2018 Vinton County Vikings Football Outlook

[notsurprised]

From what i have been told, the transfers reasons have nothing to do with Basketball. Actually Basketball at VC is the only reason there was hesitation on the players part.

[hawkeyepierce]

I have been close to both families for years. They have not told or texted me that the move is official, I am still holding out hope.

The Brown boys are Evan and Garrett. One is incoming freshman and the other is incoming 7th grader and both are football and basketball players.

What should be also noted, everyone of them are outstanding students and community members.

[dawgbone]

I"ve coach all these Kids thru the youth program and seen the success,the talent,the winning attitude , the Viking spirit only to be disappointed reaching jr.high and high school! It saddens me that these Kids are cheated by the higher ups! That's the problem and needs fixed soon or just cancel football completely!

[Dundas]

I"ve coach all these Kids thru the youth program and seen the success,the talent,the winning attitude , the Viking spirit only to be disappointed reaching jr.high and high school! It saddens me that these Kids are cheated by the higher ups! That's the problem and needs fixed soon or just cancel football completely!

That’s because we have people making decisions that have no clue about football. The ignorance is sad on their part.

[Captain America]

I"ve coach all these Kids thru the youth program and seen the success,the talent,the winning attitude , the Viking spirit only to be disappointed reaching jr.high and high school! It saddens me that these Kids are cheated by the higher ups! That's the problem and needs fixed soon or just cancel football completely!

You obviously care very much about the success of the kids otherwise you wouldn't have volunteered your time as a youth coach. What did you do as a coach that produced the success, winning attitude, and Viking spirit? Without bashing anyone, what do you feel is currently missing? How do you feel the situation could be improved? Do you not feel improvement has been made at the high school level over the last few years? What constructive suggestions do yo have?

If I remember correctly, the past four year have been 1-9, 3-7, 4-6, and 5-5. That seems like the program is headed in the right direction and should be producing some excitement, but it appears as if this progress does not set well with some.

A house divided cannot stand. Let's hope the community is able to rally around and support the 2018 team and its coaches. The kids do not deserve to have individuals openly bashing their team and coaches. This does nothing but sows discord within the team. Let's hope the kids are able to overcome the background noise and put together a successful season.

[Captain America]

I"ve coach all these Kids thru the youth program and seen the success,the talent,the winning attitude , the Viking spirit only to be disappointed reaching jr.high and high school! It saddens me that these Kids are cheated by the higher ups! That's the problem and needs fixed soon or just cancel football completely!

That’s because we have people making decisions that have no clue about football. The ignorance is sad on their part.

What exactly qualifies an individual as "having a clue" about football? Does one need to have played the sport? Played it at the collegiate level? Coached the sport? At what level? Youth? MS? HS? College? Are there other factors that exist?

You have produced an opinion that implies you have a clue but others do not. What is it that you possess that places you in this position?

[hawkeyepierce]

I"ve coach all these Kids thru the youth program and seen the success,the talent,the winning attitude , the Viking spirit only to be disappointed reaching jr.high and high school! It saddens me that these Kids are cheated by the higher ups! That's the problem and needs fixed soon or just cancel football completely!

You obviously care very much about the success of the kids otherwise you wouldn't have volunteered your time as a youth coach. What did you do as a coach that produced the success, winning attitude, and Viking spirit? Without bashing anyone, what do you feel is currently missing? How do you feel the situation could be improved? Do you not feel improvement has been made at the high school level over the last few years? What constructive suggestions do yo have?

If I remember correctly, the past four year have been 1-9, 3-7, 4-6, and 5-5. That seems like the program is headed in the right direction and should be producing some excitement, but it appears as if this progress does not set well with some.

A house divided cannot stand. Let's hope the community is able to rally around and support the 2018 team and its coaches. The kids do not deserve to have individuals openly bashing their team and coaches. This does nothing but sows discord within the team. Let's hope the kids are able to overcome the background noise and put together a successful season.

I have not coached these kids in the sport of football, but I have been around most of them in different arenas. So if you don't mind, I will take a stab at some of your questions.

First, as a community we must look into ourselves and overcome the unrealistic expectations that we have for ourselves. Next, we need to change some cultural aspects of our football programs.

We are the victim of circumstances that we cannot control, for example, we are an impoverish school district of 400 plus square miles. So we don't always get those kids that live on the periphery. We are a "small" DIV school. Therefore, to have any success we must schedule accordingly and sometimes that is not always advantageous. There are definite differences in mindset in the young individual who starts the season 5-0 or 4-1 as opposed to 1-4 and 0-5.

