FrogBoy's first season of high school football (a RL dynasty) - Page 2

FrogMan · 09-16-2009, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

One down, presumably six to go.

Season is six regular season games with regional semi-finals and possibly regional finals. Don't know if there's a provincial finals at the Benjamin level though.

FM

FrogMan · 09-17-2009, 11:43 AM

As I was saying yesterday, I didn't get to pick up Andrew after yesterday's practice. Still got to question him a bit to get some info on how it went though.

His answer: "well". Heh, the joy of speaking with a 12 year old.

Questioned some more, new answer: "yeah, practice went well".

I got out of him that he practiced at center all practice long. The starting center, while dressed, didn't practice much, if at all. When asked if his snaps went well, or if had some bad ones, he said that yeah he had a few but he got better at other times. I asked him if he thought he'd play center for the game and he said for now, it looked like it but nothing had been confirmed.

My wife is a bit paranoid and she's hoping the other center is not the type of player to take it easy in practices only to be really happy to show up for games. I gotta say this has sorta been in the back of my mind. I told her that heck, it's not like he's a superstar running back or even the QB and that his snaps are all that much better than Andrew's. Practice time will, at some point, give Andrew a definite advantage. Again, Andrew told me it enjoyed his practice, it's all I wanted to hear really.

The guard that was injured the day before didn't dress for yesterday's practice. Turns out it's a knee. He said her knee was all wrapped up in elastic bandage. No idea how severe it is though.

Their QB also didn't practice yesterday because of some back pain and that's gotta be a bit worrisome. They have this one QB who's a real star, very good and can read the game well but after that, up until this week, I had not seen any other kid take snaps. Maybe they did before I arrived to practice, but still. They have a smallish kid who only started playing in the Summer league this year but has been playing baseball for four years as a pitcher, I was told. Saw him take a few snaps on Tuesday and while yeah, he had the arm, he's still learning in his reads and has some obvious holes in his knowledge of the playbook.

I'd think if we ever get to a big lead in this week's game, it would be a good time to give the backup QB some playing time...

FM

FrogMan · 09-18-2009, 02:10 PM

Saw 30 minutes of practice yesterday and it was more of the same. Andrew was at center and the snaps I saw were reasonably good. He switched with their other center with about 5 snaps to go in scrimmage.

When asked about his practice, he said he did most of practice as the center but got pulled whenever he did a bad snap, which he said happened a few times. But this time, he said he was snapping too high instead of to the QB's ankles which I thought was interesting. Matter of finding a balance between the two I guess.

He said the OC told them the other center was still considered the starting center and when I asked Andrew where he thought he'd be playing, he said he guessed it would be on the D-line, a place where he's not taken a snap all week long. I saw the starting center walk around gingerly, favoring a leg quite a bit when walking up the small hill to the practice field. I told Andrew about it and to keep himself ready for anything comes gametime, to stay focused and practice his snaps when the offense is on the field on Saturday. I wouldn't be surprised he ends up playing center at some point.

Andrew also admitted blowing a couple of blocking assignments. I reminded him it was his duty to study his playbook which he agreed.

Now, as a dad, and his #1 fan, I only hope he won't look too bad on the D-line, after focusing so much of his effort on the O-line. He's still young, and the mindset between the two lines is quite a bit different. I'll make sure to remind him to go on the hunt if he ends up on the D-line, and not only engage his offensive lineman and push.

The injured guard was again out of practice but he said he's not taken one snap at guard during the week. Like the day before though, the most worrisome thing was the fact their QB didn't practice. Andrew said he stopped by for maybe 30 minutes at the start of practice but didn't dress. Let's hope he'll be ready to play tomorrow since their backup QB really is not on the same level.

Their Head coach had a few choiced words for them when they wrapped up practice. He told them that their level of intensity or quality of work for this past week of practice was complete crap compared to last week's practices. He said he didn't know if it was because they'd won their first game 44-0 or what, but he reminded them that they had only won one game, not ten. That even in any case where an easy game might be coming, they still had to give themselves goals and achieve them. I had kinda seen that brashness with some kids, mostly DBs and WRs from what I could tell.

About tomorrow's game, they'll be playing on the road, at the only out of region team. It'll be about a 3 hours ride to get there. Kids will leave by bus at 8am while we'll probably leave in car at around 9am. Kickoff is at 1pm. The school they be playing lost their first game 42-0, as I reported earlier and was our Benjamins' first and only win of the season last year.

You can see their stadium if you zoom in on the destination. Looks like a pretty nice stadium. FWIW, UQAC stands for Université du Québec À Chicoutimi, so it's really a University campus.

Will be a long day, but I'm really looking forward to the road trip.

FM

FrogMan · 09-21-2009, 02:01 PM

The weather was great and the kids looked ready. And ready, they were, as they showed with the great kickoff return that started it all, followed with three quick plays that resulted in a first TD only 3 minutes into the game. They followed it up by recovering a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and one more minute later, they were ahead 14-0. They never looked back and won it big time, 42-0.

Great game by the team overall. We had a TD on a kick return, many big pressures by the D resulting in them conceding 2 or 3 safeties instead of punting the ball away out of their endzone, and finally a nice 15-20 yard long TD pass.

As for Andrew, well, it was a bit disappointing. Not so much his play, but how much playing time he got and how he was moved around a bit. Turns out that all injured players were back on the lineup and Andrew was not a starter on either side of the ball. In fact, he didn't step on the field until there was maybe 9 minutes to play in the second quarter (12 minutes long quarters) and even then, it was as a DT and they recovered a fumble on the first play of the drive.

After that, he played some more on the D-line and then played at right guard. He was called for a dubious holding while at right guard but 2-3 plays later he did a key block going up to the middle linebacker, opening the way for their running back to run in a 12 yard TD.

After the game, I got to talk to him as he was walking off the field. He said he was happy with the win and he didn't look too disappointed in not playing as much as he was used to. He simply told me he learned he was not starting right before the game and knew he would be going in only later in the game.

I think we, his parents, took it a bit harder. Then again, not so much me, but my wife (his mother) more than anything else. I could see how him having practiced at center all week long took him out of contention for a starting spot on the D-line, or maybe as a guard once the starting center spot was given to the other guy, but sometimes it's just how it is. It's not always fair, but life rarely is. She was incensed that Andrew didn't ask to practice elsewhere during the week, that he "apparently" didn't practice as hard as he could, or whatever else she think he should have done. Basically, he should have been able to become a starter, at least in her opinion. We had somewhat of an argument Saturday evening (leading to me only posting this report today, had to let the dust settle down in a way

) where she did make a good point. She's a perfectionist and in her eyes, she really believes that Andrew has a lot of potential, in football and in other areas in life, but that he's always only doing just ever so much to only "get by". I do agree that he often frustrates me in that aspect, but aren't all, or almost all 12yo kids just about that way? I mean, sure he could be planning out his homeworks in advance and such, but again, when we were 12, weren't we much more interested in playing than in doing homeworks?

Oh, sure, I felt he could have been practicing his karate harder in the weeks leading to his black belt test, but I also know he felt he was ready, and I saw that the other kids getting ready to test didn't really practice much harder. Same goes with football practice last week. The other linemen (O or D) didn't really practice that much harder than he did. Could he have been overzealous and kick all sorts of butt to impress the coaches? Maybe, but again, he told me after the game that he was happy with how much he played.

In our discussion, my wife told me I couldn't blame her for wanting to see her son play, not only practice. Sure, but that's sorta selfsih in a way was my reply. I mean, I asked him if he was happy with his playing time or not and he genuinely replied he was okay with it. Said he was a bit disappointed when he learned he wasn't starting but that he was okay with how involved he got to be later on in the game. It's not really about if I'm the one who's happy, but more so, was he happy. What else could I do? Smack him behind the head so he would practice harder or whine to get more playing time? To me, that would be akin to forcing him to play a sport he doesn't like, which is something I have never done and will never do. Way we've always done is be there for our kids when they want to play a sport and make sure they know what they're getting into when they sign up so that they don't stop midway through a season. Right now, Andrew is giving his all from what I can see in practices. Sure he could work on some parts of his playing, and I'll push him to try and be better, but I don't think we could be doing more. I offered him to be his QB so he could practice his snaps maybe a week ago and he told me he wanted to go play with his friends. Was it wrong of him? I don't really think so.

One other thing that I think has my wife worried/nervous is that she's got apprehension for next season already. He'll be moving up to Cadet where he'll be a Secondary 2 kids among a bunch of Secondary 3 kids, or probbaly Secondary 2 kids who might be bigger than him, and then again could be trying real hard to get playing time. I told her not to get ahead of herself, a bunch of stuff can happen in a year.

For me, if there was one thing I thought could have been handled better by the coaches, and it could have been said about last week's game too, it's that they could have given Andrew some playing time at center when the score got to 35-0 with about seven minutes to play. Seriously, why not give him a chance to show what he's got then, instead of in a big game when your starting center gets injured and your backup has never played a snap in that position. I guess they're not thinking that their center will ever be injured enough not to play, then why do they have Andrew practicing there then? Simply cause they need a practice squad center? That's the bit that's bugging me a bit...

I am rambling. If you've read up to now, thanks a lot. I said this would be about expressing my moments of pride, but also the frustrating moments. I guess you got a bit of everything in this post.

Feel free to share your thoughts on the matter at hand.

Next up, results from elsewhere in the league as well as standings.

FM

FrogMan · 09-21-2009, 02:03 PM

Here are the results of this second week of activity in the Benjamin AA division:

N.D.TRINITÉ	46	16	BENOIT-VACHON
CORSAIRES	42	0	ODYSSÉE-LAFONTAINE(SL)
P.SÉM.QUÉBEC	6	48	ANC.-LORETTE

As expected, Ancienne-Lorette trounced Petit Séminaire de Québec although I thought they'd be able to shut them down in the same way we did last week. I expected Notre Dame Trinité to be stronger that Benoît-Vachon and that result was expected.

Here are the standings after two weeks of activity:

Pos	Teams	GP	W	T	L	FP	PF	PA	DIFF	PTS
1	Corsaires	2	2	0	0	2	86	0	86	6
2	Ancienne-Lorette	2	2	0	0	2	90	6	84	6
3	Notre Dame Trinité	1	1	0	0	1	46	16	30	3
4	Clé-du-Boisé	1	1	0	0	1	26	7	19	3
5	Benoît-Vachon	2	0	0	2	2	23	72	-49	2
6	Odyssée-Lafontaine	2	0	0	2	2	0	84	-84	2
7	Petit Séminaire de Québec	2	0	0	2	2	6	92	-86	2

Corsaires play Ancienne-Lorette at home next week. That'll be our first big test. Wonder how the kids will get ready for that one. I know Andrew told us their coach said that the easy games were over when they huddled after their big win this weekend. Remains to be seen if they understood the message or not.

In one of the other two games next week, Clé-du-Boisé (1-0) will be playing at Notre Dame Trinité (1-0) in a game which I expect to be kinda close but that NDT should win. In the other game, Odyssée-Lafontaine (0-2) will be visiting Petit Séminaire de Québec (0-2) in a battle of the winless. Hopefully it'll be a close one and the kids on both side can find some fun in not getting beaten into a pulp for once.

FM

FrogMan · 09-23-2009, 11:34 AM

Again saw the last 30 minutes of practice yesterday and sometimes, I honestly don't know what to think. When I got there, Andrew was playing center in their 12-on-12 scrimmage. I thought he did quite well in his time there, with not one bad snap. He got slightly chewed up for missing a blitz from a linebacker when he thought he had to stay with his assigned block but he understood what was asked of him. I say "slightly" cause the offensive coordinator didn't really get upset at him, and I chalked that up to learning the ropes.

When I say I don't know what to think it's all pertaining to where the position they had him practicing in. He said he started practicing with the defensive linemen, in unit drills. I thought it was good for him, I mean, he gets to work at a spot where he has fun and can be useful if he ends up being called to play D-line in their next game. Then came the unexpected part that led to him being at center for the 12-on-12 scrimmage. He said it's their offensive coordinator who asked to "have Andrew take the snaps with Alex (the other center) on the D-line". Really? Hrm, don't know what to think, really. They can't be having him practice at center for him to be simply their main backup, huh? Maybe they are seeing some potential in him that they think they'll be able to use long term, that's the only thing I can think of. That, or they think he really needs practice at center, just in case. I mean, their center is not hurt, at least he didn't look hurt when rushing as a defensive tackle.

Anyway, I'm probably seeing more than there is to see in all this. Simply putting my thoughts here. Feel free to bring your real life football thoughts to help me see something, if there's anything to see.

Overall, he said he was happy, that he had fun at practice and he's looking forward to the game on Saturday.

They will be practicing at their gameday field this afternoon. As with all Wednesdays from now on, my wife will be picking him up, but she will not get to see any of the practice as the kids will be transported by bus from their regular practice field to their gameday field.

FM

JonInMiddleGA · 09-23-2009, 05:19 PM

In all honesty I'm kind of stumped about his practice routine at this point. Is there some sort of personality issue with the other center, for example he has to think he's in danger of losing his job in order to perform to expectations? Any indication he simply doesn't like playing center & they're trying to mollify him by not making him work there (which doesn't make much sense as I don't perceive him being head & shoulders better than Andrew at the position, not enough so that he doesn't need the practice time there himself).

I mean there's a lot of different scenarios but on the face of it I haven't been able to make much sense of how it's being handled.

FrogMan · 09-23-2009, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

In all honesty I'm kind of stumped about his practice routine at this point. Is there some sort of personality issue with the other center, for example he has to think he's in danger of losing his job in order to perform to expectations? Any indication he simply doesn't like playing center & they're trying to mollify him by not making him work there (which doesn't make much sense as I don't perceive him being head & shoulders better than Andrew at the position, not enough so that he doesn't need the practice time there himself).

I mean there's a lot of different scenarios but on the face of it I haven't been able to make much sense of how it's being handled.

I'm just as stumped as you Jon, as I said, I honestly don't know how to take it.

My impression of the other center, as there's only one left now, is that he doesn't really care about football. I'm not even sure if he wanted to play to be honest. Don't think I ever reported that, but Andrew once told me, in the early weeks of practices, that one of the other center wasn't sure he if he wanted to play this season. I just asked him a moment ago to make sure and he said yeah, that the other center is the one who sounded unsure about wanting to play. Looking at the kid, he's not really, I don't know how to say it, maybe sharp in his movements could describe it. You know, like a big guy who's a bit soft and never really pushing hard.

