EDITOR: If you ask any coach or player if he
’d rather play a home game or an away game, you’d get the same
answer from nearly everyone; a home game. Unfortunately, you have
to play some games on the road during the course of a season,
unless you are the Live Oak freshman football team. They played
most of their games on the road this year
. In fact, the Live Oak freshman football team almost didn’t
happen this year.
EDITOR:
If you ask any coach or player if he’d rather play a home game or an away game, you’d get the same answer from nearly everyone; a home game. Unfortunately, you have to play some games on the road during the course of a season, unless you are the Live Oak freshman football team. They played most of their games on the road this year. In fact, the Live Oak freshman football team almost didn’t happen this year.
The team had to play eight out of nine games on the road this year due to the decision of a higher-up in the school district to install grass that was of lesser quality than originally planned. This decision to put in new grass that was not going to be ready to play on would mean that the varsity and junior varsity could play their games at home, but the freshmen would have to play the remaining schedule on the road. This decision was also made by higher-ups with no sound reasoning behind it. If a field is deemed unsafe to play football, it’s unsafe to play football. Why do two games get to be played on the field but not three? If the reason the freshmen could not play was in the name of safety, shouldn’t the varsity and junior varsity teams played their games on the road?
You won’t hear many of the kids complaining about all the road games. They didn’t even know if there would be a team until two weeks before the start of August practice, so they were grateful to even have a team, much less home games.
The initial decision to cut freshmen sports was also a decision made by reactive individuals in the school district in response to the state budget crisis and the effect it would have on the school district. No thought or input was asked of the people running the programs they would proceed to cut (and due to public pressure, bring back). What would have been discovered is that the football program would actually lose money if there were no freshman team (player’s fees, gate receipt, snack shack money). The team will make less than it did last year due to the fact that they had only one home game to take in a large gate.
At the start of the August practices, the freshmen team had 24 kids on its roster. There were some days that produced 16 kids for two practices a day. After word of mouth and the start of the school year, the roster grew to 30, with several kids that were ineligible waiting for the grading period to return. By the end of the season there were 38 kids suited up. I can only imagine the possibilities had those kids been there the entire summer and for the August practices.
Many kids that were planning on playing chose to go play Pop Warner football or go to another high school for fear of losing out on a season of football. Had the school district elected to research the decision to cut freshmen sports, there could have easily been 40 or more players playing freshmen football in August.
Having read the previous paragraphs, you would assume that this is a gripe letter. Actually, it is a thank-you letter. You see, I am the head coach of the Live Oak freshmen football team, and I’d like to thank a few people for making our season a success.
I’d like to thank the person in charge that put in the lawn turf in time for graduation. That kind of near-sighted judgment call worked great for us.
I’d like to thank the person who deemed the field safe for varsity and junior varsity, but not the freshmen – very logical.
I’d like to thank the person or persons who decided to cut freshman sports with no research or foresight, and then bring it back at the 11th hour after many kids decided to go elsewhere. Live Oak already loses a lot of kids to private schools. What better way to drive more kids into private schools than cut after school sports? For those who don’t know, the more kids that attend Live Oak, the more money Live Oak is awarded from the state. Brilliant call.
Thank you to every player that decided to go somewhere else and play football, whether it was Pop Warner, Santa Teresa, Bellarmine, St. Francis, or wherever the grass seemed greener.
The reason for all of these thank yous? You made our team tough. Our players learned what it’s like to compete in important games on the road because of you. They came together as a team to overcome adversity. They learned how to play the game hard and with class. They got to play in all the other stadiums in the league and see what a commitment from a majority of the school board will do for an athletic program (80-man rosters, player lockers under the stadium, locker rooms with working showers and new lockers, big weight rooms, artificial field turf and a 20,000-seat stadium).
The biggest thank you goes to the players and parents who stuck it out even though for a few weeks they didn’t know where the next game was until the week of the game or even what time they would play. Thank you for sticking it out at night practices where five extra-curricular groups were competing for the use of four lights that lit up about 60 yards. Thank you for putting up with erratic game schedules, lost work hours and long drives to away games.
Even though our record was 4 wins, 4 losses, and 1 tie, we were in every game and had a few ill-timed fumbles to some CCS powerhouse schools like Salinas and Palma that proved costly. We did manage to squeak out a 6-0 win against the cross-town rival Gilroy. But winning and losing was not the focus. Playing hard, playing with class and playing with proper technique was the emphasis this year as it will be every year.
Nobody could question our heart, competitiveness or our family unity. The events that transpired over the course of this year will undoubtedly help these kids in the future because succeeding through adversity fosters a never-say-die attitude, and these kids will have that for the rest of their high school football careers, in college, and in adult life. So to the previously mentioned anonymous higher-ups, thank you from the Live Oak freshman football team, Class of 2007.