Culturally, we start too young, there has been a disconnect between the middle school and high school programs, and we as a community have unrealistic expectations. For example, every since this conundrum started, I have people say to me that we should have been 10-0. No, that is subjective, that's an opinion. Could we have had done better than 5-5? Personally, I think so.

But sometimes, everyone thinks they know football and they are not afraid to express their opinion and it leads to unrealistic expectations. I can't begin to tell you how many times over the past eight years I heard that the Bengals were going to make the playoffs and be in a super bowl. Sometimes our fandom runs amok and it leads to unrealistic expectations.

As for what is happening now, we have parents who competed on some of those successful teams of the 1990's are making parent decisions based on what is important to them. Right or wrong, it is a parental decision and there is nothing we can do or say about it.

What has me bent out-of-shape, to be honest, pissed, is that once again the football program will negatively impact our basketball program. If the rumors are true, we are losing a starter from last year's team and a youngster who would have an immediate impact on next year's basketball team and probably our next 1000 point scorer.

For what it is worth, that is my two cents.

[90'sviking]

I"ve coach all these Kids thru the youth program and seen the success,the talent,the winning attitude , the Viking spirit only to be disappointed reaching jr.high and high school! It saddens me that these Kids are cheated by the higher ups! That's the problem and needs fixed soon or just cancel football completely!

You obviously care very much about the success of the kids otherwise you wouldn't have volunteered your time as a youth coach. What did you do as a coach that produced the success, winning attitude, and Viking spirit? Without bashing anyone, what do you feel is currently missing? How do you feel the situation could be improved? Do you not feel improvement has been made at the high school level over the last few years? What constructive suggestions do yo have?

If I remember correctly, the past four year have been 1-9, 3-7, 4-6, and 5-5. That seems like the program is headed in the right direction and should be producing some excitement, but it appears as if this progress does not set well with some.

A house divided cannot stand. Let's hope the community is able to rally around and support the 2018 team and its coaches. The kids do not deserve to have individuals openly bashing their team and coaches. This does nothing but sows discord within the team. Let's hope the kids are able to overcome the background noise and put together a successful season.

I will give it a crack Captain. I played in the 90's and have a son on the Team. I have in my hand the summer schedule from last season and this season. I have friends who coach football at Unioto, Nelsonville, and Wellston. I asked them directly for the summer schedule of their programs. I have 2 out of 3 and VC's schedule and the 2 I have look nothing alike. Both programs lift weights 3-4 days a week for 2 hours during June and July. Both programs have 10 camp days scheduled as well as 7 on 7's. Not seeing that on VC schedule.
I know last summer I would drop my son off for weights and when I got home he was calling me about 30-40 minutes later telling me they were done, I thought he was joking he wasn't. During August 2 a days my son called me several times before 10 and said he needed a ride, several times he told me that they lifted then went to the field and practiced less than an hour. What really upset him was when they got their pads and were ready to hit for the first time VC didn't practice that Saturday. As a matter of fact VC didn't practice or meet a single Saturday during the entire season!!! We went to Kings Island with a depressed son who wanted to be hitting like every other team in Ohio. He was very disappointed. Many times during the season my son was home and ready to eat dinner at 5 or a little after during game weeks! VC doesn't get out of school until 330!!! And have a bit of a walk to the field house and to the practice field. My buddies tell me they practice a minimum of 6 hours during August and lift and watch film. My son told me he never watched film at all and that the varsity guys said during the season that Coach turned the film on and just let it run making no corrections or adjustments. Not what I remember our film sessions to be like. I don't claim to be an expert on football but I know enough to know that VC was as talented as anyone they played this past season and lost more than 1 game be cause they were not prepared, Unioto game was horrendous we looked tired and unorganized. Fairfield Union was a joke went for it because we didn't have a back up punter 1 time and then again on 4 and 3 and gave Fairfield the ball inside our 30. Fairfield scored both times. Momentum changer we had the lead!!!! We should of 1 those two games for sure.... Meigs game embarrassing we were way more talented than them!! there is 3,Athens were not better than us, NY if you question the talent on VC team look no further than that game, why did we lose "unprepared", from what I heard that week of practice was the shortest of the year which is scary.
So to answer your question Captain if I were in charge I would start by hiring a Head Coach who has a passion for Football and wants to spend the time necessary to prepare our kids, a coach who teaches fundamentals and understands the importance of preparation involving film study, a coach who in the off season attends clinics, college camps, practices, other high school practices anything in an attempt to get better and learn.. Sorry with what I have witnessed thus far there is no way our Coach can say he loves Football and wants to work at it.... I could mention many more examples of things that just blew my mind but i will save it for later if need be....

[Ironman92]

So shortest practice week of year and played their best game? Maybe Coach is just really efficient.

