Some football coaches in Ohio have been calling for spring football, including some here in the Mansfield area, but I think it would be too much of a hindrance for spring sports.
At any school in Richland County, and North Central Ohio for that matter, sports have to share athletes across many sports. That even applies to the area’s larger schools like Mansfield Senior, Madison or Ashland. The best football players tend to be the best basketball players or baseball players, not always, but most of the time. That is especially true of smaller schools like Lucas or Plymouth. There are just very few kids that specialize in one sport.
Due the relatively high number of athletes needed, most of the best athletes are involved in the football program. For example, Tyrell Edmiston is Plymouth’s best basketball player, probably the best player in the Firelands Conference, he is also an important part of their football team. Clear Fork’s best basketball player was Ridge Winand, who ended up scorning more than 1,000 points. He proved last fall how important he was to Dave Carroll’s football team. After not playing as a junior, Winand returned to the gridiron and helped to lead the Colts to a 7-3 season. Plus, Winand plays baseball. In fact, it is baseball Winand will play the next level, for The Ohio State University.
Spring football would need to be in May. Probably the last two weeks of May. It is true, as some coaches say, that by that time the baseball season is over for a lot of teams except for the ones that make it deep into the tournament. But, what about this year where the weather caused so many cancellations? The rain extended the season in many cases. Plus, I think many kids would not play baseball to begin with because of spring football practice.
Many of your best skilled players in football are also track athletes and the track district and regional meets are the last two weeks of May.
Can the athletes do more than one sport at the same time? Yes, perhaps that is possible, but not probable. It is more likely what will happen is you will force the athlete to make a choice between one sport or the other. It will probably be spring sports that are the ultimate losers and I don’t like that. Plus, it might hurt the football program too because at least some of those athletes are going to choose baseball.
The other problem that is facing high school sports is a drop in participation in football in a lot of places. I wonder why that is?
That is a question I cannot answer. Certainly, Ohio remains a football state, with The Ohio State Buckeyes football program at its center. Why are some kids choosing not play football? Is it too hard? I find that very hard to believe. It can’t be playing time. In football there is room for more kids to play, not less, with special teams and the like. Yes, many programs don’t have the numbers anymore to support freshmen teams.
We need to find the reason.
I think it is the lack of spring football, something they have in other states, notably Florida. I am still of the belief that you are more likely to hurt the overall sports programs like those in this area. Yes, in a bigger school like Mentor, Lakewood St. Edward or Cincinnati Moeller, that is less likely to be the case.
For now, let’s just keep things the way they are.
After years of toil and sweat behind radio station microphones, longtime broadcaster, Jeff Swank joined the new generation of sports followers on the web.
Swank launched his internet radio station with nothing more than some wire, a box with some knobs and switches, and an itch to do much more than just scratch the surface of everything sports.
Richland Source is proud to introduce Jeff as a writer focused on high school sports. He will contribute a weekly column and analysis of a featured game of the week from one of our area high schools.
In addition to his work at Richland Source, Jeff provides complete high school sports coverage for over 70 Ohio schools at his web site, http://www.swankonsports.net76.net/.
