another question for head coaches

Years ago - we stopped giving ANY awards for "superlatives". We now give a beautiful plaque to all SENIORS, that has the Varsity letter colorfully embossed in metal, & on the plaque is a summary of their entire career in the program (years played on JV AND Varsity, any post-season honors selected by the District & State such as All-District, All-State, by year).

This, plus the Varsity "letter" itself, is all we give. We have had NO complaints. It is in keeping with our BIG "TEAM" & little "me" philosophy!

Hey Coach,

My opinion has always been that I certainly see ONEBACK'S philosophy, but my opinion differs.
I am a firm believer in rewarding excellence! I have never rewarded mediocrity and never will. Why should a few outstanding individuals be kept from receiving a reward that they have justly earned? To appease the parents of a youngster who is disgruntled because he has not attained the level of excellence some others on the team have? That is pure baloney in my book. That practice has resulted in kids who have played from the youth leagues up receiving trophies every time they finish a season, no matter if it is last place or not! By the time they are freshman in high school the mommas think they deserve the same reward as though they have excelled right along with those who REALLY HAVE. Admittedly I am definitely old school with 42 years on the field behind me. However, this modern day trend of selfesteem of the youngster is more important than anything else is a crock too, in my book! We are raising a generation of whimps is what we are doing! It is a slap in the face of any youngster who devotes his entire effort to becoming a winner by displaying an outstanding dedication to team principles, who excells in both the classroom and on the field, and stands out in every way. A kid who misses practice, is not dedicated to or even understands the team principle, who is mediocre at best is to be equally rewarded? Not in any program I ever ran.

Coach Easton

In over 40 years of coaching, so many times awards came down to a dead heat between 2-4 players! Then, you have to choose one (staff OR players), & someone gets left out. You could have "CO-MVP'S", etc., but that was not what we wanted either.

The value of awards, trophies, ETC. have been diminished by the AMOUNT of hardware a player accumulates going back to Youth League. My son began in Youth League at age 7. Recently (he is now in his 30's) he threw away about 20+ trophies. There were so many - they became "not that important"! There were TEAM awards, Individual Awards, ETC.!

The ONLY trophy he kept was the TEAM AWARD for going 10-0 in 1989 (even though he was "All-District" in 1989). "BIG TEAM" - "little me"! He learned THAT from his coaches, & it was a VALUABLE lesson to take thru life! His REWARD for competing in High School football was the priviledge of competing, and being a PART of a TEAM, & that was reward enough in ITSELF!

“THE LAW OF ATHLETICS”

“And this is the law of athletics,
as true as the flight of the ball.
And the player that keeps it will win,
but the player that breaks it must fall.
As the ball and the parts it is made of,
are bound and held fast by the seam,
the strength of the team is the player,
and the strength of the player the TEAM!”

The most PRIZED item that ALL of our players got at the Banquet was a professionally done high quality HI-LITE DVD of the entire season. Background music was the school fight song, the "Alma Mater", & some tunes popular THAT season. Also included were post game TV interviews from the local TV stations!