When Lee Owens, currently the coach at Ashland University, led Galion High School to a state title in 1985, they beat Youngstown Cardinal Mooney 6-0 in the state title game.
That’s a 6-0 as a final score, not the score after the first quarter.
I can’t remember the last time there was a score like that even in a regular season game.
Offense is the name of the game it seems. Fredericktown’s 69-49 win over Clear Fork last Friday was a good example. At times there seemed like there wasn’t going to be any stops in the game at all.
But, what is the reason for all of the scoring? Yes, it might be true that there are more athletes on the field than there used to be and when you have more athletes there is more scoring. However, that can’t be the whole answer.
In some cases, Clear Fork is an example of the his, they are young and their players just aren’t as physically mature as kids that are seniors and juniors that they are trying to tackle. I’d would say that is a minority situation and is not the real answer to overall increase in scoring.
The answer is the forward pass. Woody Hayes and most coaches of his era in both the college and high school ranks didn’t think too much of the pass. It was common to throw less than five passes in the game.
On the other hand today’s coaches love the pass. Well, okay, Madison’s Sean Conway is allergic too it, but he is a Notre Dame fan too, so forgive him. Look at the numbers: throwing 40 passes in game in pretty common.
What is the most difficult position to play in high school football? Okay, quarterback is pretty tough, and I am not saying it isn’t, but in my opinion it is defensive back. You have to be able to read what is going on in front of you and make split second reactions. You are expected to cover players that have speed and strength, not too mention height, many times man to man. On top of that you have to get up and force the runners back inside so your teammates can make the tackle.
That is a very difficult to do at least on a consistent basis. High school football is built on the big play. When you go to whatever game you attend Friday night count how many scoring plays there are over 50 yards. I bet there are a lot of them.
Plus, in the high school game the difference between the really good athletes and the rest of the players on the field is greater than it is in college or professional football.
Think about it. All of the NFL players were very good if not great college players and all the college players were outstanding high school players. However, not all of the high school players are good. Some aren’t very good at all. So, when the really talented athlete is running down the field he is a lot bigger, stronger, and faster than the guys trying to tackle him. Hence there are a lot of big plays because usually the kids trying to tackle him can’t do it.
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/.