And tonight's practice isn't giving me anything to convince me that he really wants to play, or maybe that he doesn't care about practicing and only wants to play games. Andrew said he played right offensive tackle when they were running non-contact plays (offense only) as the tackle was missing at practice. He said the other center was snapping the ball for that part of practice. Andrew said they remained that way until they started 12-on-12 scrimmage at which point their offensive coordinator saw the other center kind of wander away and asked him if he was not going to come snap the ball, to which the kid apparently replied that his knee was hurting him and that if Andrew wanted to snap the ball, he could do it. Andrew was only too happy to oblige and did all of the scrimmage plays while the other center stayed on the sideline and practiced his snaps. Andrew said his snaps went well, but I didn't see a minute of the practice.

And back again to the other center, no he is not head & shoulders better than Andrew at the position, although I obviously might be biased.

Seriously, other than an obvious height advantage (5'4" for him to 4'10" for Andrew), and better snaps early on, they're probably on equal footing now. Even in weight, Andrew's 135lbs isn't far behind the other center's 143lbs. Andrew's snaps are now probably just as good, or at least more regularly around chest level, while the other center snapped a few balls above the QB's head to the point where the QB had to extend the arm to grab the ball in our last game.

As for wanting to mollify (thanks for making me look that word up btw

) him, also doesn't make much sense to me. Even when he played defensive tackle yesterday, I didn't see much fire in his performance, although it could have been because of the apparent knee injury.

Oh well, Andrew said they didn't give any indication as to where he'd play on Saturday. I told him to keep on giving his all and that at some point it would pay off.

Coaching staff said tonight's practice went like crap and because of it, they've booked a practice for this Friday.

FM

FrogMan · 09-25-2009, 09:05 AM

Again saw the last 30 minutes of practice but really not much to report today. The offense was running plays as a scout team mimicking what the coaches think Ancienne-Lorette will do on Saturday in order to give some practice to the defense. Defense looked good, real good.

As a scout team, the offense ran all their snaps with the QB under center and as such, their left tackle played center. When I got there, Andrew was on the sideline but they switched a lineman out every five plays and he played some at left tackle. I liked how alive he looked at the position.

They ended practice with some 12-on-12 scrimmaging in which Andrew and the starting center alternated at center every 5 plays. I liked how matter of factly it was that they simply switched one for the other and the offense kept on playing without it making any difference. Andrew said they didn't give him any word as to where he'd play on Saturday. Wait and see I guess.

They do practice this afternoon, from 4:30 to 6. Helmet only, no pads kind of practice, I assume as a simple walkthrough to make sure all kids know what they have to do.

Big game is tomorrow morning at 10.

FM

FrogMan · 09-25-2009, 09:42 PM

they practiced mostly special teams today, with maybe a few plays to refresh everyone's memory, but really nothing special.

Andrew wasn't really told where he'll be playing but everything points to the other center again being the starting center. Andrew played some tackle again today, mostly cause a tackle had to leave from practice early. This is frustrating cause I get the feeling he again won't start anywhere and will end up only playing in the second quarter, if for no other reason than the fact that he backed up the other center all week long and again never really practiced elsewhere. So, by default, he becomes the overall backup of the whole O-line while I think he looked much more lively out there than some of the others.

He still looked okay and said he's having fun in practice and very much looking forward to tomorrow's game so I guess morale is holding up well.

FM

FrogMan · 09-29-2009, 09:09 AM

Well, that was a nailbiter of a game. Our kids started off strong, forcing then recovering a fumble on the opening kickoff. That gave their offense a great starting position that they didn't waste and they were up 8-0 after maybe 3 minutes. The other team came right back but really only had one big weapon, okay maybe two, in their running back and fullback. They tied the game before the end of the first quarter. We got a one score lead back early in the second quarter when we returned a punt for a TD. Up 16-8 at the half, it remained that way until about halfway into the fourth quarter when the other team started running outside all the time and we had a hard time coping with it. They scored once more but fumbled the snap on the PAT which ended being blocked. We gave them the ball back with maybe 2 minutes left and after we got penalized twice fifteeen yards for facemask penalties on consecutive plays, they were at our 15 yard line with a 4th and 2 with 10 seconds to play. We tackled the runner in the backfield to end the game. Final score: 16-14 win for the Corsaires.

Since it was a home game, I had timekeeping duties again so I didn't pay as much attention to Andrew's play as I would have liked. One thing I noticed though is that he didn't come into the game until there was a little less than 6 minutes to play in the first half and didn't play at all in the fourth quarter. He played defensive tackle, again in a spot he had barely practiced at during last week's practices. Because of that, he looked out of place at some times and maybe not as quick off the snap as I've seen him when he's been in a D-line type of zone, if you know what I mean.

Don't know where to start to express how the weekend has unravelled from there. I'll start with him relating that their coach had explained to them that they did play their best players more, something I think is unfair to someone like Andrew, since I honestly believe that given practice time at D-line, he would be better than some of the guys who played there. But there's his reaction to not playing. When asked if he was disappointed with it, he simply nodded and shrugged a "yeah, a little". And it's not really only that reaction which is hitting hard for us (wife & I) but how he seems to be getting into a pattern of laziness, of being okay with what's given to him instead of wanting more. I'll go on a tangent here to give you a bit of background. Late August, my wife came to me telling me she had found a place where he could take drum lessons, something he looked interested in after playing Rock Band so much. Nice classes too, private classes. But, you know, to practice, he'd need a drum but she had also found a place where they rented drum sets, so off we went and rented a new one with option to buy. It's been three weeks since his first class and he's practiced an average of one or two 15 minutes sessions per week. Oh, his teacher has told him and my wife that he's got potential, but we don't see him practicing.

That trend goes back to many years but I'd say it irked me a bit more this past Summer when he was getting ready to test for his black belt. As we got closer and closer to the test and I kept asking him if he was ready, he kept replying "I'm okay dad". Oh sure, he was okay, but he could have really killed it. Instead, he simply passed the test, but I felt he had the potential to do so much more, to look so much sharper.

Then last week, the week leading to this most recent game, the fit hit the shan. Wife went to a school meeting and met his French teacher, boom, she learns then that he's been late going into class, that he's talking and disturbing others and have already given a homework late. Then the very next day, his phys ed teacher (phys ed for crying out loud, something young active boys just love!) calls me at work to tell me he'd been late to class twice already, this in only three weeks of class. He was apparently talking to a classmate and forgot to check time and change quickly enough. This may not look like much, but he's in a special program in which he goes to regular class in the afternoon and takes English-as-a-second-language class in the morning four days of the week, a program he's told us he loves numerous times. Too many of those bad notes and he could be kicked out of the program.

Now, I don't know what to think anymore. Could he be not playing cause he's also lazy in practice? From what I saw, he was active when I was there, although as I pointed out earlier, had to be reminded to keep on running until the play is over during their first camp and I had to tell him to not simply make a screen in front of a linebacker but to push him back more. I know he's got potential, maybe he's not showing it and is just content with how it's going. I'm ranting now, and maybe I'm aksing too much of my 12yo boy, but I'd like to see some fight from him. Would like to see him go at it harder in many little aspects of his life. Is that too much to ask?

Again, I know he's in a weird situation as far as football go, but there's more to it for us. I don't want to be one of those crazy dads that I've seen too much of with young hockey players. I know he will never earn a living playing football, but if you say you like playing, and you act like you love playing the game, then maybe you should give it your all and fight for playing time.

And again, it's not only with with football, we simply see a kind of pattern developping that we don't like. Maybe I should have posted this in the parenting thread after all...

FM

FrogMan · 09-29-2009, 11:58 AM

Elsewhere in the Benjamin AA division, Notre Dame Trinité won at home, 42-20 over Clé-du-Boisé. Pretty much the result I expected. While it's difficult to really assess them since they've not played any common opponent with us or Ancienne-Lorette, I'd expect Notre Dam Trinité to be our next big threat. We'll play them at home in the final week of the regular season, on October 24. In the other game, the two bottom team played each other and Petit Séminaire de Québec shut down Odyssée-Lafontaine by a score of 22-0. Gotta be pretty sad for the kids of Odyssée-Lafontaine who've not scored one point after three games played this season.

Here are the standings after three weeks of action:

Pos	Teams	GP	W	T	L	FP	PF	PA	DIFF	PTS
1	Corsaires	3	3	0	0	3	102	14	88	9
2	Ancienne-Lorette	3	2	0	1	3	104	22	82	7
3	Notre Dame Trinité	2	2	0	0	2	88	36	52	6
4	Petit Séminaire de Québec	3	1	0	2	3	28	92	-64	5
5	Clé-du-Boisé	2	1	0	1	2	46	49	-3	4
6	Odyssée-Lafontaine	3	0	0	3	3	0	106	-106	3
7	Benoît-Vachon	2	0	0	2	2	23	72	-49	2

As for week 4, we'll be visiting Benoît-Vachon (0-2). They are usually known for having a strong program but have struggled so far this season. They'll be coming off a bye week though and our kids will have to watch out for complacency after winning the big win this week.

The other two games will be Petit Séminaire de Québec visiting Clé-du-Boisé and Ancienne-Lorette visiting Notre Dame Trinité. That last one will give us some interesting insight as to what we could expect for when we'll play NDT later on this season. I expect Ancienne-Lorette should be able to come out of it with a win. As for the first game, I'd expect Clé-du-Boisé to walk away with the win.
Also, we're supposed to have a bye in week 5 but I've heard talks that there could be an exhibition game that week. This remains to be confirmed though.

FM

FrogMan · 09-30-2009, 11:20 AM

Again saw the last 30 minutes of practice yesterday. Andrew was rotating every five plays with the starting center and they were scrimmaging. Interesting thing is that they seem to have now added some plays with the QB directly under center instead of playing all their plays from shotgun. I guess they saw that the word had started being passed around that it was how they were playing and mixing things up is never a bad thing.

Andrew told me he spent all practice at center, rotating with the other guy. We'd told him that maybe it would be a good idea to go ask their offensive coordinator what he should be doing, or improving, in order to have a shot at being the starter. I wasn't too sure he'd do anything with it, based off pas behaviour, but he did. He said he talked to the OC, effectively asking him just that, what should I do better in order to have a shot at starting? He was told he had not mess any snaps, something he's gotten much better with lately, and that he needed to know his blocking assignments better. On that later points, not knowing all the plays and not seeing every minute of every practice, it was hard for me to judge but Andrew told me he did mess up on some plays, one in paricular where all the linemen were supposed to slide right but went left. Well, now he knows what he has to do. Crappy thing is he really got put into a sort of no-win situation. I mean, he practices at center all week long, the only spot on the O-line where there is a backup. All other four O-linemen practice at their spot and don't really have a backup. So he's pretty much left to be backup center, not really the sixth OL as when he comes in, if the center is doing okay, he goes at DL, not to sub for one of the other OL. That's just silly if you ask me.

Anyway, I've also seen another opportunity for improvement on his play only watching the end of practice, and it was reinforced by the end of practice speech their coach gave them. Coach mentioned how the game their last game could have been won by more, but that little things remained with something to be desired. Be it a DL not holding his contain, or an OL not holding his block on a running play, leaving the runner exposed to be tackled for only a 2 yard gain instead of a 4-5-6 yards gain. I'd seen some of that from Andrew. He doesn't seem to switch his lineman behavior from passing to rushing much. I've seen him on running plays simply block the guy in front of him for maybe a second, second and a half, then let him go. Twice in the half hour I was there yesterday, that player went on to either make the tackle on the ball carrier, or at the very least disrupt the play enough that instead of getting a comfortable 4-6 yard gain, they only got a couple. I tried to instill in him the idea that if it's a running play coming up, he's gotta go forward, not simply hold his ground like he would do for a passing play. I think he understood that. We'll see in future practices.

But then again, if he practices as an OL all week long, but plays as a DL when comes gameday, it's all lost. I also told him we'd work at home on his reaction time on the defensive line. We'll try to find some time on Saturday where I'll play center and I'll line him up accross me and will have him move on ball movement. We'll see.

FM

JonInMiddleGA · 09-30-2009, 01:52 PM

I gotta admit, the practice routine isn't making a whole lot of sense. To my knowledge it isn't common to play someone pretty much exclusively at a position they don't get any real practice for. Sometimes sure, it happens for various reasons but this seems like an extreme case that's very consistent.

Out of curiosity, and I'm not even sure if you'll know the answer but I'll ask anyway, are the coaches dealing with a larger than usual number of players this season? Or significantly fewer than usual? Or less practice time than they're used to? It almost sounds like they don't quite know how to manage training up their personnel either by having too many players or too few to actually rotate multiple backups through positions at practice.

I will say, given the apparent shortage of backup on the OL, I suspect they've decided his future is on the DL since they aren't cross training him at any of the other OL positions. Thing is, I can't come up with any explanation for why they don't have him practice on the DL and be done with it.

FrogMan · 09-30-2009, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I gotta admit, the practice routine isn't making a whole lot of sense. To my knowledge it isn't common to play someone pretty much exclusively at a position they don't get any real practice for. Sometimes sure, it happens for various reasons but this seems like an extreme case that's very consistent.

Re: practice routine, we've talked about it and I'm still just as baffled as you are. Simply doesn't make sense to me other than the fact that they might want him to take as many reps as possible at center "just in case" to the detriment of his DL play. I said that to my wife last night and here's what I believe. Andrew can't really hurt them when he's on the DL. I mean, sure he might not get the sacks, but he can apply pressure and plug a hole, all that even without practicing there. In other words, he won't shine out, but he can play there. Stop him from snapping the ball and then boom, injury to your center in two weeks and you are in a mess, especially with their primary formation being shotgun. But then again, he probably wouldn't hurt them at guard either, even without practicing there at all during the week. Now, that's really what baffles me, not so much the practice routine but more their use of him during games. You can't have me believe that any of the two "out-of-shape" (relatively speaking, how out of shape can a 12yo be, let's say they don't have the best cardio, just as you'd expect from a bigger sized O-line) guards couldn't use a breather at some point during the game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Out of curiosity, and I'm not even sure if you'll know the answer but I'll ask anyway, are the coaches dealing with a larger than usual number of players this season? Or significantly fewer than usual? Or less practice time than they're used to? It almost sounds like they don't quite know how to manage training up their personnel either by having too many players or too few to actually rotate multiple backups through positions at practice.

