Seventh-grade football needs coaches to accomodate incoming class

Washington High School head football coach Randy Schrader spoke on changes he would like to see to seventh-grade football at Thursday?s school board meeting. He said there are not enough coaches to manage all the kids who are out for football. In 2011, 53 seventh-graders were on the football team. Schrader said a poll of sixth-graders at Lincoln revealed that 61 kids are interested in going out for football next year.

Schrader would like to see the kids split into two equal teams and hire an additional head coach and assistant coach. Mike Roder is the seventh-grade head football coach, and he is assisted by Ross Anderson. The head coach is paid $1,557 and the assistant is paid $1,168, which means that if Schrader?s plan goes through the district would spend about $2,700 more in coaching on seventh-grade football.

The kids are now divided into an ?A? team and a ?B? team, and Schrader said he wants to move away from labeling the kids in that way. He said he?d like the two teams to be known as the ?orange? team and the ?black? team. He said small schools such as Highland, Lone Tree and Pekin would be more willing to play Washington if the district split its talent into two teams.

The ?B? team plays an abbreviated game which consist of four eight-minute quarters with a continuous clock or four six-minute quarters with a regular clock.

In an interview Monday, Schrader said the largest obstacle in the way of this plan is that it has come so late in the year, after many schools have already made their schedule for next fall. He said finding opponents may be difficult for the two seventh-grade teams. If the teams can?t find enough opponents for each to play a six-game schedule, he suggested combining them for a couple of games when Washington plays the big schools, while splitting them into two teams against the small schools.

Schrader told the board that if he can?t get two schedules worked out, the seventh-grade will revert to an ?A? and a ?B? team. He said that the program will still need an additional assistant coach to handle all the kids. The board approved Schrader?s plan for two full schedules with another head coach and assistant coach, and agreed to hire at least another assistant coach if the two full schedules cannot be made. He said if fewer than 40 kids go out for seventh-grade football, the district should field only one team.

Schrader sees benefits to increasing the playing time at the seventh-grade level. He said that more kids will be willing to go out again for football when they reach eighth grade and, later, high school.

At the meeting Thursday, Washington Schools Superintendent Mike Jorgensen related a personal story involving seventh grade athletics at his junior high in Marshalltown.

?As a seventh-grader, I went out for basketball but I didn?t get to play,? he said. ?I grew 8 inches and gained 40 pounds in a year, and by the time I was a senior I was a starter on the varsity basketball squad. I was the only member of that junior high who was still out for basketball.?

Jorgensen said boys in particular are late bloomers, and the boys who are stars in seventh grade may not be the stars in high school.

?I ran on the C track team in seventh grade and I was eventually a state champion in high school,? he said. ?It?s important to keep those kids involved. I fully endorse having two seventh grade teams with the numbers we?re looking at.?

Schrader said that whether or not the district splits the kids into two teams, the district will have to spend more money on the program next year because of the increased equipment needs. Schrader said a helmet alone can cost $175 at the high school level.