tight end, Cameron Brate.
Midbits: Keeping my fingers crossed for Doug Rau…hoping he gets the call to go into Cooperstown.
Midbits: I notice there are a few more Oakland Raiders fans these days popping up on social media…
The Dude abides…
652
Psalm 145
Contact Joe at joe@midvalleysports.com
Author of “Tangent Dreams: A High School Football Novel” available through amazon.com …and “The Dead Bug Tales” available this fall.
Follow Joe on Twitter @joet13b
It is not just the concussion stuff. If you watch the way good strong football teams can play it is scary. Especially when you consider it’s your son out there on the battle field. Many players out there are like cruise missiles hurtling themselves at you right at your spleen or knees. The pro game does not look any safer to me either, just more penalties. I think it is crazy to let your kid play for a under-manned or poorly coached team. If he must play then transfer him to a team that has plenty of athletes, great staff, so he doesn’t have to play both sides of the ball. Those under manned teams are where the kids get maimed.
It’s been happening in youth programs for a few years now. If they don’t play when they are young, they won’t play in high school.
Darn it–one point I realized I screwed up–my kid’s school had trouble getting over 25 kids out for FRESHMAN football. Third straight year of decline for the 9th graders, though, which is why I cited the parental factor.
The educator made the right call asking to be anonymous, given the first two responses. Hahaha. He’s not 100% wrong, though. Think you’ll see some smaller programs not go to 8-man…they’ll pack it in entirely. Already happened this year with Blair and Keppel forfeiting multiple games, and happened at a school with real football tradition (Palos Verdes Peninsula) in 2015. My son’s school, a school with multiple CIF titles in the past couple decades, had trouble getting more than 25 kids out for football last year. I think it’s part administrative indifference (look at some recent headlines in the MVS backyard as an instructive example–how was the dance, by the way?), but I believe it also is parental. When the public conversation is CTE, and not TD-to-INT ratio, this is not necessarily surprising.
Your educators prediction is about as good as those dolts that are predicting the electoral college will vote for Clinton and not Trump today. High school football getting bigger not smaller. There will always be small and poorly coached and managed teams that fall by the wayside. Just the law of large numbers.
From Joe T.: This is what I was told…not what I subscribe to. I thought it was interesting.
How nice to know that an ‘educator’ feels football is given too much attention in our public schools. Let me add that football is probably THE one thing that has served to deflect attention from the inefficiency of these institutions. Take away football and these ‘educators’ will be forced to explain why they need billions of dollars and twelve years to produce minimum-wage-only capable graduates.
From Joe T.: As I shared…I’m only the messenger here, not saying I subscribe…Interesting thing, and probably why I went with this, is because I’ve had administrators tell me–from different schools at different times–that when there day is over they want to go home…and those administrators who “white hat” the facilities are very important.