You might be on to something here. It's crossed my mind that their football program is kind of going through a boom, all thanks with the kids coming up from the Summer league. As I said before, Andrew's first year of Summer league football was the year they started that league, four Summer ago. While they might have had 29-30 Benjamin players last year, they are now dealing with 42 of them this season. Sometimes I'm guessing that the coaches are also learning how to cope with the whole situation. Maybe some of that is playing a part into his whole playing time pattern. They probably were used to having no backups at OL/DL and even having many of them playing both ways at some point. Now you end up with, at last count, 5 guys listed at DL and 6 more at OL so two or even three on the bench for when they go with a 33 setup. While have a couple backup DL and one backup OL might not look like a whole lot, it's still more than what they've been used to in years past and I guess that it's understandable that one of them might end up being overlooked. It majorly sucks when that one of them is you, or your kid for that matter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I will say, given the apparent shortage of backup on the OL, I suspect they've decided his future is on the DL since they aren't cross training him at any of the other OL positions. Thing is, I can't come up with any explanation for why they don't have him practice on the DL and be done with it.

As for that, I go back to the risk/reward calculation of having him practice exclusively at DL, given the fact I've not seen anybody else take snaps. Coaches must know they are one-guy-rolling-over-your- center's-ankle away from having to use a backup in there. Andrew might have been put at a disadvantage by the fact that he started practicing at center way later than the other guy, but the coaches must feel much better knowing how much he's improved since taking over that spot, and must feel in confidence if they ever need him to take over in the middle of a game, given how close I think he is to the level of play of the starting center.

One thing I didn't mention in my earlier post is something I told Andrew to ask his coach, maybe on Thursday when they'll wrap up the week of practice. I told him to seek out his OC and ask him to keep him in mind in any case they'd ever get a good lead late in the game. I planted the seeds for him to argue how good it would be for him to get some "real" playing time at center, that it would help him immensely. Guess it's something they could have done in either of the two big wins (44-0 & 42-0) but it can't hurt to have him show the coach he's interested in playing at center and not only fill in on the DL. If they do win by a big score and they still don't use him AT ALL at center, I plan on talking to their coach/OC myself. Calmly, respectfuly. I can be calm... Sometimes.

Oh and thanks for reading, and for taking time to comment. I appreciate your input.

FM

FrogMan · 10-01-2009, 09:07 AM

Yesterday was Wednesday, the day I give a karate class so mommy went to pick Andrew up after practice.

He said practice went well, but he always says that. PWhen prodded a bit, he did acknowledge that he messed a couple of blocking assignments and got picked on because of it. When asked if he thought about holding his blocks a bit longer, he said that yeah he did, but that he also let a couple go early and again got picked on about it.

At this point, I can't do much more for him. I mean, he's been told what he needed to improve on in order to have more playing time and he's got to step up and deliver. I made sure he understood that and received the typical "yeah dad, I know dad, sure dad" answer. I can't do it for him at this point.

This might sound selfish, but it kinda makes me sad. I want him to get more playing time cause I like seeing my son ON THE FIELD, not on the bench on gameday. But as much as I like that, it won't happen until he decides that it's important enough for him to put in the extra effort. I'm still convinced he has all the potential to be the starter at his position. The decision is his now.

FM

FrogMan · 10-02-2009, 11:41 AM

Same old, same old at practice yesterday. Andrew rotated with the other center. He said he's been trying to hold his blocks a bit more, and I saw evidence of that in the 30 minutes I was there, but he also said he screwed a couple of block assignments. However, he also said that the other center also screwed up a couple.

I asked him if he'd talked to their OC about maybe getting into the game late if they have the lead and he said he had not talked to him. Just reminded him it could be a good idea.

Weather's getting colder around here. It was a wet 43F yesterday when I got to the practice field. Lots of rain is forecasted over the weekend but temperatures should go up a bit over the next couple of days. Expected temp for Sunday's game could be as high as 60F which is pretty warm for us in early October. Honestly, I think we'd be quite okay with something around 50F without any rain. By we, I mean us spectator parents.

No practice tonight, but a one hour video session has been booked. The other two Corsaires teams play at home this weekend and the kids were told to go support them. Juveniles play tonight but I think we might instead go see the Cadet tomorrow afternoon after our karate classes, depending on weather/rain.

Our game this weekend is Sunday morning at 10.

FM

FrogMan · 10-02-2009, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Also, we're supposed to have a bye in week 5 but I've heard talks that there could be an exhibition game that week. This remains to be confirmed though.

to follow up on that post, there won't be any exhibition game the week after this week. Week off for the kids. Kinda nice too, since the Monday after that weekend is our Thanksgiving and everybody's got the day off.

FM

FrogMan · 10-05-2009, 11:34 AM

It was a misty Sunday morning yesterday but it didn't matter since the stands at Benoît-Vachon High School were covered with a nicely set up roof with a back wall. The ongoing mist combined with the fact that it was our kids' first game on a natural field made for much slipping and sliding early on. It slippery field played games on both offense though. Our defense came out real strong early on and we held a 22-0 lead at the half.

More of the same in the second half, well even more domination from our defense, always providing the offense with great starting positions drive after drive. Despite numerous offensive penalties (offsides, illegal blocking and holding) we kept on marching forward, and scoring. Final score: 48-0.

The kids will certainly have to cut down on a specific type of penalties. As I said before, multiple motions from receivers are allowed prior to the ball being snapped and any receiver can be running forward when the ball is snapped, as long as he does not cross the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped. If he does, an offensive offside penalty is called. We had more than five of those in the game yesterday with at least a couple of them negating two big plays that would have resulted in first downs. These are mental mistakes, or at the very least timing problems. I can see a kid too eager to block in the heat of the moment and blocking in the back, or holding a defender, but a receiver just not timing his steps with the QB's count, it's just sloppy play, or well, sloppy coaching. By that I mean that it didn't develop during the game. The kids must have been making these mistakes during practice, but no coaches are standing right at the line of scrimmage to check if anybody crosses it before the ball is snapped so nobody realized it was happening...

As for Andrew, his team received the opening kickoff and started on offense. He wasn't part of the line at that point but that was expected. When the defense took on the field, I saw that they were in a 3-3 formation and he wasn't one of the three down linemen. I pretty much expected it to be the same as for the last couple of games, i.e. not seeing him get in the game until mid second quarter, but in their next defensive drive, they were back to a 4-3 and he was in there at DT. He played regularly after that, being subbed out for a couple drives in the second and fourth quarters, replaced by a backup linebacker. Turns out a defensive lineman was missing for the game and Andrew told us after the game that he was named a starter at DT prior to the game. He had a good game, holding his ground and applying decent pressure from the middle of the line. He knocked a guard down on his ass once, got in on a couple of tackles (assisting) and came ever so close to recovering a fumbled ball. The ball bounced off his knee and was recovered back by the running back.

Again, I would have liked to see him at center in the last couple minutes of the game, when the score was already 40-0, but he stayed at DT until the very last drive. Still, it was a fun game with him coming back home happy that he contributed, and his parents happy that they were able to cheer him on.

Speaking of cheering, the setup for the field was pretty nice with the stands on one side and the team benches on the other, like you see in many places. Thing was, there was a small forest right behind the team benches and my first call of "GO CORSAIRES!!!" reverberated back to us in echo. There really was no noise as it was right before kickoff and all parents in the stands had a good laugh about it. When asked if they could hear us cheer for them during the game, Andrew later told me that he didn't really hear during the game, but that he knew that the first "GO CORSAIRES!!!" just prior to kickoff was me. He said he could recognize my voice clearly.

Kids have a bye next weekend and I wondered to my wife how the coaches will do to keep them motivated this week. Coming off a 48-0 win, I'm sure the coaches have seen plenty to work on, especially on the offensive side of things, but I'm sure some of the kids will have their heads ballooning to big sizes with this 4-0 start.

FM

FrogMan · 10-05-2009, 11:35 AM

Elsewhere in the Benjamin AA division, an interesting result in the Ancienne-Lorette vs Notre Dame Trinité game where Notre Dame Trinité got away with a 32-24 home win. This win moves Notre Dame Trinité up to second place and deals Ancienne-Lorette a second loss in two weeks, after a 2-0 start against the two weaker teams. We will play Notre Dame Trinité at home in the final week of the regular season.

In the other game of the week, the next Corsaires' next opponents, Clé-du-Boisé beat Petit Séminaire de Québec severely, 48-6. Previously, Clé-du-Boisé had won over Benoît-Vachon by a score of 26-7 but lost to Notre Dame Trinité, 42-20. That next game should provide our kids with another good test prior to taking on Notre Dame Trinité.

Odyssée-Lafontaine had a bye this week.

Here are the standings after four weeks of activity:

Pos	Teams	GP	W	T	L	FP	PF	PA	DIFF	PTS
1	Corsaires	4	4	0	0	4	150	14	136	12
2	Notre Dame Trinité	3	3	0	0	3	120	60	60	9
3	Ancienne-Lorette	4	2	0	2	4	128	54	74	8
4	Clé-du-Boisé	3	2	0	1	3	94	55	39	7
5	Petit Séminaire de Québec	4	1	0	3	4	34	140	-106	6
6	Benoît-Vachon	3	0	0	3	3	23	120	-97	3
7	Odyssée-Lafontaine	3	0	0	3	3	0	106	-106	3

First four teams make it to the main bracket of the playoffs and with a 4-0 start, the Corsaires have clinched a spot in the playoffs.

FM

FrogMan · 11-02-2009, 09:04 AM

Well, I got swamped and lost the beat when that bye week rolled around. Follwing that weekend, I sorta decided I was done with the dynasty and would let it die but I feel like picking it up again so I'll go back and report on everything that has happened since week 4. Be ready for a few posts to bring us back to speed...

FM

FrogMan · 11-02-2009, 09:06 AM

As I said, the Corsaires had a bye in week 5. That week had results that were very much in line with what was expected. Following our trouncing of Benoît-Vachon, they went to Ancienne-Lorette and were delivered a similar loss, tis time losing 52-8. Notre Dame Trinité played at Petit Séminaire de Québec and destroyed them 62-8 and finally, Clé-du-Boisé beat Odyssée-Lafontaine soundly, 52-6.

I don't have a standings after week 5 but by then, we were undefeated, in first place in front of the other undefeated team, Notre Dame Trinité.

The pretty high scoring game by Clé-du-Boisé was cause for concerns at the time since we were gearing up to play them on their turf in week 6.

As for Andrew, it was same old same old, i.e. practice a bit everywhere on the offensive line, with regular reps at center. He seemed to practice less and less on the defensive line but was being rotated wherever a guy was missing on the offensive side of the line.

FM

Izulde · 11-02-2009, 11:11 AM

Glad to see this dynasty coming back.

FrogMan · 11-02-2009, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Izulde

Glad to see this dynasty coming back.

thanks, although I think you already know the results through Facebook.

Hopefully I'll bring some more info you'll be able to enjoy...

FM

FrogMan · 11-02-2009, 11:38 AM

Something started happening for Andrew in practices leading up to the week 6 game against Clé-du-Boisé. Well, it actually started on their last practice before their bye week. At that practice, their right offensive tackle missed practice for some unknown reason so Andrew spent a big portion of that practice at that spot. He only did a few snaps at center.

Then on their first practice leading up to week 6, their left tackle missed practice so Andrew ended up at left tackle while everybody else remained in their spot. That left tackle kid ended up missing all practices that week with some back pain/injury. Thing was, while Andrew started every practice at that spot, he was never confirmed as a starter, and he always ended up rotating to other spots on the line later on during practice, including some very limited time at center.

The Corsaires were to play Clé-du-Boisé on their turf that week. Clé-Du-Boisé is a school that's not very far from ours, maybe a 15 minutes at most but the kids were to get together at their school where they were to warm up and then they would ride the a school bus all together to the other school's home field. It was the first time the coaches planned it that way. They usually would ask our kids to gather at their school from where they would ride the bus to the other team's field where they would warm up. I dropped Andrew off that morning and went to get myself some coffee. When I got back, they had not even come out of the locker room.

Defense came out first and Andrew was not with them. Then came out the running backs, then the receivers and the QB. Sure enough, the big guys came out last and with them came Andrew. They all went through some team warm up and then split into units.My heart sank when I saw him not line up with the other offensive linemen to practice the first few plays. "Oh crap, not again" were the exact words that came to mind at that time. I was sure he would start the game on the bench, backing up whoever would have to come out first.

I had to leave to go pick up my wife and get ready for the game ourselves. It was a coldish morning, around 32F with good winds so we had to gear up properly.

We got to the field and took a spot in the stands having not seen the team finish their warmup, or even seen them line up in pregame warmup on the playing field. Corsaires started on defense and gave up a touchdown on their opponent's first drive. They had never been down in a game and there they were, down 0-8 less than 4 minutes into the game. Then came my biggest surprise of the season. When the offense trotted out on the field, there was Andrew, lining up at left tackle. He later told us he had been given the starter spot because he was holding his block better than the other backup O-line. The other backup O-line is that girl I already talked about. She's not very tall, listed at 145 lbs (compared to Andrew's listed weight of 135 lbs) and I always thought she was not very mean, or feisty. Nothing against the fact that she's a girl, really as there's another girl playing defensive back on the team and she's REALLY good. That O-line girl was a started ahead of Andrew in week 2 when he barely played and we just couldn't understand it. Even though I could seem biased over this, and I probably am, I honestly thought Andrew should have been the starter ahead of her despite him not practicing much at guard (her regular position). Now to see that he was given a chance, I was simply hoping he would make the best of it. That's how we'd been drilling the whole experience into his head. Kid, you might not fit anywhere on the line or the coaches might not have had a chance to see you at another position than center, but if they ever give you a chance, make it worth your while. Looks like he had done just that during the week leading up to the game.

Back to the game, the offense struggled a bit but regained control and the lead before the end of the half. Score was 16-8 at the half and the defense took over at that point, barely allowing any yardage to the other team's defense. Final Score, a 22-8 win. Not a particularly impressive score, but it really didn't reflect the domination that the kids had during the second half.

Andrew had a good game but I felt he was letting go of his blocks a bit early, probably because he had just started practicing the position and was used to work in a confined aread at center. He did do a very good jobs on a couple of block to the second level, where he sealed in a linebacker on one particular run that ended up in a long TD in the second half. He had lots of playing time, only being subbed out for a drive out of four throughout the game. I did tell him about the blocking after the game.

Elsewhere in the league, Benoît-Vachon beat Petit Séminaire de Québec 46-8 while Notre Dame Trinité remained undefeated, beating Odyssé-Lafontaine, 66-16.

