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Post by PumasFC on Jan 23, 2006 14:37:56 GMT -6
As a coach Many more times than not Our high school training facilities were a small patch of behind the football practice fields. It did make for some inetresting practices when you played between a fence and a tree for your sideline markers, or the tree became an extra defender if you wanted a wider field to play on. I am very much a proponent of training in small areas. It forces you to make quicker decisions and do better at controlling the ball. 4 v 4 0n a 30 x 40 yard pitch requires a great deal of skill and ball control which when expanded on to a 120 x 80 field becomes magnified. Besides the fact that everyone has a lot more touchyes than playing 11 a side. There is no where to hide a weak player when the numbers are smaller in play. I envy some of the schools in the BR area who have seperate full size fields for both the boy's and Girls to train on. That is a commitment from the school to give those sides an opportunity to get better. The others must make due as they can. Don't whine about what you can't control be inventive. Your team can get just qas good of training with a good coach on a 1/4 of a field and some cones, as they can on a full size field.
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Post by Breezy on Jan 23, 2006 16:55:04 GMT -6
Title IX has had some effect with more girls becoming interested in sports, not just soccer. I feel that, at least in the Baton Rouge area, soccer is not promoted enough at the elementary and middle school levels in those schools. My own children were almost “punished” for choosing soccer over a sport offered by their school and were isolated from their classmates for having a different interest. Their love for the game of soccer has won over any isolation they have felt, and they actually get to participate and play a sport with their high school.
I think it is great to see more information about soccer in the newspaper (again recently in the Baton Rouge area) and I think it should continue, not just through high school season but during the fall and spring seasons when your club, Div. I and recreational players are active. I do not know how it is in North Louisiana, but I do know that New Orleans, and I think Lafayette, get good publicity for soccer and other youth sports.
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Post by rocksccrstar on Jan 23, 2006 20:14:25 GMT -6
I agree that there are ample opportunities to get kids involved at the rec and select level but do you think that there is consistency amongst the schools in the promotion of soccer (not just girl's)? I think that parents are always going to be your biggest fans and there are some great parents out there, who bend over backwards to make the programs great, but I am not sure about the other factors. I know in the early 90s when this was a "young" sport in the LHSAA there was a lot of push to make it a viable part of high school athletics but I feel like maybe that "fervor" is just not there anymore. There are diehards that will drive across the state to see a good match but they are just too few and far between. I also don't know if across the board all of the girls realize how much better they have it than those who came before them. I just think that maybe the governing bodies, schools, and media are missing out on a great thing, that is right under their noses.
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Post by ashfan on Jan 24, 2006 8:33:58 GMT -6
I am sorry I haven't read everything that has been written (I am at work), but when the morning news show on TV recaps play by play of an Louisiana College loss and not give the high school soccer scores again from last night it is sad.
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Post by Mung on Jan 24, 2006 10:14:17 GMT -6
No kidding. The really sad thing is when the local news has a cameraman at the boys game, which immediately leaves before the girls game starts.
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Post by ashfan on Jan 24, 2006 11:14:33 GMT -6
Yes, there is a huge inequity not only in cental Louisiana's media views the sport, but in the discrepancy between the genders. Girls must really love the sport, because there is not much acclaim to be expected.
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Post by alleyball on Jan 24, 2006 11:21:55 GMT -6
I will add my view (although it may be unpopular to some). The sport suffers from a couple of draw backs in the sense of what most Americans are accustomed to or feel a drive to: doesn't make it write, it is just the case. The one big thing that remains missing from this sport at this time is the element of the "major" upset. Yes, don't get me wrong, in the soccer community we have upsets, but it is nothing like what occurs in the American triple threat sports: Football, Basketball, and Baseball. Unfortunately in the world of soccer right now, when a team steps on the field as a major underdog, they are going home with the 'L' and everyone knows that, this is simply not always the case in the other sports. In the soccer community we are stuck with considering a 2 or 3 goal separation in a game by a major underdog as a major upset (because the favorite didn't win by 7 or 8 goals). Magnitude upsets in other sports have brought about the "Cheering for the Underdog". It raises the interest of the "average" fan and tends to convert them to an "active" fan. Some of the facts that bring about these exciting moments in sports are those critical and timely "time-outs" that are called by coaches in Football, Basketball, and Baseball that seem to change the approach, the momentum, and the outcome of games. In these sports, during the contest, a decision made by a coach in these moments can change the complexion of the game. These type of moments are not as widely available during a soccer contest and they never will be. Some may counter act this train of thought with: "There are upsets that happen in soccer contest" and I agree, but they do not happen on a "major" level, especially at the high school level. You don't see the same magnitude of accomplishment as a South Florida upsetting a Tennessee or Auburn. These types of major upsets draw the attention of fans to a sport. It may not be right, but it is what happens. This inkling that a tremendous underdog, if they do the right things, can pull the upset, just doesn't exist at a wide enough level on the soccer scene at this time. The whole point of this blurb, is that fan draw is widely associated with competitiveness and "the power of the underdog". Although the soccer world is beginning to attract on the competitive side, it is lacking on "the power of the underdog" side. No, I don't have an answer to that, but when you try to compare the sport of soccer to the others, it is to me viewed as an apple to oranges comparison in the eyes of sports fans. While in some sports underdogs are walking into stadiums thinking about what possible breaking point can possibly happen to give us an edge to pull off a win, on the soccer side, underdogs are walking onto fields thinking about what can we possibly do to avoid being blown out (nothing in the sense of what could give us a window of opportunity to win). In the tone of the title of this thread, I think things are heading in the right direction for gaining interest of sporting fans across the state. Coaches, players, and parents of soccer in the state need to continue to shed positive light on the sport of soccer, and continue to push for more press time and coverage of soccer events.
