- Jul 20, 2014
- 20,419
- 15,437
and Why.
Back in the good old days you had your teams. It was a regional thing. Your players were yours. They played for your team, HS, college or pro. Then a thing called free agency came along(a good thing). Players had to play awhile but then could take offers from other teams. I still think a good thing, So we slowly evolved into a mercenary type of Pro sports. Old allegiances went by the way side and power moved toward the richest franchises (remember Steinbrenner ). Over the years the tenor of fandom became a little more angry and more critical. With movement among players your team didnt really seem like "your team" anymore.
Over the years that attitude and mindset migrated down to the colleges. TV and big $$$ became the tail that wagged the dog. Players wanted to go where the bright lights and fame were easiest to gain. So kids from Calif headed to the south and other places. About 30 years ago we saw it start in the high schools. Private schools saw the joys of successful sports programs and started "recruiting". So you ended up with Bolles in Jacksonville playing small schools for titles with players from all over the place. I saw a small private school in Lakeland become the "cross country school" and them pick off the good runners from the area.
Kids want to be on winning teams. So now you have a Bama in football and worse a Kentucky in basketball where you end up with basically "all star teams" that tilt the damned field almost over. But worse to me is how it happened in high schools. You have kids jumping all over the damned place when HS should be more about life, learning and transitioning into adulthood, My solution in HS is to have separate championships for small private schools loaded up with talent they picked from out of their zone.........when I see a Branford or Newberry finally have a great team, ready to win a title, and then meet up with a Bolles whose QB is from Texas and RB from south Fla I want to vomit................
Back in the good old days you had your teams. It was a regional thing. Your players were yours. They played for your team, HS, college or pro. Then a thing called free agency came along(a good thing). Players had to play awhile but then could take offers from other teams. I still think a good thing, So we slowly evolved into a mercenary type of Pro sports. Old allegiances went by the way side and power moved toward the richest franchises (remember Steinbrenner ). Over the years the tenor of fandom became a little more angry and more critical. With movement among players your team didnt really seem like "your team" anymore.
Over the years that attitude and mindset migrated down to the colleges. TV and big $$$ became the tail that wagged the dog. Players wanted to go where the bright lights and fame were easiest to gain. So kids from Calif headed to the south and other places. About 30 years ago we saw it start in the high schools. Private schools saw the joys of successful sports programs and started "recruiting". So you ended up with Bolles in Jacksonville playing small schools for titles with players from all over the place. I saw a small private school in Lakeland become the "cross country school" and them pick off the good runners from the area.
Kids want to be on winning teams. So now you have a Bama in football and worse a Kentucky in basketball where you end up with basically "all star teams" that tilt the damned field almost over. But worse to me is how it happened in high schools. You have kids jumping all over the damned place when HS should be more about life, learning and transitioning into adulthood, My solution in HS is to have separate championships for small private schools loaded up with talent they picked from out of their zone.........when I see a Branford or Newberry finally have a great team, ready to win a title, and then meet up with a Bolles whose QB is from Texas and RB from south Fla I want to vomit................
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