Next up was a battle of the undefeated between us and Notre Dame Trinité to close out the regular season. And as if they had foreseen it, the schedule makers had booked the two teams figting for positions 3 and 4 in the standings, Clé-du-Boisé and Ancienne-Lorette, to play one another.

FM

FrogMan · 11-02-2009, 02:02 PM

As I just said, we were to play the only other undefeated team in week 7. Notre Dame Trinité came into that game with more impressive offensive totals, at least in terms of points scored having scored 248 points in 5 games to our 172. On the other hand, they had also allowed many more points that us. While we had only allowed 22 points over five games (including 3 shutouts in 5 games so far), they had allowed 84 points. Incidentally, they had given up 16 points to NBenoît-Vachon, 20 to Clé-du-Boisé, and even 16 to and Odyssée-Lafontaine team that never got close to menacing us. They had also won a last minute game 32-24 against Ancienne-Lorette so they were to be taken seriously.

Andrew spent the week practicing mostly at left tackle as their regular left tackle was still being held out with back pain/injury. I was feeling more and more confident that he would start again there but he was still being shuffled around in practice and well, it made me nervous. I guess the coaches saw the same thing I did with a few of their O-linemen because I heard them drill into the kids the importance of holding their blocks and going to the second level with intent whenever asked to.

The game was on Saturday and there was a pretty good snowfall just a couple days before the game, on Thursday, leaving some 6 inches on the ground. They had practiced in the snow on Thursday, but at their practice field.

When we got to their home field for the game, while temperatures had gone up a bit in the last couple of days, they had gone back down that morning and there was still a couple inches of snow on the ground. Even worse, at 8:30 that Saturday morning, it was borderline freezing but just warm enough that the crap we were getting from the sky was rain and not snow. As I said before, I have timekeeping duties during our home games, but I also volunteer to help set up the amenities prior to kickoff. This usually includes setting the two gazebo type tents for the snack bar but that Saturday it also meant shoveling the yard lines and hashmarks, in the rain no less. It was a miserable time. Not really super cold, at least not cold enough to keep me from getting really warm when shoevling. For me personally, it meant I was all wet when I got into the booth to do my timekeeping. For the kids, it meant they were playing on a slippery snowy field.

Going into the game, it all looked like the perfect matchup of big offense (theirs) versus big defense (ours). I must admit that their big offense made me nervous, especially after how shy our kids looked at the started of the previous game.

I guess the coaches had a good talk with them though, as they came out fighting. Details for the game are a bit hazy, since I can't watch the game the same way when I'm taking care of the clock, but the kids were never in trouble. Maybe the bad weather played some tricks on our opponents, or we adjusted better to it, but we came out of the game with a huge, huge win. Final score, a 28-0 shutout, sealing home field advantage through the rest of the playoffs and sending a big message to the rest of the league. Never has a Corsaires team been this dominant and even though you might never have expected us to kick your ass, we are ready to do so.

Andrew again came out for warmup and wasn't part of the initial five O-linemen for the first few warmup reps but he was the starter at left tackle and played about as much as the previous game. I actually thought he struggled at times with some blocks, but their D-linemen were probably just better than the previous team's linemen. He again nicely sealed a linebacker in to allow a long gain from a running back just behind him. That's the kind of stuff I probably would never have seen in the past but that I'm more aware of now. Thanks son.

In the other game of interest, the other two teams already qualified for the playoffs, Ancienne-Lorette and Clé-du-Boisé, both 3-2 at that point, were fighting it off to see who would finish 3rd and pay a visist to 2nd place Notre Dame Trinité or who would finish 4th and have to come play at our field the following week. I expected Ancienne-Lorette to come out of it victorious, given how they had only lost to us by two and to Notre Dame Trinité by a late touchdown while Clé-du-Boisé had lost 22-8 to us, again being dominated later in the game much more than what the score indicated, and 42-20 to Notre Dame Trinité. Ancienne-Lorette delivered, also winning by shutout, 26-0.

In the other game of the week, meaningless that one, Odyssée-Lafontaine recorded their first win of the season, 26-8 over Benoît-Vachon.

The regular season final standings are as follows:

Pos	Teams	GP	W	T	L	FP	PF	PA	DIFF	PTS
1	Corsaires	6	6	0	0	6	200	22	178	18
2	Notre Dame Trinité	6	5	0	1	6	248	112	136	16
3	Ancienne-Lorette	6	4	0	2	6	206	62	144	14
4	Clé-du-Boisé	6	3	0	3	6	154	109	45	12
5	Petit Séminaire de Québec	6	1	0	5	6	50	248	-198	8
6	Benoît-Vachon	6	1	0	5	6	85	206	-121	8
7	Odyssée-Lafontaine	6	1	0	5	6	48	232	-184	8

The 22 points the Corsaires allowed came in two games, meaning they won four of six by shutouts.

Given those standings, the semi-final weekend will have the Corsaires playing at home against Clé-du-Boisé and Ancienne-Lorette visiting Notre Dame Trinité.

The season was over at that point for the remaining three teams.

FM

Big Six · 11-02-2009, 02:28 PM

I just read through your dynasty today, and I'm really enjoying it. It sounds like Andrew's versatility and adaptability really paid off when your team's LT got hurt.

It's not easy to thoroughly learn the assignments for as many different positions as Andrew has, especially for a 12-year-old who's new to football. Offensive line play can be very complex, even at his level.

It looks like the Corsaires have a tremendous defense. That should be a huge, huge advantage during the playoffs. After all, you can't lose if the other team doesn't score.

Good luck with the playoffs! The Corsaires have a new fan in Virginia, USA.

FrogMan · 11-02-2009, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Six

I just read through your dynasty today, and I'm really enjoying it. It sounds like Andrew's versatility and adaptability really paid off when your team's LT got hurt.

It's not easy to thoroughly learn the assignments for as many different positions as Andrew has, especially for a 12-year-old who's new to football. Offensive line play can be very complex, even at his level.

It looks like the Corsaires have a tremendous defense. That should be a huge, huge advantage during the playoffs. After all, you can't lose if the other team doesn't score.

Good luck with the playoffs! The Corsaires have a new fan in Virginia, USA.

thanks for reading the whole thing, and thanks for the kind comments.

I agree about how it's finally paying off for him although, as you must have read, it was really hard to go through, especially when he looked like he had no place anywhere, only because he was not practicing anywhere long enough to be seen as useful in that spot. I tried to stay positive, knowing how it can be in a team. We had a few arguments, my wife and I, about what he could, or should do better to show his coach how much he wanted to play. I always thought that hard work eventually pays off to which she was replying that he should be doing more, and more. Glad to see how it's turning out.

Their defense is indeed very, VERY good. They had some tiny containment problems in when they played Ancienne-Lorette and it resulted in them scoring two TDs, but I think they have worked on that a big deal.

They are also well coached. I'll have a bit more on that later on, but the kids coaching them are good, at least according to our standards...

FM

FrogMan · 11-02-2009, 09:42 PM

I mentally went "oh crap" when I got to practice around 6:15pm last Tuesday and saw that the left tackle was back. I feared that Andrew would be relegated to backup status. Even worse, he reminded me after that practice that they were now 7 offensive linemen and that he didn't really know where he stood on the depth chart. He said he practiced a bit everywhere on the line in that first practice.

It went that way most of the week and I kept reminding him to give it his all, that he had to make the best of whatever practice time he was getting. What else could I tell him? I mean, he had been shuffled around most of the season and got playing time when they were down a man, but the coaches didn't seem to think he was good enough on his own. Okay, mayb I'm dramatizing a bit, but that was how it felt to me.

All week he said it went well during practice, but he's been saying that all season long.

Then came the game. While weather turned to all crap later on in the day when trick-or-treaters were out, it was a perfect football weather in the morning. Temperatures upwards of 50F, not one bit of wind, and no rain at all.

Team came out for warmup and Andrew took some turns at left guard in the pre game reps. I was ecstatic to see him start the game at left guard and he had a great start to his game, as did the team. They took an early lead, not leatting Clé-du-Boisé score early on, or at all actually. Another shutout win, 56-0 in a semi-final game no less.

Andrew played well, and a lot. When one of the backup OL came on, Andrew stayed on and shifted over to left tackle. He even subbed in at defensive tackle in the third quarter and finished the game playing both ways (left offensive tackle/defensive tackle) on the last 3-4 drives. He again sealed a linebacker in for a nice long touchdown run to the left side and stormed through the line while at DT to make a nice tackle for a 2 yard loss on a running play.

Really, I thought it was his best game of the season, by far. Made daddy real proud with that game. And daddy (and mommy) would only get prouder, read this. After the game, when I asked him what the coaches told him, he said he was name the starting left tackle. Hrm, left tackle? But he came out at left guard.

He said that yeah, during their week of practice, they had a scrimmage with the cadets (whose season is over since they didn't make the playoffs) and while he was lined up at left tackle, he had a trap play called for him, where he was to pull and trap all the way to the right side of the line and take out the defensive end. Their offensive coordinator told him personally that he made the DE freak out in fear (made him shit his pants if the closest translation from French I can come up with, you get the idea) and that if he did that to a cadet, he deserved to start at left tackle. Wow, talk about making the best of a his practice time. Just what we had told him to do. WAY TO GO KID!

But then again, why was he not starting at left tackle but was at left guard???

He said the starting left guard kid had a stupid argument with their offensive line coach regarding how his pants were not holding up (they were going down on every play and he had to pull them back up) and the fact that the coach told him he would tape them up at the belt level. Kid fought with the coach so to speak, he didn't want to be taped up. The coach told him he was benched end would not play the first quarter. Seems harsh to me, but we don't know how the kid is with the coach, might not be his first breach. They were left with two kids to fill that left guard spot: their previous left tackle and the girl who used to play left guard. The left tackle had never practiced at left guard and I guess they thought it was better for the team to slide Andrew inside and put the left tackle back at tackle than to start the girl at guard. So that's how Andrew ended up at left guard.

Then later on in the game, one of his coaches asked him if he wanted to go kick some butt on D to which he replied "hey sure" and that's how he ended on defense too. I actually saw him come on in the game in the middle of a defensive drive where he got on to replace a smaller d-lineman that was playing tackle. They rarely sub in the middle of drives but it was a 3rd and one and in my proud heart of a dad, I simply thought they needed to make a stand and they thought Andrew was their best shot among the remaining linemen (O or D) to plug in there. the other team ran it off tackle and got the first down anyway but Andrew still stayed in the game at DT and they forced them to punt four plays later.

Interesting how nice a turn of event that was, him going from part-timer linemen, come from the bench, practice center, hole-filler on the O-line to being sought after as a starting OL and both ways lineman. Yeah, lots of pride in this daddy's heart.

As they gear up for the championship game, to be played next weekend (date/time still to be determined), they practiced tonight (more on it tomorrow), and all the way through to Thursday. It's their first week where they will practice on a Monday. Their coaches are not letting them inflate their egos. Would the team bring back a championship banner, it would be the school's first banner since the start of the football program some six years ago.

You are probably wondering right now who they will play in that championship game. Well, Ancienne-Lorette visited Notre Dame Trinité in the other semi-final. Looking at previous results, I knew they were very close to them and could cause the upset, even though I'd been told that Notre Dame Trinité is really tough to beat on their own turf. Well, upset they did, Ancienne-Lorette coming out of the game with a convincing 24-14 win over Notre Dame Trinité.

Combined that with the fact that we only beat Ancienne-Lorette 16-14 when we met them and the coaches won't need much to keep the kids' feet on the ground. This should make for a great, if nerve wracking championship game.

FM

Izulde · 11-02-2009, 10:06 PM

How awesome!

And what a great lesson for the kid, too, about how staying focused and sticking with it as best as he's able, can produce great results in the end, even if takes a long time.

FrogMan · 11-03-2009, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Izulde

How awesome!

And what a great lesson for the kid, too, about how staying focused and sticking with it as best as he's able, can produce great results in the end, even if takes a long time.

You wouldn't believe how good it felt to me as a parent, to see it coming to fruition as it did in the last couple of games. You know, especially after a certain time and when you've seen your kid beginning to let go of your teachings, starting to do his "own thing". To see the whole "work hard and it'll pay off" mantra become true was a blessing for us. We can now reinforce it as an example in many other little aspects of his student life...

FM

FrogMan · 11-03-2009, 02:03 PM

Yesterday's practice was a light one. Andrew told me they had a one hour blackboard session and one hour practice session. The practice session was mostly special teams, in which Andrew is not involved, except for PAT kicks and field goals (which they've not tried one of this season) and their jumbo formation which involved snaps with the QB right under center as opposed to being in the shotgun. He's also not part of that setup.

During the blackboard session, they went over the scouting report for Ancienne-Lorette, probably based off what they did in our last game against them. Andrew brought back a one page report with maybe 10-12 diagrams of plays with a percent value next to each one of them. According to it, one play was run 34% of the time while the next two came with 17% or so each meaning that 2/3 of their offense consisted of three plays. I know this is probably just par for the course but for me, new parent of a kid playing competitive football (is there such a thing as non-competitive football?), I was impressed with the amount of work that was put into preparing the kids.

From what I gathered from Andrew (my wife picked him up after practice), it looked like that practice was the kind of practice that they usually run on Friday evening.

Andrew told me he played a bit of defense when they ran the jumbo offense and while he was not told anything about where he'd play on offense, their D-line coach told him to be ready to come in as a sub on the DL later in the game. He looked quite happy when reporting that to me. More positive recognition for him. Glad to see them the coaches seeing him worthy of being used late in the game. Kinda different from the first time they played Ancienne-Lorette, when I expressed how discontent I was with the coach telling them they'd played their best player more (and Andrew had not played that much, see this post). I always thought Andrew deserved to be playing more and it looks like they are realizing that now...

Championship game has been scheduled for Saturday morning at 9h30. Early weather forecast are that we could expect some sleet type snow or rain with temperature around freezing.

FM

FrogMan · 11-05-2009, 11:39 AM

Not much to report about the last two days of practice. Tuesday was a cold, rainy practice where Andrew practiced mostly at left tackle, rotating with the other left tackle with a few bits of center play, but only when the offense would play scout team for the defense.

Yesterday was much of the same but had a funny reaction from Andrew when I got home. I give karate class on Wednesdays so my wife picked him up. When I got back hom from karate class and asked him how practice was, he replied "good for me". Hrm, good for you? Please do tell how. He said he thought he'd had a strong practice but some got chewed up for taking it lightly. They might end up practicing on Friday evening.

