High school football is back. Dieruff and Allen both started this past week. Dieruff put up 27 in a loss to Pocono Mountain East who scored 42. Allen won due to a forfeit by the Dobbins Mustangs of Philadelphia.
I am so glad to see Dieruff has turned around their program somewhat. They are winning some games each year. I wont cut Allen short either, they have been getting a couple wins a year. Not last year tho. Yes I know Dieruff and Allen play in a weaker division per se than in years past but who cares. I would love to see one of these teams get into districts.
Here's my plan
Before you judge on my next comment hear me out. Have you ever seen the size of some of these students at either school? Monsters. Or watch them chase each other around. Like Gazelles. So how do you get them to play? Heres where your comments may start.
Why not make the kids who get in trouble or get arrested be forced to play football as their punishment? Dont show up to practice, get locked up, cause problems at practice, get locked up. Force structure. Force teamwork. Make the kids have to show up to practice. Wear them down at practice so when they go home they are too tired to go out and get into trouble.
The football programs have been plaqued by losing seasons for years. But what if they started winning? Maybe they could draw 70 kids on the sidelines. Im not talking adding the JV and freshman players either. Allen is one of the biggest schools in the state. They should be dominating most sports. In the past, like way past, 60s, 70s, and some of the 80s Allen and Dieruff were a little more competitive in football.
Now the basketball programs and baseball teams can hold their own most years but lets stick with football.
I would love to see Allen spank Parkland. Is it possible, yes. I think they have beat them 12 times over their matchups. Too beat them now tho might take a couple years of rebuilding. Allen and Dieruff can typically hold their own for the 1st quarter then due to not having enough players, the starters have to play both sides of the ball and tire out quickly. It goes down quickly after that.
I just think, well, I know, alot of inner city kids do not have steady father figures in their lives. This translates to crime, staying out late, gangs etc. You know what I am talking about. A good solid coach can change a child's life.
Maybe Allentown needs to work with the judges, probation department and school officials and implement a program like I am talking about. The punishments need to be extreme. You play a sport or you get locked up. Simple. I dont want to hear anyone cry about their baby being locked up either. You give the kid a choice. All these tough guy kids out there. Lets see how tough you really are the field. Lets change some lives here. LET'S GO!!!
6 comments:
Thats actually a great idea. I see some of these kids at school let out. They could easily make a line of 5 guys 240lbs each.
I haven't been to an Allen game since my son, who was in the band graduated in 2010. Even then every game was a blow out from the start and mercy ruled by halftime. Truly band parents made up most of the fans in the mostly empty Allen bleachers. Like everyone else we watched the halftime show and left. School district that have good sports teams also have good Schools. They are sound well run districts. Districts where discipline and dedication are instilled with solid performance outcomes. All this is lacking in Allentown. In the past I put the blame on the high percentage of students coming from disadvantaged and/or dysfunctional homes. Now that the wheels have come off the school district many functioning households/parents don't want to send their kids to the ASD. Who can blame them? On it's present course it will be a long time before either high school fields winning teams. Again. Only when Performance Levels rise in the classrooms will the teams also improve.
This might be the worst idea ever.
So the solution to improving a team - any team - is to fill it with kids who are discipline problems, possibly violent, and who likely don’t really want to be there? That’s not a strategy for success.
Yes, most of them might conceivably show up and put their time in and avoid prison. But they will also likely do the bare minimum, which is not a recipe for winning.
Also, imagine being a parent of a child who isn’t a criminal and just wants to play a sport, in this case football. Are you going to want your kid playing on the same team and hanging out with kids who are there to avoid prison time? My first concern would be my child’s safety, and my second would be that they’d negatively influence my kid.
Playing a sport is a privilege and should be a reward for meeting academic standards first. It shouldn’t become a last chance stop for problem kids. JV should continue to mean “Junior Varsity”, and not become a wing of JuVie.
I think you’re missing the point about why Allentown football teams have fallen. Here are the main reasons:
1). The city’s youth leagues were politicized and outright destroyed under Pawlowski. Most of the youth leagues had football teams that would get the kids playing early. Then those kids would feed into middle school programs, which would then feed into the high school programs. That doesn’t exist today.
2). The policies of City Hall are promoting a city of renters (at best) instead of homeowners. This promotes transiency in the city, since those families have nothing that really ties them to the city. So families are constantly moving in and out of our neighborhoods, and their kids are constantly entering and leaving our schools. This makes our neighborhoods unstable, students hard to teach, and successful sports teams difficult to build.
Unfortunately, the youth leagues would take years to rebuild, even if there was the desire and expertise in City Hall to do so. Even worse than that, our current politicians are now promoting policies that will destabilize our neighborhoods and schools even further.
That certainly doesn’t bode well for our sports teams, and certainly not for our neighborhoods. So while we can all wish for a better outcome for our high school football teams, what those scoreboards really represent is the failure of the city’s politicians.
Until Allentown’s voters see that, nothing will change.
4: 31 Thank you for bringing up these excellent points. So much has gone wrong in the last 24 years it's hard to recall it all. Although Matt believes in his fevered mind he's saving the city his new zoning proposal, ruinious fiscal policies, and his hands off nuisance crimes policies are greasing the skids further. The school district, their sports teams, and the city, will continue to be sucked down in the same vortex of decline. I find no joy in writing any of this, but the truth must be told somewhere.
This is an accurate assessment, 4:31 AM.
The lack of competitiveness in most sports at urban public schools is a problem not unique to Allentown. Schools somewhat similar to Allentown, all across this state, suffer under the same impediments. Take Reading High School, twice the size of Allen High. Their football team is regularly clobbered by tiny suburban school districts in that area.
Look at the Allen and Dieruff marching bands. Both schools once featured 200-250 members each! Today, those numbers are down to about 50 at each.
YES, it's all about family living conditions back home. These are poor kids forced to live unstable lives. Many are unable to focus long term and 'buy in' to any regimented discipline that requires steady construction over time. Not school sports, not academics.
I know from personal teaching experience in Allentown years ago, it is not uncommon to find a classroom roster of 25 specific kinds in September to become a June roster of 25 that lists only 8-10 of the same kids attending in September!
Success in sports and academics requires CONTINUITY and stability, especially within home and family. Too many ASD kids do not enjoy the benefits of either. The percentage of Allentown students coming from single, owner occupied, two-parent homes could be less than 20%
That test scores in ASD are lower than test scores at Parkland, East Penn, etc. should be no surprise to anyone. Athletic scoreboards tell the same story
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