Hot seat is an understatement. He should be feeling an inferno. With his record in the playoffs the last three years he should have been fired after the Centennial loss last year. The AD should have walked on to the field last Friday night and handed him a pink slip after the LC debacle.
He has had all state skill position athletes for the last 3-4 years and routinely comes up short. That is not due to a lack of talent but a lack of coaching. The man literally has no clue on how to use his talent to his advantage. LC was a good team but with the talent Valley had on both sides of the ball Valley should have won by 2 TDs. The game has long passed Swenson by. The lack of any imaginative play calling and development of his starting and second QB can strictly be attributed to him. Why? Cause he was the QB coach and OC. Let me add that the best QB Valley ran off had to go to Hoover just to have a chance to play. Look at the numbers Byron Jarrett put up. Valley had killer RBs and WRs but look at how Swenson utilized them. Valley is no longer a place where they expect kids to feel privileged to be in Swenson’s presence. He should do the honorable thing and resign along with the coaching staff during the team banquet.
Here is my 2 cents, take it for what's it's worth. I do believe due to enrollment that Valley should have more talent then a Lewis Central, not better talent just more talent. I'm not 100% certain but I can't recall any Valley player going both ways Friday Night ( excluding special teams). On the flip side, I know 3 players for sure ( Theobald, Duggan, & the wide receiver sorry forgot his name) played both sides of the ball with Theobald and the Wide-out playing almost every snap and there may have been more. Perhaps a coach should be expected to capitalize on the fatigue factor so I understand some of your frustration ( that being one possible example). Maybe numbers alone say Valley had a significant depth advantage and that along with good coaching should have been enough to win that game! I don't know the answer to that statement.
I would challenge your statement that Valley should have won the actual game by 14 points. Watching live I don't recall either team putting together long drives that stalled out, overall yardage would not indicate that was the case. I recall both teams scoring on what might be considered broken assignments or good luck plays, CBLC on an 80 yard run up the middle and Valley on a tipped TD Pass.
My gut tells me these teams we've very evenly matched, IMO if they played 10 times I could see it being a 5-5 split... is that bad coaching that should never ever happen with the size difference? I honestly don't know the answer, I've thought about it on and off and can't come to a conclusion.
I also agree with the earlier statement from another post that Mr. Swenson is a good coach. I bet if we asked around we would also learn that Mr Swenson is a good man that cares about his players and teaches them good life values. Perhaps he used this loss to teach them that sometimes life throws you a curve and you have to dust yourself off and get back up.
I get it, we all love to win and we all love winners and ending your season stinks. That said, Mr Swenson is a good coach and IMO has earned the right to coach as long as he wishes. I promise you there are a lot of X-Valley Football players that never played a down in college but have greatly benefited in real life from what they learned on the Valley practice field.
I really hope we don't get to the point where we hire and fire good coaches and better people based solely on wins and losses at the High School level.
DSM SPORTS FAN