There was a cool little article in a local weekly newspaper about their undefeated regular season and how they totally crushed their opponents in the semi-final game. You can read it here although it's all in French so you might need babelfish.

Coolest thing was that there was a picture with the article and Andrew can be seen on it. He's at left tackle, the one with his helmet in line with the referee. Here's the picture:

Oddly enough, the picture is clearer in the printed version of the paper mostly because they cropped it and kept only the players. We can clearly see the first five of his number (55) on the printed picture.

In other stuff, with the championship game coming and with it, the last week of practice coming to a close, my wife and I realized yesterday that at this day next week, he won't be practicing anymore. Will feel kind of weird not to be on the type of family schedule we've been since August 18. Oh sure, Andrew has been practicing sports for a while now, since he was about 4 actually, but it's never been this intense.

FM

FrogMan · 11-06-2009, 10:01 PM

I was about to call it a night and realized I had not posted anything prior to the big game. Tomorrow morning it is, 9:30 am. Weather should be nice if a bit cold. It's currently 32F outside and could go as low as 19F overnight with possible temps around 26-27F tomorrow morning. Not much rain is forecasted, something like 10% probability.

They wrapped up their last week of practice yesterday with a practice that Andrew said was more intense than the day before but that he said his coach wasn't completely happy with. He told them they would have to kick it up a notch if they want to walk away with the title.

I feel that if they can come out strong like they have done for the last couple of games, they'll be in good shape.

As for Andrew, the left guard missed that last practice, being sick with a cold of the flu. Because of that, Andrew was at left guard for all of practice yesterday. I'd expect he could be starting at either left guard or left tackle. Or should I say, I'd hope he can start, and have mucho playing time. Go kick some ass son.

FM

FrogMan · 11-08-2009, 09:19 PM

Weather was perfect for football yesterday. At least as perfect as it could be at this time of year in Quebec. A couple degrees below freezing at 8, it would eventually get up to freezing point by the end of the game. A cloudy sky over our heads although no rain showed up.

The kids came out of the locker room padless, but with their team shirt on, at about 8:15 to work on some special teams and do a quick roundup of a few things. The other team showed up 15 minutes later, all dressed up.

Corsaires went back to the locker room at about 8:45 and back out at about 9:05 fully geared up for the formal warmup session. Kickoff was set for 9:30.

My parents were there for the game, as was my mother in law, my sister and her husband (they're Andrew's Godparents) with her two year old daughter (my Goddaughter as well). About 15 minutes prior to kickoff, as I was chatting with my parents and getting ready to head up to the booth for my timekeeping duties, the wife of our Juvenile coach came to me and told me that if I wanted to stay down with my family and enjoy the game, she could do the timekeeping. She's the one who actually showed me how to operate the clock and has been doing it for years. I asked her if she was serious, that was too much of a nice offer, I simply couldn't refuse. Don't get me wrong, the booth is a very nice place to watch the game, but as timekeeper, you watch the game in a different way. You can't pay attention to all little details cause your focus is on the referees, in particular the head referee as for when he wants you to start the clock.

I was ecstatic to sit with the crowd and ready to enjoy what I hoped would be a great win for my boy and his team.

They started out strong on defense, actually pushing the other team back on a solid three and out. The offense was next and with it, Andrew setting down at the left tackle position. He was a starter. I'm sure you can feel my pride gushing out over the interwebs.

They had a solid first drive that culminated with a TD and just like that, they were up 8-0.

Defense kept the other team in check drive after drive but it was no walk in the park for our offense after that first drive. They did add a second score before the end of the half, but I knew the kids couldn't take it easy with only a 14-0 lead at the half.

The third quarter was a bit uneventful as was the start of fourth quarter, then it all got crazy, as it often does. With maybe five minutes to do, one of our DB intercepted their QB on a third and long, only to make a couple steps and as he was going down, coughed up the ball that they recovered only our 35 yard line. From there on out, it looked as if they had found new life, and our kids looked simply befuddled. A couple penalties here, a blown tackle there and they scored with 3:15 to go. Kicked conversion for 2, we were now only up 14-8 after missing our kicked conversion on our second TD. One more converted TD and that game was theirs...

By that time, I was screaming at the top of my lungs on every defensive play, trying to get the impressive crowd (in numbers at least) to make noise with me.

Following their TD, I saw them lining up for the ensuing kickoff and immediately saw some shifting on their side and I screamed "ONSIDE! WATCH THE SHORT KICK!!!" Not that I thought the kids could hear me or anything, but hey, I had to yell something. They sure did try the onside. The kick didn't make ten yards and I swear I saw it hit the foot of a player from the other team inside that ten yards. Unfortunately, the referee didn't and only saw the fact that it bounced off the leg of one of our player before one of theirs jumped on it. Their ball around midfield at the three minutes warning.

Remember what I said about the clock inside three minutes of a half? Well, the time stops on EVERY PLAY and it restarts only when the referees signals that the players are set. This was looking to be the longest three minutes of my life...

Their offense started driving down the field and our defense looked exhausted. Turned out one of our best defensive tackle, a kid listed at 5'5"/155lbs at the start of the season, was at the ER with a fever of 104F, with fear that he had contracted swine flu. A linebacker was playing in his place and probably was not used to the kind of grinding that a lineman takes.

That being said though, our D kids stood them up on a fourth and 8 around the 30 yard line and our QB finished the game with three kneel down.

CORSAIRES STAY UNDEFEATED AND ARE CHAMPIONS!!!

I tell ya, I had a frigging headache from screaming and yelling and cheering, but I didn't care. Definitely the most intense experience I've lived as a parent.

I'll post some pictures later on this week and you'll see the pride in Andrew's smile. Priceless.

About him, as I said, he was the starter at left tackle and apart from one drive where they put in their jumbo line setup, and one more drive where he was subbed out, he didn't miss one offensive drive. Whenever the previous starting left tackle would come into the game, the left guard would come out and Andrew would slide over. He had a strong game, worthy of the trust his coaches put in him. He played exactly one play at DT, but I guess they simply valued him more on the OL.

About the kid at the ER, I spoke with his dad today. Met him and his wife unexpectedly at the store this afternoon. He said he was doing better and that the fever had gone down. His dad was the person in charge of filming the team's games this season. He mentioned that his son watched yesterday's game twice while wrapped in a blanket. That led to him sorta mentioning he still had all the other games of the season on his recorder and he agreed to make me copies of them at some point in the offseason. Very much looking forward to that.

I hope you enjoyed these little writeups. There have been some frustrating times, but also some great lessons to be learned by my son through all this. Next season might be even harder, as he will be moving on up to the Cadets.

FM

JonInMiddleGA · 11-08-2009, 11:51 PM

Ain't nothing ever easy is it?

Hearty congratulations to Andrew & the Corsaires, well done indeed.
And congratulations to Andrew's parents for surviving a football season

And my thanks to you for sharing this with us.

FrogMan · 11-09-2009, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Ain't nothing ever easy is it?

nope

Ancienne-Lorette was the team that gave us the hardest time during the regular season and it was only fitting that we'd have to get through them again in order to be champions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Hearty congratulations to Andrew & the Corsaires, well done indeed.
And congratulations to Andrew's parents for surviving a football season

double thanks. Andrew has grown and I think has learned a lot during that season. Sure he'd played football in primary school for the last four Summers, but it was never that organized. We'll be pulling life lessons out of that season for many months/years to come I think.

Us, yeah, we almost imploded a couple times, my wife in particular. Having been part of a team sports and having played a bit of football, I knew he couldn't really force anything, but she just couldn't accept it. Glad to see it all worked out for the best for him. Next season won't be easy. Gone are the weight limits in Cadet so he'll be a small boy amidst some big boys. Some cadets on our side weighed at about 250-270lbs this season.

At least he finished strong, and best of all, uninjured.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

And my thanks to you for sharing this with us.

and my thanks to you for reading it, and for contributing to it.

FM

johnnyshaka · 11-10-2009, 01:37 PM

FM...I'm a little late to the show but I just read the whole thread...great stuff and congrats to young Andrew for a great rookie season!!! Great view from the perspective of a dad even though I sensed a biased opinion every once in a while. I think that it's a natural and positive approach and you just want the best for your son. When all is said and done you and your wife should always be his biggest supporters, no matter what, and it sounds like you are. Again, great stuff.

Just to add another perspective to youth/HS football in Canada, I grew up in Ottawa (about 5 hours south of FM...actually, FM, I was part of a wedding in Levis this past August...first time I'd been to the area in 15 years...beautiful and the wife and I had a great time!) and I had a few good friends who grew playing football while I played hockey and baseball. These brothers were always the biggest kids in their age group (their dad was a lineman in the CFL for years) and excelled at every level of youth football they played. When we got to high school, we didn't have a football program but by the time I got to grade 10 it was put in place...thanks to these two brothers and their dad. Unfortunately, because our school was new on the football front we were in the "B" division which was essentially where they stuck the crappy football teams. After their first season, the brothers transferred to another high school that was more known in the area for football (turned out to be where Jesse Palmer was at the time) and they both eventually went on to play at Syracuse during the McNabb years. So, it was good football, but there were only a few good teams in the area because most of the good players targeted those schools. Oddly enough, though, like FM said, it was always hockey first because I know a lot of guys who would've been excellent football players but you just couldn't play "rep" hockey and HS football at the same time...and 99% of the time hockey won out.

Anyway, out here in Edmonton football is pretty big right now...both on the high school scene and on the "senior" level. I coached Little League baseball for years and a few of the boys also played youth football. Several of the boys are just winding up their HS football careers right now and the way they do things here in terms of dividing the kids is school size. If your school has over "x" number of kids, you are in this division and if you have less than that, you play in this division. Most schools will have a Sr. and Jr. team (similar to the US Varsity and Jr. Vasity I guess) but not always. Not sure if that's the best way to do it, but it's one way I guess.

09-17-2009, 11:43 AM	#52
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	As I was saying yesterday, I didn't get to pick up Andrew after yesterday's practice. Still got to question him a bit to get some info on how it went though. His answer: "well". Heh, the joy of speaking with a 12 year old. Questioned some more, new answer: "yeah, practice went well". I got out of him that he practiced at center all practice long. The starting center, while dressed, didn't practice much, if at all. When asked if his snaps went well, or if had some bad ones, he said that yeah he had a few but he got better at other times. I asked him if he thought he'd play center for the game and he said for now, it looked like it but nothing had been confirmed. My wife is a bit paranoid and she's hoping the other center is not the type of player to take it easy in practices only to be really happy to show up for games. I gotta say this has sorta been in the back of my mind. I told her that heck, it's not like he's a superstar running back or even the QB and that his snaps are all that much better than Andrew's. Practice time will, at some point, give Andrew a definite advantage. Again, Andrew told me it enjoyed his practice, it's all I wanted to hear really. The guard that was injured the day before didn't dress for yesterday's practice. Turns out it's a knee. He said her knee was all wrapped up in elastic bandage. No idea how severe it is though. Their QB also didn't practice yesterday because of some back pain and that's gotta be a bit worrisome. They have this one QB who's a real star, very good and can read the game well but after that, up until this week, I had not seen any other kid take snaps. Maybe they did before I arrived to practice, but still. They have a smallish kid who only started playing in the Summer league this year but has been playing baseball for four years as a pitcher, I was told. Saw him take a few snaps on Tuesday and while yeah, he had the arm, he's still learning in his reads and has some obvious holes in his knowledge of the playbook. I'd think if we ever get to a big lead in this week's game, it would be a good time to give the backup QB some playing time... FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

09-18-2009, 02:10 PM	#53
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	Saw 30 minutes of practice yesterday and it was more of the same. Andrew was at center and the snaps I saw were reasonably good. He switched with their other center with about 5 snaps to go in scrimmage. When asked about his practice, he said he did most of practice as the center but got pulled whenever he did a bad snap, which he said happened a few times. But this time, he said he was snapping too high instead of to the QB's ankles which I thought was interesting. Matter of finding a balance between the two I guess. He said the OC told them the other center was still considered the starting center and when I asked Andrew where he thought he'd be playing, he said he guessed it would be on the D-line, a place where he's not taken a snap all week long. I saw the starting center walk around gingerly, favoring a leg quite a bit when walking up the small hill to the practice field. I told Andrew about it and to keep himself ready for anything comes gametime, to stay focused and practice his snaps when the offense is on the field on Saturday. I wouldn't be surprised he ends up playing center at some point. Andrew also admitted blowing a couple of blocking assignments. I reminded him it was his duty to study his playbook which he agreed. Now, as a dad, and his #1 fan, I only hope he won't look too bad on the D-line, after focusing so much of his effort on the O-line. He's still young, and the mindset between the two lines is quite a bit different. I'll make sure to remind him to go on the hunt if he ends up on the D-line, and not only engage his offensive lineman and push. The injured guard was again out of practice but he said he's not taken one snap at guard during the week. Like the day before though, the most worrisome thing was the fact their QB didn't practice. Andrew said he stopped by for maybe 30 minutes at the start of practice but didn't dress. Let's hope he'll be ready to play tomorrow since their backup QB really is not on the same level. Their Head coach had a few choiced words for them when they wrapped up practice. He told them that their level of intensity or quality of work for this past week of practice was complete crap compared to last week's practices. He said he didn't know if it was because they'd won their first game 44-0 or what, but he reminded them that they had only won one game, not ten. That even in any case where an easy game might be coming, they still had to give themselves goals and achieve them. I had kinda seen that brashness with some kids, mostly DBs and WRs from what I could tell. About tomorrow's game, they'll be playing on the road, at the only out of region team. It'll be about a 3 hours ride to get there. Kids will leave by bus at 8am while we'll probably leave in car at around 9am. Kickoff is at 1pm. The school they be playing lost their first game 42-0, as I reported earlier and was our Benjamins' first and only win of the season last year. You can see their stadium if you zoom in on the destination. Looks like a pretty nice stadium. FWIW, UQAC stands for Université du Québec À Chicoutimi, so it's really a University campus. Will be a long day, but I'm really looking forward to the road trip. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