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Post by defendtowin23 on Jan 25, 2006 23:53:49 GMT -6
i agree w/ title 9 but i think some (1) womens sport should be done away w/ @ LSU to bring mens Soccer to the tigers sports dynasty..... heaven knows we have the talent coming out of high school to be somethin special in college competition... just a thought....
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Post by DL-- I'll be back next year on Jan 26, 2006 8:18:45 GMT -6
Women have just as much rights to play sports at LSU as men do, so women's sports should not be done away with at LSU. There are plenty of talented people that play other sports also comming out of Louisiana High Schools. Yes, I agree there are very talented young men comming out of High School soccer teams but there are also very talented girls too. I don't exaclty understand why cant their be a men's team and a women's team to play soccer at LSU?
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Post by Mung on Jan 26, 2006 8:55:23 GMT -6
Title IX precludes an official men's team, though they had a men's club team when I was there(eons ago). They have to have an equal number of women's scholarships, and it takes several one sex sports teams to make up for football. The sad thing about LSU's soccer team is that 2/3 or more of the players come from out of state. Not good commentary on the State of soccer here.
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Post by vilnius68 on Jan 27, 2006 16:29:40 GMT -6
Last night, the top boys soccer team in NW La and the top girls soccer team in NW La played. There were no big basketball games, wrestling matches, or any other high school sports played last night. Did either soccer team get any ink? No
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Post by rocksccrstar on Jan 27, 2006 16:57:08 GMT -6
You know I have studied Title IX for several years. It was the topic of every project I did in my master's program. Now here is the problem with Title IX. It is abused rather than used in its correct context. When colleges decided to add women's sports, they went for the quick fix and in doing so vilified the law.
It has been proven that if you were to cut 10 scholarships from football (cause you know they get 85, even though only an average of 35 people play each game) a college could fund a non-revenue women's or men's sport. And the colleges who allowed men's sports to bleed but did not kill them were able to provide opportunites for everyone.
Now as far as high school goes I think a lot has to do with the region. There is a backwards attitude about women participating in sports (should we be southern belles?) and it permeates into the promotion of the sport, but there is an even bigger discrepancy with soccer. The girls and the boys seem to be in the same boat as far as coverage goes.
I will commend The Advocate for their effort to communicate with coaches and try to remedy these problems.
No matter what I will always be a soccer player, fan, coach, promoter and hopefully one day a soccer mom, complete with mini-van ;D!
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Post by vilnius68 on Feb 5, 2006 10:18:25 GMT -6
Byrd and Magnet play for district championship yesterday, but you'd never know it if you got your information from the Shreveport Times. No article.
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Post by im4christ on Feb 5, 2006 12:22:51 GMT -6
While I agree that there needs to be more coverage of soccer, both boys and girls, in our newspapers, we need to be proactive as well. I send my entire schedule to the local paper and always keep them posted as to changes in the schedule and big games coming up. Smother the sports departments with press releases and let them know of any website links where they can keep apprised of soccer happenings.
Best wishes and blessings to all for the upcoming playoffs.
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Post by vilnius68 on Feb 5, 2006 13:26:41 GMT -6
I just sent a rather pointed email to the Times sports editor Scott Ferrell. They cover one or two games a month, so I know they have the schedules. They just choose not to cover the games.
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Post by vilnius68 on Feb 5, 2006 15:48:11 GMT -6
Scott Ferrell of the Times emailed me back and said the reporter who normally covers HS soccer was covering Tech baskeball. I guess no one else on the staff was capable of covering the game. During HS football season, they can have capsules for every game in Caddo, Bossier, Webster, Claiborne, and DeSoto parish, but they can't cover 1 soccer game that was to determine the district championship!
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Post by vilnius68 on Feb 8, 2006 20:55:04 GMT -6
The Times had two days of HS soccer coverage in a row after my email! Coincidence? I hope not. I hope they just realized they weren't doing their job.
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Post by PumasFC on Feb 9, 2006 18:55:33 GMT -6
Maybe the pen is mightier than people want to admit. a couple of e-mails and The Times had a writeup on the teams up north. Tonight one of the local news stations (WAFB Channel 9)mentioned the BRHS girls victory over Covington. And as mention earlier the Advocate has done a better job than ever of reporting on games. Let's say thank you to people like vilnius68 for taking the time to push for more local coverage.
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Post by vilnius68 on Feb 11, 2006 10:46:04 GMT -6
Another article on soccer in today's Shreveport Times! I'm now going to send them an email thanking them for the coverage. I hope others in NW La are joining me.
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Post by interestedfan on Feb 11, 2006 12:06:20 GMT -6
The fact that the Times is finally getting around to covering soccer this year is wonderful, but please realize that the only way it will continue is to have people like vilnius68 and many others to stay on their backs. 2 years ago, I was displeased with soccer coverage and called to register a complaint. I was told that the reporters believed that not many were interested in soccer, so they chose not to cover it. I sent out a plea to all the soccer families I could and encouraged them to call or write. All of a sudden, soccer coverage increased. Last year coverage wasn't too bad, but until the past week or so, there has been minimal reports on soccer this year---basketball has been the focus. I expect coverage to continue throughout the playoffs; however, next year, don't expect any articles unless you take the time to make calls or send e-mails. The fact is that the sports writers only know, understand, and enjoy football and perhaps basketball. They have no plans to learn the wonderful sport of soccer.
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