Marshall County Football is down...

[KarmaKiller]

Just looking at the records:

Marshalltown 1-7
East Marshall 0-8
West Marshall 0-8

What's going on in Marshall county? Marshalltown and W Marshall have a good to great football history. E Marshall has never been very good but it surprises me to see the entire county struggle.

I believe M-town and WM both have new coaches so maybe that's part of the struggle at the moment? Hopefully, in a few years there is a resurgence.

M-town might have a tougher track since they have some demographics working against them. Maybe they should go to 3A as Newton did? Aren't they about the same size?

 

[mtdew_fever]

East Marshall has never been good at football.....they have become a Cross Country school.

West Marshall being down is a big surprise as they have been talented for years and title contenders in many of them.

As for Marshalltown, they have 1066 in the 3 grade enrollment used for the Classification, which is about average for a 4A school. Newton, they were at 639, so not a good comparison.

 

[DarkThunder#61]

A simple answer for West Marshall would be no Ferches and no big linemen to block for said Ferches......

 

[lurker070]

It's not just Marshall County. It's the area.

Marshalltown 1-7
East Marshall 0-8
West Marshall 0-8
GMG 0-8
BCLUW 2-6 (Beat East Marshall and GMG above)
Grundy Center 1-7 (Beat BCLUW above)

And I can tell you why EM is horrible. The coach sucks. Short and sweet. Nobody wants to play for him. There are a grand total of somewhere around 23 10-12 graders playing football...for a 2A school. Only 3 of those 23 are sophomores. I've seen 8-man teams with more players. That's. Pathetic.

I wouldn't want to play for him either.

 

[Shortgrass65]

They have never had enough kids in EM or GMG. We took on some of the kids in youth football league a few years ago when I coached the STC team just so they could play. It was actually a great group of kids. Sometimes classes are like that where numbers are up and down. One class needs to step up and start the turn around at EM.

 

[SSG T]

Originally posted by DarkThunder#61:
A simple answer for West Marshall would be no Ferches and no big linemen to block for said Ferches......

That's pretty much what everyone around here figured, once the Ferches were gone they'd come back to earth.

 

[PNation]

GMG actually has decent numbers for a class A school, I will say however that both GMG and East Marshall both have something like 50% open enrollment from Marshalltown, I have always wondered if that causes them to lose some of the community feeling that is so key in the success of a football program.

As for Marhalltown I think the genius of Dave Holdiman is under valued, They are a team that has to compete against the metro teams with so much less it is not even funny. He took them to a state title game, something that I really don't ever see happening again.

West Marshall will rebound in time, maybe not to the level that they have been, but they're just aren't an 0-9 program.

 

[pinkphantom]

I believe the East Marshall open enrollment numbers are near 33% on average. And of those open enrolled students there are virtually no athletes. They open enroll for other reasons. So that does artificially bump the class for East Marshall. And yes that is a real issue that most other school districts don't have to deal with because of the proximity to Marshalltown. I'm talking state wide. I have no idea what the numbers are for other districts near Marshalltown.

 

[KarmaKiller]

Originally posted by mtdew_fever:


As for Marshalltown, they have 1066 in the 3 grade enrollment used for the Classification, which is about average for a 4A school. Newton, they were at 639, so not a good comparison.

Good point. However, I believe there is actually much more to this for Marshalltown. Maybe they aren't unique with a town like Fort Dodge but of those 1066 students, how many are hispanic that play zero sports and aren't involved in the student body so to speak?

That might not be comfortable for some to discuss but it is a reality. I spoke to someone earlier this year and they are the ones who brought up this dimension with Marshalltowns diversity issue impacting things like sports.

 

[KarmaKiller]

Originally posted by SSG T:

Originally posted by DarkThunder#61:
A simple answer for West Marshall would be no Ferches and no big linemen to block for said Ferches......

That's pretty much what everyone around here figured, once the Ferches were gone they'd come back to earth.

I thought WM had a pretty rich tradition even before them? The oldest one is a senior at ISU I believe so are you saying WM wasn't good at all prior to 6-8 years ago? That isn't how I remember

 

[KarmaKiller]

Originally posted by pinkphantom:
I believe the East Marshall open enrollment numbers are near 33% on average. And of those open enrolled students there are virtually no athletes. They open enroll for other reasons. So that does artificially bump the class for East Marshall. And yes that is a real issue that most other school districts don't have to deal with because of the proximity to Marshalltown. I'm talking state wide. I have no idea what the numbers are for other districts near Marshalltown.

