Wheelersburg Football 2018 Outlook

[greygoose]

Here's my question I'd like to know because I've often wondered how many athletes do go leave and go to Burg. Obviously everything holds true in terms of hard work, having the program taught at such a young age and remaining consistent all the way through out and not having that coaching turnover. With the likes of Clay, South Webster, New Boston simply not having football how many kids does Burg get to come in from the surrounding area?? Then you see where Green's program is and the education level that Burg offers compared to others in the area. One of the reasons I ask is I always figured they'd benefit from it, not saying it's making their program but beneficial none the less. With that being said I spoke with someone at work and mentioned the possibility of the Parker boy from Portsmouth transferring to burg and they had mentioned there was talk of burg closing up their open enrollment.

[Seabee_0586]

I never did understand why wheelersburg didn’t build a bigger school than they did bc they knew a lot of kids would come their for open enrollment

[Burg93]

I never did understand why wheelersburg didn’t build a bigger school than they did bc they knew a lot of kids would come their for open enrollment

The W'burg Board did know, but the State has pretty strict guidelines on how the size and number of classrooms that can be financed is determined. They go by demonstrated past growth trends and the current number of students in the lower grades. I was told at the time, but have no confirmation, that PHS was able to negotiate a larger school than they could justify under the guidelines by arguing that they had a large number of resident students who had transferred to other schools but would return if they had better facilities. I do not think that actually materialized. Bottom line-can't(or could not at the time) use projected open enrollment to increase the size a new school building.

[Burg93]

Socioeconomics have a little to do with it.

Scioto County doesn't have a great deal of wealth but a great deal of that wealth resides in Wheelersburg.

Money helps.

I graduated from Wheelersburg so please know I'm not trolling. It's a hard truth. If the majority of your kids are getting free lunches it's more difficult to put together great sports programs.

Not according to this: https://statisticalatlas.com/county/Ohi ... Employment

[YOU'RE TIGER BAIT]

great comments from everybody. thank you.

[madpolecat]

Socioeconomics have a little to do with it.

Scioto County doesn't have a great deal of wealth but a great deal of that wealth resides in Wheelersburg.

Money helps.

I graduated from Wheelersburg so please know I'm not trolling. It's a hard truth. If the majority of your kids are getting free lunches it's more difficult to put together great sports programs.

I'll stick by my guns on what factors I have found give a smaller school a chance at sustained, high-level, football success...

1. Family/Financial Stability (allows kids to be kids longer) --

Money helps, but it only needs to be enough to keep things stable.

https://statisticalatlas.com/county/Ohi ... Employment

According to chart #14 on the supplied link, this bears out. Only South Webster has a higher median income in Scioto County. Clarktown and Rosemount are the only ones comparably above the county-wide median, but neither one of those is anything more than a neighborhood. Clarktown has 1,000 residents; Rosemount has 2,200. I believe that those kids' home district is Clay (no football).

Compare median household incomes for Portsmouth ($27,253), Ironton ($33,488), and Wheelersburg ($53,646). I'll include South Webster because their football kids invariably go to 'Burg ($53,929).

Poverty Rates: Ironton 20%, Portsmouth 35.8%, Wheelersburg 10.7%, Webster 10.4%.

(Numbers from https://www.census.gov/en.html)

All three are in Division V, Region 19. Somebody else can look up their ten-year football records.

2. District population density --

The kids just can't be spread too far out from the school. Kids who are on school buses long times have much lower participation rates, if only because the logistics of getting back to the house if no bus runs after practice.

____________

If these two factors are in your favor, a football program will get the most/best of the available kids in the district to come out and participate in sports. These numbers describe the raw materials a coach/school has to build a program.

At that point, coaching, administrative support, feeder programs, culture and all those other factors can give the school a chance to have a great PROGRAM, and not just the occasional good season.

'Burg has great coaching, atmosphere, and support. The results speak for themselves. But 'Burg is certainly a situation where the raw materials can show up to play.

[Tartanblue]

Coaching and building a system. Burg starts implementing their system at the youth level and build upon it each year the kids go through the system. It's done in every single sport. Football alone their youth teams only play other burg teams. I don't believe they play another school in football until Jr. High....that means before they play West, Valley, Minford, ect. The Burg players have practiced and ran the same system of plays for at least two years.

They don't have teams they have a PROGRAM

[YOU'RE TIGER BAIT]

does the wheelersburg district predominately hire teachers only as coaches. I'm hearing the ironton coach was asked to resign and a union grievance was threatened by another coach on the staff.

[madpolecat]

If we look at the Coldwater/MAC model, youth football isn't necessary.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/m ... D9Vm28yiJ/

But the interviewed, coaches prominently mention stability (again, it only has to be enough money) as a key to long-term success.

What I see a lot of from posters on here is what you see from a lot of people when asked about the roots of their success... They always tend to over-credit factors which they believe they or their coaches can control (a youth program) while ignoring/downplaying the factors which they don't (how many kids live close to the school and how many kids come from a situation that allows them to participate enough to buy into the program).

It like the case of a guy who claims to have incredible acumen as a businessmen, but neglects to respect the role that his father giving him a $4 million starter loan played .

[fbnut]

If we look at the Coldwater/MAC model, youth football isn't necessary.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/m ... D9Vm28yiJ/

But the interviewed, coaches prominently mention stability (again, it only has to be enough money) as a key to long-term success.