09-21-2009, 02:01 PM	#54
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	The weather was great and the kids looked ready. And ready, they were, as they showed with the great kickoff return that started it all, followed with three quick plays that resulted in a first TD only 3 minutes into the game. They followed it up by recovering a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and one more minute later, they were ahead 14-0. They never looked back and won it big time, 42-0. Great game by the team overall. We had a TD on a kick return, many big pressures by the D resulting in them conceding 2 or 3 safeties instead of punting the ball away out of their endzone, and finally a nice 15-20 yard long TD pass. As for Andrew, well, it was a bit disappointing. Not so much his play, but how much playing time he got and how he was moved around a bit. Turns out that all injured players were back on the lineup and Andrew was not a starter on either side of the ball. In fact, he didn't step on the field until there was maybe 9 minutes to play in the second quarter (12 minutes long quarters) and even then, it was as a DT and they recovered a fumble on the first play of the drive. After that, he played some more on the D-line and then played at right guard. He was called for a dubious holding while at right guard but 2-3 plays later he did a key block going up to the middle linebacker, opening the way for their running back to run in a 12 yard TD. After the game, I got to talk to him as he was walking off the field. He said he was happy with the win and he didn't look too disappointed in not playing as much as he was used to. He simply told me he learned he was not starting right before the game and knew he would be going in only later in the game. I think we, his parents, took it a bit harder. Then again, not so much me, but my wife (his mother) more than anything else. I could see how him having practiced at center all week long took him out of contention for a starting spot on the D-line, or maybe as a guard once the starting center spot was given to the other guy, but sometimes it's just how it is. It's not always fair, but life rarely is. She was incensed that Andrew didn't ask to practice elsewhere during the week, that he "apparently" didn't practice as hard as he could, or whatever else she think he should have done. Basically, he should have been able to become a starter, at least in her opinion. We had somewhat of an argument Saturday evening (leading to me only posting this report today, had to let the dust settle down in a way ) where she did make a good point. She's a perfectionist and in her eyes, she really believes that Andrew has a lot of potential, in football and in other areas in life, but that he's always only doing just ever so much to only "get by". I do agree that he often frustrates me in that aspect, but aren't all, or almost all 12yo kids just about that way? I mean, sure he could be planning out his homeworks in advance and such, but again, when we were 12, weren't we much more interested in playing than in doing homeworks? Oh, sure, I felt he could have been practicing his karate harder in the weeks leading to his black belt test, but I also know he felt he was ready, and I saw that the other kids getting ready to test didn't really practice much harder. Same goes with football practice last week. The other linemen (O or D) didn't really practice that much harder than he did. Could he have been overzealous and kick all sorts of butt to impress the coaches? Maybe, but again, he told me after the game that he was happy with how much he played. In our discussion, my wife told me I couldn't blame her for wanting to see her son play, not only practice. Sure, but that's sorta selfsih in a way was my reply. I mean, I asked him if he was happy with his playing time or not and he genuinely replied he was okay with it. Said he was a bit disappointed when he learned he wasn't starting but that he was okay with how involved he got to be later on in the game. It's not really about if I'm the one who's happy, but more so, was he happy. What else could I do? Smack him behind the head so he would practice harder or whine to get more playing time? To me, that would be akin to forcing him to play a sport he doesn't like, which is something I have never done and will never do. Way we've always done is be there for our kids when they want to play a sport and make sure they know what they're getting into when they sign up so that they don't stop midway through a season. Right now, Andrew is giving his all from what I can see in practices. Sure he could work on some parts of his playing, and I'll push him to try and be better, but I don't think we could be doing more. I offered him to be his QB so he could practice his snaps maybe a week ago and he told me he wanted to go play with his friends. Was it wrong of him? I don't really think so. One other thing that I think has my wife worried/nervous is that she's got apprehension for next season already. He'll be moving up to Cadet where he'll be a Secondary 2 kids among a bunch of Secondary 3 kids, or probbaly Secondary 2 kids who might be bigger than him, and then again could be trying real hard to get playing time. I told her not to get ahead of herself, a bunch of stuff can happen in a year. For me, if there was one thing I thought could have been handled better by the coaches, and it could have been said about last week's game too, it's that they could have given Andrew some playing time at center when the score got to 35-0 with about seven minutes to play. Seriously, why not give him a chance to show what he's got then, instead of in a big game when your starting center gets injured and your backup has never played a snap in that position. I guess they're not thinking that their center will ever be injured enough not to play, then why do they have Andrew practicing there then? Simply cause they need a practice squad center? That's the bit that's bugging me a bit... I am rambling. If you've read up to now, thanks a lot. I said this would be about expressing my moments of pride, but also the frustrating moments. I guess you got a bit of everything in this post. Feel free to share your thoughts on the matter at hand. Next up, results from elsewhere in the league as well as standings. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

09-23-2009, 11:34 AM	#56
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	Again saw the last 30 minutes of practice yesterday and sometimes, I honestly don't know what to think. When I got there, Andrew was playing center in their 12-on-12 scrimmage. I thought he did quite well in his time there, with not one bad snap. He got slightly chewed up for missing a blitz from a linebacker when he thought he had to stay with his assigned block but he understood what was asked of him. I say "slightly" cause the offensive coordinator didn't really get upset at him, and I chalked that up to learning the ropes. When I say I don't know what to think it's all pertaining to where the position they had him practicing in. He said he started practicing with the defensive linemen, in unit drills. I thought it was good for him, I mean, he gets to work at a spot where he has fun and can be useful if he ends up being called to play D-line in their next game. Then came the unexpected part that led to him being at center for the 12-on-12 scrimmage. He said it's their offensive coordinator who asked to "have Andrew take the snaps with Alex (the other center) on the D-line". Really? Hrm, don't know what to think, really. They can't be having him practice at center for him to be simply their main backup, huh? Maybe they are seeing some potential in him that they think they'll be able to use long term, that's the only thing I can think of. That, or they think he really needs practice at center, just in case. I mean, their center is not hurt, at least he didn't look hurt when rushing as a defensive tackle. Anyway, I'm probably seeing more than there is to see in all this. Simply putting my thoughts here. Feel free to bring your real life football thoughts to help me see something, if there's anything to see. Overall, he said he was happy, that he had fun at practice and he's looking forward to the game on Saturday. They will be practicing at their gameday field this afternoon. As with all Wednesdays from now on, my wife will be picking him up, but she will not get to see any of the practice as the kids will be transported by bus from their regular practice field to their gameday field. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

09-23-2009, 05:19 PM	#57
JonInMiddleGA Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Behind Enemy Lines in Athens, GA	In all honesty I'm kind of stumped about his practice routine at this point. Is there some sort of personality issue with the other center, for example he has to think he's in danger of losing his job in order to perform to expectations? Any indication he simply doesn't like playing center & they're trying to mollify him by not making him work there (which doesn't make much sense as I don't perceive him being head & shoulders better than Andrew at the position, not enough so that he doesn't need the practice time there himself). I mean there's a lot of different scenarios but on the face of it I haven't been able to make much sense of how it's being handled. __________________ "I lit another cigarette. Unless I specifically inform you to the contrary, I am always lighting another cigarette." - from a novel by Martin Amis

09-25-2009, 09:05 AM	#59
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	Again saw the last 30 minutes of practice but really not much to report today. The offense was running plays as a scout team mimicking what the coaches think Ancienne-Lorette will do on Saturday in order to give some practice to the defense. Defense looked good, real good. As a scout team, the offense ran all their snaps with the QB under center and as such, their left tackle played center. When I got there, Andrew was on the sideline but they switched a lineman out every five plays and he played some at left tackle. I liked how alive he looked at the position. They ended practice with some 12-on-12 scrimmaging in which Andrew and the starting center alternated at center every 5 plays. I liked how matter of factly it was that they simply switched one for the other and the offense kept on playing without it making any difference. Andrew said they didn't give him any word as to where he'd play on Saturday. Wait and see I guess. They do practice this afternoon, from 4:30 to 6. Helmet only, no pads kind of practice, I assume as a simple walkthrough to make sure all kids know what they have to do. Big game is tomorrow morning at 10. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

09-25-2009, 09:42 PM	#60
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	they practiced mostly special teams today, with maybe a few plays to refresh everyone's memory, but really nothing special. Andrew wasn't really told where he'll be playing but everything points to the other center again being the starting center. Andrew played some tackle again today, mostly cause a tackle had to leave from practice early. This is frustrating cause I get the feeling he again won't start anywhere and will end up only playing in the second quarter, if for no other reason than the fact that he backed up the other center all week long and again never really practiced elsewhere. So, by default, he becomes the overall backup of the whole O-line while I think he looked much more lively out there than some of the others. He still looked okay and said he's having fun in practice and very much looking forward to tomorrow's game so I guess morale is holding up well. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

09-29-2009, 09:09 AM	#61
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	Well, that was a nailbiter of a game. Our kids started off strong, forcing then recovering a fumble on the opening kickoff. That gave their offense a great starting position that they didn't waste and they were up 8-0 after maybe 3 minutes. The other team came right back but really only had one big weapon, okay maybe two, in their running back and fullback. They tied the game before the end of the first quarter. We got a one score lead back early in the second quarter when we returned a punt for a TD. Up 16-8 at the half, it remained that way until about halfway into the fourth quarter when the other team started running outside all the time and we had a hard time coping with it. They scored once more but fumbled the snap on the PAT which ended being blocked. We gave them the ball back with maybe 2 minutes left and after we got penalized twice fifteeen yards for facemask penalties on consecutive plays, they were at our 15 yard line with a 4th and 2 with 10 seconds to play. We tackled the runner in the backfield to end the game. Final score: 16-14 win for the Corsaires. Since it was a home game, I had timekeeping duties again so I didn't pay as much attention to Andrew's play as I would have liked. One thing I noticed though is that he didn't come into the game until there was a little less than 6 minutes to play in the first half and didn't play at all in the fourth quarter. He played defensive tackle, again in a spot he had barely practiced at during last week's practices. Because of that, he looked out of place at some times and maybe not as quick off the snap as I've seen him when he's been in a D-line type of zone, if you know what I mean. Don't know where to start to express how the weekend has unravelled from there. I'll start with him relating that their coach had explained to them that they did play their best players more, something I think is unfair to someone like Andrew, since I honestly believe that given practice time at D-line, he would be better than some of the guys who played there. But there's his reaction to not playing. When asked if he was disappointed with it, he simply nodded and shrugged a "yeah, a little". And it's not really only that reaction which is hitting hard for us (wife & I) but how he seems to be getting into a pattern of laziness, of being okay with what's given to him instead of wanting more. I'll go on a tangent here to give you a bit of background. Late August, my wife came to me telling me she had found a place where he could take drum lessons, something he looked interested in after playing Rock Band so much. Nice classes too, private classes. But, you know, to practice, he'd need a drum but she had also found a place where they rented drum sets, so off we went and rented a new one with option to buy. It's been three weeks since his first class and he's practiced an average of one or two 15 minutes sessions per week. Oh, his teacher has told him and my wife that he's got potential, but we don't see him practicing. That trend goes back to many years but I'd say it irked me a bit more this past Summer when he was getting ready to test for his black belt. As we got closer and closer to the test and I kept asking him if he was ready, he kept replying "I'm okay dad". Oh sure, he was okay, but he could have really killed it. Instead, he simply passed the test, but I felt he had the potential to do so much more, to look so much sharper. Then last week, the week leading to this most recent game, the fit hit the shan. Wife went to a school meeting and met his French teacher, boom, she learns then that he's been late going into class, that he's talking and disturbing others and have already given a homework late. Then the very next day, his phys ed teacher (phys ed for crying out loud, something young active boys just love!) calls me at work to tell me he'd been late to class twice already, this in only three weeks of class. He was apparently talking to a classmate and forgot to check time and change quickly enough. This may not look like much, but he's in a special program in which he goes to regular class in the afternoon and takes English-as-a-second-language class in the morning four days of the week, a program he's told us he loves numerous times. Too many of those bad notes and he could be kicked out of the program. Now, I don't know what to think anymore. Could he be not playing cause he's also lazy in practice? From what I saw, he was active when I was there, although as I pointed out earlier, had to be reminded to keep on running until the play is over during their first camp and I had to tell him to not simply make a screen in front of a linebacker but to push him back more. I know he's got potential, maybe he's not showing it and is just content with how it's going. I'm ranting now, and maybe I'm aksing too much of my 12yo boy, but I'd like to see some fight from him. Would like to see him go at it harder in many little aspects of his life. Is that too much to ask? Again, I know he's in a weird situation as far as football go, but there's more to it for us. I don't want to be one of those crazy dads that I've seen too much of with young hockey players. I know he will never earn a living playing football, but if you say you like playing, and you act like you love playing the game, then maybe you should give it your all and fight for playing time. And again, it's not only with with football, we simply see a kind of pattern developping that we don't like. Maybe I should have posted this in the parenting thread after all... FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

09-30-2009, 11:20 AM	#63
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	Again saw the last 30 minutes of practice yesterday. Andrew was rotating every five plays with the starting center and they were scrimmaging. Interesting thing is that they seem to have now added some plays with the QB directly under center instead of playing all their plays from shotgun. I guess they saw that the word had started being passed around that it was how they were playing and mixing things up is never a bad thing. Andrew told me he spent all practice at center, rotating with the other guy. We'd told him that maybe it would be a good idea to go ask their offensive coordinator what he should be doing, or improving, in order to have a shot at being the starter. I wasn't too sure he'd do anything with it, based off pas behaviour, but he did. He said he talked to the OC, effectively asking him just that, what should I do better in order to have a shot at starting? He was told he had not mess any snaps, something he's gotten much better with lately, and that he needed to know his blocking assignments better. On that later points, not knowing all the plays and not seeing every minute of every practice, it was hard for me to judge but Andrew told me he did mess up on some plays, one in paricular where all the linemen were supposed to slide right but went left. Well, now he knows what he has to do. Crappy thing is he really got put into a sort of no-win situation. I mean, he practices at center all week long, the only spot on the O-line where there is a backup. All other four O-linemen practice at their spot and don't really have a backup. So he's pretty much left to be backup center, not really the sixth OL as when he comes in, if the center is doing okay, he goes at DL, not to sub for one of the other OL. That's just silly if you ask me. Anyway, I've also seen another opportunity for improvement on his play only watching the end of practice, and it was reinforced by the end of practice speech their coach gave them. Coach mentioned how the game their last game could have been won by more, but that little things remained with something to be desired. Be it a DL not holding his contain, or an OL not holding his block on a running play, leaving the runner exposed to be tackled for only a 2 yard gain instead of a 4-5-6 yards gain. I'd seen some of that from Andrew. He doesn't seem to switch his lineman behavior from passing to rushing much. I've seen him on running plays simply block the guy in front of him for maybe a second, second and a half, then let him go. Twice in the half hour I was there yesterday, that player went on to either make the tackle on the ball carrier, or at the very least disrupt the play enough that instead of getting a comfortable 4-6 yard gain, they only got a couple. I tried to instill in him the idea that if it's a running play coming up, he's gotta go forward, not simply hold his ground like he would do for a passing play. I think he understood that. We'll see in future practices. But then again, if he practices as an OL all week long, but plays as a DL when comes gameday, it's all lost. I also told him we'd work at home on his reaction time on the defensive line. We'll try to find some time on Saturday where I'll play center and I'll line him up accross me and will have him move on ball movement. We'll see. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

