OldSchoolLion

Maybe we should focus less on the scholarship and more on her whole story..a young lady with a less-than-ideal upbringing who is overcoming odds on many fronts.  Somehow I don't think a small private college in West Virginia has visions of grandeur to become the next West VA University via a publicity stunt.  
At age 4 she was placed in foster care and was moved around until being adopted nine years later. Then she found out she has ovarian cancer.  She has chosen to play a sport that likely subjected her to some level of bullying.  I have personal experience with what a female firefighter was subjected to in an all-male firehouse, and it was not pretty.
This young lady appears to be a good role model for girls, regardless of how one feels about her playing football.  A big chunk of society thinks our kids are privileged, overly soft snowflakes.  Black females are "angry black women."  Those are challenging stereotypes to overcome.  It appears this young lady had made some headway.  
 
   

Agree about steps forward and very commendable for Vero.
The more I think about it, Venice was a great choice for an opponent. Vero has history with teams from that area.  Venice always has a reasonably good team, even on down years.  So it is a safe bet they will play a competitive game.  But they are not typically so overpowering that they are going to blow out another good team.   Talent pools in each area are somewhat comparable.  
Vero probably should work its way up to playing a Northwestern or Carol City down in Dade County.  If Vero had an off year and played one of those Miami teams on a year they were "up," it could be ugly, and that would not be good for the kids.   Ideally these travel games should be confidence builders, wining or losing a close, competitive game.
Vero is at a disadvantage against the Dade and Broward programs from a standpoint of available talent.

I heard a bunch of players have been getting phone calls and text messages from a fella over that way.

The Canes corner announced today that he is retiring from football due to the the severity of the injury he sustained in the bowl game with Wisconsin.  He is the second sophomore from Miami’s 2017 squad who has had to deal with career-ending injuries lately.  Linebacker Jamie Gordinier announced his retirement from football as well.
It's ironic considering we have had some discussions of late concerning public perceptions of football injuries.

Like I said it is great for her.  She probably deserves the free college education and needs it.  Hopefully unlike a lot of college players she takes advantage of it.  I wish her the best and she can definitely make an impact with young girls struggling.  

Maybe we should focus less on the scholarship and more on her whole story..a young lady with a less-than-ideal upbringing who is overcoming odds on many fronts.  Somehow I don't think a small private college in West Virginia has visions of grandeur to become the next West VA University via a publicity stunt.  
At age 4 she was placed in foster care and was moved around until being adopted nine years later. Then she found out she has ovarian cancer.  She has chosen to play a sport that likely subjected her to some level of bullying.  I have personal experience with what a female firefighter was subjected to in an all-male firehouse, and it was not pretty.
This young lady appears to be a good role model for girls, regardless of how one feels about her playing football.  A big chunk of society thinks our kids are privileged, overly soft snowflakes.  Black females are "angry black women."  Those are challenging stereotypes to overcome.  It appears this young lady had made some headway.  
 
   

Maybe we should focus less on the scholarship and more on her whole story..a young lady with a less-than-ideal upbringing who is overcoming odds on many fronts.  Somehow I don't think a small private college in West Virginia has visions of grandeur to become the next West VA University via a publicity stunt.  
At age 4 she was placed in foster care and was moved around until being adopted nine years later. Then she found out she has ovarian cancer.  She has chosen to play a sport that likely subjected her to some level of bullying.  I have personal experience with what a female firefighter was subjected to in an all-male firehouse, and it was not pretty.
This young lady appears to be a good role model for girls, regardless of how one feels about her playing football.  A big chunk of society thinks our kids are privileged, overly soft snowflakes.  Black females are "angry black women."  Those are challenging stereotypes to overcome.  It appears this young lady had made some headway.  
 
   

Sometimes if wonder if all these gyrations might be for naught.  If football moves in the direction of basketball, maybe playoffs won't even matter that much anymore.  I get the impression that the big-name basketball teams are much more into the tournaments than state playoffs, but maybe I am wrong.
It is hard for a college coach to justify travel to a single game in some out-of-the-way place to see 1 or 2 athletes.  Showcase events are better for them to evaluate a lot of talent in one trip.  I could see things moving in this direction.  Imagine 4 or 8 loaded teams traveling to a central location and playing 2 or 3 games.  Maybe teams don't play every week.     
Am not saying I agree with it, but it seems as if the purpose of the big sports any more is much less about competition and more about becoming a showcase for individual athletes.  Look at some of ESPN's games.  They will often pick a lousy game over a more competitive one simply to showcase a key athlete(s).    
 

