Football frustration: Parents ask for change in high school program
Frustration with Rappahannock County High School’s struggling football program boiled over at a county School Board meeting Tuesday, as parents urged the school system to make changes to give the varsity team a better chance to win, following a season of many lopsided losses.
Parents of football players complained that a string of steady losses by lopsided scores is undermining team morale and students’ willingness to play in the future, while posing physical risk to Panther players who are overmatched by playing larger schools with bigger, stronger players and larger team rosters. Another urged the board to “take a good hard look at the coaching staff” because, she alleged, some students are not willing to play because coaches are not treating players with respect.
The football complaints emerged during a public comment period at the meeting. Joe Reinboldt of Viewtown, whose son played on the freshman team this year, said the Panther teams cannot compete with most schools in the Bull Run District in which they play, because most district schools have larger student bodies and more and bigger players. “We have no business on the field with some of these teams,” he said. “Kids are going to get hurt….morale is down….we’re getting slaughtered,” he told the board.
The Panther varsity team lost nine of its ten games this year, in which its winning opponents outscored RCHS by an average of more than 25 points. “This is ridiculous–the kids are getting beat up,” Reinboldt said. “Kids do not want to come out for football” because of the steady string of losses by embarrassing scores, he claimed. “We are not going to have a team two or three years from now. We don’t have enough kids to replace the ones that are leaving. It’s dying.”
Reinboldt and another football-player parent, Doug Butler, urged the school administration to get out of the Bull Run District and schedule games against high schools that are more comparable in size to RCHS, which has enrollment of 442 students. “These kids love football, but they don’t belong in the Bull Run District,” said Butler, father of two sons in football.
To keep a football program going in the future, Butler said, “something needs to change.” “We adults need to look out for the kids,” he said. “They are getting discouraged out there.” He, like Reinboldt, urged school officials to schedule more “independent” teams of comparable size to RCHS.
Amy Hitt of Amissville, a board member of the Rappahannock County School Sports Association, a booster group, complained about the football coaching staff. “I would like for the Board to look hard at the present coaching staff, as you hire them and pay their salaries….there needs to be changes made and improvements,” Hitt said.
She asserted that some students will not go out for football because of the coaches. “When you have coaches being disrespectful, cussing the players and calling them names, and not being team players, you are not going to have respectful team members,” she said, without naming any specific coach. Hitt also urged that the football program be introduced at the sixth and seventh grade levels. “We cannot expect players to start playing in the eighth grade and be successful” at the freshman and varsity levels, she said.
The five members of the school board and Superintendent Robert Chappell listened as the parents spoke but did not respond. After the meeting, when asked for comment, Chappell responded: “I know there are frustrations when our team loses 40-7 or something like that. But our football program is just a ‘toddler’ program. It’s only our third year” playing varsity football, he noted.
“Scheduling has been an issue,” Chappell conceded. “I am concerned….we ought to be looking (to play) more schools our size.” The superintendent said he has been “lobbying for a better schedule for our kids,” and that in the coming year, RCHS expects to play four schools that are similar in size or smaller, up from just two this year. The school will be entering a new two-year agreement on the football schedule soon, he said.
As for pulling out of the Bull Run District for football, Chappell said such a move would be “tough.” He commented, “We haven’t had any discussion of this issue. We haven’t even considered pulling out of the district,” because the question had not arisen until Monday.
-- James P. GannonComments
Comment from Madeline
Time: November 15, 2006, 9:28 pm
As a Varsity Football player I feel that the coaches are doing their best with a bad situation. They coach for the love of the game and they want to teach all they know to the players. Even though I don’t always agree with a call, I respect them for who they are and what they do.
Not one person quit from the varsity team and I feel it is because of the coaching staff. They gave it their all and so did we. I also think that we should stop playing district until we have a chance to build up our football program. Personally I don’t feel like getting beaten double digits to single digits every game, every year.
I would like to thank all of my coaches, my school and all of the volunteers for this program and for the opportunity to learn and play the game.
–Nathan Grant #68
Comment from Sharon Kilpatrick
Time: November 21, 2006, 7:40 pm
I have been paying attention to RCHS sports for years now.
I am disappointed with the results so far of the football program, but I
don’t think not scheduling district games is any sort of answer. I
believe a football season has 10 games. There are six teams in the
district, so scheduling those will give us five games. We should try for
more smaller schools for the other five games, but please realize public
high schools the size of RCHS are few and far between.
The program started out so well, but has been disappointing. A number of
factors have played a role, and I can’t say what the key one is.
However, the problems the parents complained of to the School Board are
not at all unique to football. Our boys basketball teams aren’t
competitive in the district, and until last year neither was girls’
basketball. Baseball also had a dismal record till two years ago, and
our girls soccer team struggles. I believe coaching changes are key to
the teams that have turned around and some fortunate combinations of
talented athletes. The problems cited by the parents with the failing
teams are true of more than football - kids get tired of getting beaten
badly. After a while they don’t come out for the team. Coaches dip
deeper and deeper into what should be JV or freshman teams to fill their
roster. The JV or freshman team therefor doesn’t provide kids the chance
to be successful because the best players are up trying varsity, and the
situation spirals downward.
I believe an answer is to say to coaches of failing teams, you can’t
play kids at the varsity level who are eligible for the younger team and
try to build from the freshman or JV level up. If we can’t fill varsity
squads without bringing up younger players, we should forfeit the
varsity season. I don’t know whether this would work. But after watching
years of boys’ basketball with no wins, I don’t see how it could hurt.
Last year several sophomores were starters on the boys’ varsity
basketball team while juniors and seniors sat on the bench. I don’t
think either the varsity or JV boys’ teams won a game. Basketball and
football are at opposite extremes in the size of the squad required, but
have very similar problems at RCHS.
The Bull Run District is a particularly competitive district, and since
it is the northernmost single A district the Virginia High School League
has, we will always be in it. We are competitive in the Bull Run
District in boys’ cross country, boys’ soccer and becoming more so in
baseball. Our girls are competitive in volleyball, softball and
cheerleading and becoming more so in basketball. Some of those are
sports with small teams, some fairly large.
Parents frustration with the current situation in football is
understandable. Changes need to be made, but it makes no sense to me to
say just drop out of the Bull Run District for footabll.
Sharon Kilpatrick
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