How would east marshall do at the 1A level as opposed to the 2A level? I would suspect it wouldn't change too much would you? looking at their schedule they played a 1A and an A school this year and I believe the same is true for the past. I understand your argument but really don't think it would make any difference. You would think that at least a few of those kids would help, if nothing else just with numbers

 

[mtdew_fever]

East Marshall would still be terrible at 1A. I believe they lost to BCLUW, which is a 2-6 Class A team this year.

As for West Marshall, they were a really good team before the Ferch brothers arrived. When now retired Coach Winkler arrived in the mid-80's, he consistently had them in the playoffs (18 out of 28 years). He had countless All-State players and even a few that were Elite All-State per the DM Register.....with several going on to play at the D-I level.

 

[pinkphantom]

Just for the record I never said EM would be good at whatever level. But if you drop their BEDs numbers by 33% they would drop all the way to Class A. Not 1A. And yes they would be more competitive there. If they played schools like GMG, Grundy Center, North Mahaska, North Tama, etc... (Or West Marshall this year ) But it is what it is.

 

[Herdcyclones]

Losing breeds losing. Losing isn't fun. I can see where an East Marshall 8th grader might say, "do I want to go out for football and see my brains beat in for the next 4 years?" Not saying that can't be overcome, but kids aren't stupid. If that is all they have seen since elementary school, that can be hard to overcome.

Watching East Marshall, it is not fun football to watch. Winning would be fun, and I know teams have had winning football with that offense. But since it is not fun to watch, it might not be fun to play either. I get the theory behind 1920s football, but sweeps, passing, men in motion, and all that add to the fun. If you are going to lose, have fun doing it. I can see why it might be harder to get kids out for football with that style of play.

In college basketball, Wisconsin can pull off their boring basketball because all they need to do is find 12 guys across the nation who want to play it. A small high school can't do that.

 

[DarkThunder#61]

Originally posted by Herdcyclones:


In college basketball, Wisconsin can pull off their boring basketball because all they need to do is find 12 guys across the nation who want to play it. A small high school can't do that.

That and find multiple 7 footers who can shoot lights out from 3, or teach them how to shoot lights out from 3 which is apparently impossible at every other school since Wisconsin is the only one that seems to have multiple big men shooting 3s all the time...................................................

Wisconsin teaches post players how to shoot 3s better than the actual 3-pt shooters Iowa gets to come in and shoot threes......eff that. Eff that to hell.

 

[gmgwolverine05]

I say it is more of VERY poor coaching than anything here in the Marshall/Tama County area.

 

[privateer13]

Watching some of the jr high and soph fresh games I don't see some of these teams getting any better. Grundy may be the lone exception in the schools listed. Part of the problem is coaching part is the athletes playing football. WM has had more than just the Ferch boys in the last few years but they are certainly the headliners. The next few years for them the cupboard is just bare.

 

[MitchL]

I ask this question because I simply am wondering... Does the economic situation in the general area have any impact on whether the athlete participation is increasing or decreasing? I could understand if many kids need to have jobs outside of school where they might be needed to contribute to the financial livelihood of their families. Playing high school sports certainly wouldn't be a priority in that scenario.

Marshall County isn't unique to this challenge, but I realize there is a fairly large concentration of minority households in the area.

 

[oguard_run]

I would say no. East Marshall and West Marshall have had some very strong and deep cross country programs the last few years. You look at those programs and those schools definitely have some athletes, at least athletes who have been coached well. Maybe times are changing, football isn't the sport any longer, students are discovering there are other interests out there than what has been traditionally the favorites.

 

[gmgwolverine05]

I think that West Marshall will be back. Probably not to the form they were, but they will be a traditional 6 win team. East Marshall and GMG will continue to win MAYBE 1 game per year until they decide to possibly go together. Even when they do that, hopefully they dump the cart of coaches, and get someone who has a clue.

 

[mtdew_fever]

BCLUW hasn't had a decent head coach since their Penick, who retired from football coaching about 10 years ago. After that they had a guy that was a joke and then the last two have been pretty young.

 

[terrehawk]

WM is obviously having their toughest year in probably 40+ yrs. Unfortunately, they will likely have less talent next season.

Their 6th, 7th and 8th grade classes all have solid numbers and are pretty athletic and they have played a lot of freshmen this year. So i think they will be back to a very solid level if they can keep them all out.

FB coaching wise, the staff has been decimated in the past year or so with retirements, changes etc. This has been a much bigger impact than many realize.

Having spoken to the new superintendent regarding pay scales for assistants, the money is there comparable to pay at 4A schools. They just need to find quality coaches.

The history/tradition is there. The ahtletes will be there again in a few years.

The key will be getting several high quality coaches on staff again to help Hackett.

This post was edited on 10/23 9:53 PM by terrehawk

 

[cidhawkeye]

nm
This post was edited on 10/24 7:40 AM by cidhawkeye