Fast forward to the future...all coaches fly in on helicopters...no big thang anymore...so....  
Nick Saban becomes the first NCAA coach to skydive and land on a high school field, with Alabama logo on the parachute.  With pinpoint precision, the University of Alabama/Adidas stealth bomber (gigantic Adidas logo on the underbelly with BIG-time naming rights) does a flyover just as Coach Saban touches the ground.  While all of this is taking place, the University of Alabama/Nike football drone is broadcasting the entire event in a live, pay-per-view spectacle (all profits will be used to fund the new University of Alabama/New Balance nuclear submarine, which will be used to facilitate future visits to high schools in Coastal cities.)  Coach Saban then takes a quick tour of the high school, using the University of Alabama/Under Armour jetpack (no time for walkin' folks).   Although NCAA rules still prevent him from making contact with recruits, he uses the University of Alabama/Geico telepathic communicator to send untraceable, subliminal messages to the recruit, such as "Coach Saban likes you MUCH better than that 5-star recruit from IMG."       
I cannot wait.  And to think some folks consider Alabama a bit backwards.    

The above is more and more driven by the fact that high school sports in general, is seen as the "farm" for big college athletics, which serves as the farm for the pros (NFL, NBA, ). But in a sense, this makes us poorer as much of what made high school games fun, the rivalry, the innocent naivete, goes the way of the dodo and we are left with sport as just another career ... monetizing everything sometimes impoverishes us all ...  

Regardless, it's  a step in the right direction for the VB program 

...just messing with you, Buddy...a little Sunday morning fun

In the new system, if a team lost every game to a Category 1 team and those Category 1 teams were playoff teams the year before, they would average 38 points. For some classifications that will be enough points to make the playoffs as #8 seed. I look forward to this eventually happening. 

 

...inspirational story
https://www.si.com/college-football/2018/01/19/belthany-antoinette-harris-woman-scholarship

...a common theme is great coaches leave/retire and a program falls apart.  ...a couple of examples I can think of... 
Hollywood McArthur, under coach John Lyzott, was a wrestling powerhouse of the 1970's and 1980's.   Largo's cross country teams, under coach Brent Haley, were amongst the best Florida has ever seen. There are some success stories where a good coach laid a foundation and then another coach came in afterward and built upon it.  Fort Lauderdale Dillard and Ely's basketball programs are a couple of examples I can think of.  
In today's age of coaching musical chairs, it will be interesting to see how well programs will be able to sustain success.
Maybe kids today look more closely at effort/reward when picking a sport.  Wrestling and cross country are physically very demanding sports but do not get much press relative to football and basketball and do not offer as many chances at college scholarships.     
  

Oh no What a bunch of punks, losers, thugs, horrible, bad sportsmanship kids they are.  

It's interesting. Someone sees an opportunity to make a buck, pulls a sporting event into the limelight, continues pushing it to extreme levels, the public gets turned off(and in some cases question/attack its value), interest wanes, ....repeat.
Even stuff like pro wrestling and bodybuilding went from obscure subcultures to freak shows in the public's eye. Compared to yesteryear, today's hs football is a freak show on a number of fronts.  
The real villains are the promoters looking to exploit.  They are not interested in improving the game, though they claim to have such a desire.  Ironically, people in those subcultures often have no interest in being in the public's eye.  They are quite happy flying under the radar.  I bet a lot of hs coaches were just peachy being a 1-inch box score on the back page of the sports section. 
These promoters will let nothing alone.  Look at MMA.  Traditional martial arts was not showy enough, so we had to "create" MMA. And now much of the public thinks MMA is what martial arts is all about.
We had a good thing going with hs football.  The people in the sport used to accept the sport for what it is, risks and all.  I am afraid that now it has gone mainstream (thanks ESPN, sports apparel manufacturers and 7-figure college coaches), there is no going back.  Some are still willing to accept the risks, but cannot escape the public scrutiny.   
 
