Rebuilding Year?

[dc bigdaddy]

No matter what sport it is, you hear the term "rebuilding year". My take is this, once the program is rolling, you shouldn't have a rebuilding year. I'll take Friday Night High School football. If you have 50 players on the team, half should be seniors and half should be juniors. Well the next year, those juniors will be seniors and you have a new group of juniors to replace those new seniors. IMO there shouldn't be a rebuilding year.

Now I know, you'll have some classes that are better than others, but when that class graduates, should the next year be called a rebuilding year? IMO no, it's most likely a normal team in your program.

As long as you keep the same coach, I don't see why you should call it a "rebuilding year" You should all ready know what you have coming and you plan on it.

Anyway, that's my thoughts, what about yours?

 

[DBCooper]

Well, if you graduate 24 seniors and 12 of them get scholarships (in some sport), that’s a stellar season/group.

You could call that group an outlier and be more correct than calling the years until something similar occurs as “rebuilding “.

 

[oldest school]

No matter what sport it is, you hear the term "rebuilding year". My take is this, once the program is rolling, you shouldn't have a rebuilding year. I'll take Friday Night High School football. If you have 50 players on the team, half should be seniors and half should be juniors. Well the next year, those juniors will be seniors and you have a new group of juniors to replace those new seniors. IMO there shouldn't be a rebuilding year.

Now I know, you'll have some classes that are better than others, but when that class graduates, should the next year be called a rebuilding year? IMO no, it's most likely a normal team in your program.

As long as you keep the same coach, I don't see why you should call it a "rebuilding year" You should all ready know what you have coming and you plan on it.

Anyway, that's my thoughts, what about yours?

I dont agree even with football especially on a high school level. Talent cant be sustained some years. You gotta have the joes as well as the x's and o's.
I definitely don think you can always sustain in baseball or basketball. IF you are worth a crap. Sustaining mediocrity isnt as tough.

 

[shotgunner]

I would disagree to some extent. Yes, you know what you have and what is coming but that does not mean they are as good as what you lost. You may have a group of athletes that play on your varsity team for 3 or 4 years. When they graduate you may have worked just as hard and done just as good of job preparing their replacements but there is no replacement for game experience. The new players are going to have to acclimate to their new roles. Two things that are grossly overlooked in sports, especially high school, are team chemistry and leadership. You can have all the talent you want, without these 2 ingredients you will only have disappointment. And just like talent comes and goes, so does team chemistry and leadership. That is why it is so hard to have sustained success in high school. You do not see dynasties much anymore at any level and yet athletes are getting bigger, faster and stronger all the time. Ask any coach what is the hardest ingredients to sustain in their program and I would bet these 2 would be at the top of the list.

 

[DBCooper]

I would disagree to some extent. Yes, you know what you have and what is coming but that does not mean they are as good as what you lost. You may have a group of athletes that play on your varsity team for 3 or 4 years. When they graduate you may have worked just as hard and done just as good of job preparing their replacements but there is no replacement for game experience. The new players are going to have to acclimate to their new roles. Two things that are grossly overlooked in sports, especially high school, are team chemistry and leadership. You can have all the talent you want, without these 2 ingredients you will only have disappointment. And just like talent comes and goes, so does team chemistry and leadership. That is why it is so hard to have sustained success in high school. You do not see dynasties much anymore at any level and yet athletes are getting bigger, faster and stronger all the time. Ask any coach what is the hardest ingredients to sustain in their program and I would bet these 2 would be at the top of the list.

Great reply ?

 

[turkeyfoot]

Yeah There are very very few schools that can stockpile talent like Bama and ckemson. Most schools even bigger ones have rebuilding years especially when you run into having 3 or 4 year starters at critical positions like O line and QB graduate it takes experience for players to be good and it takes experience in big game moments as well. Its one the biggest challenges in high school and college is to have good experienced players on both sides ball in one season. Auburn is prime example their front 7 is awesome and receivers are good but freshman QB and lack running game keep them from beating top SEC teams

 

[woodmoose]

especially on a high school level.

High school I went to, Antigo, in northern Wisconsin went from 1972 through 1976 losing only one game
took the first ever state championship in 1976
repeated in 1978
and again in 1982

all under the same coach

went downhill after that

it's the players,,,,but it's really the coaching quality - need a leader to get that kind of dynamics but that concept of Senior and upcoming Juniors / Sophomores is a viable one, if the coach thinks ahead

that coach retired in 1987 with a record of 199 wins, 41 losses, 2 ties, 15 Conference Championships, 7 undefeated seasons, and 3 State Championships - they haven't done well since

 

[Buxndiverdux]

Historically, the best high school football teams in NC come from the biggest inner city schools simply because they have the more students to choose for teams. When Pitt County added another high school, the new school district was carved out of 3 high school districts. That extra school split up a lot of football talent.

 

[Homebrewale]

Experience is an important factor. In the OP example, if only the 50 seniors play in the games, then the 50 junior players the next season start out with no experience. The really good teams get the underclassman chances to play in the game to gain experience for when they will be starters.

 

[sky hawk]

When I was in high school, we had a team in our conference that we couldn't beat. They had 3 exceptional athletes, all the same age, at QB, FB, TB, who started every game together from the time they were sophomores to seniors. 4.4 -40 speed. And they ran the option. They did it so often and so well, with incredible talent, and they were extremely hard to stop over the course of a game. They won the state championship our senior year.

Theoretically you're right. It's the "program" and coaching that sustains it. But exceptional talent will throw off the cycle of attrition. I guarantee you that team had a rebuilding year when they lost those 3. As long as the game has players with exceptional talent, it will not be a steady state.

I have "rebuilding years" on my deer lease regularly. ?

 

[turkeyfoot]

Heck at my age I need a rebuilding year

 

[Firedog]

In High school I agree, the only rebuilding you do is when the coaches change and you rebuild the program, how they coach what they run, how they practice, discipline etc. Some exceptions exist when you have had a 3 or 4 year group of starters and/or you are simply short talent and have to start Freshmen or Sophmores. That applies less to college where the athletes are recruited in a competitive nature (not saying some of that does not go on in HS but that is the exception vs the rule), they do have to rebuild from time to time, even the big boys.. in the pros, they rebuild all the time.

 

[bwfarms]

For the most part the teams I played on were loaded with extremely athletic guys. The best teams I've played with had chemistry, it didn't matter how long we were teammates. Everyone did their assignment so we meshed well and played better.

It's the teams that had prima donnas that gave us the look of a 'rebuilding year'. I don't care if they were the most talented players in the world, when they didn't trust their teammates, their teammates didn't trust them. The outcome was a lot of tough games.