Lol anyways going with your words that’s not quite enough time and weight room and film must be worthwhile and always taken seriously. From the outside just tracking scores....VC seemed to be on the right path.

I can’t speak intelligently of anything going on with VC football but I do wish them well this season.

[Cornhusker]

We need more hittin, and bring back the wishbone!!!! Just like we did it in the 90's!!!

[greygoose]

Man this went from a 2018 Vikings Football Outlook, to a 2018 Vikings 0-10 pity party. Hate that things are going so rough in losing kids department. If you guys are serious about backing the boys and the community standing behind them, I would hope you would let what happened go, and get behind the players that are there and trying to get better to win some ball games. Just my 2 cents but crying over spilled milk seems not to be the way to get things turned around. Good Luck guys but from what I see sounds like from a fan base, all the way up the chain the Vikings are in need of a good kick in the rear.

[hawkeyepierce]

The concerns that were raised are philosophical differences between Coach Downs and parents. I would say that Coach Downs has a "progressive" view of practicing. He doesn't believe that two-a-days are productive and they can be especially difficult for parents to arrange rides and pick-ups. He likes to limit hitting during practices because after a 12 to 13 week grind it could be more harmful than productive. I can't speak as to film study, I never attended one, but I can say, in my opinion, there were organization breakdowns, the Fairfield Union game is a good example. However, those can happen to anyone. For me, it seemed like the parents wanted one extreme and Coach Downs may be on the other end of the extreme and there was no compromise. So, parents took their kids and left. I wished for the district's sake that commonsense would have prevail and supported our school, our kids, our team, and reassess at the end of the season.

With that being said, I wish for the football team all of the success in the world. I wish for those kids that had left nothing but the best. And I am hopeful for Coach Downs, his philosophy will either prove him right or he will have to own it if it doesn't.

[dawgbone]

Captain A, how is 5-5 improvement when kids want to transfer every year, or quit because they're told they can't be a RB or TE like in Jr. high. Kids numbers are down, there should be 85-100 kids playing. Plain & simple the kids are not having fun. I think different coaching philosophies, conflicts within, changes in coaching over the last few years, etc. created a bad recipe.
Hawk, you are right about "disconnect" with all the football programs. The programs should all be on the same page & united like the basketball program is. This could be both & not only a basketball county.

[Rolltanks]

After hearing some of what’s going on with vc I’ll put in my 2 cents. I’ve been a Unioto fan now for bout 7 years and we have played vc I think all of those years. I know they have had several coaches in that time and different offense and defense philosophies. Just looking at the four years they had Yates idk what they were thinking on offense. They had a great linebacker 33 who played running back as well. We struggled moving the ball but they just ran it up the middle every play we pulled ahead then they let Yates throw and nearly beat us. Then next year 33 is gone and I’m worried bout Yates throwing and they still just hand it off barely thow and we were a better team with hosely and we blew them out. Next year same thing they punt to hosely twice he scores twice we get up 3 scores and they just hand it off. Then last year we play way off they try to throw deep they hand off and Yates isn’t even a factor. He was the best player Unioto has faced for 4 years in the regular season and they didn’t even use them. Idk who called there plays but man that kid should have thrown for 2000 yards every year. They had good looking athletes idk why they didn’t spread it out. Seems like maybe they let him take over more as the season went on but he was good enough to win 5 games by himself imo. They haven’t been very good against us in jv ball idk who the kids are that left but from what I’ve seen they don’t have much coming up unless they have lot of good freshman. With all the drama they would need a very good team to survive. This kind of negative vibe can easily make a 7-3 type of team 0-10.

[Orange and Brown]

Let's all simmer down a bit.

[THE GOONIES]

Let's let the team's lineup and just play football. That's all we can do. Regardless of who went where shouldn't make any difference to the current players. I wish all teams a healthy and happy season. Go vikes

[lugs]

ill get this back on track. outlook: this will sound crazy, but I think the interior line for the Vikes will be their saving grace this year. Tyler Congrove may be the best lineman in the TVC. We have a 3 year starting center in Nick Pittman. Bradley griffin and Jonathan Vanover on defensive lines and Chase Newsome who played great at nose tackle when he subbed out Bryce last year. We are 7 to 8 solid lineman deep on both sides of the ball. Plus coach has made what I would say are some great moves adjusted the roster because of offseason factors. you want more your gonna have to wait for the Viking Redzone to spill the beans next month in our controversial Pre-Season show. But I think VC isn't ready to be a door mat just yet.

[THE GOONIES]

Cant wait love the redzone.

[WellstonLover]

Cant wait love the redzone.

The RedZone sucks.

[THE GOONIES]

If your from Wellston maybe