    

Please forgive me for the non sequitur, Guccifer.  Only through the grace of God was I able to succeed in the legal world despite my proclivity for making such fallacious arguments.  Maybe you could counsel me concerning my next case.
I did not state that going to St Thomas would not help get someone exposure.  It absolutely would.  My point was simply that if someone is relying upon their school's reputation to get scholarship offers, that possibly(I intentionally used the word "maybe"-not a definitive) they do not possess the level of talent required to succeed at an elite level of play.
Kids with elite-level talent do not need to play at a powerhouse program to get noticed, especially in today's world.  I question the belief some parents have that it is essential.  About 40 years ago, a kid in a tiny town in Georgia, 50 miles from nowhere, enrolled in a tiny high school with a losing record.  His name was Herschel Walker.  And he played there for four years.  Imagine that, folks-no transferring!  I used to live nearby, so I know the history.
Back then, college coaches did not have access to statistics and films like today.  As a player, you earned your reputation the hard way and did not need to ride the coattails of a powerhouse program to get a scholarship.  I bet Herschel could have walked onto the UGA campus as a complete unknown and gotten a scholarship.  And I bet the same could be said for a number of elite-level players. 
If a kid's main motivation for getting recognized is simply to get a free ride to college, going to STA may very well be a good investment for the parents, since it will definitely help those B+ kids get noticed.  I worry about the B+ kid who gets offers because he plays for an STA, gets an inflated sense of his talent, and then crashes hard when he gets to the big leagues.  Have seen it happen.  Those are the kids who may be better off going to smaller colleges, ie FCS schools, and, if their talent blossoms, they will be found by the NFL scouts.  
     
   
      
 
      

And this is why society is starting to question the game. 
Put a bunch of big dudes with higher than average aggression rates in a room and get them to start ramming into each other, and what is going to happen?  It's simply human nature.  Studies have shown that when you hit people it makes you even more aggressive.  
The design of the game fosters a "killer" mindset.  It's goal is to knock people to the ground-big, fast, strong people who are moving at you.  You are not going to be very successful if you don't come after the guys of today with a major attitude. 
A skilled wrestler can easily take an opponent to the ground without hurting him.  The movements are somewhat controlled.  Now tell that wrestler to take a guy to the ground who is coming at him full bore with a very mean look in his eyes.  ...totally different ball game.  There is a good chance someone is going to get hurt.    
Some of the great players have been described as having an "on-off" switch.  There is no second gear.  We have to accept that these personality types are playing football today.  Look at Mike Tyson.  ...quiet guy who talks to the pigeons outside the ring, but put gloves on him and he wants to eat your children(look it up if you do not know).    
  
 
 

Yusuf Shakir was a terrible coach. He degraded the program.

Congratulations.  Ya'll won your 40th playoff game in history.  Only about 20 teams in the state have done that.

And this is why society is starting to question the game. 
Put a bunch of big dudes with higher than average aggression rates in a room and get them to start ramming into each other, and what is going to happen?  It's simply human nature.  Studies have shown that when you hit people it makes you even more aggressive.  
The design of the game fosters a "killer" mindset.  It's goal is to knock people to the ground-big, fast, strong people who are moving at you.  You are not going to be very successful if you don't come after the guys of today with a major attitude. 
A skilled wrestler can easily take an opponent to the ground without hurting him.  The movements are somewhat controlled.  Now tell that wrestler to take a guy to the ground who is coming at him full bore with a very mean look in his eyes.  ...totally different ball game.  There is a good chance someone is going to get hurt.    
Some of the great players have been described as having an "on-off" switch.  There is no second gear.  We have to accept that these personality types are playing football today.  Look at Mike Tyson.  ...quiet guy who talks to the pigeons outside the ring, but put gloves on him and he wants to eat your children(look it up if you do not know).    
  
 
 

That is sad and scary you have a variety of teams in there, most (if not all) that have produced D1 talent and NFL players and they can't find head coaches (as of yet)......  You have lots of playoff games combined (both recent and historical)  with those programs and even State Championships.    If someone is willing to go to those programs sacrifice, and build for peanut wages (for a  few years)  , they could probably build a pretty good resume and eventually move on to a higher paying or more established program.  I don't know why Mark Guandolo stepped down but that guy could probably get a job almost anywhere with his resume.  Cypress Bay is generally a average or slightly above average 8A team that has always played in a solid district.  They had several years of success when they had talent over there. Coach Guandolo always did a fine job with what he had to work with. BOL to him ....

It is now official. http://www.wjhg.com/content/sports/Palmer-steps-down-as-Port-St-Joe-football-coach-470157593.html
Coach John Palmer has resigned as head football coach at Port St Joe.  I talked to him last night at the football banquet and he was in good spirits and looked the best he has in some time.  I wish John the best and thank him for his hard work and his leadership and guidance he has provided over the years to so many young men including my son.  Coach Palmer leaves quite a legacy with his 2 State Championships and multiple playoff appearances.  The next coach has some very big shoes to fill but I am sure he will be up for the task.

What caused the program to drop over the past few seasons?  They were clicking for a while.