09-30-2009, 01:52 PM	#64
JonInMiddleGA Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Behind Enemy Lines in Athens, GA	I gotta admit, the practice routine isn't making a whole lot of sense. To my knowledge it isn't common to play someone pretty much exclusively at a position they don't get any real practice for. Sometimes sure, it happens for various reasons but this seems like an extreme case that's very consistent. Out of curiosity, and I'm not even sure if you'll know the answer but I'll ask anyway, are the coaches dealing with a larger than usual number of players this season? Or significantly fewer than usual? Or less practice time than they're used to? It almost sounds like they don't quite know how to manage training up their personnel either by having too many players or too few to actually rotate multiple backups through positions at practice. I will say, given the apparent shortage of backup on the OL, I suspect they've decided his future is on the DL since they aren't cross training him at any of the other OL positions. Thing is, I can't come up with any explanation for why they don't have him practice on the DL and be done with it. __________________ "I lit another cigarette. Unless I specifically inform you to the contrary, I am always lighting another cigarette." - from a novel by Martin Amis

10-01-2009, 09:07 AM	#66
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	Yesterday was Wednesday, the day I give a karate class so mommy went to pick Andrew up after practice. He said practice went well, but he always says that. PWhen prodded a bit, he did acknowledge that he messed a couple of blocking assignments and got picked on because of it. When asked if he thought about holding his blocks a bit longer, he said that yeah he did, but that he also let a couple go early and again got picked on about it. At this point, I can't do much more for him. I mean, he's been told what he needed to improve on in order to have more playing time and he's got to step up and deliver. I made sure he understood that and received the typical "yeah dad, I know dad, sure dad" answer. I can't do it for him at this point. This might sound selfish, but it kinda makes me sad. I want him to get more playing time cause I like seeing my son ON THE FIELD, not on the bench on gameday. But as much as I like that, it won't happen until he decides that it's important enough for him to put in the extra effort. I'm still convinced he has all the potential to be the starter at his position. The decision is his now. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

10-02-2009, 11:41 AM	#67
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	Same old, same old at practice yesterday. Andrew rotated with the other center. He said he's been trying to hold his blocks a bit more, and I saw evidence of that in the 30 minutes I was there, but he also said he screwed a couple of block assignments. However, he also said that the other center also screwed up a couple. I asked him if he'd talked to their OC about maybe getting into the game late if they have the lead and he said he had not talked to him. Just reminded him it could be a good idea. Weather's getting colder around here. It was a wet 43F yesterday when I got to the practice field. Lots of rain is forecasted over the weekend but temperatures should go up a bit over the next couple of days. Expected temp for Sunday's game could be as high as 60F which is pretty warm for us in early October. Honestly, I think we'd be quite okay with something around 50F without any rain. By we, I mean us spectator parents. No practice tonight, but a one hour video session has been booked. The other two Corsaires teams play at home this weekend and the kids were told to go support them. Juveniles play tonight but I think we might instead go see the Cadet tomorrow afternoon after our karate classes, depending on weather/rain. Our game this weekend is Sunday morning at 10. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

10-05-2009, 11:34 AM	#69
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	It was a misty Sunday morning yesterday but it didn't matter since the stands at Benoît-Vachon High School were covered with a nicely set up roof with a back wall. The ongoing mist combined with the fact that it was our kids' first game on a natural field made for much slipping and sliding early on. It slippery field played games on both offense though. Our defense came out real strong early on and we held a 22-0 lead at the half. More of the same in the second half, well even more domination from our defense, always providing the offense with great starting positions drive after drive. Despite numerous offensive penalties (offsides, illegal blocking and holding) we kept on marching forward, and scoring. Final score: 48-0. The kids will certainly have to cut down on a specific type of penalties. As I said before, multiple motions from receivers are allowed prior to the ball being snapped and any receiver can be running forward when the ball is snapped, as long as he does not cross the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped. If he does, an offensive offside penalty is called. We had more than five of those in the game yesterday with at least a couple of them negating two big plays that would have resulted in first downs. These are mental mistakes, or at the very least timing problems. I can see a kid too eager to block in the heat of the moment and blocking in the back, or holding a defender, but a receiver just not timing his steps with the QB's count, it's just sloppy play, or well, sloppy coaching. By that I mean that it didn't develop during the game. The kids must have been making these mistakes during practice, but no coaches are standing right at the line of scrimmage to check if anybody crosses it before the ball is snapped so nobody realized it was happening... As for Andrew, his team received the opening kickoff and started on offense. He wasn't part of the line at that point but that was expected. When the defense took on the field, I saw that they were in a 3-3 formation and he wasn't one of the three down linemen. I pretty much expected it to be the same as for the last couple of games, i.e. not seeing him get in the game until mid second quarter, but in their next defensive drive, they were back to a 4-3 and he was in there at DT. He played regularly after that, being subbed out for a couple drives in the second and fourth quarters, replaced by a backup linebacker. Turns out a defensive lineman was missing for the game and Andrew told us after the game that he was named a starter at DT prior to the game. He had a good game, holding his ground and applying decent pressure from the middle of the line. He knocked a guard down on his ass once, got in on a couple of tackles (assisting) and came ever so close to recovering a fumbled ball. The ball bounced off his knee and was recovered back by the running back. Again, I would have liked to see him at center in the last couple minutes of the game, when the score was already 40-0, but he stayed at DT until the very last drive. Still, it was a fun game with him coming back home happy that he contributed, and his parents happy that they were able to cheer him on. Speaking of cheering, the setup for the field was pretty nice with the stands on one side and the team benches on the other, like you see in many places. Thing was, there was a small forest right behind the team benches and my first call of "GO CORSAIRES!!!" reverberated back to us in echo. There really was no noise as it was right before kickoff and all parents in the stands had a good laugh about it. When asked if they could hear us cheer for them during the game, Andrew later told me that he didn't really hear during the game, but that he knew that the first "GO CORSAIRES!!!" just prior to kickoff was me. He said he could recognize my voice clearly. Kids have a bye next weekend and I wondered to my wife how the coaches will do to keep them motivated this week. Coming off a 48-0 win, I'm sure the coaches have seen plenty to work on, especially on the offensive side of things, but I'm sure some of the kids will have their heads ballooning to big sizes with this 4-0 start. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

11-02-2009, 09:04 AM	#71
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	Well, I got swamped and lost the beat when that bye week rolled around. Follwing that weekend, I sorta decided I was done with the dynasty and would let it die but I feel like picking it up again so I'll go back and report on everything that has happened since week 4. Be ready for a few posts to bring us back to speed... FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

11-02-2009, 09:06 AM	#72
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	As I said, the Corsaires had a bye in week 5. That week had results that were very much in line with what was expected. Following our trouncing of Benoît-Vachon, they went to Ancienne-Lorette and were delivered a similar loss, tis time losing 52-8. Notre Dame Trinité played at Petit Séminaire de Québec and destroyed them 62-8 and finally, Clé-du-Boisé beat Odyssée-Lafontaine soundly, 52-6. I don't have a standings after week 5 but by then, we were undefeated, in first place in front of the other undefeated team, Notre Dame Trinité. The pretty high scoring game by Clé-du-Boisé was cause for concerns at the time since we were gearing up to play them on their turf in week 6. As for Andrew, it was same old same old, i.e. practice a bit everywhere on the offensive line, with regular reps at center. He seemed to practice less and less on the defensive line but was being rotated wherever a guy was missing on the offensive side of the line. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

11-02-2009, 11:11 AM	#73
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	Glad to see this dynasty coming back. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

11-02-2009, 11:38 AM	#75
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	Something started happening for Andrew in practices leading up to the week 6 game against Clé-du-Boisé. Well, it actually started on their last practice before their bye week. At that practice, their right offensive tackle missed practice for some unknown reason so Andrew spent a big portion of that practice at that spot. He only did a few snaps at center. Then on their first practice leading up to week 6, their left tackle missed practice so Andrew ended up at left tackle while everybody else remained in their spot. That left tackle kid ended up missing all practices that week with some back pain/injury. Thing was, while Andrew started every practice at that spot, he was never confirmed as a starter, and he always ended up rotating to other spots on the line later on during practice, including some very limited time at center. The Corsaires were to play Clé-du-Boisé on their turf that week. Clé-Du-Boisé is a school that's not very far from ours, maybe a 15 minutes at most but the kids were to get together at their school where they were to warm up and then they would ride the a school bus all together to the other school's home field. It was the first time the coaches planned it that way. They usually would ask our kids to gather at their school from where they would ride the bus to the other team's field where they would warm up. I dropped Andrew off that morning and went to get myself some coffee. When I got back, they had not even come out of the locker room. Defense came out first and Andrew was not with them. Then came out the running backs, then the receivers and the QB. Sure enough, the big guys came out last and with them came Andrew. They all went through some team warm up and then split into units.My heart sank when I saw him not line up with the other offensive linemen to practice the first few plays. "Oh crap, not again" were the exact words that came to mind at that time. I was sure he would start the game on the bench, backing up whoever would have to come out first. I had to leave to go pick up my wife and get ready for the game ourselves. It was a coldish morning, around 32F with good winds so we had to gear up properly. We got to the field and took a spot in the stands having not seen the team finish their warmup, or even seen them line up in pregame warmup on the playing field. Corsaires started on defense and gave up a touchdown on their opponent's first drive. They had never been down in a game and there they were, down 0-8 less than 4 minutes into the game. Then came my biggest surprise of the season. When the offense trotted out on the field, there was Andrew, lining up at left tackle. He later told us he had been given the starter spot because he was holding his block better than the other backup O-line. The other backup O-line is that girl I already talked about. She's not very tall, listed at 145 lbs (compared to Andrew's listed weight of 135 lbs) and I always thought she was not very mean, or feisty. Nothing against the fact that she's a girl, really as there's another girl playing defensive back on the team and she's REALLY good. That O-line girl was a started ahead of Andrew in week 2 when he barely played and we just couldn't understand it. Even though I could seem biased over this, and I probably am, I honestly thought Andrew should have been the starter ahead of her despite him not practicing much at guard (her regular position). Now to see that he was given a chance, I was simply hoping he would make the best of it. That's how we'd been drilling the whole experience into his head. Kid, you might not fit anywhere on the line or the coaches might not have had a chance to see you at another position than center, but if they ever give you a chance, make it worth your while. Looks like he had done just that during the week leading up to the game. Back to the game, the offense struggled a bit but regained control and the lead before the end of the half. Score was 16-8 at the half and the defense took over at that point, barely allowing any yardage to the other team's defense. Final Score, a 22-8 win. Not a particularly impressive score, but it really didn't reflect the domination that the kids had during the second half. Andrew had a good game but I felt he was letting go of his blocks a bit early, probably because he had just started practicing the position and was used to work in a confined aread at center. He did do a very good jobs on a couple of block to the second level, where he sealed in a linebacker on one particular run that ended up in a long TD in the second half. He had lots of playing time, only being subbed out for a drive out of four throughout the game. I did tell him about the blocking after the game. Elsewhere in the league, Benoît-Vachon beat Petit Séminaire de Québec 46-8 while Notre Dame Trinité remained undefeated, beating Odyssé-Lafontaine, 66-16. Next up was a battle of the undefeated between us and Notre Dame Trinité to close out the regular season. And as if they had foreseen it, the schedule makers had booked the two teams figting for positions 3 and 4 in the standings, Clé-du-Boisé and Ancienne-Lorette, to play one another. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... Last edited by FrogMan : 11-02-2009 at 11:39 AM.

11-02-2009, 02:28 PM	#77
Big Six High School Varsity Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Williamsburg, Virginia	I just read through your dynasty today, and I'm really enjoying it. It sounds like Andrew's versatility and adaptability really paid off when your team's LT got hurt. It's not easy to thoroughly learn the assignments for as many different positions as Andrew has, especially for a 12-year-old who's new to football. Offensive line play can be very complex, even at his level. It looks like the Corsaires have a tremendous defense. That should be a huge, huge advantage during the playoffs. After all, you can't lose if the other team doesn't score. Good luck with the playoffs! The Corsaires have a new fan in Virginia, USA.