What I see a lot of from posters on here is what you see from a lot of people when asked about the roots of their success... They always tend to over-credit factors which they believe they or their coaches can control (a youth program) while ignoring/downplaying the factors which they don't (how many kids live close to the school and how many kids come from a situation that allows them to participate enough to buy into the program).

It like the case of a guy who claims to have incredible acumen as a businessmen, but neglects to respect the role that his father giving him a $4 million starter loan played .

I don’t believe the coldwater/MAC model has soccer in play

[madpolecat]

^^^^
That is also correct.

[madpolecat]

I would say that the existence of varsity soccer and successful football at a Division V school probably says something about the sheer number of kids at 'Burg who can afford to still be kids and play sports (familial stability).

[baseball16]

I'm an outsider looking in, but will give my 2 cents worth.
Wheelersburg has a great culture. Teams root for all teams to succeed. Fan support is bar none.
But I truly believe this one area is the main reason why Wheelersburg is at the top and some will probably disagree, which is fine. Wheelersburg only has a 12% Divorce Rate. Meaning that many of these kids are coming from 2 person households. Some may argue this is not a big deal, but I have seen it too often. The higher the divorce rate the more problems a child will have in school and sports. Yes, there are many success stories of kids making it with one parent or no parents, but many of these kids in Wheelersburg have a steady family and Support that goes a long ways and it starts in 88% of the Homes.

[madpolecat]

I'm an outsider looking in, but will give my 2 cents worth.
Wheelersburg has a great culture. Teams root for all teams to succeed. Fan support is bar none.
But I truly believe this one area is the main reason why Wheelersburg is at the top and some will probably disagree, which is fine. Wheelersburg only has a 12% Divorce Rate. Meaning that many of these kids are coming from 2 person households. Some may argue this is not a big deal, but I have seen it too often. The higher the divorce rate the more problems a child will have in school and sports. Yes, there are many success stories of kids making it with one parent or no parents, but many of these kids in Wheelersburg have a steady family and Support that goes a long ways and it starts in 88% of the Homes.

Familial Stability. If there can be stability, divorce is immaterial. Of course, it's a lot easier for a family to stay stable if there is enough money and somebody to watch the kids and take the kids to all their events. Having two cooperative parents (divorced or not) makes it easier for those things to happen.

[Otto]

I think the Burg had a little bit of luck involved also in finding Woodward. The guy is one heck of a coach. Sure, he fell into a good opportunity- school with tradition, support from the community, always 70+ kids coming out for football every year....but he also knows how to run a program and get kids to buy in. Good coach + good program = high level of success.

[greygoose]

If we look at the Coldwater/MAC model, youth football isn't necessary.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/m ... D9Vm28yiJ/

But the interviewed, coaches prominently mention stability (again, it only has to be enough money) as a key to long-term success.

What I see a lot of from posters on here is what you see from a lot of people when asked about the roots of their success... They always tend to over-credit factors which they believe they or their coaches can control (a youth program) while ignoring/downplaying the factors which they don't (how many kids live close to the school and how many kids come from a situation that allows them to participate enough to buy into the program).

It like the case of a guy who claims to have incredible acumen as a businessmen, but neglects to respect the role that his father giving him a $4 million starter loan played .

I don’t believe the coldwater/MAC model has soccer in play

There's youth football in the area it's just not school affiliated.

[tigerfan98]

Simple Population, open enrollment. Ironton is divided into 3 regions in less than 15 miles. Coal Grove, Ironton, Rock Hill. Coal Grove and Ironton should be combined for sure, we are talking a 5 minute separation. Rock Hill could be separate because there are some people who live farther out there. Wheelersburg has all that real estate. They take any good kids from Hanging Rock Area all the way to Sciotoville. That's a huge stretch of population. Burg is winning so who wouldn't follow winning instead of losing. I'm not sure but the New Boston area I don't believe they have a football team either and I'm sure they could pick between East, Portsmouth, and Burg. The only OVC team that struggles that doesn't make sense is South Point they have a good stretch of population to pick from and it seems kids just aren't interested there. Proctorville is huge they get Huntington people and have a lot of people in there district. Gallia should be good again they have a lot of population to choose from. Portsmouth also has a big population but they have the Ironton problem. West, East, Burg, and Minford all options in that area.

[danicalifornia]

As someone who has checked baseball eligibility sheets with date of birth on them for years, a high majority of Burg Baseball players aren't 19 when they are seniors. On occasion it happens, but for the most part, that is just an old complaint that isn't relevant to their success.

Coaching and Culture are 2 huge reasons why they are successful. Money obviously helps, because it keeps kids being kids longer, but they have a great thing going and I can't see it stopping for quiet a while.

[Seabee_0586]

I think the Burg had a little bit of luck involved also in finding Woodward. The guy is one heck of a coach. Sure, he fell into a good opportunity- school with tradition, support from the community, always 70+ kids coming out for football every year....but he also knows how to run a program and get kids to buy in. Good coach + good program = high level of success.

Has any d-1 schools Tried to lure in the coach from burg yet?

[YOU'RE TIGER BAIT]

again I ask is being a teacher in the burg district a requirement to be a coach there. I think sometimes school districts cut their own throats this way. as with ironton if what I heard is true. the coach there was asked to step down and refused, and another coach from what I heard threatened a union grievance. again this is here say, but from a very reliable source.