[walterwhite]

Not really disagreeing in regards to elementary football. More players is always a good thing. And yes, having one or two coaches at the high school full time is paramount.

If we have 35 players on the 8th grade team and we play our top 15 players (as most teams do) to get the W, is that really making things better? 20 of em will warm the bench and skip out before they're sophomores. At least that's what's been happening.

Anytime we've had the numbers in the younger grades we've played a decent JV schedule, not sure on the conference stuff.

More freshman = more sophomores, more sophomores = more juniors and so on and so on. So I guess more 6th graders = more 7th graders, right?

I actually thought the creation of the middle school would help football. I thought it would allow the players to fully become involved in the "system" and allow for them to have access to better facilities and coaching. I also thought, incorrectly, that it would allow for more kids to play, as I figured the coaches would be told to platoon and use different players on special teams. I thought with the numbers available players would stay with their grade and not play up. More coaches also would equal more individual instruction on fundamentals.
I agree that there should be coaches in the building at both the high school and middle school. No better way to keep players involved than being involved.
As for elementary football, the high school coach should be directly in charge of the entire program, from playbooks to coaches.
Transportation will always be an issue in rural county school systems. some provide it, some don't. Just my opinion, but somewhere along the line parents and players have to take a personal interest in the program. Getting to practice is an individual responsibility. Football is an extracurricular activity.
When it comes right down to it, whover gets this job has to change the culture of the program, which is going to be a monumental job. It can be done but not by one man alone. As many have stated, it will take an entire community to get this going.