11-02-2009, 09:42 PM	#79
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	I mentally went "oh crap" when I got to practice around 6:15pm last Tuesday and saw that the left tackle was back. I feared that Andrew would be relegated to backup status. Even worse, he reminded me after that practice that they were now 7 offensive linemen and that he didn't really know where he stood on the depth chart. He said he practiced a bit everywhere on the line in that first practice. It went that way most of the week and I kept reminding him to give it his all, that he had to make the best of whatever practice time he was getting. What else could I tell him? I mean, he had been shuffled around most of the season and got playing time when they were down a man, but the coaches didn't seem to think he was good enough on his own. Okay, mayb I'm dramatizing a bit, but that was how it felt to me. All week he said it went well during practice, but he's been saying that all season long. Then came the game. While weather turned to all crap later on in the day when trick-or-treaters were out, it was a perfect football weather in the morning. Temperatures upwards of 50F, not one bit of wind, and no rain at all. Team came out for warmup and Andrew took some turns at left guard in the pre game reps. I was ecstatic to see him start the game at left guard and he had a great start to his game, as did the team. They took an early lead, not leatting Clé-du-Boisé score early on, or at all actually. Another shutout win, 56-0 in a semi-final game no less. Andrew played well, and a lot. When one of the backup OL came on, Andrew stayed on and shifted over to left tackle. He even subbed in at defensive tackle in the third quarter and finished the game playing both ways (left offensive tackle/defensive tackle) on the last 3-4 drives. He again sealed a linebacker in for a nice long touchdown run to the left side and stormed through the line while at DT to make a nice tackle for a 2 yard loss on a running play. Really, I thought it was his best game of the season, by far. Made daddy real proud with that game. And daddy (and mommy) would only get prouder, read this. After the game, when I asked him what the coaches told him, he said he was name the starting left tackle. Hrm, left tackle? But he came out at left guard. He said that yeah, during their week of practice, they had a scrimmage with the cadets (whose season is over since they didn't make the playoffs) and while he was lined up at left tackle, he had a trap play called for him, where he was to pull and trap all the way to the right side of the line and take out the defensive end. Their offensive coordinator told him personally that he made the DE freak out in fear (made him shit his pants if the closest translation from French I can come up with, you get the idea) and that if he did that to a cadet, he deserved to start at left tackle. Wow, talk about making the best of a his practice time. Just what we had told him to do. WAY TO GO KID! But then again, why was he not starting at left tackle but was at left guard??? He said the starting left guard kid had a stupid argument with their offensive line coach regarding how his pants were not holding up (they were going down on every play and he had to pull them back up) and the fact that the coach told him he would tape them up at the belt level. Kid fought with the coach so to speak, he didn't want to be taped up. The coach told him he was benched end would not play the first quarter. Seems harsh to me, but we don't know how the kid is with the coach, might not be his first breach. They were left with two kids to fill that left guard spot: their previous left tackle and the girl who used to play left guard. The left tackle had never practiced at left guard and I guess they thought it was better for the team to slide Andrew inside and put the left tackle back at tackle than to start the girl at guard. So that's how Andrew ended up at left guard. Then later on in the game, one of his coaches asked him if he wanted to go kick some butt on D to which he replied "hey sure" and that's how he ended on defense too. I actually saw him come on in the game in the middle of a defensive drive where he got on to replace a smaller d-lineman that was playing tackle. They rarely sub in the middle of drives but it was a 3rd and one and in my proud heart of a dad, I simply thought they needed to make a stand and they thought Andrew was their best shot among the remaining linemen (O or D) to plug in there. the other team ran it off tackle and got the first down anyway but Andrew still stayed in the game at DT and they forced them to punt four plays later. Interesting how nice a turn of event that was, him going from part-timer linemen, come from the bench, practice center, hole-filler on the O-line to being sought after as a starting OL and both ways lineman. Yeah, lots of pride in this daddy's heart. As they gear up for the championship game, to be played next weekend (date/time still to be determined), they practiced tonight (more on it tomorrow), and all the way through to Thursday. It's their first week where they will practice on a Monday. Their coaches are not letting them inflate their egos. Would the team bring back a championship banner, it would be the school's first banner since the start of the football program some six years ago. You are probably wondering right now who they will play in that championship game. Well, Ancienne-Lorette visited Notre Dame Trinité in the other semi-final. Looking at previous results, I knew they were very close to them and could cause the upset, even though I'd been told that Notre Dame Trinité is really tough to beat on their own turf. Well, upset they did, Ancienne-Lorette coming out of the game with a convincing 24-14 win over Notre Dame Trinité. Combined that with the fact that we only beat Ancienne-Lorette 16-14 when we met them and the coaches won't need much to keep the kids' feet on the ground. This should make for a great, if nerve wracking championship game. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... Last edited by FrogMan : 11-02-2009 at 09:54 PM.

11-02-2009, 10:06 PM	#80
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	How awesome! And what a great lesson for the kid, too, about how staying focused and sticking with it as best as he's able, can produce great results in the end, even if takes a long time. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

11-03-2009, 02:03 PM	#82
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	Yesterday's practice was a light one. Andrew told me they had a one hour blackboard session and one hour practice session. The practice session was mostly special teams, in which Andrew is not involved, except for PAT kicks and field goals (which they've not tried one of this season) and their jumbo formation which involved snaps with the QB right under center as opposed to being in the shotgun. He's also not part of that setup. During the blackboard session, they went over the scouting report for Ancienne-Lorette, probably based off what they did in our last game against them. Andrew brought back a one page report with maybe 10-12 diagrams of plays with a percent value next to each one of them. According to it, one play was run 34% of the time while the next two came with 17% or so each meaning that 2/3 of their offense consisted of three plays. I know this is probably just par for the course but for me, new parent of a kid playing competitive football (is there such a thing as non-competitive football?), I was impressed with the amount of work that was put into preparing the kids. From what I gathered from Andrew (my wife picked him up after practice), it looked like that practice was the kind of practice that they usually run on Friday evening. Andrew told me he played a bit of defense when they ran the jumbo offense and while he was not told anything about where he'd play on offense, their D-line coach told him to be ready to come in as a sub on the DL later in the game. He looked quite happy when reporting that to me. More positive recognition for him. Glad to see them the coaches seeing him worthy of being used late in the game. Kinda different from the first time they played Ancienne-Lorette, when I expressed how discontent I was with the coach telling them they'd played their best player more (and Andrew had not played that much, see this post). I always thought Andrew deserved to be playing more and it looks like they are realizing that now... Championship game has been scheduled for Saturday morning at 9h30. Early weather forecast are that we could expect some sleet type snow or rain with temperature around freezing. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

11-05-2009, 11:39 AM	#83
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	Not much to report about the last two days of practice. Tuesday was a cold, rainy practice where Andrew practiced mostly at left tackle, rotating with the other left tackle with a few bits of center play, but only when the offense would play scout team for the defense. Yesterday was much of the same but had a funny reaction from Andrew when I got home. I give karate class on Wednesdays so my wife picked him up. When I got back hom from karate class and asked him how practice was, he replied "good for me". Hrm, good for you? Please do tell how. He said he thought he'd had a strong practice but some got chewed up for taking it lightly. They might end up practicing on Friday evening. There was a cool little article in a local weekly newspaper about their undefeated regular season and how they totally crushed their opponents in the semi-final game. You can read it here although it's all in French so you might need babelfish. Coolest thing was that there was a picture with the article and Andrew can be seen on it. He's at left tackle, the one with his helmet in line with the referee. Here's the picture: Oddly enough, the picture is clearer in the printed version of the paper mostly because they cropped it and kept only the players. We can clearly see the first five of his number (55) on the printed picture. In other stuff, with the championship game coming and with it, the last week of practice coming to a close, my wife and I realized yesterday that at this day next week, he won't be practicing anymore. Will feel kind of weird not to be on the type of family schedule we've been since August 18. Oh sure, Andrew has been practicing sports for a while now, since he was about 4 actually, but it's never been this intense. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

11-06-2009, 10:01 PM	#84
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	I was about to call it a night and realized I had not posted anything prior to the big game. Tomorrow morning it is, 9:30 am. Weather should be nice if a bit cold. It's currently 32F outside and could go as low as 19F overnight with possible temps around 26-27F tomorrow morning. Not much rain is forecasted, something like 10% probability. They wrapped up their last week of practice yesterday with a practice that Andrew said was more intense than the day before but that he said his coach wasn't completely happy with. He told them they would have to kick it up a notch if they want to walk away with the title. I feel that if they can come out strong like they have done for the last couple of games, they'll be in good shape. As for Andrew, the left guard missed that last practice, being sick with a cold of the flu. Because of that, Andrew was at left guard for all of practice yesterday. I'd expect he could be starting at either left guard or left tackle. Or should I say, I'd hope he can start, and have mucho playing time. Go kick some ass son. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

11-08-2009, 09:19 PM	#85
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	Weather was perfect for football yesterday. At least as perfect as it could be at this time of year in Quebec. A couple degrees below freezing at 8, it would eventually get up to freezing point by the end of the game. A cloudy sky over our heads although no rain showed up. The kids came out of the locker room padless, but with their team shirt on, at about 8:15 to work on some special teams and do a quick roundup of a few things. The other team showed up 15 minutes later, all dressed up. Corsaires went back to the locker room at about 8:45 and back out at about 9:05 fully geared up for the formal warmup session. Kickoff was set for 9:30. My parents were there for the game, as was my mother in law, my sister and her husband (they're Andrew's Godparents) with her two year old daughter (my Goddaughter as well). About 15 minutes prior to kickoff, as I was chatting with my parents and getting ready to head up to the booth for my timekeeping duties, the wife of our Juvenile coach came to me and told me that if I wanted to stay down with my family and enjoy the game, she could do the timekeeping. She's the one who actually showed me how to operate the clock and has been doing it for years. I asked her if she was serious, that was too much of a nice offer, I simply couldn't refuse. Don't get me wrong, the booth is a very nice place to watch the game, but as timekeeper, you watch the game in a different way. You can't pay attention to all little details cause your focus is on the referees, in particular the head referee as for when he wants you to start the clock. I was ecstatic to sit with the crowd and ready to enjoy what I hoped would be a great win for my boy and his team. They started out strong on defense, actually pushing the other team back on a solid three and out. The offense was next and with it, Andrew setting down at the left tackle position. He was a starter. I'm sure you can feel my pride gushing out over the interwebs. They had a solid first drive that culminated with a TD and just like that, they were up 8-0. Defense kept the other team in check drive after drive but it was no walk in the park for our offense after that first drive. They did add a second score before the end of the half, but I knew the kids couldn't take it easy with only a 14-0 lead at the half. The third quarter was a bit uneventful as was the start of fourth quarter, then it all got crazy, as it often does. With maybe five minutes to do, one of our DB intercepted their QB on a third and long, only to make a couple steps and as he was going down, coughed up the ball that they recovered only our 35 yard line. From there on out, it looked as if they had found new life, and our kids looked simply befuddled. A couple penalties here, a blown tackle there and they scored with 3:15 to go. Kicked conversion for 2, we were now only up 14-8 after missing our kicked conversion on our second TD. One more converted TD and that game was theirs... By that time, I was screaming at the top of my lungs on every defensive play, trying to get the impressive crowd (in numbers at least) to make noise with me. Following their TD, I saw them lining up for the ensuing kickoff and immediately saw some shifting on their side and I screamed "ONSIDE! WATCH THE SHORT KICK!!!" Not that I thought the kids could hear me or anything, but hey, I had to yell something. They sure did try the onside. The kick didn't make ten yards and I swear I saw it hit the foot of a player from the other team inside that ten yards. Unfortunately, the referee didn't and only saw the fact that it bounced off the leg of one of our player before one of theirs jumped on it. Their ball around midfield at the three minutes warning. Remember what I said about the clock inside three minutes of a half? Well, the time stops on EVERY PLAY and it restarts only when the referees signals that the players are set. This was looking to be the longest three minutes of my life... Their offense started driving down the field and our defense looked exhausted. Turned out one of our best defensive tackle, a kid listed at 5'5"/155lbs at the start of the season, was at the ER with a fever of 104F, with fear that he had contracted swine flu. A linebacker was playing in his place and probably was not used to the kind of grinding that a lineman takes. That being said though, our D kids stood them up on a fourth and 8 around the 30 yard line and our QB finished the game with three kneel down. CORSAIRES STAY UNDEFEATED AND ARE CHAMPIONS!!! I tell ya, I had a frigging headache from screaming and yelling and cheering, but I didn't care. Definitely the most intense experience I've lived as a parent. I'll post some pictures later on this week and you'll see the pride in Andrew's smile. Priceless. About him, as I said, he was the starter at left tackle and apart from one drive where they put in their jumbo line setup, and one more drive where he was subbed out, he didn't miss one offensive drive. Whenever the previous starting left tackle would come into the game, the left guard would come out and Andrew would slide over. He had a strong game, worthy of the trust his coaches put in him. He played exactly one play at DT, but I guess they simply valued him more on the OL. About the kid at the ER, I spoke with his dad today. Met him and his wife unexpectedly at the store this afternoon. He said he was doing better and that the fever had gone down. His dad was the person in charge of filming the team's games this season. He mentioned that his son watched yesterday's game twice while wrapped in a blanket. That led to him sorta mentioning he still had all the other games of the season on his recorder and he agreed to make me copies of them at some point in the offseason. Very much looking forward to that. I hope you enjoyed these little writeups. There have been some frustrating times, but also some great lessons to be learned by my son through all this. Next season might be even harder, as he will be moving on up to the Cadets. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

11-08-2009, 11:51 PM	#86
JonInMiddleGA Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Behind Enemy Lines in Athens, GA	Ain't nothing ever easy is it? Hearty congratulations to Andrew & the Corsaires, well done indeed. And congratulations to Andrew's parents for surviving a football season And my thanks to you for sharing this with us. __________________ "I lit another cigarette. Unless I specifically inform you to the contrary, I am always lighting another cigarette." - from a novel by Martin Amis Last edited by JonInMiddleGA : 11-08-2009 at 11:51 PM.

11-10-2009, 01:37 PM	#88
johnnyshaka College Benchwarmer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Edmonton, AB	FM...I'm a little late to the show but I just read the whole thread...great stuff and congrats to young Andrew for a great rookie season!!! Great view from the perspective of a dad even though I sensed a biased opinion every once in a while. I think that it's a natural and positive approach and you just want the best for your son. When all is said and done you and your wife should always be his biggest supporters, no matter what, and it sounds like you are. Again, great stuff. Just to add another perspective to youth/HS football in Canada, I grew up in Ottawa (about 5 hours south of FM...actually, FM, I was part of a wedding in Levis this past August...first time I'd been to the area in 15 years...beautiful and the wife and I had a great time!) and I had a few good friends who grew playing football while I played hockey and baseball. These brothers were always the biggest kids in their age group (their dad was a lineman in the CFL for years) and excelled at every level of youth football they played. When we got to high school, we didn't have a football program but by the time I got to grade 10 it was put in place...thanks to these two brothers and their dad. Unfortunately, because our school was new on the football front we were in the "B" division which was essentially where they stuck the crappy football teams. After their first season, the brothers transferred to another high school that was more known in the area for football (turned out to be where Jesse Palmer was at the time) and they both eventually went on to play at Syracuse during the McNabb years. So, it was good football, but there were only a few good teams in the area because most of the good players targeted those schools. Oddly enough, though, like FM said, it was always hockey first because I know a lot of guys who would've been excellent football players but you just couldn't play "rep" hockey and HS football at the same time...and 99% of the time hockey won out. Anyway, out here in Edmonton football is pretty big right now...both on the high school scene and on the "senior" level. I coached Little League baseball for years and a few of the boys also played youth football. Several of the boys are just winding up their HS football careers right now and the way they do things here in terms of dividing the kids is school size. If your school has over "x" number of kids, you are in this division and if you have less than that, you play in this division. Most schools will have a Sr. and Jr. team (similar to the US Varsity and Jr. Vasity I guess) but not always. Not sure if that's the best way to do it, but it's one way I guess.

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